Wow.. That was some funky adventure

The girls pounding fufu

2007-11-28T13:30:00.001+10:30

Two things I forgot

2007-05-30T14:19:00.000+09:30

Sorry I forgot to share these things with you.. Check out my favourite ad in Ghana for the Bank of Ghana's changing currency (contains every stereotypical Ghanaian possible - school children, nurses, tro-tro mates, builders, women in West African dress - so good!) and also 'End of the World'. My American friends were continuously saying 'WTF mate?' to me and I never understood why until I saw this. Both of these are hilarious! Turn up the sound!

http://emuse.ebaumsworld.com/flash/play/710/ - End of the World

http://www.ghanacedi.gov.gh/index1.php?linkid=207#171 - The Value is the Same

Enjoy and post me a comment telling me what you think of them!

Until next time...

2007-05-21T12:22:00.000+09:30

So I've reached the end of my journey through WA. Stay tuned for the Japan-Trans-Siberian next year some time!

The week from hell up north: Part II

2007-05-20T01:11:00.000+09:30

We were pretty hungry by the time we reached Wa so we grabbed some fried rice and chicken at a place called Amazing Fast Food. It was pretty amazing. Irene, Marie and Rula all wanted to head towards the Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary, the next stop on the agenda of Kevin and Lee, so we all caught a tro-tro to Wechiau village. This was an unusual tro-tro of sorts - it was a pick-up truck, 3 seats in the front, a bench along each side in the back, and then 3 small loose benches in the middle. They managed to fit a good 20 or so people in the back of that thing, along with luggage and extra people sitting on top. It was interesting, that’s for sure.

Wechiau is a pretty small place, its main drawing card being the hippo sanctuary about 20mins away. We were taken straight to the tourist office, where we paid a lot of money for a bed and transport there and back, and then the same pick-up took us out to the sanctuary along a dusty road. There were two other Dutch guys, Maarten and Ries, already there chilling out. When we got there we were informed it was too hot to sleep in the rooms so we would have to sleep on the roof. Fine by us, but why hadn’t we been told this before we’d paid for the rooms? The place was pretty cool overall - we had bought rice and some other food stuffs in Wechiau before coming and we cooked them up on a coal fire, eating by lantern light. Sleeping on the roof was quite fun! I’ve never done it before, but it’s really peaceful.

In the morning we had our hippo river safari cruise. We wore life-jackets (we were surprised about this!) and headed out on canoes. It was pretty relaxing being pushed along on the river, even while we were being eaten by small black bugs and our canoe was filling with water. Kevin did a good job of bailing us out for the 2 hours or so we were out there. We did eventually see 2 hippos! It was pretty cool - we stayed up against the side of the river and watched them from afar. We only saw their ears poking up, but we knew they were there. We were just about to leave when one of them disappeared and re-appeared half the distance away from us than it had been before. Our guide and the two guys paddling started yelling at each other in their language and started paddling sooo fast. It was quite scary! They can kill you, you know.

We had arranged for the pick-up to pick us up from the sanctuary at 10am on the warning that if we got to Wechiau after 12 we wouldn’t be able to get a tro-tro to Wa. We waited. And waited. It finally turned up at 11:30. Frustrating again. Maarten and Ries decided to join us in the truck rather than ride the bikes back. In Wechiau we found a tro that was headed to Wa, so we’re still not really sure if all the worry was worth it.

We waited in that tro-tro for a good hour and a half, waiting for it to fill up. While we waited, we had some fun with the kids that surrounded us, ate some biscuits and mangoes, watched the tro-tro next to us filling up and pretended to be tro-tro mates, calling out the windows ‘Wa, Wa, Wa’, trying to get some people interested in heading our way so we could get a move on. The tro next to us was crazy! They tied about 20 goats together by the legs and necks and put them on top along with the crazy amounts of luggage and people, put some goats under the seats, strapped a big wooden basket filled with chickens to the side, jammed in as many people as possible and off it went. We also saw a goat strapped to the back of a bicycle, looking rather uncomfortable. We were pretty happy to get going when we finally did.

20mins later, our tro-tro stopped. Out of petrol. We were furious when the driver said it was our fault for not paying our fare at the beginning. That way they could’ve gotten petrol, he said. What were they doing while we waited in Wechiau for an hour and a half? So we waited on the side of the road for 2 hours. A poor guy rode up on his bicycle at the wrong time - the mate borrowed it to ride to the next village for petrol, and meanwhile the guy was stranded with us for an hour and a half! We had some fun while we were there, of course. There were a bunch of kids standing under a tree, staring at us the whole time we were there, and at some point they came up to us in a line, took each of our hands one-by-one and did a little bow. It was really cute. The Ghanaians on our tro bugged each of us for our addresses, and at some point in the conversation they mentioned wanting it in reverse or something, so we each wrote fake addresses backwards on a piece of paper. One of them asked me if I am from ‘Holland or Japan?’ It had been such a stupid day so the two ridiculous options he gave me made me sit on the road and laugh til I cried. We also created a human barrier across the road and wrote SOS in the dirt to make cars stop and help us. Eventually a motorbike rode up with 2 guys on it, a container of petrol on both sides and the bicycle strapped to the back. We were off!

As soon as we started moving, after some difficulty, smoke started coming up from the engine between the driver and the passengers next to him. The driver was going along breathing out the window like it was completely normal. I feel pretty lucky that I wasn’t able to smell for my entire final week in Ghana, because I missed out on the intense smell of petrol fumes. We asked the driver to stop and check the engine, which he did after passing through 2 villages. When we finally did stop, Irene, Marie and I were so concerned that we decided we couldn’t possibly continue on in that tro-tro. There was one other pick-up in that village, so I ran around asking who it belonged to until I found the owner. He agreed to take us the remaining way to Wa for a small fee.

Some of us had luggage strapped to the top, so the two Dutch guys jumped up there to untie the ropes. Meanwhile the Ghanaians were still trying to push-start the tro, almost deliberately trying to make the guys fall off, while the driver told us there was nothing wrong with his car so we had to keep going with them. When we finally got in the next car with all of our luggage, we were surrounded by the driver and all the angry passengers from the tro-tro, demanding that we pay our full fee. We refused at first, but eventually paid it out of frustration. THEN the guy had the nerve to say he was missing 10,000! We were all yelling about it for awhile, with the soon-to-be next driver trying to help by being a mediator, counting the money and so on, and then Kevin’s frustration spilled over into a short screaming rage, swearing and telling everyone to get away from us. We were all slightly on edge so I ended up paying the guy another 10,000 so we could get away from there. As we drove off for my 2nd feeling-safe-in-transit time, I looked back to see everyone jumping back out of the tro-tro as thick black smoke filled the vehicle. Suckers. The driver of this pick-up was so nice to us, waiting at the station so we could buy tickets for the next morning to our destinations, and then driving us to a hotel. We all got rooms and then walked to a fancy hotel for a well-deserved dinner.

The next morning, we ate tea, egg and bread in the Wa station and then said our goodbyes. We were a good bunch. Kevin and I headed to Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti region in the centre of Ghana. On our way there we passed an over-turned bus on the side of the road. The crash had happened the day before and some passengers were still sitting there with their luggage. I felt completely unsafe in that bus after that. We stopped at a small town later and we bought digestive cookies and crackers to give us some energy, and I tried not to throw up when I saw some pit toilets filled with maggots. After we started moving again, the driver decided not to slow down for a bump in the road and we were all thrown from our seats. Our heads almost hit the roof twice, and the poor guy next to us (in the seat I was supposed to be in, no less) - his seat had come off the metal frame, he’d tried to support himself with the seat in front of him, which had also fallen forward, and he’d ended up sprawled half across the broken chair and half down the exit stairs, on top of the goat that was being brought along with us. I’m so glad I’d decided to move chairs, or we might have spent the night in hospital rather than in our hotel! The guy was fine by the way.

We had almost reached Kumasi when we found that a bridge in front of us was flooded so we were caught in a long traffic jam. We’d had enough, saw a lodge just across the road, and jumped ship for the 3rd time in less than a week. In the morning we walked across into Kumasi. I was so tired by that time that I spent my whole time in Kumasi sleeping and only really waking to eat meals. Kevin managed to explore a little and bought himself a handy machete! We stayed the night and then headed back to Accra the following morning. When we finally got home, we gave each other a high-five for surviving to tell the tale. I was going to say to Kevin that we had had such an unlucky week, but then I re-thought it - we may have had the best luck in the world.

The rice seller across from Amazing Fast Food
Our first pick-up ride
Fuzzey Fuel in Wechiau
The view from the roof at the Hippo Sanctuary
The roof we slept on
From the left - Kevin, Maarten, Marie, Ries, Irene and Rula in our trendy life-jackets
Me looking possibly tired and over the river safari
Serene
Hippo!
See the water filling our canoe?
The dusty road from the sanctuary to Wechiau
The tro-tro next to us in Wechiau filling up - note the goats on top, and the big basket on the side is full of chickens
The crazy tro-tro on its way
A poor goat strapped on its side to the back of the bicycle
The gang looking bored on the side of the road after our tro ran out of petrol
In the middle of nowhere..
Everyone was complaining of the smell of fish the whole time we were in the tro. We found the cause..
The Ghanaians fell asleep basically as soon as we stopped
The great driver who saved us from the smoking tro. See how dirty everyone is? That's what you get for riding in the back of an open pick-up in the north of Ghana
Breakfast at Wa station
Overturned bus..
The maggoted-up pit toilet
The most beautiful church I saw in Ghana - Kumasi
Dinner on one of our nights in Kumasi - rice from a street vendor, eaten in our hotel room under the blue light
We made it!

The week from hell up north: Part I

2007-05-19T23:08:00.000+09:30

Kevin and I met at the STC bus station, me running late and having awoken with a cold that was to last the entire week. Our bus to Tamale was supposed to have air-conditioning but when we arrived at the station, they returned some of our money because apparently no air-con bus was available. This was going to be a bit sucky for the 13-hour trip ahead of us, but what can you do. They did manage to shove a lot of things on the bus with us as usual - including a photocopier sitting next to the driver.

About half-way to Tamale, thick storm clouds started covering the sky, and then the rain started. Kevin and I were slightly worried because we knew that rain in Ghana is bad news - the roads are slippery, everyone keeps speeding and overtaking in their usual insane manner and noone turns on their headlights for fear of using their petrol. Sure enough, 2 minutes later I look up to see a massive truck headed straight for our windscreen. The truck and our bus swerved out of the way, with our bus pushing the taxi it had been trying to overtake off the road. Our bus pulled over for awhile so that the driver and the taxi driver could scream at each other, and then we continued on. Meanwhile Kevin and I were still trying to gulp our hearts out of our throats… We honestly thought we could have died in that one and decided that, since it was also almost getting dark, staying on the bus wasn’t worth the risk. We got off at the next little town, Kintampo.

We stayed at a hotel which happened to be right across the road from the STC bus station, and it only cost 65000cedis for a double room - about $8.90. Sitting in the reception area of the hotel, drinking a beer, was the chief of Kintampo! We were so pleased when we found out that we’d met a chief in Ghana. He saw us pay half each for the room and told Kevin that it wasn’t right and he should’ve paid for the whole thing. We told him it was okay, we were just friends and we were paying half each. ‘We don’t do that…’ with a shake of the head was the response from the chief. He told Kevin that he had better be paying for my dinner then. Hilarious!

In the morning we got a tro-tro the rest of the way to Tamale, the first of 2 times I actually felt safe in transit during this week of hell. A guy nearby was trying to charge us money to sit in the front seat, then tried to charge me money to put my backpack in the back. Later on we figured out that the guy had nothing to do with the tro at all! Luckily by that time we were well-seasoned travellers so we hadn’t paid him any money. In Tamale we got tickets for our next bus which would take us straight to Mole National Park, ate lunch and met a bunch of other obronis obviously headed in the same direction.

It came time to board the bus and all the Ghanaians, having no sense of queuing or order, shoved into the bus door. One woman behind us was yelling at us to get out of the way so she could get through, meanwhile we’re all packed like sardines against the bus side being pushed in every direction, one of the other obronis dropped her bag of sachet water all over the ground because of the shoving and another woman started stealing it! Kevin told her it was our friend’s water so she should stop stealing it and the woman went ballistic, saying we would have to pay her for the water! It was so frustrating. When we eventually got on the bus, Kevin and I were told we were standing. We had paid good money for standing room only on a 6-hour bus trip along a dirt road? Great. We ended up getting seats anyway, Kevin next to a girl he’d met somewhere along the way, and me next to 2 Dutch girls, Irene and Marie, who had a spare seat because Irene had an infected mosquito bite on her foot and had to keep it elevated. We made it Mole at about 8pm, got a triple room which we shared with Rula, an American chick, ate a fabulous dinner with alcohol that we definitely deserved and then went to bed.

In the morning, we all woke early for the 6:30am safari walk. I had only brought thongs with me and so I had to wear these massive black boots. The safari was pretty cool - we saw a bunch of deer-like animals and then at the end we chilled out near the elephants’ watering hole for awhile watching elephants bathe. By the end though, I had about 15 blisters on my feet. Luckily, Rula had some disinfectant cream with her which probably saved me from the same fate as Irene from the bus. For the rest of the day, we ate lunch and dinner and slept a lot. We were all pretty damned tired and it was great to just chill out, watching the monkeys outside our hotel room window.

Our plan from Mole NP was to make our way to Wa, the capital of the Upper-West region of Ghana. To do this, we woke up early again and walked the 6km to Larabanga a small town probably not worth much of a mention. Irene and Marie were there having caught a 4am bus from Mole (we were too tired to wake up that early). Now all we had to do was wait for the bus that would come through Larabanga on it’s way from Tamale to Wa. Kevin, Rula and I grabbed some breakfast at a small place (egg and bread, staple breakfast). The bus did come through, but it was full - something we weren’t quite prepared for, since it only comes once a day! We ended up sitting on some rickety benches with people staring at us for a couple of hours. We bargained a deal with a taxi man, so the 5 of us would each pay 150,000 each (way more than we should have paid, but we were desperate) and then he came back and demanded an extra 10,000 from each of us for FOOD! Food costs way less than 50,000 for sure in Ghana, and it’s not like he couldn’t afford it with the 750,000 we were about to give him! We broke off the deal and were trying to sort something else out when a tro-tro came, headed for Wa. Relieved, we jumped in.

We got as far as Bole (about half of the way) when we were told to get out - turned out the tro-tro wasn’t going to Wa after all! We were so mad because we’d paid a good amount of money thinking we were making it all the way to Wa. A cool Ghanaian dude in the tro with us helped us out by getting the current driver to give the next driver some of our money so we didn’t have to pay again. Next tro-tro - we were going along and the tyre popped! Luckily we had just slowed down to let some cattle cross the road as it could have been a nasty crash if we were going faster. We did make it to Wa in the end.

Some of the road heading up north. See the photocopier at the bottom there?
Kevin and me looking slightly frazzled
The rain coming down just before our crash
Kevin on the balcony of our hotel in Kintampo
A small village on the way to Tamale
Mole NP
The view from our room
And again
And again.. How cool is this place?
Me in my phat boots
Me, Rula and Kevin on our safari walk
Elephant!
This is what it would look like if I stood next to a lake with elephants in it. Hang on a second..
Irene and Marie, chillin out in Larabanga
The road from Larabanga
Us, excited to be leaving
These legs came down from the roof about half-way through the journey
Our popped tyre

Francophone West Africa

2007-05-19T12:25:00.000+09:30

I woke up fair early and made it to the Accra tro-tro station to get my fast but thankfully uneventful tro to Aflao, a small town on the border of Ghana and Togo. I only had to wait for an hour and a half for it to leave as well! That time was used trying to find someone selling tissues, with a guy following me around helping me. I didn’t find any tissues but about 20mins later the guy came up to my tro-tro window with 2 packets. I have no idea where he found them, but it was mighty helpful of him.
At Aflao, I walked across the border without much difficulty (bar finding out that my Ghana visa would be no longer valid and I’d have to go straight to Benin to apply for a new one the next day..). I was speaking to a Ghana official about where I should get a Togo visa, to which he replied ‘We’re still in Ghana, which is why you’re still speaking English. When you cross the border you can get your Togo visa’. I was thinking to myself, yeah right, walk another couple of metres and it will be suddenly all French.

Enter Togo. I was surrounded by French-speaking people offering me taxis and zemi-johns (motorcycles used to transport people like taxis), hotels and currency exchange. Feeling flustered and anxious, I ran into the Shell petrol station nearby to drink water, calm myself down and read up on hotels in my Lonely Planet before heading back out there. I asked a woman how I should go about catching a taxi, but she couldn’t understand me so she pulled over her friend, who pulled over his friend, and again I was surrounded by 7 French-speaking Africans including a taxi driver who was trying to figure out where I was going. I jumped in the taxi and managed to mumble ‘Hotel le Galion’ before bursting into tears. ‘Ooh la la’ he said, and off we went.

I stayed the night in Togo at a Swiss-owned hotel. It was pretty nice and the owner’s son talked to me for awhile, calming me down again. In the morning I took a share-taxi into Benin. The driver was pretty cool, answering all my questions along the way and slowing down when there were photo opportunities. They fit 4 in the back and 2 in the front, plus the driver. I was the one sitting in the middle next to the driver. They put a cushion or blanket over the hand-brake so it’s not too uncomfortable.. In Benin, I went straight to Ghana Immigration in Cotonou (sort of like the Sydney of Benin, capital in everything but it’s name) and after some few problems (they were closed), I managed to do my application and leave my passport there. After this I headed straight for the real capital, called Porto Novo.

Porto Novo is a nice quiet town where I did not much besides eat dinner, sleep at a dodgy hotel and eat breakfast before heading back to Cotonou. Breakfast was at a place called Cafeteria Place Catchi, a small table set up every morning by these two guys, one making omelettes while the other makes coffee. All of their customers besides myself were Beninese men so I’m sure I didn’t look out of place at all.

On my way back to Cotonou, I took a detour and visited a stilt village called Ganviè. I ended up doing the tour with a French couple who were pretty nice, and I’m sure our guide was rather knowledgeable too but he was speaking in French. Ganviè was pretty serene. I’m still not quite sure why you would want to live in a house in the middle of water, but I guess it’s just the way it goes. The people out there hated having their photos taken, with one boy almost over-turning his boat because he was so angry at me when I pointed my camera in his direction. It’s always good to see another way of life though.

I decided to stay the night in Cotonou so I found Pension de Familles from my trusty LP and checked in. By this time it was getting to be almost 5:30pm so I grabbed some dinner (crêpes, since I was in a Francophone country) and bunked down at the hotel. Apparently Cotonou is so dangerous that you don’t want to walk alone at night, and I wasn’t planning on risking it. It seemed to me that the electricity problem in Togo and Benin was more serious than in Ghana, with generators on all over the place for most of the time I was there. The guy in the hotel assured me that their generator would be on all night, but at 4am it turned off. Maybe it ran out of petrol or whatever, but I was suddenly being eaten by mosquitoes and sweating.

In the morning, I went to a patisserie and bought chocolate croissants, yoghurt and juice. Man the French were so much better at taking over countries than the English! I headed back into Togo (one of the Benin officials asking ‘do you remember me from the other day’ - gross), checked out the fetish market in Lomè, the capital, filled with fetishes and ingredients for ‘medicines’ and then crossed over the border back into Ghana. I don’t feel as though I accomplished much during my time in Francophone West Africa, but I am glad that I went alone and I survived it.

Me waiting for the tro-tro to leave
Crossing borders.. Ghana-Togo
Hotel Le Galion
Lome's beautiful beachfront
Me riding a zemi-john!
Crossing borders again.. Togo-Benin
Cafeteria Place Catchi - the guy on the left makes the coffee, while the other whips up omelettes
Heading out to Ganvie
Ganvie
A beautiful sight
Some ingredients for those potions you've always wanted to make
CUTE girl on the tro-tro back to Accra

The good, the bad and the menu

2007-04-17T02:29:00.000+09:30

I feel like I'm so close to the end of my time here. I finished my last day of work on Friday, have 2 weeks of traveling ahead of me, and then home! Crazy how time flies.. It is for this reason that I thought now was an appropriate time for this kind of post – the good, the bad and the menu. It's basically a summary of my time here, grouped into likes, dislikes and food. And it's really long. Enjoy.

The good

The tro-tros – trotros have been a major source of entertainment during my time here. I manage to get at least one hilarious/amusing/confusing/irritating/frustrating story from the tro-tros every day. They've proven a great way to experience the Ghanaian culture.

Tro-tro stations – possibly even more amusing than the tro-tros themselves. I've found the stations bring together the best and worst parts of Ghana into one confusing and bustling place – the sights (the mud, the urination, the mates, the tro-tros, the women selling from their heads), the sounds (hissing, Fanmilk guys honking their horns, kissing sounds, the mates calling out their direction – "Lapaz, Lapaz, Lapaz", tro-tros firing up, popping water sachets as tro-tros drive over them, the women and children selling – "pure water" "yes plantain chips, plantain"), the smells (exhaust fumes, garbage, urine) and, most of all, the utter chaos. Love it.

Bargaining – it's so much fun knowing that you can get most everything from the street for half the price they want. Such a feeling of accomplishment.

Champs Sports Bar – Champs has become such a part of my life here. Thursday night quiz nights kick ass, especially because we've come 3rd twice, winning 100,000 cedis, and even came 2nd last week, winning 200,000! I go there for the hilarious British guy who runs the quiz and reads out funny answers that people give, the chocolate brownies and apple crumble, the chance of winning the tequila or beer round (I won the beer round for my team on St Pat's by carving a naked woman out of a potato!! Woo free green beer!), and the great company of obronis.

Fanmilk – when you hear the honking clown horn, you know good times are coming. Not quite that exciting, but these Fanmilk guys are everywhere selling Fanice (vanilla icecream), Fanchoco (frozen chocolate milk), Fanyogo (frozen strawberry yoghurt) and Tampico (frozen citrus juice), all for about 35cents each.

Smoothy's – smoothies are refreshing at any time, but in Ghana especially so. We have chilled out at Smoothy's many a time, trying the different varieties of smoothies. Sometimes we buy chocolate from the Koala Market and some freshly cut pineapple, mango or papaya from the street and eat that while we while away the hours…

Dancing – Ghanaians love to dance, and seem to do so at every opportunity. Music is everywhere, so people walking past, even women with loads on their heads will do a little jig as they walk by.

Hiplife – Ghana's own musical creation – sort of like American hip-hop done in African language with some beats behind it, including drumming. Pretty cool, which is lucky because it seems to be one of only 4 styles of music played here – hiplife, highlife (for adults, I've been told), reggae and power ballads (bring on Celine Dion!)

Fruit – never in my life have I been tempted with such delicious fruit! Mangoes, pineapples, bananas, papaya, oranges… It's actually strange because it seems that fruit doesn't make it into the Ghanaian diet very often, yet they could have some of the best fruit here on the planet! I'm grateful that you can go up to a woman selling pineapple and she will stop, cut the skin off, cut it into bite-sized pieces, put it in a plastic bag and give you little pieces of wood to eat it with. Still amazes me.

Koala and Max Mart – 2 supermarkets here that are exactly like home. We go there to dream about foods that we're going to eat as soon as we get to our respective homes. We also go there to buy pastries like chocolate croissants and doughnuts, chocolate and jam to put on our morning bread. And they're air-conditioned! And the fact that one is called Koala Market is awesome, especially the picture of the Koala on the wall.

You can never be late – the good side to 'Ghana time', which I will explain soon. Minerals – soft drink/pop/soda or whatever you choose to call them, minerals are cool. They are all in glass bottles, and the stores demand the bottle back immediately. This means you have to skol it while you stand there, or they put it into a plastic bag for you to take away. Did anyone know that Fanta had a cocktail flavour? Well it's the best.

Plantain chips - another thing to buy from the top of a woman's head, plantain chips are made from ripe and un-ripe plantain. They are sliced thinly and then fried, served in plastic bags. The dark brown ones are made from the ripe plantain and they're sweet!

Chop bars - small food bars selling local food, every one of these places has almost the same menu, have no service skills, but are incredibly cheap and have some character. Jollof rice with chicken and coleslaw, with a mineral costs about 20000 cedis, or less than $3!

Spots - small drink bars that sell alcohol and play music. Not much else to them really..

Weekend trips - there are so many cool places to visit that are reasonably close to Accra, as you have seen from my past blogs, and trips out of the hustle and bustle of Accra are the best - they give your lungs a chance to recover from the pollution!

Children - the children everywhere are always the most happy to see us obronis. The little ones will often shout 'obroni' over and over and over until you either wave at them or get so far away they can't see you anymore. The way they dance is cute, their school uniforms are cute, their smiles are cute and their enthusiasm is contagious.

The Alhaji song - just one of the many hip-life songs we hear over and over and it always manages to bring a smile to our faces with its catchy tune. Apparently Alhaji means 'one who has returned from Mecca' or something similar, which doesn't fit the tune of the song, but it's great!

Cheap stuff - at 7300 cedis to the AUD, it's a lot of fun buying each other presents of food and generally having a lot of money!

The bad

The A.M.A. - Accra Metropolitan Authority - these are the people who control a lot of things in Accra - the parking, the newstands, the markets, the taxis, etc. The other day Kevin and I were at the market and we saw an AMA guy walk up to a woman and take the mangoes from her head that she was selling. She tried to get them back from him, so he tipped them all over the muddy ground, before whipping out a cane and lashing her. I saw another AMA guy run up with his cane held high and I turned away with tears in my eyes. I told my host family about it and they said those people the AMA target don't pay their taxes. I said that's no reason to cane them, and they said they're being stubborn so they deserve it. Sure thing.

Lack of utilities - the power cutting off for 12 hours every 2 days isn't cool for so many reasons, and having water that doesn't always run is even worse for hygiene reasons...

Pollution - if this gives you any indication of how bad it is, Amanda works in the children's ward at the hospital here and she said the top 3 things children come in with are malaria, typhoid and respiratory problems, caused by the pollution. You have to be careful of when you choose to have a huge yawn because you might be gulping in some fresh black smoke from the back of that truck in front of you..

Beggars from Niger - I feel sorry for these little kids, but you seriously can't give everyone money everytime you get asked. The little ones from Niger silently put their hand to their mouth and then some go so far as to grab your hand/elbow/skirt or even hug you as you walk along. It breaks my heart.

Rubbish - it costs money to get your rubbish picked up by the authorities, which many people here can't afford. Rubbish lines the streets, and is found in piles everywhere being burnt. The other day Amanda went with her hosts to the place they go to dump their rubbish. They walked for about 2km, and when they got there the big bin was full. They turned around and dumped it straight into a river.

Rain - I love rain usually, but here it makes time stop. Half the trotros and taxis stop operating, the stations and roads turn to mud, the power usually cuts off, people don't come to work, clothes on the line get saturated, and, if you're unlucky enough to leave your windows open like I did the other week, entire rooms get soaked.

Hissing/kissing - I'm sort of used to people hissing and kissing at me to get my attention but it still pisses me off, especially if I'm having a bad Ghana day.

Hawkers - I don't know how many times you have to say no to the people selling shit, but it's hard to get away from them sometimes..

Water sachets - at first I loved the water sachets like crazy. Now, it seems that every one tastes different, which has concerned us since I heard on the news that there is currently no authority that regulates the water sachet industry - meaning possible health issues. They are also a major contributor to the rubbish in the streets.

Being constantly dirty - this is self-explanatory, but basically I sweat as soon as I turn off my fan in the morning after my shower and I don't stop getting covered in sweat and dirt until my shower the next morning.

Unmetered taxis - you have to bargain with each taxi driver before you get in the taxi. They often tell us prices that are way higher than they should be, just because we're obronis. Also, if there's traffic or it has been raining, the prices go up dramatically. The only times I've taken taxis here is when I've been sick and needed to get home ASAP, and bargaining at that time is ultra frustrating.

Open sewers - the smell, the rubbish, the fact that you could trip over them/fall into the disgusting water, just like our friend Mac did the other week. There's not much goodness about open sewers.

Urination - the other day, I saw a guy urinating on the balcony of the 2nd storey of a building. It's just gross.

Ghana time - as an example, we had arranged for a micro-finance company to come and do loan applications with our patients at the clinic. They were to come at 10am sharp. They turned up at 12:45pm.

The menu - see this in more detail below.

The menu

Ingredients

Fish (fried, smoked)
Chicken (fried)
Beef
Pork
Plantain (roasted, fried, boiled) – sort of weird banana
Cassava – sort of like…yam
Yam (roasted, fried, boiled) – sort of like potato
Corn maize
Red palm oil
Groundnuts – like peanuts
Okro – some type of green vegetable, which is sticky
Egg (boiled, fried)
Rice
Beans
Gari – powder which is mixed with hot water to create mush
Bread (tea, wheat, sugar, corn, butter)

The menu

Fufu with light soup – fufu = ground up plantain and cassava, served in a ball in soup Fufu with groundnut soup
Banku with okro stew – banku = cooked corn maize, served in a ball in soup
Banku with okro soup
Chicken stew with rice
Beef and egg stew with rice
Fish stew with rice
Stew with gari
Jollof rice with chicken/fish – jollof rice is chicken with spicy sauce mixed through it
Plain rice with chicken/fish
Fried rice with chicken/fish
Wakye - beans with rice
Omo tuo – rice balls in soup, only served on Sundays
Kenke with stew – kenke = banku, wrapped in leaves and re-boiled so it's hard
Plantain with groundnuts
Yam with pepper – pepper = red sauce made from smoked shrimps, chilli peppers and spices
Yam with stew
Bread with margarine

This is honestly it. I swear. I spend so much money on obroni food and fruit just because all my food makes me feel like I'm full of carbs, starch and oil. I don't know how Ghanaians survive.

Hope you're still awake after that one! So now I'm headed to Togo and Benin, and then to the north of Ghana to see mud mosques, elephants and hippos! Not sure how much I'll be blogging in the next 2 weeks, but you can be sure that once I'm home I'll finish all my blogging business, including photos, and I'll put all my photos on Picasa web and send out the link to everyone. All my love.

The door of our tro fell off while we were going along
Lapaz station after a rain
Champs! The whole roof is covered in flags and guernseys
Me with a Fanmilk guy
Smoothy's is even on 3rd Lane! How lucky am I?
The gang, chillin on the wicker chairs with smoothies
Fruit stand in Osu
Koala
MaxMart is also attached to the Chicken/Pizza Inn - handy for getting a small dessert after 2-4-1 pizza on Tuesday!
A chop bar we ate breakfast at one time
I came home one night and this group of kids were in the area running around screaming. One of them came up and touched me and ran off so I chased them
Buckets in our hotel bathroom, ready for bathing and cleaning the toilet since there was no running water
...
...
One of the cutest sights Aman and I saw in Ghana one day in the rain
Our water sachet remains after filling our water bottles on one of our trips
Small schoolgirl jumping a drain
If a wall doesn't say 'do not urinate here', it's probably being urinated on right now
You thought I was lying about the menu didn't you?
Smoked fish. This stuff I couldn't handle
The girls making fufu
Banku and soup
Fried plantain and nuts

The Ghanaian remote control

2007-04-03T18:37:00.000+09:30

This title is about the family situations that I’ve been exposed to lately. The other day, Gladys was sitting on the couch watching TV with Nadia. When it cut to an ad break, the volume went incredibly loud so Gladys called out something in Ga to Sarah. Sarah runs in from the kitchen 3 rooms away, goes to the TV, turns it down, grabs the remote control, hands it to Gladys and goes back to whatever she was doing in the kitchen. Another example is from Kevin’s household. His host mum, aptly called ‘Big Mama’, was sitting in the living room. Her mobile started ringing on the opposite side of the table in front of her. She called out something to her niece, Annie, in Twi. Annie runs in from the next room, picks up the phone, pushes the answer button, hands the phone to Big Mama and goes back to whatever she was doing. This sort of thing happens everywhere, so we have named it the Ghanaian remote control. Great name huh?

The Ghanaian culture sure is an interesting one. I realised the other day that every thing I see or hear, I immediately compare it in my head to home and it’s almost always the complete opposite to the norms that I’m used to. I’m particularly interested in family dynamics. I spoke to Nadia about this the other day because I needed to understand what the deal is, and this is what I got from it. Males do basically nothing in the house. Males don’t cook or clean (unless they’re cool like Tiko, who sometimes whips something up in the kitchen). In fact, she told me about her friend’s dad who seriously only bathes, eats and brushes his teeth by himself! The females of the family organise his food, carry water upstairs for him and clean his clothes. If there is a young boy in the family, he will probably clean the car every day or carry water, but that’s about all. I think I’m lucky that I’m living with Tiko, who’s lived in England before and seems pretty chilled out about putting in some work, because otherwise I’d be going crazy. Most adult men work outside of the house. Females on the other hand have it a bit worse. Young females start doing work around the house pretty early. It’s the females’ job to cook and clean. Once they become mothers however, it seems that they get their children to do a lot of the work (like in the above situations), and only few work outside of the house. I also had to ask if this meant that when Nadia gets a boyfriend, she will be cooking and cleaning for him. She said that before they get married it won’t be like that because he’ll have to be doing things to win her over, like taking her out and so on. When they get married or move in together though…

Today I went to visit the bakery group of The Almond Tree to teach them some English. I’m quite proud of myself for this because I’ve never taught people before! Kevin and I went together and there were only 2 people there today so we had one-on-one sessions with them, which was lucky. They never went to school as children, so although they know how to speak English, they’ve only been learning how to write it for the past month from the Canadian volunteers. The guy I worked with was up to the letter H, so I got him up to M, which was very exciting. It’s really frustrating work. We were teaching them how to write the letters, how to say them and also how to sound them out. The letter ‘I’ was a killer. We sounded it out about 15 times, saying just the letter I, then saying ‘singing’, ‘Ibrahim’, ‘itchy’, etc to put it in context. I asked him to just say it one last time and he sounded out the letter ‘L’. Why?

A day in the life of an obroni

2007-04-02T02:33:00.000+09:30

This is another random blog entry with no real focus. Nothing major has happened, but there’s so much to say!

Some cool stuff has been happening at work for me lately. I was put in charge of the open house we held on the 22nd and it actually went quite well! The girl who has initially started organising it left for Togo a week before the day, so I was basically in charge of pulling it all together and making sure it ran smoothly – a bit difficult to do in Ghana. For starters, everything was late. One of the groups that was to perform was late by an hour, as was the food, setting up the projector and the PA system. Luckily, this is the norm in Ghana so I wasn’t blasted for it. I was blasted for everything else though – why aren’t these photos in the slideshow? where are the guests? (you mean the ones that were only sent invitations 2 days ago??) etc etc.. The actual event ran quite smoothly compared to the normal Ghana things, and at the end my boss shook my hand and said I’d done a good job. Score! After the formalities and stress were over I chilled out in the office for awhile, venting my frustrations to Kevin, before we headed back outside to find everyone dancing! A guy had put music over the PA and everyone in the compound was dancing, including random people who’d heard the music while walking past. So good.

Also, I’ve found work to do for my final 2 weeks at WAAF (after a month and a half of sitting around..) The foundation has a group of 15 HIV positive people who make up a team called The Almond Tree. They’ve been trained by 3 Canadian volunteers over the past 4 months or so in skills needed to start their own businesses and become independent. They’ve been split into groups and each group has been trained in a different skill – bead-making, bread-making, and tye-and-die, batik and sewing. 5 of them even want to head off on their own and start individual businesses – selling slippers (thongs/flip-flops), selling Togolese and Beninese fabrics, operating a chicken coop (called God's Grace), sewing clothes made to order, and owning a provisions store (called Psalm 1:24 just like everything else here haha). Even in the short time that I’ve been around they have made some amazing improvements, and it’s great seeing their optimism! One of them just turned 70 so we had a party for him with a cake we’d made and everything! (yes I made a cake, one of the many things I didn’t see myself doing in Africa…)

Anyway, the point of my story is that 2 of the volunteers have come to the end of their time here so they’ve headed home, and the other one is travelling with her mum for the next 2 weeks, leaving The Almond Tree group to handle everything by themselves. In that 2 weeks, they will be applying for business loans, setting up their businesses and also starting to sell the products that they’ve already made. It’s a really exciting and scary time for them all, especially considering some of them have never worked, some don’t know English incredibly well, not to mention that all of them have HIV and fall sick occasionally. SO Kevin and I will be taking over the role of the other volunteers – guiding the group in their decisions, teaching them computer skills (starting from how to click a mouse) and helping them fill out their application forms. It’s going to be an amazing couple of weeks :)

I made dinner for my family and they actually really liked it! I made an old family favourite, tuna risotto, because it contained boiled egg, rice and tuna and I figured it might be a hit. Gladys asked me for the recipe so I’ll give it to her as my parting gift, and Sarah is still walking around saying ‘tuna risotto’, which I find incredibly amusing.

I headed to the market yesterday with Amanda, the girl who came to Kokrobite with us last week. It was quite the experience! We got it all over in one day, shopping from 10 til 5:30ish and covering the Kaneshie Market, Makola Market and Art’s Centre. I spent 600000 cedis in all (about $80) and I bought incredible amounts of stuff, mainly gifts. I had decided I’m getting a dress made while I’m here so I bought 2 yards of material, which is very exciting! Kaneshie was okay – it’s all in one building, but it’s mainly foods, fabrics and provisions. That’s where I bought my material. Makola was a bit crazier – it’s a massive, sprawling market that’s spread over blocks and blocks, and the only thing to do is keep walking down alleys and streets trying to look at stuff but not really turning in their direction so as to avoid being lunged upon by sellers. I think the funniest thing about that place was the guys walking around with one skirt or pair of pants. They walk up to you and hold the pair of pants against you while you’re walking and say crap like ‘ohh lady this look nice, you buy, you buy’, meanwhile the pants are a size 6 or something ridiculous that would not fit in a million years. We ended up just saying ‘are you crazy?’ to the guys, which was funny. When we sat down to have lunch after a couple of hours of the craziness, we could hardly talk to each other because we were so flustered and frustrated. Even while we were eating lunch we had people coming up trying to sell us graters, sunglasses, toothpaste, drinking glasses…

The Art’s Centre was the most insane 2 hours or our lives. It’s a compound with a whole bunch of stores in it filled with arty stuff – carvings, masks, drums, clothes, jewellery, paintings. Walk inside the compound and there are 3 guys waiting to take you to their store first. We walked in the main area, which had lots of little stalls in it and got SURROUNDED by people – ‘lady, lady, you come, I have earrings you like, name your price’ I’ll give an example of purchasing from these people. Say I wanted to buy a really cool carving. I say ‘how much?’ ‘200000’ ‘ohhh too much, too much! It’s not worth 200!’ ‘how much would you pay? What’s your price?’ ‘I was only looking to pay 60000’ ‘ohh this is worth much more than that! You pay 150000’ ‘no I would only pay 60. oh well, thanks anyway’ walk off… ‘lady, lady, how much you pay?’ ‘I said I would only pay 60000!’ ‘too little! You pay 100000’ ‘no really I would only pay 60’ walk off again and then hear from the background ‘okay you pay, you pay’ meaning I can pay the price I said. Lee shoots, and she scores! At the end of that 2 hours, we had given up with polite and had just started yelling at people to leave us alone. I can’t even properly portray how insane this was…

The Almond Tree showroom. It was finally completed in the week of the open day, and it holds some of the jewellery and clothing that the group has made
Me in the office after the open day
Two of our patients setting up to do batik
Kevin with the cake mix, looking his usual excited self
Me and the three we were teaching English to - Meri, Idrissu and Janet. We took a normal photo and then Kevin said for us to do a silly one. I held out my peace sign, but the others didn't really know what was going on so they held out their hands too, Idrissu holding out the pen he was holding. Cute
Kaneshie Market
Me and Aman
This lady wanted me to take a photo of her and when I pointed the camera, she opened her mouth!
Amanda in the Art's Centre, looking pissed off, trying to bargain down the price of some batik tapestries

Bojo, Bojo, Bojo...

2007-03-26T19:40:00.000+09:30

We had possibly the most relaxing weekend in history. Early on Saturday morning, I met with Kevin, Amanda (a new American chick in the same home-stay as Kevin) and Joanne (a Canadian chick Kevin and I work with at WAAF) to head to Bojo. Bojo Beach Resort seems to be the most awesome place in Ghana that is not listed in a guide book. Joanne heard about it through the grapevine, and, as this is her last weekend in Ghana, she decided we should all get there and relax!

Sidenote: walking through the market to the trotro station was amazing, and possibly slightly scary. As in all markets, everyone was hissing at us to buy their goods, there was a man with the loudest speakers possible shouting about Jesus, and finally there were many interesting treats for a bed-time snack, including pig’s feet and ears and dried fish, sitting on tables in the open air. Mmmm.

At Bojo, we were taken by canoe across to an island covered with white sand and shady huts. It stretched on for ages, so we had peace and quiet even once more people turned up. We sat on chairs under a shady umbrella, and we also hired beds so we could lay in the sun. The place is simply amazing. You’re sitting on this beautiful beach, watching boats and people go by, and you get food and drinks brought to you on the sand. It was fantastic. There was even a good mix of Ghanaians and tourists, so it wasn’t a major tourist trap. The riptides in the ocean all along the coast of Ghana are incredibly strong. I’ve never felt anything like that before, and I can now understand why my host dad always begs me not to go in the ocean.

After 4 hours of relaxing, drinking, eating and burning, Kevin, Amanda and I headed on to Kokrobite, while Joanne headed back to Accra. At Kokrobite, we stayed at a cool hotel for too much money. At least we got a personal bathroom! We had wanted to stay at Big Milly’s Backyard, possibly the coolest backpacker’s place in Ghana, but the only option they had for us was sleeping in the open loft under a mosquito net. After we had settled into our room at the other place, we headed to Milly’s for drinks and dinner. We ordered our food at 5:50 and got it at about 8. This is usually the case, unfortunately! I think our favourite thing about Big Milly’s was the food. For dinner I ate a vegetable curry with rice and salad, and for breakfast the next morning I ate banana pancake, cinnamon toast, a cheese and tomato omelette, tea and FRESH pineapple juice. I’m sure you’re all reading that thinking, yeah it sounds good but so what, but all 3 of us were in absolute heaven. Since I arrived in Ghana, every morning’s breakfast has been bread, egg, tea and water, so you can imagine that a bit of excitement goes a long way!

Since we were in Kokrobite on a Saturday night, Big Milly’s had a live reggae band. They were really good, and it’s always awesome watching Ghanaians dancing! We sat in some chairs near the bar, drinking some cheap booze, bitching about the white girl flaunting herself in her short dress to all the Ghanaians, listening to groovy music and doing some people-watching. It was a very pleasant night for all involved.

Me, Joanne, Kevin - the strip of white sand right at the back in the Bojo Beach Resort
Rather a romantic picture
Joanne, Amanda, Kevin
Reeling in the catch
Us in our hotel, Kokrobite. We had 3 beds side-by-side!
Fresh PJ
Hilarious warning near the beach
And then we remembered we were in Ghana..

We're off to see Hohoe, and the wonderful Wli Falls!

2007-03-26T19:02:00.000+09:30

Sorry it’s been so long since my last entry… Things to do, people to see, you know?

A weekend or two ago I headed to Hohoe (pronounced ho-ho-we) with my new American volunteer friend, Kevin. I was on my way to the bus station to head off by myself and I got a call from him asking me to buy him a ticket! I was pretty stoked to have some company. The station we left from was a tiny one behind a market, one which noone seemed to know existed. I had gone there before to buy my ticket, but on the day of departure, my trotro dropped me in a different area so I got slightly lost. One problem with asking a Ghanaian for directions is that they will give you an answer even if they don’t know! It had rained the day before so the whole place was a pile of mud and grey slush, which, as you can imagine is a bunch of fun walking through in thongs and shorts! I was covered. Before I reached the station I needed to be at, I had already walked through the market 3 times, walked through 2 trotro stations, and even been taken by a lady to the main bus station in Accra – 20mins away by trotro! I’m sure you can feel the frustration I was feeling at the time!

Once I finally found the station and met up with Kevin, I was much happier. He had had a hard time finding the place too, so we vented our frustrations before buying some bananas and relaxing. The bus was only an hour late and then we were on our way to Hohoe! The bus ride was interesting, between everyone screaming at the driver to stop so they could pee on the side of the road and the bus suddenly braking and swerving just as we had dozed off. We met 2 Danish girls on the bus who wanted to stay at the same place we did, so we ended up sharing a taxi and eating dinner with them. They had some crazy stories about traveling through Africa!

The next morning, we headed off early for the Wli Falls, the main attraction near Hohoe. It’s a pleasant 45 minute walk through a forest, and then in front of you are the magnificent waterfalls! They certainly were majestic. There are a huge number of bats that live there so the sound of the place was a wonderful mix of rushing water, bats squeaking and forest noises. We were there so early that we had the whole place to ourselves for a good hour. It was lovely and relaxing. We were even happier about it when we walked back to base and passed about 2 busloads of tourists that we missed!

On the trotro ride back to Accra, we sat next to one of ‘our people’, a guy from Wales. We had some heated political discussions which made the ride much faster! Overall, a fantastic weekend was had by all.

Me and Kevin on the bus to Hohoe, looking excited
Street sellers trying to sell us bread on our way there
The road from Hohoe to the Wli Falls
Kevin looking slightly less excited, squished into the share taxi with 2 other people in the back
The majestic falls
Women and children washing in the river in the forest
Good picture

Ghana is 50? No way!

2007-03-08T21:18:00.000+10:30

So once you get over the smell of open drains and burning rubbish, the sight of people spitting and urinating everywhere, and the sound of people hissing at you to get your attention, you’ll find that Ghana is a great place to be! First I wanted to say, girls, if you are after a bit of eye-candy, come to Ghana! The men here seem to be sculpted perfectly, and it helps their bodies that everyone does manual labour here : )

I went on a weekend trip to Cape Coast, the small beach-side village that was once the port for slave-trading. Slaves from all over Ghana and some parts of Burkina Faso were transported to the castle that I visited. Once they were there, they were inspected by the officials to determine where they would go and what they would be doing – construction in the UK, working tobacco or sugar cane plantations in Central America, etc. If they were lucky/unlucky (depending how you look at it), there would be a ship ready at the port that would take them to their new land straight away. If not, they were shoved into the dungeons with the hundreds of other slaves to wait for a ship, maybe for a week, maybe 2 months. During this time, they were given food and water, but weren’t given the facilities to bathe or go to the toilet. They did their business in a small bucket in the corner of the packed dungeon, to be cleaned the next day. If the bucket was full, then anywhere in the dungeon would have to do. Noone bathed in the entire time they were held there, so you can imagine the spread of disease, and the number of deaths. People that died were just thrown into the ocean… I can never believe that our world has such a terrible history. Thankfully we’ve grown and adapted to become more mature and humane in the way we treat other humans and our Earth. Hang on a second………..

While I was out there, I also visited Kakum National Park. The place is pretty amazing. They have a 350m long canopy walkway that’s strung between the trees 30m above the ground. I thought I’d be petrified but it was just a lot of fun! It’s only wide enough for your feet to stand side-by-side, and people walk across one-by-one to avoid too much swaying and swinging. The guide also assured us that the walkway could hold the weight of 2 elephants, but I’m not so sure about that. Every now and then I would step too far to the right or left and it felt like the whole thing would flip over! I met 3 guys from The Netherlands who were hilarious. They looked after me for the day and protected me from the loud group of 40 or so Americans who were on the guided tour with us. :p

I took a trotro to a tiny fishing village called Elmina, which was beautiful. Lonely Planet guidebooks seem to get their descriptions perfectly right every time! Some Australians must have been there before, because when people found out I was Australian they all said ‘G’day mate!’ It was so funny hearing all these Ghanaians saying it, and they were saying it wrong, and they didn’t know what it meant, which made it all the more hilarious! By the time I got there I was so tired after walking through Kakum for a few hours so I didn’t visit any of the sites.

While I was in the Cape Coast area, I ate a the Castle Beach Restaurant 3 times because it was so incredibly good! The place overlooks the ocean and it’s all open so there’s a fantastic breeze. They serve amazing food – banana smoothies, banana pancakes, fried chicken with rice, ‘Chicken in hawii’ which was a wrongly spelled dish sort of like a chicken stirfry with pineapple in it and rice. One sort of worrying thing was that there was a litter of kittens running around your feet! They were incredibly adorable, but I’m sure totally unhygienic.

March 6 was Ghana’s 50th Independence Day. It was THE day I have been hearing about for weeks - on the radio, on the TV, on the streets. I had such a big Ghanaian day – watching the official ceremony on TV in the morning, eating banku, hanging out with the family all day, then heading to Oxford Street in Osu with Nadia for the crazy street party! There were so many people there. They’d blocked off the street with a big stage, and the DJs were playing hiplife and hip hop all night. They did play My Love by Jussy T so I was happy. Ghanaians sure can dance! Tiko was chilling out at his friend’s place which was right near the street party, so Nadia and I kept going there throughout the night. They kept giving us food, chocolates, vodka, Malibu and peach schnapps, so we had a pretty good night overall!

Some other things I have to tell you…

The goods that guys sell are even more funny than what the women sell! Guys carry around camera cases, lamps, phone chargers, Ghanaian flags, belts, toilet paper… Why would you just happen to need a lamp while you’re driving? This morning though I saw a woman selling bottles of hydrogen peroxide!! What the..?

The way that you get anyone’s attention is by hissing at them. You can’t imagine how rude it feels hissing at a waiter to get them to serve you, but everyone does it!
Imagine this: you’re walking along the road, minding your own business when you hear ‘hello..hello..how are you?...please, what’s your name?’ You look around and there’s some random guy following you. This happens about a million times each day. If you actually stop and talk to them and ask what they want it’s usually just to talk/get your number so they can call you when they get to Australia. Every day I get a variety of ‘ssssssss’, ‘obroni! Come come!’, and ‘hello…hello…’ I’ve figured out that the word for ‘black man’ is obibini so from now on anyone that says ‘obroni!’ is gonna get ‘obibini!’ right back at them! Ha! Take that!

The view from the castle in Cape Coast
Outside the 'door of no return' was this crazy colourful fishing scene
The cool little hut I stayed in
Hanging on for dear life
Looking awesome
Drinkin coconut milk. From a coconut. In Ghana.
Elmina and its cool boats
A sunglasses seller. They'll just stand there hissing at you until you physically say 'no' or shake your head. Ignoring them just won't do

Some observations

2007-03-01T20:58:00.000+10:30

I'm always forgetting to include things on my blog, so here's a list of the things I keep forgetting:

You can buy anything you want from the top of a woman or child's head - boiled eggs, handkerchiefs, pineapples, peeled oranges, kebabs, popcorn, sachet water, PK, Mentos, plantain chips, frozen (or not so frozen) milk! Most women carry everything in this way. I even saw one walking along with a gas bottle on her head!

Some trotros play music, while others don't. I like the ones that do! Usually it's just the radio, which means fuzzy reggae or hiplife, but sometimes they'll be playing their own tapes. One was playing Justin Timberlake and Beyonce!! Ahhh...

There hasn't been enough rain here lately, which means the dam hasn't got enough water going through it. Ghana powers not only its own country, but also its neighbouring countries, which means that sometimes we have to make sacrifices - every 5 days the electricity will go off from 6pm til 6am the next morning to save electricity. Man it's hot trying to sleep on those days! Sarah says that the other countries always have electricity, so she finds it really annoying that we have to give it up. Last night it was off so I went to bed at about 7, bored. It's almost Ghana's 50th anniversary of independence, so now it won't go off until the 14th March. So good!

Every morning, Tiko washes his car at about 5am! Everyone wakes up early here. It's also really dirty, which is why everyone's always washing their cars. I get woken at about 5:40 every morning by the family giving their morning devotion. It's about 5 minutes of singing then praying. One morning I had just started brushing my teeth in the basin in the hallway, when they started doing it! I had to stand there for the whole thing and I felt terrible haha.

There's an awesome place in Osu called Smoothy's which makes amazing smoothies!!! I've been there twice now. They cost 25000cedis (about $3.40), they're made with soya milk and you can choose any wacky combo of fruits and juices that you want - my personal favourite is peach, banana and mixed berry! You can also choose whack things like peanut butter, avocado or coconut, but I'm not sure. Maybe next time.

Ghana is changing its currency in July so that 10000cedis will now become 1cedi. I think it would make more sense to change 1000cedis to 1, because there are SO many things that are worth less than 10000, but that's the way it goes. I think it will make lots of the prices rise as well. The smallest coin they will have will be 5pesewes (currently 500 cedis), and water currently costs only 300cedis!!

Anyway, my point about the changing currency was that there's this HILARIOUS ad on tv about it! There's this wicked song all about the change of currency, explaining the changes and giving examples and it says 'there is no change in value, the value is the saaaaaaame!' Every time I hear it I crack up laughing. It has school children singing, women and men in traditional West African dress dancing, and it's great!

If I remember anything else, I'll let you know :)

A woman selling pegs at Kaneshie Market
This woman is carrying her suitcase on her head, and in her left hand is a live chicken that was still squarking as she walked along!
My family on a lights out night. The generator wouldn't work for some reason so everyone was trying to fix it in candlelight
Inside a trotro - down the bottom is one of the seats that fold down. These seats trap everyone in, meaning that when someone wants to get out, everyone plays musical chairs and shuffles around.

Don't worry, God is in control!

2007-02-26T22:13:00.001+10:30

Now there’s a comforting thought.. That was just one among many, many signs and stickers with a reference to god that I’ve seen on the trotros and taxis, even in the names of stores! Some others include ‘With God All Things Are Possible’, ‘With God’s Grace Fashion’, ‘Allah is Great’, ‘The Lord Is My Shepherd Chop Bar’ (a chop bar is just a small food place that sells local food), ‘Glory Oil’, all the way up to ‘Repent Enterprises’!

I went to church yesterday for the first time in my life, and I don’t think I’ll be going back in a hurry. Yes, Paul, it was exactly like you thought it might be – the crying, sobbing, shaking, dancing, praying, “PRAISE THE LORD!!!”ing! The sermon was actually really funny, because I went to the youth service, but for the most part I felt like I was mocking them just by being there. The first song they sang had words like ‘I love you, I am desperate for you, I pray that you will control my path today’ – some sentiments I don’t think I’ll be able to share. A lot of the talk was about repenting the sins you have committed against God today so that he can forgive. Two things I’ve never understood about religion – one, why does God need people to pray/thank him everyday, and two, why do people need to give money to the church just for being there? Nadia gave me 5000cedis (about 75cents) to drop into the offering basket. That was fun…

On Saturday night, the family took me to a wedding party. I’m not quite sure what part of the wedding it was, because it was a Ghanaian man marrying a black American woman so it was a sort of jumble of cultures. The man asked the woman to marry him, but she didn’t ask him. He gave her a ring, but she didn’t give him one. When they kissed at the end, everyone cracked up laughing! I had no idea why, but then Nadia told me that Ghanaians do NOT kiss in public. Everyone was laughing throughout the whole night, because of the differences to their usual wedding party. They had a guy (the minister or pastor?) praying that the marriage would be strong enough in God’s eyes to not allow the devil to harm them or their relationship. He kept saying that the devil is everywhere! I’m getting scared of this devil-man… I think he finished every sentence with ‘praise the lord’, to which everyone would say ‘amen’, or ‘amen’, to which everyone would say ‘hallelujah’. Please allow me to apologise if I’m seeming offensive to all the God-lovers out there, but I just haven’t been exposed to such strong religion before! Other than all the godliness, I had a lot of fun - Tiko kept getting me these Gordon’s Spark drinks, which are gin with fruit flavour, and one woman even made me get up and shake my booty!

Now, onto my obroni (white person) life! On Thursday night, a Lithuanian girl called Dalia that I’ve been emailing for months came and picked me up from work to take me out. She took me straight to “Oxford” Street in Osu (the quotation marks because it’s not actually called Oxford Street, but everyone calls it that because it’s possibly the busiest street in Accra and it’s where all the obronis hang out – just like in London). We went to a place called Koala Market (coincidence?), which she says is one of only 2 normal places to shop. We walked inside and I felt myself go ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh – it’s like a normal supermarket!! I saw cake mix, detergent, Red Bull, icecream, fruit and it was all just like home!! So relaxing. After this, and a walk to Independence Square, she took me to Champs Sports Bar at the Paloma Hotel. This place is made especially for obronis. On Thursday nights they hold a quiz night there. They even have half-price margheritas, making them 20000cedis, or about $2.80! Next week I’m bringing a lot of money with me. I met about 14 other trainees who are also here through AIESEC – Romania, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Norway, Mexico! I had such a lot of fun, and we even came 3rd in the quiz! We won 100000cedis to put towards our next bill.

I’ve made myself a bit of an itinerary now, so I’ll be doing a trip every weekend until I get home. That way I can keep you and myself interested!

xx

As an example..
The house-warming party from last week - see the homeowners on the far left and far right.
Nadia (front) and Sarah in the car
The usual scene - piles of coconuts, women with goods on their heads
Me washing for the first time, and lacking the skills

Akwaaba! Welcome to Ghana!

2007-02-21T02:04:00.000+10:30

I’ve finally arrived in Ghana! The land where goats, chickens and dogs roam free, women wear loads on their heads and babies on their backs, and Lee sweats!

There was a crazy man on my flight who was running up and down the aisles screaming that the flight attendants thought he was stealing something because he was black. It wasn’t the most settling welcome into a new country! When I arrived though, 2 girls – Nadia and Beryl - met me at the airport with my name on a sign. I was so glad to see two happy faces! The poor girls had to stand out in the heat with a taxi waiting for 2 hours because my flight was late..

Nadia is the girl who’s family I am staying with – her dad, Tiko, her mum, Gladys and her cousin, Sarah. I’m living in a 2-storey house, which is beautiful! On the first night that I was there, the electricity wasn’t working and there was no running water. It was interesting using candles so I could brush my teeth and whatnot. Every morning I have washed myself with 2 buckets, cleaned my teeth with bottled water and eaten breakfast with my hands. Breakfast for me is always tea made with canned evaporated milk, lots of bread with the margarine that the family bought especially for me, and sometimes eggs. Nadia stays at her uni campus from Monday to Friday so I will be mainly staying with her family.

There are two ways to drink water here – bottled water, or water sachets. The sachets are awesome. They are little plastic bags of water that hold 500mL and cost only 300cedis (about 4cents!). You tear off a corner with your teeth and suck the water out. I’m getting used to the local food too – fufu, banku, okro soup and fried plantain with nuts. I get the feeling that I won’t be eating many vegetables while I’m here! Fufu is like a big pile of mush made from crushed fried plantain and cassava (sort of like weird banana and potato), and it is served in okro soup, which I’ve eaten with pig’s feet and fish with the bones still in it. Using your hands, you pull off a piece of the fufu, dip it in the soup and eat it. You only use your right hand because the left is used for private duties. It’s pretty spicy, but my family has started making it less spicy for me because they know I’m soft J Tiko also says that he’s going to buy some pineapple, banana and orange for me!

The local form of transport is the trotro. A trotro is like a minibus that has been decked out to hold about 24 people. Each one has a driver and a ‘mate’ who operates the door and collects the money. The mate will call out the direction in which they are going so that they can pick up more passengers. If someone wants to get on or off, he will bang on the door to let the driver know to stop. If you want to get off while you’re in it, you just call out ‘mate! I will alight here’, and he lets you out! And it’s cheap too! It only costs me about 10000cedis, or $1.30, to travel the hour and 40mins to work using 4 different trotros. Easy.

The family that I’m staying with is being lovely to me. They speak in Ga, so I can’t understand them most of the time, but if they share a joke, or if they’re talking about me, which they usually do, one of them will translate it for me. They’ve already had to pay a carpenter to put up my mosquito net (to which Tiko said ‘now no more malaria!’), they’ve paid an electrician to fix the light in my room (to which Tiko said ‘now Lee has a light too!’), they’ve bought margarine and orange nectar especially for me and they open a new can of evaporated milk for me every morning!

On Saturday night they took me to a house-warming party of one of Tiko’s friends, which was absolutely amazing. The owners of the house wore amazing traditional West African dress, and the guests danced around them with their handkerchiefs waving about in respect. A guy made a speech at the party in Ga, which I couldn’t understand, but all of a sudden everyone was looking at me and laughing, while a guy shoved a camera in my face! I didn’t know what was going on until Nadia explained that he’d just said it must be difficult for the only white girl in our midst!

I’m currently at my second day of work, but I still haven’t done anything but sit on the computer and try to upload this silly blog. I’m supposed to have talked to the CEO to figure out a work plan...but maybe later J

xx

The welcome sign at the airport
My room for the next 2 months
Me eating banku and obviously not enjoying it..
The road at the back of the house

A lot to Du, and a lot to Bai...worst joke ever?

2007-02-19T03:48:00.000+10:30

And a lot to see if you really like looking at construction sites! Looking back through my photos I can see a lot of awesome stuff about Dubai, but while I was there, construction is all I felt like I was seeing..

I went on a desert safari!! I was in a 4WD with an English-Pakistani family and a Japanese couple on their honeymoon. On our way to the camp we were headed to, we drove at about 160kph along a straight road. The driver said 'it's okay, there are no cameras on this road.' Okay for HIM maybe! We went sand-duning - driving over sand dunes really fast. It was so much fun, but my palms were sweating at the same time. At one point, the driver over-steered and we went over the edge of a dune. When he went to correct it, we went WAY over the other side and ended up sliding down sideways! So scary. The scariness wasn't helped by the driver laughing nervously and all the other people driving past with looks on their faces like 'OH MY GOD should we be helping them?' At that point though, the mother of the family started complaining that her husband has a heart complaint and we couldn't do that again. After that we watched all the other people having fun skidding all over the place, while we drove over the easy parts. At the time I was thankful because my heart was still thumping, but now I wish I'd been in another car!

The next day, I went on the Big Bus Tour! It was a good way to get around the city and see the beaches. I met an English couple and an Australian woman on my journey. I saw two awesome souqs (markets), the Burj Al Arab (that amazing "7-star" hotel shaped like a sail) and Jumeriah beach! On the tour I also found out some cool stuff, like that the government pays for all of the people's water bills and half of their electricity, construction goes on in Dubai 24 hours a day across 2 shifts (unlucky for the people working!), and 2/3 of the world's cranes are currently in Dubai! In the near future they are building a 5-star hotel with 6500 rooms. Is that even possible? I think the biggest there currently has about 1000.. It will of course be the tallest, biggest and best hotel in the world.

Unfortunately this computer won't let me upload any pictures so you'll have to wait..

xx

Dubai it is

2007-02-14T18:41:00.000+10:30

So I've arrived in Dubai and survived my first day! I think that the population here is made up of Indians, Arabics and Russians. I haven't met any tourists here, probably because all of the ones staying at my hotel are Russian or Asian and we can't understand each other..

I'm staying in Deira, which I think is like the down-town part of Dubai. At first I was a bit apprehensive because I was expecting the sky-scrapers and mosques that I've always seen in photos, but this morning I'm loving it! All of the men (not many women here!!!) are so nice, even if they are trying to make me look at their Louis Vuitton handbags. Yesterday I walked to the Gold Souq, which is basically just a lot of jewellery shops. There were a few more tourists there, but not too many. I didn't do a whole lot more yesterday because I was just really feeling lonely and probably tired. I ate KFC for lunch and then had a 4 hour nap in the hotel! After my long nap, which made me miss the free shuttle from the hotel to Jumeirah for shopping, I walked across to the Hyatt hotel to see their ice-skating rink. It was pretty cool, and by that I mean cold! I ate dinner at my hotel's restaurant, which is a Russian restaurant that also makes Indian and Arabic food. My food of choice was Lulya Kebab (lamb kebab), which was served like in the picture with a big clump of shredded red onion in the middle. I thought kebabs were on skewers? It was the tastiest kebab ever though! And I got to eat New Zealand butter on my roll, and even peach iced tea out of a wine glass! So good..

Mm so I've broken the TV in my room already.. They gave me a hairdryer with a European style plug, but all the sockets in my room are British style. The TV has a Euro style plug also, so I pulled it out of it's socket. Turns out though that someone had shoved it into a British style socket! Now it won't go back in! No more CNN for me...

My breakfast today was the buffet at the hotel. Pretty good - weird sausages and potatoes, good pancakes and always good tea. Is there a way of having bad tea? I walked across to the fish market. That was awesome! There were so many stalls.. I didn't walk into the actual fish part, but I could sure smell it! All the men were trying to make me take photos of them, which was hilarious. I took a photo of this one guy and showed him the photo and told him it was beautiful. All the guys around him were like 'no! he's not beautiful!'. They went on about it for ages :)

At the moment I'm sitting in a little net cafe with about 9 men around me. This is what it's like everywhere - just me and hundreds of Indian and Arabic men.

Me with the whole luxurious row to myself! Ahhhh...
Tasty kebab
Deira. This is the usual scene - that thing the guy is dragging around is used to transport stuff, and they're usually seen around the place with guys just sitting on them talking. A lot of talking happens here!
A guy at the fish market, proud as punch
Just around the corner from my hotel. Note the street sign - Community 117, Street 23
Delivery, anyone?

Quick-assed update

2007-02-13T19:14:00.000+10:30

This is a mega quick one. Not much time left on the net!

Firstly, thanks to everyone who came to my party! It was such an awesome night, made possible by all of you! Not to mention how much that money is helping me out :) Thanks a million!

So I'm in Dubai! I plan to write another blog that fills in more detail, but for now just some observations.. It's so different to what I had pictured! I think I've counted about 10 women in the whole half day I've been here, which is a bit amazing. The men are really helpful, but it's still a bit uncomfortable being the only girl walking around. At least the only girl without head-to-toe clothing!

I went for a walk before and walked past 37 phone/phone accessory shops in a row, with one cafeteria to break them up! Crazy, considering I've only seen about 2 people with phones!

I'll write again soon.

It began in Afrika...

2007-02-01T11:10:00.000+10:30

So it's the 1st of Feb. That means only a short 11 days until departure! In that short 11 days, I have 4 more shifts of work, BDO, Mum's birthday, Pablo returning from NZ (yes he is!), my dinner, my birthday, then off to the airport. Not to mention packing, partying and seeing boys ;)

I am finally more excited than nervous. I think the turning point for me was when my boss was running around work, pretending he was holding a spear and making clicking and 'ooga-booga' sounds at me to 'get me ready for Ghana'. Straight after that, someone told me that there will be a lot of black people living in trees. Now I'm pumped to get over there and clear up a whole bunch of crazy assumptions that I keep hearing! Seeing the movie 'Babel' right before I leave wasn't a great idea though - the thought that I could be shot in the shoulder, not be able to find a real hospital, be stitched up with a normal sewing needle and string and have only marijuana to calm the pain, while my husband deals with a bus-load of tourists who want to leave as I lay there dying wasn't such a good thing to put in my head before I run off to Afrika alone..

My dear aunty would like me to explain what it is that I'm doing, and why I'm off to Ghana. So here it is - I'm in a student organisation called AIESEC. We're in about 100 countries around the world, and we're made up of about 20 000 like-minded students who want to make an impact on our fair world. We basically develop ourselves while we are in the organisation, building up leadership skills, creating networks of people, and attending life-changing conferences that get you in contact with the best people in the world, teach you a lot about the organisation and about yourself, and let you have LOT of fun and meaningful conversations! The role of our organisation in society is to send students on international internships, which we believe is the best way to increase tolerance among people world-wide. So this brings me to why I'm going to Ghana! For the past year, I've been the Out-Going eXchange Director for AIESEC at Adelaide Uni, meaning that I've been the one sending people overseas - we've sent people to Kenya, Malaysia, The Netherlands, China, Indonesia, and, soon, Ghana and Poland! I've reached the end of my term now and have handed the responsibility over to a lovely girl called Christina. Now it's my turn to go on my own internship. Hence, Ghana!

Now I have some UAE Dirhams and US Dollars, and have sorted out most of my shit. The only problem now is.. how the hell do I fit everything in this little thing?!

Have you ever wondered what yellow fever, typhoid, measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, dyptheria, tetanus and polio look like?

2007-01-16T07:59:00.000+10:30

Well here it is..

With less than 30 days until I leave now, I thought I should put up a post. My Ghana adventure has finally been confirmed! I'll be leaving on Monday the 12th of February (haven't bought my plane ticket yet, but it will work out), and I'll be working in the West African AIDS Foundation for 2 months. On my way there, I'm dropping into Dubai for 3 days of desert fun, and on my way home I'll drop into Melbourne for 3 days too. I plan to set aside about 2 weeks at the end of my traineeship so I can get up to Mole National Park in Ghana, and also head into Togo and Benin. Apparently Togo is so small, it can be driven across in less than 6 hours! And as if I don't want to go into Benin to experience the birth-place of voodoo! The fetish markets will be amazing, and I have my French phrase-book handy to help me along..

I still have a lot of planning to do, which, at the moment, feels as though it won't get done. I haven't even cleaned my room since Christmas, how am I supposed to organise travel insurance?!

There are so many things to look forward to between now and when I leave! I'm having a few girls from Perth and Melbourne stay with us for a couple of days, I've got Laura's 21st, Victor Harbour with Mum, Big Day Out (Oh MY GOD!!!!), Mum's birthday, Paul coming home for my birthday (!!!!!!!!), my 21st/going away, my birthday, packing, and finally leaving! For now though, I must be off..

Vaccine me up, Scotty!
Malaria tablets and other antibiotics for some nasties that I'm sure to get.. The medications I am taking with me have dramatically increased in number since this photo was taken. They're going to take up half my backpack!

Freddo

2006-09-16T09:25:00.000+09:30

I didn't want to write in here until I go away and have some cool stuff to say, but this weekend's so great that I have to document it before I forget. Yesterday it was so warm! It felt like holidays! Probably because I started my holidays yesterday!

Paul and I went to Bocca for a baguette and to Cibo for a chai. We actually got garlic bread and gelati.. We sat outside because it was so warm and Paul had his last Bocca and Cibo for awhile. It was great to just chill out with ma bro.

Then I went to uni and had an AIESEC shin-dig, which went really well! I'm so proud of my little team. When I got home, we all got ready and caught the bus into the city. Walking through Rundle Mall was awesome too for some reason! I guess I just had a good vibe about everything yesterday. My bag broke almost as soon as I stepped out of the bus. That sucked since I've had that bag for 3 years since my formal, but we had the bright idea to ask a dress shop for a safety pin. Team work to the max! Mum had the idea, I asked for the pin, Paul fixed the bag. Rock on!

We ate dinner at Amalfi Pizzeria Ristorante! It was great! Pizza kicked ass and we spent our time chatting to the waiter and trying to guess his age. Then it was time for the Exeter! We just chilled out in the beer garden. I thought it would be like most other things where you start your party somewhere but always end up going somewhere else, but we just stayed at the Ex all night! So many people rocked up, which was also awesome. It was great to see them all, especially Tab and Tim from the Exchange. Haven't actually talked to either of them in ages. It would've been good if Nick, Gabrielle, Adam and Eva could have made an appearance, but apparently they just don't care enough.. ;)

Today is the day Paul leaves me for the big NZ. We've got a couple of hours of packing and sorting, then we'll get some lunch, then we'll see him off at the airport! I'll see how I deal with that at the time.. I feel okay right now but we'll see!

Tonight is also going to be awesome! I can feel it in my waters. Sam from Melbourne is coming here and we're going to Paula's 21st together! I'm lucky I'm managing to see so many brilliant people in one weekend!

Anyway that's enough. Not sure if I'll write again til I go away. I think Paul wants me to so he can see what's going on, but I'll think about it. :)

Our itinerary

2006-08-08T11:18:00.000+09:30

So far it looks like this..

Singapore - 2nd March - night safari, temples, little India
Ho Chi Minh - 6th March - war museums
Nha Trang - 12th March - beaching, scuba diving
Hoi An - 14th March - cooking lesson, visit My Son
Hue - 17th March - pagodas, temples, dragon boat cruise
Hanoi - 20th March - old quarter
Halong Bay - 21st March - seafood lunch, relaxing with the amazing view
Hanoi - 22nd March - last dinner with the tour crew, water puppet theatre
Tokyo - 25th March - shrines and bright lights
Nikko - 1st April - hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil
Kyoto - 2nd April - temples, Golden Pavilion and cherry blossoms
Nara - 9th April - more shrines
Hiroshima - 10th April - bomb stuff, Peace Park
Osaka - 12th April (by Shinkansen!)
Mount Koya-san - 13th April - temple stay
Osaka - 14th April - baseball game, world's largest IMAX
Shanghai - 18th April (by ferry - 48 hour trip) - river cruise and Chinese food
Xi'an - 26th April - Terracotta Warriors, city walls, village ruins, pagodas
Beijing - 30th April - drink tea, watch an opera, see all that famous stuff
Abu Dhabi - 8th May - enjoying the desert sun
London - 12th May - eat sandwiches from Pret-a-Manger
Now what..? :D