Ghana Misc

This post is dedicated to the little cultural tidbits that have not been properly represented in my posts that summarize what we have been doing.  Thanks!




Sachets

The water coming out of the tap is not safe to drink, so you drink out of a Sachet, which is essentially a plastic bag of water.  You tear it open by your teeth at any corner of your choosing.  Depending on the brand you purchase, the Sachets are filled to various levels.  One brand in particular consistently fills their bags too much so you always spill water all over yourself when you open it.  Drinking from Sachets is an art form.  It takes skill and dexterity and hand to eye to mouth coordination.  A common complaint is that the water tastes like plastic, but if you don’t think about it, it’s not a problem.  Better than getting cholera from drinking poopy tap water.

You often find empty Sachets laying on the side of the road, but don’t fret!  You can do what we did and fashion a volleyball net out of the used Sachets.  You just cut the bag into rings and tie them together in a certain way to create a net.  It’s rather simple.  Once the net is completed, Projects Abroad will donate it to a school, day care, or orphanage in need.

 

 

Ghana and water sacks go hand in hand. 

 

Goats and Chickens

Never have I ever seen so many goats and chickens just chilling, walking through the streets, scavenging for food.  No.  They aren’t dogs, they aren’t chickens, they aren’t lions.  It’s goats and chickens for days and days.  You’ll see the goats just hanging around in the trash having a snack.  And you’ll find chickens just waddling around looking for something to peck at.  They steer clear of humans, but don’t seem all too terrified by us.  From what I’ve gathered, the humans and goat/chicken populations coexist peacefully.  They just stay out of each other’s way.  I’ve seen many a goat almost get hit by a car, but the chickens steer clear of the roads. 

Why didn’t the chicken cross the road?  Because it was smarter than a goat.

 

Baboons

You will find plenty of baboons when you travel to the more rural areas.  When we traveled to the Shai Hills Reserve, we drove past a herd of baboons just sitting there on the side of the road, minding their own business.  Occasionally, if you’re lucky, one will take a banana out of your hands and it may or may not eat the whole thing including the peel in just seconds.  I’ve seen it go either way.  To peel or not to peel.  That is the question. 

 

 

If you are even luckier, you will catch a male randomly, out of the blue, hurrying over to a clueless female, mounting her, and humping her for probably 8 seconds, and then leaving her.  That’s bad etiquette.  Baboon, you foul. 

 

Washrooms

Washrooms, if you didn’t figure this one out, are the equivalent to restrooms.  The quality of the washroom is always a guessing game until you are actually in it.  Sometimes it was a hole in the ground, other times it was a glorified hole in the ground (a throne to sit on that was hovering above a hole), and sometimes you even got a working toilet.  Toilet paper is a rarity, so we would take rolls with us on the bus in preparation for potty parties.  Another interesting tidbit is that although they are called “washrooms” often times there will be nowhere to wash your hands. Every once in a while, at a nice restaurant, you’ll get the grand trifecta.  Functioning toilet, toilet paper, and a sink.  Yahtzee. 

Our two accommodations in Ghana had differing washroom conditions.  In Cape Coast, we had running water, but the toilet tank wouldn’t fill so we had to fill the tank up with rain water to flush it.  In Akropong, we did not have running water, so to flush we had to dump water into the bowl until whatever it was that was in there would go down, and to shower, you used a bucket.  It’s not as bad as it sounds.  The coldness will knock the wind out of you, but it’s really not much different than taking a shower with low water pressure.  The bucket shower situation really helps you save water.

Sometimes, it’s more sanitary to just go in a bush.  It smells a whole lot better too.



 

Weather

The weather is mild, in the eyes of a SoCal native.  It’s a tad humid, but never too hot.  The sun beats down hard and you can feel your skin burning, but it’s not unbearable.  Rain comes and goes as it pleases.  You do get fair warning, though, by the ominous dark clouds that roll in before the rain comes.  You have to watch the sky when you are hang drying your clothes on a clothesline.  Some people in our group learned this the hard way..  It never gets too cold either.  I wish I had some digits for you to explain the highs and lows better, but I do not as internet has been hard to come by. 

 

It rained a lot more in the hills than it did in Cape Coast.  The rain also does a number on the roads here.  As many of them are just relatively smooth dirt, mud is born unto the day.  As mentioned in my Akuapem Hills post, the muddy and rocky roads already broke one of our taxis.  Life lesson: the rain does not care about what it will do to your honky-tonky man-made structures.

 

 

 

Clothes

The clothes here are wonderful.  The women are always dressed in very bright and conservative clothes and the men always look nice.  We weren’t allowed to wear shorts here for fear of sticking out more than we already did as white people.  You don’t want to offend with your clothing here.  The patterns on the fabrics were beautiful and a lot of it looked hand-made (and I know a solid portion of it was).  Even when it was hot, the men would be dressed modestly.  Still, on the way from Accra to Cape Coast, I saw a stark naked man defying everything I just said about Ghanaian clothes being conservative.  That’s part of the charm of this country.  People just do whatever makes them happy and everyone supports them in whatever their choices are.

 

 

Food

Oh my word.  How do I possibly describe the food.  In one word, I’d have to pick spicy because I have such a low tolerance that salt can even make my eyes water and cheeks turn red.  Okay. That’s an exaggeration, but still, the food has some kick.  At our home stays, we were most frequently served rice with a meaty vegetable sauce.  Sometimes they would switch it up and give us spaghetti type noodles with the sauce.  And, when they were feeling extra ambitious, they made us red red, a traditional Ghanaian meal. Red red is basically just fried plantains with some beans.  Although, I do not have the acquired taste for plantains, I still enjoyed the beans and would nibble on the plantains.  They were nice and soft yet held their form in your mouth and the beans, with their little kick, were very good. 

a typical breakfast (sorry I didn't get better food pics)

Although I watch a ton of cooking shows, describing food is still not my strong suit.

I guess I should mention Fufu.  I must admit, I was too chicken to try Fufu as a couple of girls in our group tried it and gave it a not-so positive review.  They ended up eating the rest of my rice.  Fufu is dough sitting in stew that you eat with your hands.  Apparently it is very thick and the first few bites are awesome, but it gets old quickly.  It’s a lot of food.  Overall I enjoyed the Ghanaian food and it added to awesome experience.

 

Obruni!  Obruni!

White person!  White person!  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard shrieking children (and some adults) yell “Obruni Obruni”.  I don’t know what it is.  Whether it be obsession, fascination, or pure shock, many Ghanaians always seem to have that reaction wherever we go.  I find it strange that although there is a constant flow of white volunteers and tourists in the areas we stayed in, people still made a scene. 

The children also had a keen liking of my hair.  Girls and boys alike would flock whenever I’d sit down and undo my ponytail.  They would stand behind me tugging and twisting, pretty much doing whatever they wanted to my hair.  Although I lost a couple strands and endured some pain, it was worth entertaining the kids and giving them the opportunity to see and feel something outside of their ordinary lives.  Follicles be damned, it was fun to spend time with the kids.  I would ask them if they wanted to be a hairdresser and they would say “No” or “Dabi” and explain what they really wanted to be.  All were very driven to have great professions, which made me smile. 

This obruni is going to miss all of the attention.  JUST KIDDING

 

Street Selling

If you can’t balance things on your head, you will not be respected in Ghana.  Okay. That may be a bit of a stretch, but at many of the busier streets, you’ll find some locals selling some food or other merchandise from the top of their heads.  Their balance is impeccable and they aren’t afraid to walk through traffic and knock on your window.  They will make faces at you through the glass and if you make faces back, they’ll laugh and move on.  Again, everyone just seems so happy to be alive.  I’ve seen women and men alike with items for sale atop their cabezas.  I saw a women once with bras dangling from a wooden cubed frame that she was attempting to sell.  I saw many people with ice cold Sachets above them, with the condensation dripping down onto their faces and shirts. 

Street selling also takes its form at tons of little stalls along the sides of the busier roads.  People walk by perusing for fish, watches, cell phone credits, whatever.  You name it, it’s there, whether it be in one of the portable stalls or in a permanent shop.  The people sitting on the side of the streets are just as persistent as those who roam the roads.  This is their lifestyle.  They do this to be able to eat.  I so admire these people’s hard work.