Ghanaian Service

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Ghanaian Service

Ghana is the land of contrasts: heat to AC, north to south, Christian to Muslim, Bebeni to Obruni, etc. One of these contrasts is service. It’s amazing how drastic the level of service can change from one restaurant to another or from a taxi to a tro-tro.

The Royal Garden Restaurant in the Aburi Botanical Gardens is one example of the kind of odd service one can receive in Ghana. After walking in and initially seeing nobody to be found, a waiter appeared from the back room as we seated ourselves and asked “would you like food?” I thought that would be obvious but it was still a fair question. I was more surprised that after we replied ‘Yes’ he just stood there and looked at us. After an awkward moment we asked if we could “please see a menu?” He promptly went to get a menu and upon returning he handed them to us. Then after a ten second delay asked us what we’d like. A short snicker later, we said we’d need a moment to read the menu before ordering.

He was back within a minute to take orders. Then came the incongruent wait for food. We waited patiently while talking until we got our food. Since we were in no rush to leave we thought we’d just enjoy the view, however, our waiter was back to clear plates almost immediately. He asked Helen if she was finished her tea, even though the cup was clearly full. She replied “No, not yet, thank you” at which he attempted to take the tea from her. She actually had to cover the cup with her hands to get him to stop. He then brought the bill quickly and waited until we got out cash to give to him. All in all, a bit strange but not to bad.

A second, less pleasant example is the Crest Restaurant in Tamale, Northern Region. We arrived after a hot six hour bus trip and we were looking for some drinks. Again, the place was open and yet deserted. We eventually found a waiter that informed us that since the cooks hadn’t arrived and the bar hadn’t opened, we couldn’t order anything. That was fine, since we didn’t expect them to be open at 9:30 am on a Sunday. The waiter told us they would open at ten. We came back at 10:15 and attempted to order some pop. Although, this would be impossible as the bar still wasn’t open and apparently the waiter didn’t want to get the pop himself. We decided to leave at 10:45 until the waiter suddenly came to allow us to order. Again, a long wait. To be fair, the food was excellent. Once we finished the waiter made a lame attempt at stealing my pencil since he thought it looked nice. However, most unsettlingly when we were finished I discovered that the facets in the bathroom didn’t work and there was no soap to be found. This wouldn’t have bothered me so much if I didn’t know it was the same bathroom all of the staff used, hmm…

At the opposite end of the spectrum is the Tsing Tao Restaurant in Tema. The building was fancy, the food was great and the service was so good I felt that I should have been better dressed just to be there. Yes besides the fact that braised cow penis was the daily special, the restaurant left nothing wanting.

One will find the same dichotomy between tros and taxis, though not in the direction you might first think. Taxi drivers will rip you off, phone friends to rob you, tell you to get in and start driving even though they have no clue where to go, not give you change back and generally lie at every opportunity. Tro-tro mates on the other hand are the personification of service. The mate will give you correct directions, almost never lie, give exact change (no matter how you are), carry your luggage, help with small children and display one of the best work ethics in Ghana. They also have an amazing skill, without exception, to be able to take any amount of money from each person on the tro (about 20) and then 5 minutes later give the correct change in order of seats remembering how much each person gave him, when they got on, who paid for multiple people and who didn’t pay yet. Plus he (I say ‘he’ because I’ve only seen one female in 1000 males) will do this all while shouting out the window and giving hand signals to try to find more passengers. One Ghanaian said that if a foreigner came to live here for ten years that he or she could still not ever become a tro mate. I know I’m impressed.

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