Strange Ghana--Understanding Ghanaian Culture and Idiosyncrasies

07/22/13

            I want to go over some things about Ghana that will help give a clearer picture of what life is like here in Accra and allow an appreciation of the oddities that make up Ghanaian culture from an American perspective. Also, I stole this idea from Zoey, who is the visionary behind this blog post.

·     - “I know your mother” is actually a potential threat here. Social justice can often be taken into hands of society instead of left for policemen. 

·     - Civilian Justice happens regularly. When someone commits a crime, people who witness it get angry and often violently intervene. I was told by one of the CIEE staff that those caught stealing at a market we went to (the largest market in western Africa) would be seized and lynched—no wonder crime rates are so low here. My host uncle told me about a time he was driving and saw someone hit an old man biking with their car then drive away. He drove after the guy until he stopped and got out of the car then chased after him on foot. When he caught up with him, he and other passerby’s beat him ruthlessly before taking him to the police station.

·     - About half the cops you run into on the streets are packing an ak-47.. hope they’re on your side.

·      -People carry random stuff on their heads to transport or sell it. (men and women) 

·       -Religious references are absolutely everywhere, on the back of trotros and taxis and in the names of various businesses. (ex. God Knows Supermarket; Blood of Christ Hair Salon; Righteous Art; God First Refrigeration) It is by far the most outwardly religious country I have seen. 

·      -Random people on the street yell “obruni” at white people, especially little kids 

·      -There are strange non-alcoholic malt drinks sold commonly (and drinks named after pants) 

·      -When people say I’m coming, they’re usually actually walking away from you.. but are coming back soon.

·      -Many public bathrooms don’t have toilet paper.. better bring  your own with you

·      -It is seen as rude to do anything remotely social with the left hand, including waving, shaking hands, giving something to someone, and eating finger food.

·      -PDA is almost non-existent (I don’t think I’ve seen any couples holding hands or kissing in public)

·      -Hissing or making kissing noises at people to get their attention is not seen as rude.

·      - Eating your food before others are served is totally acceptable and expected.

·      -Every cab that passes a white person will honk at least 3 times at him/her

·     - Credit needed for cell phone use is bought in the form of cards with scratch-off codes on them from street vendors.

·     - Most people refer to others as family members even when they are not actually related, making it very confusing figuring out who are blood-relatives. Our host mom and dad refer to the other people living in our house as family even though none of them are actually related.

·     - If you do not greet someone, you may find them unhelpful or go so far as to give you a cold shoulder, but if you do, you may receive more help than you ever would have asked for. (someone I greeted paid for my friends and I on a trotro; a wood carver gave me a wooden mask for talking to him for about 5 

·       -water is sold in plastic bags called sachets 

·      -Motorcycles go just about wherever they want on the road and use the dashed lines in between lanes as their personal lane.

·      -Many households include extended family members and even random people who are taken in as family

·     - There are many symbols used in Ghanaian art and architecture with specific meanings (the most popular of these representing God’s omnipotence; this symbol is on the majority of plastic chairs I’ve seen) 

 

·     - Getting a bill at a restaurant takes a very long time if you don’t ask for it.

·     - I really like this one: tipping waiters/waitresses is OPTIONAL and is only done when you feel like it has been earned, which makes so much more sense.

·     - It is rude not to accept food from someone who offers it to you or in any way question how good the food is, including smelling it.

·      -Some foods like banku and fufu are eaten with the hands. They are doughy and usually eaten in soups (you roll up a ball of dough, dip it and the soup, and swallow it without chewing).

·      -Certain titles are highly valued and expected to be used in just about all situations (military captain, doctor, professor, etc.)

·      -Some things seem to have gotten lost in translation when it comes to Ghanaian English. We saw multiple trucks carrying gas that had “highly inflammable” written on the back. Also, we went to a restaurant that had homos on the menu (and homos with minced meat). I don’t think that was what they were going for.

·      -Ghanaian English follows British English in certain ways: glasses are called specs, pants means underpants (actual pants are called trousers), and plastic bags are called rubbers (don’t be surprised if someone asks whether you want a rubber after you buy something).

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-People in Ghana call each other "Charlie" (sounds more like chahlee or chahlay) in a similar way that we use dude.

-People often make sound effects like an animated "oh"or "hey" usually to portray empathizing with someone's pain. Ex. Me: Mame my dog died. Mame: Oh! Kyle.. Hey! That is sad.

            

Fish Out of Water

07/01/13

            Our trotro comes to a   We stick out like sore, pasty thumbs. This was not the nice, quaint tourist destination we had in mind when we planned the excursion. So we collect ourselves, and awkwardly make our way over to the only thing that resembles some sort of hope: the worn down lighthouse that peaks above the rooftops. When we get there, it’s not a very impressive structure, and again, we ask ourselves what we are going to spend the day here doing?

Local school children (they're all obsessed with getting their pictures taken)

halt. We’re at Jamestown! We all get out.. look around.. then at each other and our faces all say the same thing. What have we gotten ourselves into? A group of 10 obrunis smack dab in the middle of a simple town unlike any neighborhood we had seen before. Shoddy homes line the streets; the smells of fish, fresh and otherwise, fill our noses.

Our questions our answered when a man walks up to us, introduces himself as The Nice One, tells us his friends told him we were coming, and begins explaining to us that he can give us tours of the lighthouse and fort. First though, we needed to find a place to get lunch, and three star restaurants weren’t exactly pooping out of the woodwork. He directs us down the street to a couple restaurants that are more manageable, and we begin to have some hope in salvaging our excursion. We run into some kid along the way with a beat up Minnesota Wild jersey, although he probably has no idea what ice hockey is, and take a picture with him.  After some wandering and asking of directions, we manage to find a cliff with a stunning ocean view and a restaurant jutting out below us. We stop to take in the scenery and snap a few pictures.

Out of nowhere this old, kind-looking white woman, about the only one we had seen that day, comes up behind us and asks us if we want to watch some kids perform some African drumming and dancing since their class is almost over. The kids scuttle away to make room for us and bring some chairs out. The class is lead by a commanding man in the get-up of a Rastafarian, wearing a funky hat that was about 2 feet tall and colored in the typical Rasta way: black, red, yellow, and green. Their new audience unnerves the kids, and it takes a few attempts to get the dance rolling, but with some coaching, they make it through the entire performance. It was a story about a lion killing the members of a village followed by a jujuman resurrecting the people. Afterward, the man invites us into his office and tells us the school is an NGO that provides education, school uniforms, and some food to kids that cannot afford it.

Our chat does not end there; he escorts us down the steps to the restaurant jutting out from the shore, makes sure we are properly accommodated, and sits down with us. The waitress takes our order… then comes back about 10 minutes later to tell us that they’re out of half the stuff on the menu, so most of us end up ordering lobster… then she comes back once again to ask how we want our lobster cooked. Meanwhile Rasta man is talking our ears off about how he’s a universal man and a universal musician. He tells us about how a large stone near the restaurant was seen as a spiritual relic by some groups. He is very kind to us and makes sure he bothers the employees about our food that took 2 hours to get, not to mention the food that doesn’t come for Zoey, which the waitress claimed she was told they didn’t have (she wasn’t). She ordered lobster with avocado; just about everyone else ordered lobster and the waitress never told us they were out of avocado. As if this is not enough, the waitress gives us the wrong bill, which is more expensive than our actual bill and charges us for something more expensive than we actually got. Needless to say, she did not get a tip. But that is normal in Ghana anyways.

     Now our bellies have finally achieved satisfaction but it’s almost dark already. Thankfully our tour guide, Universal Rasta Man is there for the rescue. He whisks us through the fishing village and takes us through a side of town we never would have seen otherwise… the poor side. By this time darkness has already settled, but the city still bustles with activity. Little kids ecstatically and repeatedly ask us “how are you?” We wind our way through countless dark alleys and manage to avoid getting mugged; luckily Universal Man also knows kung fu. You always hear about how terrible life is in poor regions, but I see more life and joy than suffering. Why is poverty taken to be synonymous with misery anyways…?

The fishing village

My Peeps

06/23/13

The Tremendous Twelve

            I want to take a minute to go over some of the people I have met on this trip so far, since I think they are all truly wonderful, kind people and everybody should know about who they are. First, I will introduce my CIEE brother and sisters.

Franz Essig, aka Stanford (that’s where he goes to school), can be clumsy at times and we already created an acronym for him to use for these moments (TMF>total Franz move). He is a great guy though and probably very intelligent. He’s majoring in international relations and has lived just about everywhere, including Japan, the UK, and the US.

Paige, who is my homestay sister, is from Texas, and she knows how to have a good time. She has been to Kenya before, and a week or two after she left the entire village she was living in got burned down (crazy). She has some strange genetic condition that makes it difficult to handle her eating sugar; that would be awful. Her mom at one time was a penis cake baker, which is pretty badass I think, and she also baked endowed gingerbread men for Christmas. Plus, she’s related to the founder of cysco foods.

Ellie is a fellow Madisonite, so obviously she’s pretty cool. Her grandpa is the creator of colgate toothpaste, which is also pretty awesome. She definitely knows how to have a good time, and her and Paige tend to feed off of each other as enablers, especially when it comes to ordering desserts.

Johanna is from I believe Arkansas, and she has a way of expressing things sarcastically and in a way that describes perfectly what everyone is thinking in a jokingly, friendly way. It’s hard to describe exactly, too bad she’s not here to work that one out for me. For example, she is the inventor of TFM.

Beth is from Texas as well and recently got married (woooo!) I believe less than a month ago, so she has had one transition after the other in the past month. She tends to say what’s on her mind. It can be refreshing though to have that level of honesty, as long as you can handle the truth ;). She has been to Uganda before, so Ghana is not as new of an experience for her this time around. She’s an international relations major and does some amateur photography as well.

Jamesia (Ja-mee-see-uh) tends to be very independent but still easy to get along with. She works as a model, but I’m not sure what all she has done with that. She likes to mess around with her hair, and it tends to be in a different shape every day. I believe she’s from New Jersey.

Zoey, who is originally from Minnesota, I thankfully met on the first plane going out from Minneapolis. She is a firecracker and always keeps things interesting.  The group has diagnosed her with a healthy case of ADHD. She is not very inhibited and not afraid to throw down when it comes to dancing or just about anything. We decided that by the time we leave, her ass is going to be famous. She is really friendly to just about everyone and despite being unafraid of independence, still socially oriented.  

Chloe lives in a homestay with Zoey and is yet another Madisonite (represent).  She ended up showing up a few days late and missing the orientation because of visa issues which made her transition that much harder (it was hard enough for the rest of us). She caught up though now and is having a good time. I think she’s a political science and something else double major (sociology?). She likes Indian food, which I can absolutely appreciate.

Emma is an anthropology major but used to be going for fashion design. Fabric is really cheap here (about $2.50/yard for some really cool looking stuff). She has a hidden evil side that her sister had a way of bringing out in her, but now that she’s older they’re cool with each other. She looks a lot like the girl who plays Hermione Granger (Emma Watson?) when she got her hair cut shorter.

Bailey is one of those people who’s not afraid to reveal anything about herself, which I find impressive. She told us about a time she literally crawled around while drunk and yelled at her friend that the room she was going in was her room not her friend’s (it was her friend’s). Hopefully I’m at liberty to say this, but she got a breast reduction, and she claims it was the best decision of her life.  She’s the third Texan of the bunch. She took an African Dance class at her university (University of Colorado-Boulder) as well, which made me extremely happy. She is a world traveler and has already been to 17 countries. 17!!! That’s like going to a new country every year starting at age 4.

Anna is on her first trip via airplane and guess where she decided to go.. Ghana! That takes some bravery I have to say. I’m not sure she had even left her hometown up until now. She went to college in the same town she grew up in and hasn’t really traveled much if ever. Obviously she is out of her element and is taking more time to adjust than the rest of us, but hopefully I can learn more about her soon. I do know that one of her friends is dating a professor that’s 20 years older than her though. :O

I truly do think all of these people are great and add something unique to the group.

Family

            My host family is made up of all wonderful people that have been helpful in this tough transition. I will go over each of them briefly.

Captain Ansah, my host father, has a very strong personality, and he enjoys pushing me and Paige into eating more food etc. He likes to give lectures about various topics, especially Ghanaian politics but also American and international politics. He gave us a speech when we first showed about commending us on having the bravery to step out of our comfort zone and study abroad in Africa. Captain has been in the military for a very long time and has been around many countries because of it, such as the USSR, Israel, and Egypt. He is very hospitable in a somewhat pushy but well-meaning way.

Mame (Maw-May) Ansah is the queen of the household and doesn’t have to lift a finger, except at Evans (I’ll get to that later). She expresses herself with sounds a lot (she’ll greet you with an enthusiastic AYY! or express sympathy with an expressive ohhh). She likes to get her groove on. Mame and I were dancing to the radio a little together today. She makes sure we have everything we need and everything in the house is taken care of. Also, she makes a mean fufu (a fluffy dough eaten with soup using your hands).

Evans is my housemate (the only other person that lives in the same guest-house as me. They call him their nephew, but he’s someone that they took in because he needed a place to stay and they heard about it through church. He does the bulk of the housework. It seems like every time I see him he’s washing dishes, doing laundry, cooking, or doing something for mame. Whenever someone wants something done, he’s the first one to be called for. Mame puts him to good use. He’s somewhat soft-spoken and shy but light-hearted and easy to get along with. I feel bad for him having to do so much work, while me and Paige are getting by with doing hardly anything. He’s basically our servant.

Emma (short for Emmanuel), is another person taken in by the Ansahs and given a place to stay for about 15 years. He has a job and works most days, but he took us out a few days ago still. He’s a nice guy and easy to be relaxed and friendly with.

Wofa is the resident old fart, and half the time we can’t understand him because he mumbles and speaks mostly Twi, but I’m sure if I could understand him, I would think he was a cool guy. He wore a Barack Obama t-shirt on the first day we arrived, and I think he has a cheeky sense of humor. He does a lot of sitting around chillin’.

Isha and Ofori are the mother and father of two kids and live in the house Paige is in. They are yet another of those taken in by the Ansahs despite no blood relation. They are both awesome people and very kind. Ofori is a real estate agent and is all about technology, cars, and working out. He has a bigger TV than any place I’ve ever lived in, and it has about 1000 channels. I have better TV here than in the US! Their two children are Paa and Eruwaduoa (eh-roo-ah-j-wuh). Paa is the cutest little 2-year-old boy I’ve ever seen (I’ll post pictures of him). He laughs a lot and is usually a happy camper. Eruwaduoa is about 6, and she has more energy than she knows what to do with most of the time. She likes showing me how good she is at jump rope (which is not very). She can do one or two before she gets messed up.

Lots of people to keep track of I know! And that’s just the beginning too. There’s our professors and CIEE staff (Kwasi Moto is a boss). I don’t have time to keep going though so I’ll leave it there for now.