My water canteen: Ghana is on average 75-90 degrees and extra humid, making the heat even more heavy, and assuring that you will be sweating all the time; basically, I don’t remember what it’s like to not be perpetually sticky at this point. You wake up sweaty, you take a cold shower which relieves you from the heat for the moment, but once your clothes are back on, you’re sweating by the time you walk out the door and you will be for the rest of the day until late evening. There is no relief here. I have a fan in my room, but that just moves the air around. Air conditioning here is a rare luxury that only a few offices (no classrooms) have. It’s a hard life!
Washcloth: I guess more accurately titled, my “washcloth” should be referred to as a sweat-rag. When I first got here, I saw a couple people from my program whip out a bandana or such and wipe the sweat from their faces. I just figured they’re Americans and can’t handle the heat. Sure I was sweaty, but I didn’t want to seem like a weakling to these Ghanaians! I would just use my shirt to freshen up. After a week or so of being here, I noticed that all Ghanaians walk with rags to grab their sweat, and really, it was just a practical thing; hey, everyone sweats, even the natives. So I have now bought myself a small towel to make myself less sticky and more presentable throughout the day.
Toilet paper: I mentioned this in my last entry, but public toilet paper is a rarity in this country, so I always have to come prepared. As long as you provide me a toilet, I can provide the rest. And this bring me to my next item, hand sanitizer. You never know if you’re going to have running water in your bathroom, and even if you do, it’s quite a shocker when soap is provided, so I now cannot leave the house with sanitizer.Small bills/ change: When you get money out of the ATM here, the machine spits out 5 and 10 cedi bills. This obviously differs from the US ATMs which only release multiples of 20. And believe it or not, it is so hard to get change for a 10 here! A lot of people won’t take them because they don’t have the change. The reason for this is that food and everyday things that I buy are so… cheap? Lowly priced? I mean, I buy dinner for about 50 cents to 1.50, and the market stalls I go to don’t have the change to give me. Tonight I bought dinner for 40 cents and the lady didn’t have change for my 1. I sometimes don’t get it because I know they sell things all day, but I don’t complain, I just make sure I walk around with small change.
This next part is basically an extension of my last entry, elaborating upon cultural differences and idiosyncrasies. Tap water here is undrinkable, so when I first got here, bottled water was the way of life. But unlike any other country I’ve been to, there is also another type of purified water here; water sachets. These plastic square balloons of water have to pass Ghanaian government water standards to be sold; however, there are some brands that could be fake and forge the “Ghana purification seal” on the sachet, so you have to be very weary of the ones you drink. Complicated and dodgy, right? That’s what I said! Well I haven’t had a problem yet, but I know a couple of people who did. These sachets are like square water balloons that you just bite off a corner and squeeze into your mouth. They have about the same amount of water as a small water bottle, but are so much cheaper! About 2 US cents. Just think, 2 cents for a water bottle!
Taxis- Well I’ve never been to New York, but I think I can say that Accra has the most taxis that I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen more taxis than I have seen privately owned vehicles. Unlike in the states, and everywhere else I’ve been for that matter, the taxis here call for you, they don’t wait for you to call them. Basically, whenever taxi driver see a group of obrunis walking on the side of the road, whether in or out of campus, taxis will honk at you to let you know that they want to give you a ride. We decline the offer, but go through the process 6-10 times before we reach our destination. I’m telling you, every taxi that passes us will inevitably honk at us. It’s a lot of honking!
Tro Tros- These privately owned vans hold about 25 people give or take a few. They are the alternative, though the predominant form of transportation here. They’re cheap and get you where you need to got between the hours of 6am- midnight. It costs about 20 cents on average for a ride, but it depends on distance. Getting on a tro-tro though is sometimes too hectic for its worth. They are usually jam packed with people and you don’t know where the tro-tro is headed unless you ask (the driver yells out the window to let everyone know, but us obrunis can never understand what they’re yelling!). People who want to get on the tro-tro, wait at the stop, then run with the vehicle before it even stops to assure that they are the first to get a place on the tro-tro. Initially, we obrunis weren’t assertive enough to keep up with all the Ghanaians and their ways of claiming transportation, so we had to resort to a taxi to get us where we needed to go. However, we have gotten a little more assertive and are using the tro-tros as our main form of transportation. It’s just so cheap, and once you get the hang of it, it’s really not intimidating or even a big deal anymore.
Well in my time here, I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m always going to be just a little bit dirty, or just not 100% clean. Hand washing my laundry, bucket showers and the perpetual sweating, and the dirt that attaches itself to your sweaty ankles, guarantees that I will not be 100% clean for more than the few minutes following my shower. I don’t have internet all the time, and I have to allot a certain time for when I can make the trek to the internet café, and even when I do get there, I can’t be surprised when I find out that it’s not working. But you know what? I’m ok with this. It forces me to live in the moment and totally immerse myself with what is happening right now in the place that I am. I don’t really know what is going on in the world, this is true. So yes, my ignorance in world affairs is only expanding, but I can’t do much about that. For once, I’m just living my life day by day, going with the flow of everything around me. It’s definitely a change, being here, but all you can do is embrace it, because dwelling on what you’re lacking, is just, pointless and leads to unnecessary misery. And unfortunately, some people in my program haven't come to the same realization that I have...
Enjoy the pictures!
Annabelle
P.S. The Pics- These are just a sample of some of the things I've seen while I've been here. I'll start top to bottom:
1. This is me and Stacy at the highest Waterfall in West Africa. We were only able to be at the bottom of it because we didn't have time to do the full hike to the top. But it was still absolutely INCREDIBLE!
2. My friend Garreth at the first marketplace I went to. I'm just trying to relay the hectic nature of the market, but I'm not sure if the chaos can really be captured on film, but I tried!
3. Wili Falls- The same waterfall as #1
4. Some adorable kids we met on Kumasi, a region in central Ghana. They are famous for their traditional craft villages.
5. Just an example of people walking down the road holding items--- on their heads! An everyday occurrence and norm here in Ghana
6. A monkey from the monkey sanctuary that I visited. The monkeys are very good with people and very clever. Adorable!
7. Stacy doing the canopy walk in Western Ghana Cape Coast
P.P.S. Want a sample of the music that is plaguing all the bars and clubs here in Ghana? Check this out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnDlN7R73oQ
I couldn't find the official videos, well they wouldn't load for me, but I gave you the songs at least and you can find the vids if you're that interested!
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