Thoughts upon leaving Ghana

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Things I missed about England

1. Cheese. Gooey, melted cheese. People just don’t eat cheese in Ghana. You can get it, but it’s really expensive and hard to find.



2. Hot showers. And hot water coming out of the tap.



3. Being able to go out in cropped trousers or shorts, and not get bitten to pieces by mosquitoes.



4. Diet Coke. I only found “Coca Cola Light” once the whole time I was in Ghana. And it wasn’t the same. And the coke there goes flat REALLY quickly as soon as you’ve opened the bottle.



5. Cadbury’s chocolate – particularly “Marvellous Creations Jelly Bean Popping Candy Shells”



6. Being able to smoke in public and not get shouted at



7. McDonald’s breakfasts (Mmmmm McMuffins)



8. Being clean. No matter how well you scrub in the shower, as soon as you put your flip flops on and go outside, your feet turn orange from the red-clay-dust roads.













Things I love (and will miss) about Ghana



1. The people. My kids at school. The kids at the orphanage. The amazing volunteers. The people I met are definitely the main thing I’ll miss. Oh – and the dogs of course, Bobby, Peace, Rusky, and gorgeous baby boy Kalimotxo



2. Small children waving and shouting “Obruni” at you when you walk past; they come up and touch you and hold your hand, and want high-fives



3. People selling things such as drinks and snacks whilst you’re stuck in a traffic jam (especially plantain chips) Fab idea, we need it in the UK!



4. The yummy drinks – La Casera fizzy apple drink and Multifruits Juice



5. People walking past and saying hi, or “Etisen”, and replying “Ey ey” (Twi language)



6. Cheap cigarettes. 1 cedi 20 peswas a pack (about 40p – yes, that’s for a pack of 20)



7. The weather – very little rain even though it was the rainy season, just sunny, warm days



8. Listening to dancehall reggae (with a Jamaican influence)/Afrobeats



9. Being able to haggle. You can get a taxi to Brigade (about a 5 minute drive) for 30p if the car has 4 of you in.



10. How colourful Ghana is – none of this boring grey that is England – the huts/houses are painted bright colours



11. Being able to wander down to Brigade and buy a mango for 1 cedi (35p) – and you can ask for it “for today” or “for tomorrow” and they will pick you one according to how ripe it is.



12. People saying “You’re welcome” when they meet you, or “Akwaaba”. Just because they are showing that they are happy you’re in their country



13. The handshakes that Ghanaian men give you when you meet or say hi. They grab your hand, and when they slide their hand down your finger, they click.



14. The kids sitting and playing with my hair, doing little braids. They love Obruni hair.



15. Having animals – goats, chickens, pigs and dogs, roaming around the place. Just wandering up the dirt roads.







Things I will not miss about Ghana



1. Seeing men going to the toilet in gutters/the sewers



2. Water running out towards the end of the week, and having to wait until Sunday for whichever governmental department is responsible, to fill it up again.



3. Not being able to just hang out with your friends at a bar without Ghanaian men coming up to talk to you/ask for your number



4. Men hissing at you, or making sounds like they would to call a dog, to get your attention. Not cool.



5. The rubbish. Just thrown everywhere. Very few bins. So it’s just thrown in the gutters or on the road. It ends up in a massive landfill, where they just burn it, so every time you walk past, you choke on the black smog.



6. Powercuts. Which means the internet goes down too.



7. Sugarbread. I was craving nice, thick, white bread. Not sweet bread. It’s actually not that bad though, and you do get used to it. But nothing beats fresh white bread.



8. Taking double the time to get somewhere, as the taxi drivers weave up and down the roads, avoiding pot holes, very slowly. And they pull out in front of people. And honk their horns every time they see another car, just letting them know they are there.



9. Having to always find small change for items you buy, as they never have any change for even a 10 cedi or 20 cedi note (10 cedis is about £3.30)









Things I learned about myself and about life



1. The bigger the occasion/event/situation, the less I stress. Weird. I’ll go to pieces over something small, yet throw me into a new country where I don’t even know if anyone will be meeting me at the airport, and no idea where I’m even going to be staying, and I’m cool. Like “Yeah. Whatever. If nobody picks me up, I’ll have a wander and find a hostel”.



2. I can meet people from all over the world – different nationalities, races, genders and ages, and I have something in common with everyone. I can make new friends, I am learning how just to be me, and stop always having to live up to societal expectations. And you know what? These people liked me for who I am. That is just damn cool.



3. I now know how to clear a blocked toilet, with a bucket of water. Not fun, but somebody’s gotta do it.



4. I got way more confident at haggling/bartering for prices. Pretty much laugh, make a raspberry sound and start to walk off, and they come back with a lower price.



5. I can go without chocolate, even though I thought I couldn’t. Ok, so I substituted it for the most anaemic looking Bourbon biscuits ever, but I survived.



6. I’ve learned that I can go on a 6 hour hike, scrambling up rocks and tree roots, and I will survive.



7. I can get thrown into the deep end (as in, “Hi Auntie Debbie, ok, so teach the class something now” in the first 2 minutes of meeting a group of 4-6 year olds) and I can think up something on the spot (ok it wasn’t great, but whatever)



8. I can still get my point across in Spanish, even though I did my A level in it 14 years ago.



9. I can tolerate cold showers, when that’s all there is.



10. I learned how to interact with small children – and they’re really not quite as scary as I thought.



11. I tried new foods – Fufu, Red Red, Yam, Plantain Chips, and boiled peanuts.







Random facts about Ghanaian life



1. You do not get time to yourself, ever. People are there. Everywhere.



2. You can buy hard boiled eggs on stalls at the roadside.



3. Many people just rent/own a hut, with a bedroom in. No kitchen. Which is why you see women sitting out the front of their abode, cooking in a big pot over a bonfire type thing.



4. They really do eat cat meat. It’s called “Cato Miato”. I thankfully never came across any.



5. If you’re not married by the age of 25, you’re pretty much on the shelf. The few people I did speak to and didn’t lie “No, I really DO have a husband and a baby back at home” were shocked and confused as to why people can be unmarried in their 30s in the UK.



6. Dogs are treated badly – they are hit, beaten, whatever. I’m not sure why people own them. Perhaps to protect property, I’m not sure. But they don’t live in the house, they can go wandering round at night time if they want to. They’re wild creatures for the most part.



7. Nobody obeys the law really – there are laws on the number of people in cars or tro-tros, for example, but they’re disregarded. If for any reason the police stop them, they just bribe them and the police leave.



8. You talk to everyone you see, whether you know them or not. It doesn’t matter.



9. Ghanaians discipline each other’s kids – “It takes a village to raise a child” I was told. So if you see a child misbehaving, you’d discipline them. Even if you smacked them, the parents would be fine with that.



10. Ghanaians really do exist in their own time zone! If you say you’ll meet at 2pm, then 3pm is fine.







So there we have it. In summary, I will say that this was one of the most amazing things I have ever done. I really got to live Ghanaian life, as opposed to being a tourist. The people in Ghana are warm and kind, and genuinely want you to be welcome in their country. They don’t have as many barriers as British people, they are just down to earth, no pretences.



I really don’t feel that Ghana needs to be Westernised. I think that some of the Western countries believe they need to “save” Ghana and rescue the people. They don’t. Ghana just needs a helping hand to progress – to trade with other countries, to improve sanitation, education and the health system. It’s not like you see in the adverts from the 1980s, with starving children, covered in flies with pot bellies. These kids might not have much by Western standards, but in many ways they are so much richer than we are. There doesn’t appear to be any bullying, everyone gets on and appreciates each other for the most part. No kids are left out because they don’t have the latest gadgets. What people do have, they share. Kids look after the little ones (it’s common to see an 8 year old carrying a 1 year old on their back, tied up in one of those slings they wear). They have the freedom to roam, without fear of being snatched and raped/murdered. Everyone looks out for each other’s children. These kids smile. They take delight in the simple things. They squeal with delight when you show them a photo you’ve taken of them on your camera, their eyes wide, with a big smile. These kids don’t worry about fashion, or hairstyles. There is less pressure to be cool, the focus is on being a good person and a team player. These kids work. They do whatever their family does for a living. It’s not uncommon to see small children carrying baskets or buckets on their heads, selling goods walking through the villages. And they don’t once complain. They just get on with it. Most of all, these kids are polite. They have a natural ease with strangers. They don’t have issues, they don’t take anxiety meds, they don’t have depression, OCD or body dysmorphia.



I have taken so much from Ghana, it’s made me think about the world in a wider way. The people of Ghana welcomed me, and made me feel at home from day 1. They might think I’m lucky to live in England, but in many ways I envy them.



Steffi and I were talking the other day, and I was explaining to her that once you’ve been travelling, you are never really whole again. I know that for me, I’ve left a little piece of my heart in Australia, and another little piece at summer camp in the USA. You have a life that exists there, separate from space and time. A life that abruptly ends, leaving you wondering if it was real, seeing as it now no longer exists. A non-tangible existence that you can’t feel or touch. But it claims a piece of your heart. And now I leave another little piece of my heart in Ghana. The people I met will never be far from my thoughts and from my heart. I hope that one day, I can go back there and be as happy as I was this summer.

I went to Ghana to teach in a school and work in an orphanage. But I learned so very much more from them, than they did from me. Experience of a lifetime. Thank you, Ghana xxx

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