Two Month Check-In

I have now been in Ghana for two months. Getting adjusted to a completely different way of life hasn’t been easy at times, and as my close friends can attest, we all had a horrible “I hate Ghana” week last week. I thought I would answer some of the usual questions people from home have asked me about my experience thus far.

What is your housing like?

I like to describe it as St. Paul’s mixed with campsite minus the hot water and tent. I was really reluctant to move into ISH (International Students Hostel), because I was really hoping to live in a compound house and I was 'over' the dorm life. And let’s be honest - residence is noisy at the best of times, I like my privacy and quiet. ISH has really grown on me and I have decided to stay there for the remainder of my stay in Ghana. I really like the convenient location - I walk to work everyday and there are tons of food options for me all within the campus. I have cooked twice in two months as I can’t make myself dinner for as little as I can buy it for. I am still not fully comfortable with cold showers although most days its bearable. Making friends with other foreign students is also great, I eat dinner with friends or, on the bad days, get ice cream and sit in a parking lot and 'discuss'...

What do you eat?

You know what they say, ‘when in Rome..”. I have been eating Ghanian most meals since I arrived. Typically for breakfast I eat plain cereal or I walk to get an egg sandwich (for about a dollar), or sometimes I eat baked beans - yes! I get Heinz beans here! Lunch is generally a snack of plantain chips (way better than potato chips), or roasted groundnuts (peanuts). I eat groundnuts constantly. They are so good when they are freshly roasted and what a great source of protein. Dinner is the big meal of the day, I usually get jollof rice with a bit of salad and spaghetti or fried plantains. If I don’t buy that, I am usually eating fufu with groundnut soup. Eating ‘Western’ food is a treat and it is expensive by comparison. Other ‘treats’ here include fruit juice and sugar cane. Anyone who has tried sugar cane knows how yummy it is! It is better than candy.

It is not safe to drink water from the tap so I am forced to continue buying bags of sachets. A week’s supply of water usually costs me a dollar.

How do you do your laundry?

Bucket style. I could send my clothes to be washed in a machine on campus for a fee but I actually enjoy doing it by hand, and it saves me money. I find it relaxing to wash my clothes. I try to do laundry at least once every three days. Dirty clothes attract ants and because you go through so much clothing because its hot meaning I am doing laundry a lot. I’m pretty good at using the bar of soap to remove stains and then you soak them in a bucket with laundry detergent powder for an hour or two before rinsing. I wash everything from my clothes to towels to bedsheets this way. Not bad.

What about mosquitos?

I’ve been fortunate thus far that I haven’t contracted malaria (my biggest fear in Ghana). I haven’t been as careful as I should have been because I recently put my bed net up. Prior to this, I sprayed a bit of insect repellent around my bed and on my ankles. The bed net is useful because it means I can sleep with my balcony door open as the nights are getting hotter and sticky.

What do you do for fun?

Contrary to what some might think, I am not going clubbing or to the bars. I go to Trivia Night at a local bar where a lot of expats hang out but other than that, I don’t party. The heat makes you more tired than at home so I am usually pretty tired in the evenings. I try to save my money to go on trips during the weekends. I have traveled for the last five weekends so I am very tired and could use a break! There really isn't a dull moment - what a change from having no friends and nothing to do during the first month here. I will miss my friends terribly when they leave soon.

What is the most frustrating thing about Ghana?

Inefficiency. Just simple things like having an organized lineup to purchase bus tickets or anywhere really seems to not matter. Simple tasks like going to the bank or getting your mail can take hours. Getting a tro tro is not usually organized with a line (except in some places), and people will push and fight one another to get on board, especially if it is an infrequent route. Patience is key. The system will not change so the best option is to just accept it and try to work within the existing system.

What is the best part about living in Ghana?

I could be silly and say that it is being able to buy pretty much anything on the road and being able to buy food while driving. While this is incredibly awesome and makes travel more bearable, I would have to say talking to people my age or people I work with about development in Ghana and about their culture and their lives is the best thing about Ghana. I love to learn and I find it all very interesting because some aspects of Ghanian culture is so different from my culture yet in other ways they are similar. It reconfirms that development work is really where my heart is and that I can have a future in this field if I am motivated.

A Day At Kokrobite

This weekend (October 29), my friend Sarah and I were ambitious. She invited me to go to Kokrobite as one of the other Canadians in our building was celebrating her birthday on Saturday. Everyone who has gone to Kokrobite seems to love it so I thought a day at the beach was what I needed. We left for Kaneshie Station around 5pm on a Friday. We knew traffic in Accra is bad at the best of times and I anticipated that the journey would take longer seeing as this was the busiest time of the week to travel. Kaneshie struck me as being straight out of an old market neighborhood in India. All of the buildings were old and covered in a thick layer of dust and dirt. As we approached Kaneshie, the taxi driver told us to put up the windows as “they boys here are criminals”. Theft is common in these areas and this wasn’t unexpected. This was another place (similar to Circle), where the best precaution is to keep all valuables in your bag and to wear your bag on your front. As silly as this sounds, you see locals doing it as well which tells you its probably a good idea. A nice man told us he was going to the Kokrobite tro tro station and we followed him through a sketchy poorly-lit road. The line up was long despite tro tros arriving frequently. 

After some messing around we ended up jumping on one of the big Metro buses. There were no seats but we decided we could stand for the 25km journey. Wrong. The trip took almost 4 hours (I wish I was exaggerating), and after a while your legs start to hurt. Knowing the likelihood we wouldn’t arrive in time to get dinner, I was glad I brought snacks and that we could buy food while on the bus (a huge bonus of Ghana). The road leading to Kokrobite was quite steep and very bumpy but eventually we made it to Big Milly’s Backyard. I was so exhausted from the week that I elected to go to bed early so I would be rested enough to enjoy the beach.

Kokrobite Beach

The beach was perfect and the water was warm. We had a great breakfast, bought some things from vendors at the beach and played in the water. Kokrobite beach is very different from Labadi Beach in that you go to the vendors, they don’t come and hassle you every 5 minutes. Dresses and scarves are huge there and I got a cute little African sundress for 7cedi. The usual tourist trinkets and beads are also available.  We had a wonderful lunch at Kokrobite Garden in an outdoor dining area. The pizza was truly delicious and I think it was a close tie between that pizza and Peter’s Pizza in Aburi. The service was great and the food was amazing. Well worth the money!

Some of the fishing boats on the beach

After our lunch, the tide was coming in so the waves were bigger and stronger. You can’t really go out far enough into the ocean to swim because even when you are knee deep in the water, the undertow is quite strong. We continued to enjoy the beach before our dinner. One wave caught me by surprise and I was swept under and almost lost my hat and sunglasses. 

Walking along the beach at sunset

In summary, the weekend was wonderful and Big Milly’s Backyard was a really nice place to stay. We didn’t stay for the Saturday night reggae but I still had a blast. The food was delicious and well worth the money. Kokrobite is more expensive than I was anticipating but you are paying to be right on the beach. The low cost of transportation and proximity to Accra made it well-worth the trip. For what you get at Kokrobite, the price is reasonable. 

6 Months Left

I wrote this post on October 21st but due to Ghana internet - I haven't been able to post.

As of this week, I only have another six months left of placement. I can’t believe I’ve been here in Ghana for a month and a half. Some days it feels like time is flying by, other days it feels as though it is dragging on endlessly. In honour of having six months remaining, I have assembled a list of my six favourite things about Ghana.

Food: I was expecting a diet including a LOT of rice however I wasn’t prepared for how good the food is here! Most of the food here is high in carbs but I know I am healthier now because nothing is really made with any preservatives - everything I am eating is made fresh that day with fresh Ghanian produce. My first love when we got here was jollof rice (think regular rice cooked with tomato sauce with some vegetables thrown in and a generous portion of chili peppers!!) which I eat at least twice a week. Red red is another popular thing here - plantains fried in palm oil (yes this is very bad for you) with beans (I think?). It’s quite tasty but I try to limit myself to prevent stomach issues later on. My new love is fufu with groundnut soup! Fufu does take a bit to get used to, you’re not supposed to chew it, simply swallow it. Considering we are so used to chewing everything, my first attempt at fufu was very slow as I consciously had to remind myself not to chew. Groundnut soup is wonderful and a bit spicy and I’m sure it will become one of my favourite dishes. In Ghana you won’t be going hungry. There is lots of food that is delicious.

The morning: I love the five minutes I spend every morning just contemplating life on my balcony while watching the world go by. It’s usually less noisy in the morning than it is later in the day so I like to enjoy a bit of peace and quiet - a unique thing in Accra! 

Countryside: Accra give little indication of the beauty of Ghana. Accra is dusty, busy, and noisy. Once you leave Accra and head east towards the Volta region, the natural landscape is beautiful and lush. The tree covered mountains and the green landscape are stunning. Sometimes I really wish I could pack up and move somewhere else in Ghana. But that is what weekends are for, I really enjoy getting out of Accra.

Beautiful scenery at the top of Mount Afadjato

People I work with: I really am growing to love my co-workers, quirks and religion and all. I am amazed with how kind they are to me and how much they enjoy telling me all about Ghana and helping me to get my footing here in Ghana. They love hearing about Canada, especially about snow and the Inuit which doesn’t surprise me much. I find it very interesting to compare things like health care and school here in Ghana to what I have experienced in Canada. They have been helping me with my trip planning also and are keen to hear about what adventures I get up to on the weekends.

Music: I am starting to hear more Ghanian music and some of it is really good! Some of it is quite inappropriate and some is borderline offensive - especially the song whose chorus is “Thank God I’m not a Nigerian”. It is rather shocking that such blatant discrimination is allowed on the airwaves. I like how even the music is laid back and relaxing (not that Ghanians are in need of relaxation). It is challenging to work when Ghanian music is being played in the office because when you’re hot and listening to tropical music - all you want to do is sit on a beach somewhere. Ghanian movies are also something else. I got my first taste of Ghanian movies this week on the bus to Volta region. Boy some of them are really badly acted and very very low budget. Some of them aren’t so bad though. I do understand why people complain about how loud they play the movies - it is very difficult to sleep with a movie blaring. 

My friends: While it took a couple weeks to start making good friends - I am now thoroughly enjoying traveling with friends that I have made here in Ghana both foreign and local. Even if our trip doesn’t go well or bad things happen (Nzulezo), we always seem to manage to have a blast and make the most of it. I am going to really miss those who are leaving in December. I also appreciate that we can talk about some of the challenges we face being outsiders in a completely different culture and some of the frustrations we experience. I also enjoy learning about other people’s life experiences in their home countries. It’s pretty cool how you make friends from around the world when you are overseas.

With friends Veronika and Lisa at Nzulezo

It’s quite amazing how time flies when you’re away. It feels like I’ve just arrived but that I’ve been here my whole life. I am finally mastering simple daily tasks like feeding myself and getting around. I’m very proud of myself that my geography has improved tremendously. I have a good grasp on East Legon, Madina, Haatcho, and the University campus. Simply knowing where I am at all times makes me feel a lot more comfortable. My Twi is improving a bit. I can say the words however my accent is not correct (I seem to revert to a French accent for some reason). I can say the days of the week and tell you what day of the week it is and what tomorrow is, I can ask your name and tell you mine, and I can greet you in the morning. I have started learning how to count which I hope to master this week.

Get Used to it

Traveling to Africa, you know that you are not going to have all of the comforts of home. Beyond not having your friends and family around, there are some major lifestyle changes I’ve had to make. It’s not all bad - some things have actually enhanced my life and my well-being. Other things less so.

The first thing is showers. A lot of places do not have running hot water or if they do, it is more expensive or doesn’t work regularly. For someone who enjoys showers so hot that my skin turns red, I’m impressed with how little a cold shower at the end of every day bothers me. You learn to shower very quickly and not to waste water. I am lucky that my building is equipped with showers that actually work - some people have no choice but to use buckets to shower. If you are capable of having a bucket shower (I have yet to attempt this feat), you can have hot water if you boil some in advance. Another bothersome thing is when the water in the building gets shut off. Going to bed dirty and sweaty when I have to work the next morning just plain sucks. When there are well over 250 people living in your building with communal bathrooms, you can imagine the state of things when the water isn’t running. Did I mention I live on the University of Ghana campus?

Staying clean once you get clean is a challenge. Even if you get a shower and put on clean clothes, you are going to be sweaty and dirty within 10 minutes of going outside. Unlike the locals who wear suits or jeans, I am still getting used to the heat and wearing pants to work is very hot. To be fair, 9 times out of 10 I really don’t care how I look when I go out; it’s hot, I want to be comfortable, and doing my hair or makeup is futile because it won’t look good in an hour.

The second biggest thing is laundry. The overwhelming majority of the population still does their laundry by hand in buckets. I could take my laundry to another residence on campus and pay for my clothes to be laundered however I have come to enjoy doing laundry by hand. I love doing laundry at home as it is an easy and relaxing task so I have added doing laundry to my daily routine here. Because of the heat and dust, I’m washing my clothes very regularly. Another incentive to do laundry frequently is that ants love dirty clothes and seeing as leaving any food lying around will prompt an ant invasion, its best for me to wash my clothes often. It’s amazing how well the laundry powder works! I’m pretty good at using both the laundry soap bar and the powder to get my clothes as clean as possible.

Another big difference between Ghana and Canada is that it is impolite not to greet people that you meet on the street. While it’s just about impossible to greet every single person on the street, I make sure to greet the people I see regularly. It does take longer to get anywhere but it really makes my day when people take the time to stop and speak to me.

The internet. What we know to be the internet in Canada is NOT what the internet is here in Ghana. I’m very lucky because I bought a BlackBerry and it has fantastic internet. Frequently it’s quicker and more reliable than wireless or my modem. But generally, I’m getting used to infrequent and slower internet. At work (where the internet is pretty darn good), I will look things up while reading the newspaper because it does take longer. It doesn’t bother me, I just work slower.

The final thing is getting used to buying food on the street. Normally, I wouldn’t be so quick to purchase food from people on the street but in Ghana, restaurants are very slow and expensive. Most people instead will purchase food in the market or from a stand by the side of the road. Sometimes you get some not so good food, even the same stall will have great food one day and bad food the next. It is impressive that I get dinner for less than a dollar. I couldn’t cook for myself for a dollar. 

This is just a few things that I thought of off the top of my head about life in Ghana. Depending on the day, I am much better equipped to deal with the potential problems (like lack of water, getting hassled by taxis on the street, finding something to eat etc.), that I face. A positive attitude and no expectations makes it easier to deal with.