One big difference I have noted from my previous time in Ghana is the relatively few Ghanaians who smoke these days. In the 1990s there were kiosks on every corner selling cigarettes. People bought them in ones or twos. I remember my partner, who smoked then, was a rarity when he bought them by the packet.
Now the cigarette sellers have disappeared and in their place are the sellers of mobile phone cards. These proliferate and many people seem to earn their living by dodging traffic to wave a variety of cards at people stuck in the numerous traffic jams.
I presume the advent of the mobile phone has meant that people have a choice - spend a few cedis a day on a mobile phone card or buy cigarettes, and it looks like the phone cards have won out!
I suppose the next question is, are Ghanaians now safe from lung cancer only to have to worry about brain cancer?
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Perceptions
One of the headlines in the press today is 'World Bank Paints Ghana Black'.
Apparently the World Bank used photos in a display which seemed to indicate that Ghana was making little progress.
Often people do have a negative image of life in Africa and consider it a place of conflict, hunger and poverty. And while those things are to be found, the other side of the coin is often overlooked.
When I first became a volunteer and went to Papua New Guinea people would ask me if I wasn't afraid of being eaten as their only knowledge of the place was of cannibals.
In my first few months there I found myself living in a beautiful setting, cruising the coast on the school boat and eating fillet steak brought by some pilots who would come for the weekend. One of the other voluteers 'complained' to the VSO field office that they had painted a very different picture of what to expect as a volunter from the life he was living and the field officer told him she could supply a hairshirt if he really wanted to suffer!
Yes, there are problems in PNG but in my time there I met genuinely nice people who liked you for who your were and not what you had. There were times when there was no water or no electricity and you couldn't just go out and visit the mall or the cinema but there were so many other compensations those things didn't matter.
I often wonder what perceptions the student I was teaching in Hong Kong before I came here have of my life in Ghana. Some of their comments or questions were quite telling. One wanted to know if I wasn't afraid of all those black people. Another was surprised when I was chatting to him online as he didn't believe I could use the internet in Africa.
There is still a lot of suffering in Ghana and people have to work really hard to scratch a living. People who live in rural Ghana have little in the way of services but it isn't the only life here and I think the officials were right to complain about the photos as they only gave one side of the story.
Apparently the World Bank used photos in a display which seemed to indicate that Ghana was making little progress.
Often people do have a negative image of life in Africa and consider it a place of conflict, hunger and poverty. And while those things are to be found, the other side of the coin is often overlooked.
When I first became a volunteer and went to Papua New Guinea people would ask me if I wasn't afraid of being eaten as their only knowledge of the place was of cannibals.
In my first few months there I found myself living in a beautiful setting, cruising the coast on the school boat and eating fillet steak brought by some pilots who would come for the weekend. One of the other voluteers 'complained' to the VSO field office that they had painted a very different picture of what to expect as a volunter from the life he was living and the field officer told him she could supply a hairshirt if he really wanted to suffer!
Yes, there are problems in PNG but in my time there I met genuinely nice people who liked you for who your were and not what you had. There were times when there was no water or no electricity and you couldn't just go out and visit the mall or the cinema but there were so many other compensations those things didn't matter.
I often wonder what perceptions the student I was teaching in Hong Kong before I came here have of my life in Ghana. Some of their comments or questions were quite telling. One wanted to know if I wasn't afraid of all those black people. Another was surprised when I was chatting to him online as he didn't believe I could use the internet in Africa.
There is still a lot of suffering in Ghana and people have to work really hard to scratch a living. People who live in rural Ghana have little in the way of services but it isn't the only life here and I think the officials were right to complain about the photos as they only gave one side of the story.
Food!
Living in Ghana for 3 years in the 90s gave me a taste for hot spicy food. I loved things like rice and beans with hot shitto sauce, okra and groundnut soup with snails and banku. Very rarely did I crave Western food which was a good thing as there wasn't any available.
Imagine my surprise when we came back as a preliminary visit in February to find myself eating chicken and chips! Fast food has come to Ghana and now there are chips and pizza and soon there will even be a McDonalds!
I have done a lot of cooking in the two months I have been here and still enjoy all the things I enjoyed before but am finding it difficult to invent different recipes with the limited range of ingredients. Every soup or stew starts with onion, chilli, garlic, ginger and tomatoes. Sometimes we add garden egg(a variety of augergine) or okra but there are very few other options unless you are prepared to pay an exhorbitant price for European type veg.
I am still not tempted to visit the fast food places but need inspiration to create more dishes with what is available.
Imagine my surprise when we came back as a preliminary visit in February to find myself eating chicken and chips! Fast food has come to Ghana and now there are chips and pizza and soon there will even be a McDonalds!
I have done a lot of cooking in the two months I have been here and still enjoy all the things I enjoyed before but am finding it difficult to invent different recipes with the limited range of ingredients. Every soup or stew starts with onion, chilli, garlic, ginger and tomatoes. Sometimes we add garden egg(a variety of augergine) or okra but there are very few other options unless you are prepared to pay an exhorbitant price for European type veg.
I am still not tempted to visit the fast food places but need inspiration to create more dishes with what is available.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Paradox!
Living in Ghana after 4 years of working in PNG was like being released from prison. Don't get me wrong, I loved working in PNG but after a time the constant worry over personal safety begins to wear you down. Security is such a big issue and leaving the house after dark is generally out of the question especially for a woman on her own
In Ghana I lived in a sort of compound house and the only lock was a bolt on the gate. There were no security bars on the windows and I never locked an internal door. In fact I don't remember there being a key! I could walk down to the town in the dark and loved the small kiosks with their kerosene lamps that illuminated the main street. Arriving back after a trip to Accra at 2.00 am held no terror - apart from passing the mortuary but that's another story!
Now after an absence of nearly 17 years things don't seem to have changed much. Ghana still continues to be a very safe place to live. Why is it then that we have an electric fence around our house? My partner has just bought another house for his brother and daughters and is going to put razor wire on top of the wall which has just been raised. As a precaution is also putting planks of wood on the inside of the doors so that it becomes more like a fortress.
I asked about our electric fence which is more for show than as a deterrent as it isn't on most of the time and it seems it is just what Ghanaians do! We have had to go out a couple of times leaving the house empty and we have yet to lock the door - in fact we haven't locked a door since I arrived.
At the gym people just put their phones and wallets and bags on open shelves with no concern about them being stolen and ladies leave their bags in the changing rooms while they exercise.
So the paradox is why is there the need for all this security when we live is such a relatively safe environment?
In Ghana I lived in a sort of compound house and the only lock was a bolt on the gate. There were no security bars on the windows and I never locked an internal door. In fact I don't remember there being a key! I could walk down to the town in the dark and loved the small kiosks with their kerosene lamps that illuminated the main street. Arriving back after a trip to Accra at 2.00 am held no terror - apart from passing the mortuary but that's another story!
Now after an absence of nearly 17 years things don't seem to have changed much. Ghana still continues to be a very safe place to live. Why is it then that we have an electric fence around our house? My partner has just bought another house for his brother and daughters and is going to put razor wire on top of the wall which has just been raised. As a precaution is also putting planks of wood on the inside of the doors so that it becomes more like a fortress.
I asked about our electric fence which is more for show than as a deterrent as it isn't on most of the time and it seems it is just what Ghanaians do! We have had to go out a couple of times leaving the house empty and we have yet to lock the door - in fact we haven't locked a door since I arrived.
At the gym people just put their phones and wallets and bags on open shelves with no concern about them being stolen and ladies leave their bags in the changing rooms while they exercise.
So the paradox is why is there the need for all this security when we live is such a relatively safe environment?
Saturday, October 16, 2010
No Joke!
Yesterday was World Hand-Washing Day! I'm sure everyone knows the importance of washing hands and in Ghana where people eat with their fingers it is even more important.
Only the right hand is used for eating and for giving things to people as the left hand is used for more unsavoury things like cleaning the bottom.
I was aware of this and the implications of hand-washing but yesterday when I first heard it on the radio I thought they were refering to washing clothes by hand as that is how it is referred to in the UK. Also I had done a lot of 'hand -washing' in Hong Kong not having a washing machine in my flat and using the laundry service for bigger items.
Just at the moment I heard the term 'hand-washing' I was loading the washing machine and suddenly felt very guilty as I thought I should have been washing my clothes by hand.
It was only later I realised how studpid this was as very few Ghanaians wash their clothes in a machine.
I remember sitting in the yard of my house in Enchi with a huge bowl of water washing all my clothes and what hard work it was. I wasn't as hard on my clothes as a Ghanaian lady would have been as they seem to scrub clothes within an inch of their life and then ring them out and hang them in the sun. As a result clothes age very quickly. My husband made the mistake of handing over his clothes on one of his visits only to find someone had washed his suit! It was never the same again.
Only the right hand is used for eating and for giving things to people as the left hand is used for more unsavoury things like cleaning the bottom.
I was aware of this and the implications of hand-washing but yesterday when I first heard it on the radio I thought they were refering to washing clothes by hand as that is how it is referred to in the UK. Also I had done a lot of 'hand -washing' in Hong Kong not having a washing machine in my flat and using the laundry service for bigger items.
Just at the moment I heard the term 'hand-washing' I was loading the washing machine and suddenly felt very guilty as I thought I should have been washing my clothes by hand.
It was only later I realised how studpid this was as very few Ghanaians wash their clothes in a machine.
I remember sitting in the yard of my house in Enchi with a huge bowl of water washing all my clothes and what hard work it was. I wasn't as hard on my clothes as a Ghanaian lady would have been as they seem to scrub clothes within an inch of their life and then ring them out and hang them in the sun. As a result clothes age very quickly. My husband made the mistake of handing over his clothes on one of his visits only to find someone had washed his suit! It was never the same again.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Global Village
One of the first things we did on my arrival in Ghana was to register with accraexpat and view their classifieds for items to buy. Someone was advertising furniture and plants and had posted some pictures. We were interested but what was even more interesting was that in one of the pictures there was a piece of tapa cloth on their wall. Now not many people will know about tapa which is cloth produced from the bark of a tree in Oro Province in PNG.
In a former life I was a volunteer in Milne Bay Province in PNG and some of the girls came from Oro and I was given tapa as gifts and also purchased some myself to use as wall hangings.
I was intrigued by the tapa on the wall of a person in Ghana.
We went to see the items and of course the tapa was mentioned and it transpired that the guy was the grandson of one of the previous headmistresses in the school where I had taught in PNG. She had even written a book about her experiences and he was kind enough to pass on his copy as his family had more in the UK.
I spent that evening reading her book and reliving many of the same experiences and even knew some of the people she mentioned.
It just goes to show that the world is a very small place and there are connections in even the most unlikely places. Who would have thought that one of the first people I met in Ghana would remind me of 4 fantastic years in PNG?
In a former life I was a volunteer in Milne Bay Province in PNG and some of the girls came from Oro and I was given tapa as gifts and also purchased some myself to use as wall hangings.
I was intrigued by the tapa on the wall of a person in Ghana.
We went to see the items and of course the tapa was mentioned and it transpired that the guy was the grandson of one of the previous headmistresses in the school where I had taught in PNG. She had even written a book about her experiences and he was kind enough to pass on his copy as his family had more in the UK.
I spent that evening reading her book and reliving many of the same experiences and even knew some of the people she mentioned.
It just goes to show that the world is a very small place and there are connections in even the most unlikely places. Who would have thought that one of the first people I met in Ghana would remind me of 4 fantastic years in PNG?
Ghana is home!
After talking and planning the move to Ghana I finally arrived in July. Since then I have been 'settling in'.
The difference between life here and in Hong Kong where I was previously couldn't be more marked. There I lived in a 'shoe box' on the 23rd floor by the side of a busy main road. My building was on top of the MTR so all I needed to do was to go in the lift and I could conveniently get to virtually any place in Hong Kong I needed to go.
Now I am living in a beautiful 5 bedroomed house with garden and the only way to get to it is via a dirt road from the notorious Spintex Road. I came in February to look at it and was terrified by the traffic. I never thought I would have the nerve to drive but I am slowly accustoming myself to nosing out into a stream of oncoming cars and negotiating the roundabouts. I have driven to High Street but am yet to really get my Accra bearings so am limiting my journeys to the Mall and the market.
I previously lived in Ghana in 1990 -93 and my life now couldn't be more different. Then I lived in the 'bush' in Enchi Western Region and I was a volunteer. At that time there was no electricity and my water was carried every day by the students from the college. I did have a kerosene fridge but most of my cooking was on a coalpot until my now husband came to visit and saw how thin I had got and bought me a two burner gas cooker! I ate a diet of local food and the only luxury was powdered milk which was quite difficult to get at that time.
This time I can't believe that things that are available here - at a price - and there certainly aren't the privations I experienced as a volunteer. Now I have a washing machine and a microwave and we have made sure we have a back up solar system for the power and extra tanks for the water so are not affected by powercuts and water shortages.
So far so good! I am enjoying my life here and know it was the right move for me.
The difference between life here and in Hong Kong where I was previously couldn't be more marked. There I lived in a 'shoe box' on the 23rd floor by the side of a busy main road. My building was on top of the MTR so all I needed to do was to go in the lift and I could conveniently get to virtually any place in Hong Kong I needed to go.
Now I am living in a beautiful 5 bedroomed house with garden and the only way to get to it is via a dirt road from the notorious Spintex Road. I came in February to look at it and was terrified by the traffic. I never thought I would have the nerve to drive but I am slowly accustoming myself to nosing out into a stream of oncoming cars and negotiating the roundabouts. I have driven to High Street but am yet to really get my Accra bearings so am limiting my journeys to the Mall and the market.
I previously lived in Ghana in 1990 -93 and my life now couldn't be more different. Then I lived in the 'bush' in Enchi Western Region and I was a volunteer. At that time there was no electricity and my water was carried every day by the students from the college. I did have a kerosene fridge but most of my cooking was on a coalpot until my now husband came to visit and saw how thin I had got and bought me a two burner gas cooker! I ate a diet of local food and the only luxury was powdered milk which was quite difficult to get at that time.
This time I can't believe that things that are available here - at a price - and there certainly aren't the privations I experienced as a volunteer. Now I have a washing machine and a microwave and we have made sure we have a back up solar system for the power and extra tanks for the water so are not affected by powercuts and water shortages.
So far so good! I am enjoying my life here and know it was the right move for me.
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