All Things Ghanaian

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So far life here in Ghana remains at a constant, yet slow and steady pace. I am getting into a routine with work and my home life, and am finding it quite pleasant. Granted weekends can be boring enough to make you contemplate picking scabs or burning random things (not that I have resorted to either!), however I have at long last begun to make some friends! And female too, in order to avoid the double edged intentions of Ghanaian males. One woman’s name is Delight and she works near me - she brought me to her house on Saturday and I got to meet her family. I’ve also been invited to church one day, which is quite the experience I’ve heard! The second is Marie, a woman who owns a shop opposite my house. She and her family are all very friendly and I am beginning to feel quite comfortable with them. I have been invited to a ceremony at the university that Marie attends this weekend and then they are taking me to the beach on Sunday (I promise I will take some pictures!) At last - a social life!

As for now though, things are still a bit slow and as I don’t have much new personal news, I thought I would shed a little bit more light on cultural differences and some funny things I’ve noted since being here. So here it goes:

1. DRIVING: Ok, so I have mentioned that there is an insane amount of traffic here, which of course means that driving becomes a very aggressive activity. For those of you who have seen me drive, well, let’s just say I would either be sitting at a corner waiting to turn for 15 minutes or I would end up stuck in a open sewer within 5 minutes of getting behind the wheel. What always gets me is pedestrians - driver’s don’t care if you are crossing the road, there is no slowing down. What that means is know how much space your body take up and how fast you can cross a street -- I have almost had my foot run over at least 5 times, I’m just waiting for the inevitable! Going through Madina sitting in the front of the tro tro is quite the experience as you watch women with large packages on their heads scampering in and out of traffic meanwhile the van you’re in is creeping up the rear end of the vehicle in front of you, all the while the driver is yelling in Twi to the idiot driver behind him. As I said, thank god I’m not driving!

2. ATTITUDES TO FOREIGNERS: One thing that is to be said about Ghanaians is that they are kind, generous, and very friendly people! So many times when I am first introduced to someone, or even just walking in the streets, I get told “Akwaaba” or “You are welcome”. It certainly makes one feel more comfortable walking around in a completely foreign place where people are constantly staring and calling “obruni” after you. Many a time I have been helped out (namely in my tro tro riding) by perfect strangers who have taken me under their wing to get me on the right trotro -- one woman after helping me even paid my fare! I continue to be astounded by the generosity and friendliness of people and it makes me reflect on the way that we treat foreigners at home. I think it is a safe assumption to say that no one reaches out to lend a helping hand, even if asked sometimes! I know that when I go back home I will have a greater appreciation for what it means to be new to a completely different world and how reassuring it feels to know that you can ask for help from strangers.

3. FOOD: Mmm, food. All in all, I would say that I am enjoying the culinary stylings of Ghana. Some of the most popular ingredients are fish, chicken, plantations, yams, rice, cassava, tomatoes, hot peppers, onions, garlic, palm nuts and variations of all these ingredients combined to make some delightful dishes. Uniquely Ghanaian dishes include fufu (a form of cassava that is either dried or cooked and then pounded to ball of dough like textured…. Well it looks like a ball of dough. This is combined with your choice of soup, usually light soup or groundnut soup and fish or chicken). Fufu is eaten with your hands - you use your index and middle finger almost like scissors to cut of bits, dip it in the soup, and swallow - key here is SWALLOW. I always want to chew and therefore can never finish a full serving of fufu before I am very tired of the taste! This definitely appears to be a favorite dish! Others include banku and kenkey (sort of like fufu but made with yams - has a very bitter/sour taste and I really don’t like it!), washi (beans and rice with a spicy sauce), red red (a particular kind of bean sauce eaten with fried plantations and your choice of fish or chicken) and of course good ole rice with stew! I have tried all of the above dishes and the only ones I really don’t like are banku and kenkey, but the rest are quite delicious!

4. INFORMAL SYSTEMS: An overview of the way in which life in Ghana functions is like taking two image overlays and placing one over top of the other. On the one hand, there is the formal, bureaucratic mumbojumbo that we are all familiar with in Canada. Granted this bureaucracy generally runs on a much slower, slightly undefined, and bogged down method so that it takes even longer to get anything done (Case 1 - I spent 2 hours in the bank yesterday trying to access my account only to be told at the end that my account wasn’t even opened in the first place and had no money in it - oye vay!) The second overlay is the “informal” side which actually allows life to carry on each day. There is a major lack of infrastructure here; roads, sanitation, water systems, electricity, schools, buildings - essentially all of the key ingredients that allow a big city to function. Where there is the 401, the DVP, and the Gardiner in Toronto to help alleviate the flow of rush hour traffic, Accra has Liberation Avenue, a 4 lane (with some parts still only 2 lanes) road that is the main vein of the city to bring people in the northern suburbs into the city. Instead of an underground sewer system that all buildings are hooked into, you have a series of open sewers that line the streets. Garbage disposal and public wastebins are virtually non-existent, making the entire landscape a garbage pail, and running water is not a guarantee throughout the city, especially in newly developed areas such as Ashalley Botwe. As well, it appears that a large percentage of the population makes a living by selling things - and I mean everything and anything. Vendors walking amongst cars on Liberation Avenue is a daily site or selling along the streets, and all the roads are lined with little shops. Without more employment opportunities, selling goods is one thing you don’t necessarily need qualifications or formal processes in which to set up. Thus, life exists in a much more informal and on-a-needs basis - people work around these obstacles that would cripple a city like Toronto and life goes on, hence my dubbing it “informal systems”.

5. RELIGION: Religion is a big part of the majority of Ghanaians lives. In the south, Christianity is most prevalent, although Islam is also quite commonly seen. There is an inordinate amount of churches and mosques around the city (in fact there is a mosque around the corner from my house which broadcasts prayers at the appointed 5 times a day - including at 4:45 am!). I have observed that church is a major aspect of many people’s lives and what constitutes Sunday social life - I was invited to go to church with Delight and the service runs from 8am - 11am! We’ll see how I make it through… On a side note - so many stores, and even tro tros, have very religious names such as “If Jesus Says Yes…”, “My Savior’s Hair Salon” or “Scriptures Servitude Shapes and Design” and many other hilarious names!

6. MAKING FRIENDS: Very unorthodox compared to home. People will just approach you and start talking away, asking questions, talking about themselves, and then out of the blue “Do you have a mobile? What’s your number?” and thus it begins. Generally though it’s more males that approach me but as I have had a few incidents of people calling me incessantly and saying “When can I see you?” I realized very quickly that giving out the phone number is bad idea! Also, males (in general) are more interested in dating you then being for your friend, therefore I constantly have my guard up around males unless I meet them in a situation where I am being introduced by friends. And men here are aggressive pursuers! Case 1 - “Ohhh I’m looking at you, and you’re so beautiful, I think I want to take you home”, or “I want to marry you”, or my favorite “Who do you look more like, your mother or your father? Oh well, then your mother is a beautiful woman to have created you”. What are you supposed to say to that?! Hahaha, so as you can see, it’s nice to have finally made some lady friends!

7. CLEANLINESS: Although homes and stores and such are very different from what we know at home (take a modern, urban street and “rip the bandaid off” so to speak), people are very conscious about a respectable appearance. People sweep daily in front of their shops and homes, even if it’s a dirt ground and not cement, and things are kept very tidy. As lazy as I am to iron at home, I wouldn’t even think about wearing my skirts out of the house without pressing them first! Obviously this doesn’t apply to everyone and everything, but in general this is the behavior that I have noticed.

8. CHILDREN: Children here learn to be independent very early on as parents need their children to be a help and not a hindrance. None of this bend over backwards, spoil your child to ridiculous ends business. When my neighbours were old enough to go to school, they were old enough to walk themselves there; they can go where they please and do as they like (obviously not getting into trouble parents know about or anything). But even young children are not supervised that heavily. It’s just a very interesting observation I’ve made, but make no mistake, children here are all very well mannered, respectful of elders, and don’t generally run around reeking havoc or anything. And I get the sense that even if you aren’t around your kid, everyone is looking out for everyone else - community atmosphere, even in a big city. One funny antidote -- there are these kids that live at the end of my street and it's kind of a game we play now - I see how long it takes them to spot me cause when they do, they shout "obruni, obruni, obruni" at me until they can't see me anymore. It's cute half the time, but then the other half it's just damn annoying to have "foriegner" shouted repeatedly at you for hte n

OK, well I guess that’s it for now and seen as it was very lengthy, I hope I didn’t bore anyone! More news to come and pictures next week I promise! I will try to take some more pictures of my life around Accra, plus some bonus beach shots. Hope all is well at home,

Lots of love,
Courtney

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