Tuesday, 30 November 2010
On Reflection
Some of you may have heard that I am leaving my current job the Ghana National Association of the Deaf to take up a new role with a International Development Consultancy Firm here in Accra. From January I will be leaving VSO and 'going it alone' contracted as a consultant for PDA Associates http://www.pdaghana.com/, it was time for a change, but not time to leave Ghana, this opportunity came up at the right time so I thought I'd give it a shot, he who dares wins and all that. Anyway more on the new job to come but for now enjoy my reflections on my time working with GNAD, it was written as an article for their newsletter...much of it is true!
'On September 20th 2009 I left the UK to come and work with GNAD through VSO International. It was with a sense of great excitement and enthusiasm but also a degree of apprehension. Ghana was a new country for me, GNAD a new organization and I had nothing but a suitcase, a soild knowledge of fundraising and VERY basic British Sign Language (BSL). Ghana quickly began to feel like home, GNAD staff welcomed me in to their small team an the director, Mr Asamoah and the leaders of GNAD educated me and shared their rich knowledge of deaf issues and the history of the deaf and the development of Sign Language in Ghana. I soon realized that my limited BSL was redundant as Ghana used a Sign Language based on American Sign Language (ASL) and the resident interpreters, Mr Frimpong and Mr Pinto helped me get to grips with the basics and as I began to communicate through signing with members and staff my knowledge grew (although it is still not as good as I would like it to be!) I can hardly believe over a year has passed with GNAD and in the article I will reflect on some of the highlights and a few of the lessons learnt.
It has been a real privilege to learn about modern deaf community and what it means to be deaf from Mr Sampana and Johnson, these unique insights from such knowledgeable men will stay with me as I move on, I may not be with GNAD any longer but deaf issues will continue to stay close to my heart.
Working with the inspirational leaders of the Women’s Wing of GNAD has been perhaps the ultimate highlight for me. The President, Patricia Baffoe and Secretary Lydia Acquah have continued to motivate me as they work so hard to increase opportunities for and empower deaf women across Ghana whilst holding down demanding jobs and looking after children and homes. It was a particular privilege to work with them to establish the hairdressing training project for the 22 deaf women and to see Lydia attend 5th international Women’s Institute on Leadership and Disability (WILD), a program organized by Mobility International in the USA. My hope and prayer is that these fantastic women continue to work hard to empower and educate deaf women across Ghana.
As I reflect on the last year at GNAD I am encouraged to see that the organization has grown, the beginning of 2010 saw the appointment of new staff members who each bring new skills and energy. GNAD is also running 2 fairly large projects and has an established Youth Wing with an energetic and promising young leader Ben. I am hopeful that the future of GNAD is bright and the staff and members will work together as a team.
Perhaps the biggest lesson learnt during my time at GNAD is the incredible importance of education in the deaf’s ability to develop and realize their full potential in Ghana. It is a sad fact that many deaf children in Ghana are not identified as hearing impaired, even less are attending school and as Sign Language is not standardized and formal training programs are not in place often deaf people in one area of Ghana are unable to communicate with their peers in another area. There is only one secondary school for the deaf in Ghana, with only 30 students a year able to complete their basic education across the whole country. The teachers at the schools do not always know Sign Language and if a student makes it through the system despite all the odds they have to be able to pray for their own Sign Language Interpreter at University. I am always amazed and encouraged when I meet some of the deaf graduates in Ghana; these are truly motivated and capable people!
I see an improved education system for the deaf as vital in improving the lives for Ghana’s deaf community, of course this is not something GNAD can do on its own, it calls for joint working beween many agencies and government departments which is not an easy thing to do wherever you are in the world but it is so important.
I often think about a quote hanging above Mr Sampana’s desk, it inspires me and sums up the situation beautifully:
‘If you give me a fish you have fed me for the day. If you teach me to fish then you have fed me until the river is contaminated or shoreline seized for development. But if you teach me to organize then whatever the challenge I can join together with my peers and we can fashion our own solution’'
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
Literature
One of the great joys of being in Ghana is having the time and lack of distractions to read a vast array of different books. I am always trying to get my hands on new reading material and a good book which you have not yet read is hard to come by in this neck of the woods, there is really only one book store in the city and it is great but a novel will set you back a couple of days wages so buying a new book is a real treat. I find that in Ghana I am much less picky about what I read and find I will be happy to read most things and always aim to have something lined up to read next, the thought of not having a book on the go is quite shocking …there is only so much BBC World Service and Ghanaian newspapers a girl can stand!
The past year I have read chick lit, classics, economic studies, poetry, short stories, plays, commentaries and some fantastic African novels. I have always enjoyed reading and passionately believe in the power of story to transport us from our own reality into our imagination to actively live somewhere else for as long as we so desire to keep turning the pages. I think where I find delight in reading most is in exploring and getting to know new characters and through these people come to understand a different perspective on the world and on life’s challenges. Much of what I have read in Ghana has been African texts, partly because these books are so much cheaper than western books but also because they offer a unique perspective while I am living on this continent. Through a wealth of African writers I have come to get to grips with this continent in a new and fresh way, to learn about selling siblings into slavery, to begin to understand the struggles of Africans readjusting to life here once they have been educated overseas and likewise the challenges faced by friends and family members who have stayed in the country, I have seen the effects of colonization through the eyes of tribal leaders, the impact of the introduction of Christianity on local culture and traditions through the eyes of both western Priest and local religious leaders, the challenges of corruption through well meaning expatriates who loose themselves in the wilds of Africa….I could continue but I have come to understand how the power of a well created character, carefully crafted plot and beautiful words can comment on the complex issues which engulf and shroud this continent, but also at the same time showcase its beauty and its heart.
Every VSO I know is keen to get their hands on a new book and reading material passes from town to town and house to house, we always joke that the books in a VSO house give you a good indication as to who lived there before you. In our pad we have a real eclectic mix, I arrived to find War and Peace, and assortment of Ghost Stories, Jackie Collins and a well thumbed self help book entitled ‘Chronically Single Woman’ which has come to be known as ‘Chronically’ by my housemate Katherine and I. This rather un insightful piece of writing is always firmly shoved to the back of the bookshelf whenever houseguests come over but somehow it always manages to peek through and most people who set their eyes on this charming little pearl always seem to ask rather sheepishly is they can borrow it, male or female, single or not!!
On a rather more reflective note I wanted to share with you some literature which has really spoken to me since I have been in Ghana, whenever I am feeling a little low about the contribution I am making I always look to this poem which encourages me and spurs me on. The poem is actually written about Mozambique not Ghana and was written by a female poet who is based in Canterbury…..enjoy!
20 March 2000
A woman gives birth in a tree
and I stand naked, wondering who I am.
I’ve tiled my bathroom mermaid green
eager to create an image, present a scene
of tasteful tranquillity. Two days of labour and
a woman gives birth in a tree
hauls mouth to nipple in instinct-driven certainty.
My mirrored face dissolves, distorts as if in pain
as steam obscures these walls of mermaid green.
Her body splits apart, water laps her feet.
My power shower stings and pricks my exposed skin.
Sophia Pedro gave birth in a tree
a feelgood picture beamed across our TV screens
ignoring thousands who lost everything.
Was it right – to tile my bathroom mermaid green?
Helicopter blades crack overhead. I reach
for cocoa butter, aloe vera cream.
I’ve tiled my bathroom mermaid green.
In Mozambique a woman gave birth in a tree.
Vicky Wilson
The past year I have read chick lit, classics, economic studies, poetry, short stories, plays, commentaries and some fantastic African novels. I have always enjoyed reading and passionately believe in the power of story to transport us from our own reality into our imagination to actively live somewhere else for as long as we so desire to keep turning the pages. I think where I find delight in reading most is in exploring and getting to know new characters and through these people come to understand a different perspective on the world and on life’s challenges. Much of what I have read in Ghana has been African texts, partly because these books are so much cheaper than western books but also because they offer a unique perspective while I am living on this continent. Through a wealth of African writers I have come to get to grips with this continent in a new and fresh way, to learn about selling siblings into slavery, to begin to understand the struggles of Africans readjusting to life here once they have been educated overseas and likewise the challenges faced by friends and family members who have stayed in the country, I have seen the effects of colonization through the eyes of tribal leaders, the impact of the introduction of Christianity on local culture and traditions through the eyes of both western Priest and local religious leaders, the challenges of corruption through well meaning expatriates who loose themselves in the wilds of Africa….I could continue but I have come to understand how the power of a well created character, carefully crafted plot and beautiful words can comment on the complex issues which engulf and shroud this continent, but also at the same time showcase its beauty and its heart.
Every VSO I know is keen to get their hands on a new book and reading material passes from town to town and house to house, we always joke that the books in a VSO house give you a good indication as to who lived there before you. In our pad we have a real eclectic mix, I arrived to find War and Peace, and assortment of Ghost Stories, Jackie Collins and a well thumbed self help book entitled ‘Chronically Single Woman’ which has come to be known as ‘Chronically’ by my housemate Katherine and I. This rather un insightful piece of writing is always firmly shoved to the back of the bookshelf whenever houseguests come over but somehow it always manages to peek through and most people who set their eyes on this charming little pearl always seem to ask rather sheepishly is they can borrow it, male or female, single or not!!
On a rather more reflective note I wanted to share with you some literature which has really spoken to me since I have been in Ghana, whenever I am feeling a little low about the contribution I am making I always look to this poem which encourages me and spurs me on. The poem is actually written about Mozambique not Ghana and was written by a female poet who is based in Canterbury…..enjoy!
20 March 2000
A woman gives birth in a tree
and I stand naked, wondering who I am.
I’ve tiled my bathroom mermaid green
eager to create an image, present a scene
of tasteful tranquillity. Two days of labour and
a woman gives birth in a tree
hauls mouth to nipple in instinct-driven certainty.
My mirrored face dissolves, distorts as if in pain
as steam obscures these walls of mermaid green.
Her body splits apart, water laps her feet.
My power shower stings and pricks my exposed skin.
Sophia Pedro gave birth in a tree
a feelgood picture beamed across our TV screens
ignoring thousands who lost everything.
Was it right – to tile my bathroom mermaid green?
Helicopter blades crack overhead. I reach
for cocoa butter, aloe vera cream.
I’ve tiled my bathroom mermaid green.
In Mozambique a woman gave birth in a tree.
Vicky Wilson
Thursday, 7 October 2010
A year in Ghana
As I come to write this blog I can hardly believe that in a few days I will have been living in Ghana a whole year! As I reflect on the past 12 months I feel it is appropriate to write with not only a reflective tone but also with celebration! I have had the most wonderful year full of new people and new experiences and been challenged in so many ways professionally, personally, relationally, spiritually, emotionally, physically the list goes on! I am amazed to see that so many of the things which were new and perhaps rather strange at the beginning now seem so normal, like buying grocery’s of ladies head, washing all my clothes by hand, travelling in transport that looks like it is about to die a rather nasty death and speaking in pidgin English on a regular basis.
VSO’s slogan ‘Sharing Skills, Changing Lives’ is one I passionately believe in, but after a year in Ghana I can honestly say that I feel as if I am receiving far more than I am giving on so many levels and the skills that I am sharing are more often than not out of the office, such as informally teaching a Ghanaian child to swim (the deaths from drowning are unbelievable) talking to disabled women about their self worth or simply encouraging a colleague or fellow VSO when they are feeling low or unmotivated. Hardly a day goes by when I do not feel that I have learnt something, questioned something or been challenged in some way. I think one of the reasons I love living in Ghana is these challenges and the constant opportunities to learn more about the world and ourselves. Another reason why I have had such a great year I believe is the constant change, people are always coming and going, new friends are made and then move on, new people come. It is impossible to keep a schedule here in Ghana, if you try you will drive yourself insane, scheduled meetings are seldom kept to, transport ALWAYS breaks down , people are more often than not late, you simply can’t plan a day in advance and this has really freed me from the concept of living by the diary something we in the west so often do and if we are not careful can find ourselves simply ‘ticking things off’ the list of things to do, rather than living life in the full and thinking about the beauty and challenges life and this world has to offer.
Although Ghana has its many challenges I can honestly say that I love life here, the Ghanaians are fantastic people, and they love life, whatever circumstances they find themselves in it is hard to find a Ghanaian with a negative opinion. The Ghanaians look on the brightside, I have lost count of the number of times local people (most notably taxi drivers) have said to me ‘Ghana is a cool place, here you are free, you are really free’ for me there is such truth in this, in Ghana we are free (both internally and externally) to me this seems quite ironic given the fact that Ghana is situated in West Africa, not the beacon of freedom and liberation we might hope it would be and many of Ghana’s neighboring countries still struggle with challenging political situations and civil unrest, but in Ghana ‘we are free’.
Despite singing Ghana’s praises there have been many times I have become hugely disillusioned with the system, questioned what I am doing, and questioned the very nature of ‘development work’ and how we as humans from outside of the system and country can make a difference. But what do we do, throw in the towel and say ‘I no longer want to be part of this’? Or continue, learning day by day, trying to make some sort of difference, somehow to someone’s life.
It has been a privilege to live and work in Ghana with an international community and I am learning and enjoying, which perhaps leads me to the question I am being asked a lot of the moment ‘How long are you staying?’ Firstly I am a firm believer that if you want to see change in something then you have to make a commitment, the west so often promises us ‘quick fixes’ to our problems and if I am honest I LOVE a ‘quick fix, I love to get things moving and not hang around. But if we are honest with ourselves it is a commitment that brings results, how much have we grown professionally when we have committed to our role and our team, how much do we grow personally when we commit to friendships through thick and thin, how much to people grow relationally and in love when they commit to marriage for better and for worse, how much do we see positive changes In our communities when we commit to working in and serving them, how much weight do we lose when we commit to a plan of healthy eating and exercise. So I think in this situation I should stick to my own advice and commit to Ghana, at least for a while yet. I want to see more change in my organization, I want to see more change in my global outlook, so perhaps it is time to batton down the hatches and stay put for a while, at least until I feel strongly that I need to move on. When people say ‘How long are you staying’ I tend to think, ‘why would I leave right now’, my time in Ghana is something to be relished, it is not merely a life experience to be ticked off some sort of mental list, I am enjoying, learning and growing so ‘why would I leave’.
Sure there are things that I miss about my life in the UK, most notably friends and family, I also miss Victoria sponge cake, taking afternoon tea, going to the theatre, freedom with my finances, sometimes driving my car, Saturdays Guardian, aerobics classes, team spirit at work, standing by the radiator on a rainy day with a cup of tea looking out of the window having a long think. But there are things which I enjoy here which I would never get in the UK like reading and relishing a novel a week, having clothes specially tailored for me, feeling like I am using only as much electricity and water as I really need to and finding satisfaction in that, dancing under the stars to live music whenever I so desire, going to the beach at weekends.
So I guess in conclusion it has been a great year, I’m learning a lot, I’m living a lot, I am happy, I don’t know how long I am staying but that is ok, I’ll wait until I feel it is time to move on, no need to plan, after all in Ghana planning is almost impossible ‘life is free’!!
VSO’s slogan ‘Sharing Skills, Changing Lives’ is one I passionately believe in, but after a year in Ghana I can honestly say that I feel as if I am receiving far more than I am giving on so many levels and the skills that I am sharing are more often than not out of the office, such as informally teaching a Ghanaian child to swim (the deaths from drowning are unbelievable) talking to disabled women about their self worth or simply encouraging a colleague or fellow VSO when they are feeling low or unmotivated. Hardly a day goes by when I do not feel that I have learnt something, questioned something or been challenged in some way. I think one of the reasons I love living in Ghana is these challenges and the constant opportunities to learn more about the world and ourselves. Another reason why I have had such a great year I believe is the constant change, people are always coming and going, new friends are made and then move on, new people come. It is impossible to keep a schedule here in Ghana, if you try you will drive yourself insane, scheduled meetings are seldom kept to, transport ALWAYS breaks down , people are more often than not late, you simply can’t plan a day in advance and this has really freed me from the concept of living by the diary something we in the west so often do and if we are not careful can find ourselves simply ‘ticking things off’ the list of things to do, rather than living life in the full and thinking about the beauty and challenges life and this world has to offer.
Although Ghana has its many challenges I can honestly say that I love life here, the Ghanaians are fantastic people, and they love life, whatever circumstances they find themselves in it is hard to find a Ghanaian with a negative opinion. The Ghanaians look on the brightside, I have lost count of the number of times local people (most notably taxi drivers) have said to me ‘Ghana is a cool place, here you are free, you are really free’ for me there is such truth in this, in Ghana we are free (both internally and externally) to me this seems quite ironic given the fact that Ghana is situated in West Africa, not the beacon of freedom and liberation we might hope it would be and many of Ghana’s neighboring countries still struggle with challenging political situations and civil unrest, but in Ghana ‘we are free’.
Despite singing Ghana’s praises there have been many times I have become hugely disillusioned with the system, questioned what I am doing, and questioned the very nature of ‘development work’ and how we as humans from outside of the system and country can make a difference. But what do we do, throw in the towel and say ‘I no longer want to be part of this’? Or continue, learning day by day, trying to make some sort of difference, somehow to someone’s life.
It has been a privilege to live and work in Ghana with an international community and I am learning and enjoying, which perhaps leads me to the question I am being asked a lot of the moment ‘How long are you staying?’ Firstly I am a firm believer that if you want to see change in something then you have to make a commitment, the west so often promises us ‘quick fixes’ to our problems and if I am honest I LOVE a ‘quick fix, I love to get things moving and not hang around. But if we are honest with ourselves it is a commitment that brings results, how much have we grown professionally when we have committed to our role and our team, how much do we grow personally when we commit to friendships through thick and thin, how much to people grow relationally and in love when they commit to marriage for better and for worse, how much do we see positive changes In our communities when we commit to working in and serving them, how much weight do we lose when we commit to a plan of healthy eating and exercise. So I think in this situation I should stick to my own advice and commit to Ghana, at least for a while yet. I want to see more change in my organization, I want to see more change in my global outlook, so perhaps it is time to batton down the hatches and stay put for a while, at least until I feel strongly that I need to move on. When people say ‘How long are you staying’ I tend to think, ‘why would I leave right now’, my time in Ghana is something to be relished, it is not merely a life experience to be ticked off some sort of mental list, I am enjoying, learning and growing so ‘why would I leave’.
Sure there are things that I miss about my life in the UK, most notably friends and family, I also miss Victoria sponge cake, taking afternoon tea, going to the theatre, freedom with my finances, sometimes driving my car, Saturdays Guardian, aerobics classes, team spirit at work, standing by the radiator on a rainy day with a cup of tea looking out of the window having a long think. But there are things which I enjoy here which I would never get in the UK like reading and relishing a novel a week, having clothes specially tailored for me, feeling like I am using only as much electricity and water as I really need to and finding satisfaction in that, dancing under the stars to live music whenever I so desire, going to the beach at weekends.
So I guess in conclusion it has been a great year, I’m learning a lot, I’m living a lot, I am happy, I don’t know how long I am staying but that is ok, I’ll wait until I feel it is time to move on, no need to plan, after all in Ghana planning is almost impossible ‘life is free’!!
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
Hairdressing!
This blog in entitled ‘Hairdressing’ largely because I have spent the last 2 weeks out of Accra in the Eastern Region facilitating a residential training course for 22 deaf women from all over Ghana where their existing hairdressing skills have been polished by the equivalent of Ghana’s Toni & Guy to make them into skilled professionals who are able to charge good rates for quality hairdressing (but perhaps also because I have had a rather bad haircut!). I have been amazed how quickly these girls have perfected the styles taught to them and have learnt a lot about African hairdressing and hairstyles myself in the process. We’ve learnt braiding, twisting, weave on, corn roll, to mention just a few, we’ve been shampooing and relaxing hair with buckets of water carried on heads from wells and it has been great. The 12 day course included 2 days of small business training where myself and another VSO (ex finance director) taught basis accounts, marketing skills and customer service so the girls are a little more clued up about how they will make money at the end of the course when they go back to their home towns and villages. Each of the 22 participants have had their hair practiced on so they all have a new style to showcase and help promote their skills when they go home…even I have had my hair braided with extensions so they could practice on Obruni hair (White man hair)….the end result has left me looking like an egg and I will be removing it in the car on the way home so as not to offend any of the girls!! As I reflect on the 12 days I can say undoubtedly that it has been a success, but in the early stages there were many problems I had not anticipated and since being with the deaf for 12 days I have learnt plenty of new things!
1) Medicine. I have been amazed at how many drugs these ladies have consumed over the 12 days, most have taken an Andrews before bed and many have complained that they need ‘trycylicate’ which is apparently for ‘running stomach’. I guess I should have thought about this in advance as a trip to the doctor over here always results in a cocktail of drugs being administered and I have seen the rate my colleagues take drugs for the smallest ache or pain but I was surprised that they came to me for drugs, at home you would be expected to carry whatever you may need with you not come to the conference organizer if you need an immodium….in fact I think that would be the last person I would want to go to!!!
2) Illness. In 12 days I visited hospital on 3 separate occasions, 2 suspected cases of Malaria and 1 pregnancy. Initially I was shocked by these trips but as the days went on I began to realize that medical care is expensive in Ghana but when you are away you are covered by the organizations money so I think a lot of them were waiting to go to the doctor!! Moreover as a deaf woman here in Ghana it is not everyday you have access to a Sign Language Interpreter to go to hospital with you…it wouldn’t surprise me if they were waiting to take advantage of that…who can blame them!!
3) Food. The programme has attracted many young, beautiful deaf women most of whom have fantastic figures despite having multiple children. The rate these women can put away food is beyond me, a cooked breakfast, snack, lunch and dinner is often followed by left overs from the kitchen or a trip into town to buy Kelewelle (spicy fried plantain) is no problem for these girls and they are often complaining that they are hungry…I knew Ghanaians loved to eat but I guess I assumed these girls with the great figures exercised some sort of control!!!
One thing I have been delighted by on this training programme which I hadn’t thought about before was the fact that it offered the average Ghanaian women some well earned rest and relaxation. I know I have mentioned before in previous blogs that the Ghanaian women works so hard and she never gets a break, food still needs to be cooked, babies cared for, floors swept, produce sold, clothes washed and the concept of vacation is along way off for all but the cream of society. But this programme gave 22 women from all over Ghana 12 days without cooking a meal, 12 days without attending to the daily chores and it also gave them the chance to socialize with other deaf women…something that is not an everyday occurrence for these girls. I know in my first few months in Ghana I craved female company, particularly that of young women similar to myself, how much more is it the case for these women?! I had the privilege of sharing a room with the female Sign Language Interpreter, Lydia, who is a great women and a lot of fun, in the interconnecting room was Patricia the Women’s Wing National President, I was amazed and encouraged to see that during the evenings women came to our room to seek advice on their marital problems, their challenges with business and education and a whole host of other issues. Young deaf women coming to a more established lady who imparted advice and acted as a role model….it was very encouraging and quite something….it made me realize the benefits of this project have been multiple.
I guess another benefit to the programme has been the informal education of the 4 hairdressing trainers on deafness and deaf issues. The trainers are fantastic up beat, glamorous Ghanaian women who are very good at what they do and are very much the average man on the street. The way the trainers have interacted with the deaf has been amazing to see; they started a little wary but have finished so enthusiastic they are even trying to work without an interpreter, preferring to show the girls with their hands etc. They started by asking questions such as ‘Do they have deaf people in other countries as well as Ghana’ and have finished understanding a little more about what it means to be deaf and how much a deaf person can do….I believe attitudes have been changed and as these hairdressers go back to Accra I hope they represent the rights of the deaf and disabled in their own community.
The training programme closed with a ceremony where the women who looked stunning in traditional African attire were presented with certificates and encouraging comments were made, the district chief executive attended and promised to do more for the disabled in the region. The ceremony was followed by a photo session and a few drinks and nibbles Ghana style (fried gizzard on sticks and a bottle of fanta). A British donor has been identified to help these 22 women with start up costs so equipment such as hair dryer, shampoo, towels and wigs (an essential in African hairdressing!) and these will be distributed to the trained hairdressers so they can start working which is fantastic.
I left the Eastern Region feeling satisfied that the programme had gone well and even got a well done from my boss (a real rarity!). I was so excited to come back to Accra, after 2 weeks away I was ready to come back, as we drove in to the bustling, busy, dusty, loud metropolis on Friday evening my heart beat with a sense of excitement – I was pleased to be back, after 10 months I felt this is my home, this is where I want to be.
1) Medicine. I have been amazed at how many drugs these ladies have consumed over the 12 days, most have taken an Andrews before bed and many have complained that they need ‘trycylicate’ which is apparently for ‘running stomach’. I guess I should have thought about this in advance as a trip to the doctor over here always results in a cocktail of drugs being administered and I have seen the rate my colleagues take drugs for the smallest ache or pain but I was surprised that they came to me for drugs, at home you would be expected to carry whatever you may need with you not come to the conference organizer if you need an immodium….in fact I think that would be the last person I would want to go to!!!
2) Illness. In 12 days I visited hospital on 3 separate occasions, 2 suspected cases of Malaria and 1 pregnancy. Initially I was shocked by these trips but as the days went on I began to realize that medical care is expensive in Ghana but when you are away you are covered by the organizations money so I think a lot of them were waiting to go to the doctor!! Moreover as a deaf woman here in Ghana it is not everyday you have access to a Sign Language Interpreter to go to hospital with you…it wouldn’t surprise me if they were waiting to take advantage of that…who can blame them!!
3) Food. The programme has attracted many young, beautiful deaf women most of whom have fantastic figures despite having multiple children. The rate these women can put away food is beyond me, a cooked breakfast, snack, lunch and dinner is often followed by left overs from the kitchen or a trip into town to buy Kelewelle (spicy fried plantain) is no problem for these girls and they are often complaining that they are hungry…I knew Ghanaians loved to eat but I guess I assumed these girls with the great figures exercised some sort of control!!!
One thing I have been delighted by on this training programme which I hadn’t thought about before was the fact that it offered the average Ghanaian women some well earned rest and relaxation. I know I have mentioned before in previous blogs that the Ghanaian women works so hard and she never gets a break, food still needs to be cooked, babies cared for, floors swept, produce sold, clothes washed and the concept of vacation is along way off for all but the cream of society. But this programme gave 22 women from all over Ghana 12 days without cooking a meal, 12 days without attending to the daily chores and it also gave them the chance to socialize with other deaf women…something that is not an everyday occurrence for these girls. I know in my first few months in Ghana I craved female company, particularly that of young women similar to myself, how much more is it the case for these women?! I had the privilege of sharing a room with the female Sign Language Interpreter, Lydia, who is a great women and a lot of fun, in the interconnecting room was Patricia the Women’s Wing National President, I was amazed and encouraged to see that during the evenings women came to our room to seek advice on their marital problems, their challenges with business and education and a whole host of other issues. Young deaf women coming to a more established lady who imparted advice and acted as a role model….it was very encouraging and quite something….it made me realize the benefits of this project have been multiple.
I guess another benefit to the programme has been the informal education of the 4 hairdressing trainers on deafness and deaf issues. The trainers are fantastic up beat, glamorous Ghanaian women who are very good at what they do and are very much the average man on the street. The way the trainers have interacted with the deaf has been amazing to see; they started a little wary but have finished so enthusiastic they are even trying to work without an interpreter, preferring to show the girls with their hands etc. They started by asking questions such as ‘Do they have deaf people in other countries as well as Ghana’ and have finished understanding a little more about what it means to be deaf and how much a deaf person can do….I believe attitudes have been changed and as these hairdressers go back to Accra I hope they represent the rights of the deaf and disabled in their own community.
The training programme closed with a ceremony where the women who looked stunning in traditional African attire were presented with certificates and encouraging comments were made, the district chief executive attended and promised to do more for the disabled in the region. The ceremony was followed by a photo session and a few drinks and nibbles Ghana style (fried gizzard on sticks and a bottle of fanta). A British donor has been identified to help these 22 women with start up costs so equipment such as hair dryer, shampoo, towels and wigs (an essential in African hairdressing!) and these will be distributed to the trained hairdressers so they can start working which is fantastic.
I left the Eastern Region feeling satisfied that the programme had gone well and even got a well done from my boss (a real rarity!). I was so excited to come back to Accra, after 2 weeks away I was ready to come back, as we drove in to the bustling, busy, dusty, loud metropolis on Friday evening my heart beat with a sense of excitement – I was pleased to be back, after 10 months I felt this is my home, this is where I want to be.
Monday, 5 July 2010
The Beautiful Game
It would be fair to say that I have never watched so much football since I have been living in Ghana, the African Cup of Nations and the World Cup taking place in South Africa have meant that Ghana has been in football frenzy for much of 2010. The atmosphere has been incredible here in Accra, cars, houses faces and bodies have all been painted with the beautiful red, green and gold of Ghana’s flag, music has been blaring, the vuvuzellas sounding and people have been shaking their stuff in celebration dances all over the city.
It is amazing to see the Ghanaians attitude towards football, EVERYONE loves it, EVERYONE is proudly a Black Star (the name for Ghana’s national team) and EVERYONE says with absolute conviction before any match that they are going to win. The world cup always makes me think about national pride it is one of the very few things which brings us together on a global basis and helps us remember which country we belong to. When asked if I am supporting Ghana in the street I always respond positively and have really got into the football frenzy, but when asked if I am supporting Ghana over England the Ghanaians will say that it is impossible as I still bleed English and it is true for a woman who has little interest in football most of the time the world cup brings something out in me, a love for my country a heart beating fervently for those 3 Lions!!! But somehow in England I can’t help think that we have gone slightly wrong with our expressions of devotion to football and indeed our country, when watching a match here there is nothing but encouragement shouted at the T.V, if Ghana scores the whole street will break out into a mass of dancing, singing and shouting people, old women dancing with young men and children running up and down waving flags. If Ghana looses or misses a penalty (I’m thinking of the tragic example of Ghana’s world cup exit this year) there is no shouting or complaining but an almost sense of empathy with the players, a never mind, a win some you loose some attitude. There is no complaining, analysis of how they could do better or shouting and there is certainly no violence, surely this empathy, this cest la vie attitude shows much more national pride than our ‘fight to win’ stance which so often ends up in broken glass and bloodshed. When the black stars are playing we see every Ghanaian as one, truly united over a common goal whether they are standing in the street crowed around an old black and white telly or watching it in the president’s castle the Ghanaians are together, in a country where there are many religions, tribes and languages I think this is something quite beautiful and should be applauded.
I guess the football fever has been amplified this year as Ghana was the last team to be knocked out of Africa’s world cup…the sense of ‘Do it for Africa’ has been quite something and it has been a true privilege to be in this country during this time. We decided to watch every Ghana game in a different kind of situation and these have all been unique and memorable in their own ways, from watching in at one of the most famous bars in Osu which I guess can be likened as the ‘Oxford Street’ of Accra, to our neighborhood drinking spot, to a bar on the beach and the final match against Uruguay like many locals watch football in a dark room huddled around a TV in a small town outside the capital. The most noticeable thing about watching football wherever you are in Ghana is the atmosphere at half time, as soon as the whistle blows the Ghanaians are up dancing, shaking the hips and bottoms like there is no tomorrow in jubilation – whatever the score. As the second half starts everyone sits down and watches the game, what is perhaps the most bizarre thing about watching football in Ghana is what happens at the end of the match, no matter what the outcome of the game is Ghanaians will fairly swiftly head home as soon as the game has finished, the party is really at half time….I haven’t been able to find out why people don’t stay around to celebrate!!!
Watching the England games in Accra has of course been a little different to watching Ghana play, but amazingly the Ghanaians LOVE England, I imagine because of the amount of them that follow the English Premier League, they are always on our side. It was a great experience to watch the rather unfortunate England Germany match in Ghana cheering for those 3 lions just as much as my Ghanaian contemporaries!!!
It is amazing to see the Ghanaians attitude towards football, EVERYONE loves it, EVERYONE is proudly a Black Star (the name for Ghana’s national team) and EVERYONE says with absolute conviction before any match that they are going to win. The world cup always makes me think about national pride it is one of the very few things which brings us together on a global basis and helps us remember which country we belong to. When asked if I am supporting Ghana in the street I always respond positively and have really got into the football frenzy, but when asked if I am supporting Ghana over England the Ghanaians will say that it is impossible as I still bleed English and it is true for a woman who has little interest in football most of the time the world cup brings something out in me, a love for my country a heart beating fervently for those 3 Lions!!! But somehow in England I can’t help think that we have gone slightly wrong with our expressions of devotion to football and indeed our country, when watching a match here there is nothing but encouragement shouted at the T.V, if Ghana scores the whole street will break out into a mass of dancing, singing and shouting people, old women dancing with young men and children running up and down waving flags. If Ghana looses or misses a penalty (I’m thinking of the tragic example of Ghana’s world cup exit this year) there is no shouting or complaining but an almost sense of empathy with the players, a never mind, a win some you loose some attitude. There is no complaining, analysis of how they could do better or shouting and there is certainly no violence, surely this empathy, this cest la vie attitude shows much more national pride than our ‘fight to win’ stance which so often ends up in broken glass and bloodshed. When the black stars are playing we see every Ghanaian as one, truly united over a common goal whether they are standing in the street crowed around an old black and white telly or watching it in the president’s castle the Ghanaians are together, in a country where there are many religions, tribes and languages I think this is something quite beautiful and should be applauded.
I guess the football fever has been amplified this year as Ghana was the last team to be knocked out of Africa’s world cup…the sense of ‘Do it for Africa’ has been quite something and it has been a true privilege to be in this country during this time. We decided to watch every Ghana game in a different kind of situation and these have all been unique and memorable in their own ways, from watching in at one of the most famous bars in Osu which I guess can be likened as the ‘Oxford Street’ of Accra, to our neighborhood drinking spot, to a bar on the beach and the final match against Uruguay like many locals watch football in a dark room huddled around a TV in a small town outside the capital. The most noticeable thing about watching football wherever you are in Ghana is the atmosphere at half time, as soon as the whistle blows the Ghanaians are up dancing, shaking the hips and bottoms like there is no tomorrow in jubilation – whatever the score. As the second half starts everyone sits down and watches the game, what is perhaps the most bizarre thing about watching football in Ghana is what happens at the end of the match, no matter what the outcome of the game is Ghanaians will fairly swiftly head home as soon as the game has finished, the party is really at half time….I haven’t been able to find out why people don’t stay around to celebrate!!!
Watching the England games in Accra has of course been a little different to watching Ghana play, but amazingly the Ghanaians LOVE England, I imagine because of the amount of them that follow the English Premier League, they are always on our side. It was a great experience to watch the rather unfortunate England Germany match in Ghana cheering for those 3 lions just as much as my Ghanaian contemporaries!!!
Friday, 25 June 2010
Wedding!
As the wedding season kicks off in the UK it is with great excitement that I report that today I attended my first wedding in Ghana. People’s social calendars seem to be jam packed with weddings and funerals in Ghana and both are very significant events with a huge emphasis on celebration which is hardly surprising given the fact that Ghanaians love to get dressed up, eat, drink and dance. This was not my first invitation to a wedding here, hardly a Sunday morning goes by without the whole church congregation being invited to one wedding or another, but this was a friend’s wedding, the first one I received the invitation card for and the first one I genuinely wanted to go to, now being experienced in the sheer length of celebrations, speeches and events I decided to wait until I knew I really wanted to go!
The bride is Faustina or Fausty a twenty something who works for Ghana Federation of the Disabled in the office downstairs from me (for those of you reading my blog regularly she is the lady who showed me where to buy an affordable dress for the Marine Ball). I really like Fausty and it was a true joy and privilege to be invited to her wedding. The groom, well I’d love to tell you more about him but strangely I didn’t meet him, he wasn’t present, in fact he wasn’t even in the country! He works in the USA as many 20/30 something Ghanaians do, it seems to be considered some sort of Mecca (along with London, not the UK in general, which never ceases to make me smile) so he is a great catch, but unfortunately visa laws dictate that he couldn’t come back – even for his own wedding! This is something I can believe as I am currently helping a number of deaf 20/30 something’s who have programmes to attend overseas get a visa which is proving to be a nightmare as we are even having to travel to another West African Country to get one as the relevant embassy is not here in Accra – another reminder of how fortunate I am to have my citizenship and to have pretty much every embassy in the world a maximum of 5hrs away by good transport systems. Anyway slightly off the point, back to the groom – I did at least see him as a rather nice framed, glamour shot was passed around to the guests. I am sure you are now wondering how these 2 young people could get legally married if both bride and groom were not present, a question which I quickly posed to my colleagues with whom I was sat at a table with. The answer was simple, this ceremony we were about to watch was essential in the Ghanaians ability to get married but it was not where the legal contract was signed.
The ceremony was fascinating and took place in the garden of Fausty’s grandma’s home, the bride’s family seated on one side and the grooms on the other. Fausty herself did not get involved in the action until much later in the day. Tradition dictates that an elderly women takes on the role of master of ceremonies and asks the grooms family to present the dowry, a lot of analogies to the groom plucking one of the families beautiful flowers were made and the MC asks the grooms family what they grooms family would bring in return for their daughter. I know all of this because one of my colleagues kindly translated the Twi into English for me; in fact I was sat in the ‘translation corner’ as the ceremony was also being translated into Sign Language. The grooms family then presented the dowry which consisted of some beautiful cloth, some special food, alcoholic drinks, a bible, the wedding ring, rather bizarrely a suitcase(!) and a ‘knocking fee’, this is money which is presented to the bride’s family after the grooms family have asked the bride’s family if she will marry their son. After the dowry is brought in by the female cousins and aunties and placed in the middle of the room Fausty is called out of her Grandmother’s house, she looks stunning in a blue, yellow and red traditional African two piece made from Kente cloth which is very expensive and woven in Ghana. She is also asked by the MC if she accepts her husband’s proposal as her family have already said yes, she says yes and is forced to say it three times as tradition dictates. Now comes the presentation of the ring which is first prayed over by a senior member of the church, you may be wondering at this point who will give Fausty the ring as her groom is away, at this point the grooms brother steps in and they go through the whole marriage vows as we know it! (rather bizarre if you ask me!). So Fausty and her husband in America are now married in Ghanaian tradition and the music started, drinks were distributed along with party bags which contained a hanky (or more commonly known amongst the VSO community as a ‘sweat rag’ which is exactly that, a rag you use to wipe the sweat from your ever dripping face, a daily handbag essential) which says Fausty and Emmanuel, 12th June 2010 in a love heart and a rather randomly a plain white plastic plate, when I ask my colleagues why we got given a plate they tell me it is so every time you use the plate you remember the wedding, unfortunately I left mine in the taxi on the way home!!
It was a fantastic day and a real joy to be out of the office celebrating with my colleagues. Food was served, typical Ghanaian card overload with the traditional roasted goat which was delicious ( my enjoyment of which was aided by the Imodium/ex lax cocktail consumed before the wedding – steel strength stomach not quite back to normal after the recent bout of food poisoning incident!). One of the highlights of the day was the feast for the eyes that the various different outfits provided. Ghanaians love to dress up and they really know how to put outfits together, the women in brightly coloured 2 pieces some with matching headscarf’s and the men in robes – yes that is right, full robes as in a massive piece of material wrapped around you like a toga. These robes are worn by the older men, particularly on Sunday’s at Church when everyone is dressed to the nines, the chest is bare with material tossed over one shoulder, the robe creates an illusion that one is broader than one is and has an almost regal air particularly when combined with the traditional beads. My housemate Katherine and I always joke about these robes, as much as I love to see someone wearing one we cannot help but laugh about the prospect of a date showing up wearing a robe – a definite deal breaker!
Once we had eaten it was time for dancing, the volume was turned up and Fausty hit the dance floor for her first dance. My colleagues know I like to dance as every time music comes on in the office I cannot help but move a little. At the end of year conference back in December I was pestered to get up and dance in a bar, but I refused as it would have been a case of white lady dancing on her own while everyone clapped and laughed. I finally got up to dance at the wedding after persistent petering and as I feared the whole wedding stopped to watch me. I’m sure you are aware of the popular saying that ‘white men can’t dance’ and compared to Ghanaians I guess we can’t but I know that thankfully I can hold my own on the dance floor. Dance classes as a school girl, weekly exercise classes based around dance routines and a genuine love for African rhythms combined with plenty of practice on the night spots of Accra have all contributed to my ability to hold my own on the Africa dance floor. My colleagues were impressed and the MC of the wedding announced ‘eh obruni can dance paaaaaa’, which basically means that the white lady can dance, needless to say EVERYONE watched more closely and the only other white man (obruni) at the wedding was brought up to strut his stuff. Unfortunately Paul a 50/60 something who works for the Danish Development Agency definitely cannot dance and a rather awkward few songs played as his endured his obligatory stint on the floor.
By late afternoon it was time to go home, but only after a stop at my colleagues home to greet his wife. Needless to say a good time was had by all…..now I await my invitation for when the groom is in town!!!
The bride is Faustina or Fausty a twenty something who works for Ghana Federation of the Disabled in the office downstairs from me (for those of you reading my blog regularly she is the lady who showed me where to buy an affordable dress for the Marine Ball). I really like Fausty and it was a true joy and privilege to be invited to her wedding. The groom, well I’d love to tell you more about him but strangely I didn’t meet him, he wasn’t present, in fact he wasn’t even in the country! He works in the USA as many 20/30 something Ghanaians do, it seems to be considered some sort of Mecca (along with London, not the UK in general, which never ceases to make me smile) so he is a great catch, but unfortunately visa laws dictate that he couldn’t come back – even for his own wedding! This is something I can believe as I am currently helping a number of deaf 20/30 something’s who have programmes to attend overseas get a visa which is proving to be a nightmare as we are even having to travel to another West African Country to get one as the relevant embassy is not here in Accra – another reminder of how fortunate I am to have my citizenship and to have pretty much every embassy in the world a maximum of 5hrs away by good transport systems. Anyway slightly off the point, back to the groom – I did at least see him as a rather nice framed, glamour shot was passed around to the guests. I am sure you are now wondering how these 2 young people could get legally married if both bride and groom were not present, a question which I quickly posed to my colleagues with whom I was sat at a table with. The answer was simple, this ceremony we were about to watch was essential in the Ghanaians ability to get married but it was not where the legal contract was signed.
The ceremony was fascinating and took place in the garden of Fausty’s grandma’s home, the bride’s family seated on one side and the grooms on the other. Fausty herself did not get involved in the action until much later in the day. Tradition dictates that an elderly women takes on the role of master of ceremonies and asks the grooms family to present the dowry, a lot of analogies to the groom plucking one of the families beautiful flowers were made and the MC asks the grooms family what they grooms family would bring in return for their daughter. I know all of this because one of my colleagues kindly translated the Twi into English for me; in fact I was sat in the ‘translation corner’ as the ceremony was also being translated into Sign Language. The grooms family then presented the dowry which consisted of some beautiful cloth, some special food, alcoholic drinks, a bible, the wedding ring, rather bizarrely a suitcase(!) and a ‘knocking fee’, this is money which is presented to the bride’s family after the grooms family have asked the bride’s family if she will marry their son. After the dowry is brought in by the female cousins and aunties and placed in the middle of the room Fausty is called out of her Grandmother’s house, she looks stunning in a blue, yellow and red traditional African two piece made from Kente cloth which is very expensive and woven in Ghana. She is also asked by the MC if she accepts her husband’s proposal as her family have already said yes, she says yes and is forced to say it three times as tradition dictates. Now comes the presentation of the ring which is first prayed over by a senior member of the church, you may be wondering at this point who will give Fausty the ring as her groom is away, at this point the grooms brother steps in and they go through the whole marriage vows as we know it! (rather bizarre if you ask me!). So Fausty and her husband in America are now married in Ghanaian tradition and the music started, drinks were distributed along with party bags which contained a hanky (or more commonly known amongst the VSO community as a ‘sweat rag’ which is exactly that, a rag you use to wipe the sweat from your ever dripping face, a daily handbag essential) which says Fausty and Emmanuel, 12th June 2010 in a love heart and a rather randomly a plain white plastic plate, when I ask my colleagues why we got given a plate they tell me it is so every time you use the plate you remember the wedding, unfortunately I left mine in the taxi on the way home!!
It was a fantastic day and a real joy to be out of the office celebrating with my colleagues. Food was served, typical Ghanaian card overload with the traditional roasted goat which was delicious ( my enjoyment of which was aided by the Imodium/ex lax cocktail consumed before the wedding – steel strength stomach not quite back to normal after the recent bout of food poisoning incident!). One of the highlights of the day was the feast for the eyes that the various different outfits provided. Ghanaians love to dress up and they really know how to put outfits together, the women in brightly coloured 2 pieces some with matching headscarf’s and the men in robes – yes that is right, full robes as in a massive piece of material wrapped around you like a toga. These robes are worn by the older men, particularly on Sunday’s at Church when everyone is dressed to the nines, the chest is bare with material tossed over one shoulder, the robe creates an illusion that one is broader than one is and has an almost regal air particularly when combined with the traditional beads. My housemate Katherine and I always joke about these robes, as much as I love to see someone wearing one we cannot help but laugh about the prospect of a date showing up wearing a robe – a definite deal breaker!
Once we had eaten it was time for dancing, the volume was turned up and Fausty hit the dance floor for her first dance. My colleagues know I like to dance as every time music comes on in the office I cannot help but move a little. At the end of year conference back in December I was pestered to get up and dance in a bar, but I refused as it would have been a case of white lady dancing on her own while everyone clapped and laughed. I finally got up to dance at the wedding after persistent petering and as I feared the whole wedding stopped to watch me. I’m sure you are aware of the popular saying that ‘white men can’t dance’ and compared to Ghanaians I guess we can’t but I know that thankfully I can hold my own on the dance floor. Dance classes as a school girl, weekly exercise classes based around dance routines and a genuine love for African rhythms combined with plenty of practice on the night spots of Accra have all contributed to my ability to hold my own on the Africa dance floor. My colleagues were impressed and the MC of the wedding announced ‘eh obruni can dance paaaaaa’, which basically means that the white lady can dance, needless to say EVERYONE watched more closely and the only other white man (obruni) at the wedding was brought up to strut his stuff. Unfortunately Paul a 50/60 something who works for the Danish Development Agency definitely cannot dance and a rather awkward few songs played as his endured his obligatory stint on the floor.
By late afternoon it was time to go home, but only after a stop at my colleagues home to greet his wife. Needless to say a good time was had by all…..now I await my invitation for when the groom is in town!!!
Tuesday, 1 June 2010
'This is Africa'
“This is Africa”, sometimes shortened to TIA, is a phrase I hate. It is meant to lessen the shock of what you see here, but I don’t want that shock lessened. When spoken by whites you can almost hear the unspoken “and what did you expect from a bunch of savages?” When used by Africans the resignation and defeat is depressing.
Personally I want to remain angry about the poverty I see and corruption I hear about and witness. I want to remain angry that a child born in northern Ghana is 11 times more likely to lose his or her mother when she bears them than a child in England, and that they can expect 20 fewer years of life than an English baby. I want to remain angry that the Ghanaian child is going to receive a much worse education and have almost poor job prospects. Righteous indignation seems the only response to the incompetence and corruption that fritter away the meagre resources that are available.
“This is Africa” is intellectually lazy, applying one explanation to many phenomena, complacent in its implicit assumption that this is how things must remain and often inaccurately assumes certain problems or categories of problems are particular to Africa rather than to poverty generally, or indeed universal.
But we are presented with challenges everyday that frustrate us and have been known to bring me to tears, not because I feel moved by the poverty I see but because I feel so incapable of doing anything about it with the systems here. But still we continue one step at a time, a small drop in the ocean. I am scared that the often laissez-faire attitude of many here is rubbing off on me, when you no longer feel moved by the beggars on the street or knowledge that people die from malaria as they can’t get the drugs needed…what emotion do you feel?…I’m not sure…something like exhaustion I guess…Probably what most Ghanaians feel on a regular basis and who can blame them...seeing and experiencing the challenges of Africa but feeling exhausted by and powerless to do anything about it.
My prayer is that I would have patience, grace and diplomacy in situations when I know I can do nothing about them, but I would have courage, determination and motivation to act when I see I can.
Personally I want to remain angry about the poverty I see and corruption I hear about and witness. I want to remain angry that a child born in northern Ghana is 11 times more likely to lose his or her mother when she bears them than a child in England, and that they can expect 20 fewer years of life than an English baby. I want to remain angry that the Ghanaian child is going to receive a much worse education and have almost poor job prospects. Righteous indignation seems the only response to the incompetence and corruption that fritter away the meagre resources that are available.
“This is Africa” is intellectually lazy, applying one explanation to many phenomena, complacent in its implicit assumption that this is how things must remain and often inaccurately assumes certain problems or categories of problems are particular to Africa rather than to poverty generally, or indeed universal.
But we are presented with challenges everyday that frustrate us and have been known to bring me to tears, not because I feel moved by the poverty I see but because I feel so incapable of doing anything about it with the systems here. But still we continue one step at a time, a small drop in the ocean. I am scared that the often laissez-faire attitude of many here is rubbing off on me, when you no longer feel moved by the beggars on the street or knowledge that people die from malaria as they can’t get the drugs needed…what emotion do you feel?…I’m not sure…something like exhaustion I guess…Probably what most Ghanaians feel on a regular basis and who can blame them...seeing and experiencing the challenges of Africa but feeling exhausted by and powerless to do anything about it.
My prayer is that I would have patience, grace and diplomacy in situations when I know I can do nothing about them, but I would have courage, determination and motivation to act when I see I can.
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Hospital
It is fair to say that I would be doing very well to come and live in Ghana and not have a trip to the hospital…I guess I expected it at some point…what I didn’t expect however was quite the sudden rate my ailments came upon me and indeed the force at which my body can react to things It is not liking!
Like the UK the first weekend in May is a bank holiday and it was with a sense of great excitement that nearly 20 VSO’s headed to the beach for a long weekend of sun, sea, sand and ‘Star’ (a favorite local beer). We had great fun sunbathing, playing games, swimming and dancing bare foot in the sand to live music. We stayed at the ultimate backpacker beach resort in Ghana ‘Big Millys’ which was the perfect setting for a great weekend. However rather unfortunately I woke on bank holiday Monday to leap out of bed and rush to the bathroom to vomit rather violently, I’ll save you the details as I am a lady but let’s just say that this continued every 10-20 minutes for the entire day, by 4pm I was not in a good state, I couldn’t even keep a sip of water down, my whole body ached, I was white as a sheet with a fever. We decided (or rather my amazingly supportive friends here) decided that I should go back to Accra to hospital, so a taxi was chartered and off we went stopping along the way for me to jump out of the taxi and throw up on the side of the road whilst children pointed and laughed at the white lady who was sick.
And so we arrived at the hospital, I looked a sight to behold in my swimwear, sarong and sick bag, but we got seen very quickly as it appears no one in Ghana is sick on a bank holiday. The doctor sent me for blood tests fairly swiftly where my housemate Katherine had to literally beg the blood testing guy to give me something to vomit in at which point he took the yellow bag used to ‘safely’ dispose of the needles tipped out the contents and shoved it under my nose!!! Soon the doctor diagnosed me with malaria and food poisoning gave me an injection in my bottom and then a sedative as I was fairly teary by this point and sent me to the female ward to be hooked up to a drip. So there I spent the next 3 days, I don’t remember much of it, but one memory that sticks in my mind is waking up to rush to the toilet to vomit only to find another woman doing the same thing, I think the fact that we were happy to share the same toilet bowl to vomit in is testament to quite how sick we were!!
The care I received in hospital was really quite good and I was so blessed to have
visitors who were greatly concerned about my well being (including my male colleagues which I was most embarrassed about!). The nurses were great and I was particularly grateful to a Russian nurse who said I was like her daughter and came to check on me all the time and telling me stories of how she met her Ghanaian Doctor husband in Moscow and how they both worked as illegal immigrants in kitchens living in one room in London in order to get money to bring to Ghana…are our streets really paved with gold!?
I was really looked after when I was ill which was great, the only downside about the Ghanaian hospital I was in (and it wasn’t a private one) was the food. I couldn’t eat much in hospital largely due to the fact I was ill but this was not helped by the meals which were served up, some how hot pepper soup doesn’t quite feel like the thing you want after a 24hr vomiting session. When I asked for plain food a rather strange dish called ‘Tom Brown’ appeared…for days I kept thinking this meal which is rather like a sour fermented porridge was called ‘Tom Jones’!!!
Anyway all’s well that ends well and I am now back at work taking it easy and I thank God for my health and that I had access to medical facilities.
Like the UK the first weekend in May is a bank holiday and it was with a sense of great excitement that nearly 20 VSO’s headed to the beach for a long weekend of sun, sea, sand and ‘Star’ (a favorite local beer). We had great fun sunbathing, playing games, swimming and dancing bare foot in the sand to live music. We stayed at the ultimate backpacker beach resort in Ghana ‘Big Millys’ which was the perfect setting for a great weekend. However rather unfortunately I woke on bank holiday Monday to leap out of bed and rush to the bathroom to vomit rather violently, I’ll save you the details as I am a lady but let’s just say that this continued every 10-20 minutes for the entire day, by 4pm I was not in a good state, I couldn’t even keep a sip of water down, my whole body ached, I was white as a sheet with a fever. We decided (or rather my amazingly supportive friends here) decided that I should go back to Accra to hospital, so a taxi was chartered and off we went stopping along the way for me to jump out of the taxi and throw up on the side of the road whilst children pointed and laughed at the white lady who was sick.
And so we arrived at the hospital, I looked a sight to behold in my swimwear, sarong and sick bag, but we got seen very quickly as it appears no one in Ghana is sick on a bank holiday. The doctor sent me for blood tests fairly swiftly where my housemate Katherine had to literally beg the blood testing guy to give me something to vomit in at which point he took the yellow bag used to ‘safely’ dispose of the needles tipped out the contents and shoved it under my nose!!! Soon the doctor diagnosed me with malaria and food poisoning gave me an injection in my bottom and then a sedative as I was fairly teary by this point and sent me to the female ward to be hooked up to a drip. So there I spent the next 3 days, I don’t remember much of it, but one memory that sticks in my mind is waking up to rush to the toilet to vomit only to find another woman doing the same thing, I think the fact that we were happy to share the same toilet bowl to vomit in is testament to quite how sick we were!!
The care I received in hospital was really quite good and I was so blessed to have
visitors who were greatly concerned about my well being (including my male colleagues which I was most embarrassed about!). The nurses were great and I was particularly grateful to a Russian nurse who said I was like her daughter and came to check on me all the time and telling me stories of how she met her Ghanaian Doctor husband in Moscow and how they both worked as illegal immigrants in kitchens living in one room in London in order to get money to bring to Ghana…are our streets really paved with gold!?
I was really looked after when I was ill which was great, the only downside about the Ghanaian hospital I was in (and it wasn’t a private one) was the food. I couldn’t eat much in hospital largely due to the fact I was ill but this was not helped by the meals which were served up, some how hot pepper soup doesn’t quite feel like the thing you want after a 24hr vomiting session. When I asked for plain food a rather strange dish called ‘Tom Brown’ appeared…for days I kept thinking this meal which is rather like a sour fermented porridge was called ‘Tom Jones’!!!
Anyway all’s well that ends well and I am now back at work taking it easy and I thank God for my health and that I had access to medical facilities.
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
Women - The world’s greatest untapped resource!?
The subject of this blog entry is simply ‘Women’ as it has been something fairly high on my work and personal agenda for the past few months, this whole issue has been mulling over in my mind and is something I continue to feel challenged, passionate and frustrated about.
Those who know me well will know that I am not a feminist by nature…in fact I think I have even been known to make comments which have enraged some slightly more feminist friends in the past!! But the plight of women here in Africa and indeed in all developing countries has come to be an issue which I am excited about and am trying to stay optimistic!!
VSO Ghana has currently been undertaking a gender audit to see how it includes women in its programmes and to what extent women are being empowered and allowed to develop, I have played a part in this audit and worked with some amazingly inspiring women who are fighting hard for this corner. This combined with much of my work being focused around helping disabled women get involved and set up their own businesses has really contributed to my interest in this area.
I have had the opportunity to see first hand how hard the average African woman works, no matter what level of society they are living in the woman is the power house of the family, she plays the role of mother, nurse, business woman, wife, cleaner, washer woman, cook, spiritual advisor and mediator to name just a few. Research has shown me that even in the most liberal of families, where the women is holding down a serious business job (perhaps even more demanding than her husbands) she is expected to come home from work and start preparing a home made supper with fresh ingredients while her husband rests. I have learnt that women are afraid of getting a ‘top job’ as it will make them unattractive to potential husbands who do not want a woman who will earn anything like what they can earn. I have learnt that a man wants to marry a woman younger than him so she will not challenge him, in fact a good friend of mine who is a journalist here from Cameroon was so shocked when I told him my parents were the same age he couldn’t stop laughing!
I have also learnt that attitudes are deep rooted, a research consultant presented some fairly alarming information about the lack of women in government here in Ghana suggested reasons such as women not voting for other women because they have been told women are incapable of leading, that a woman without a husband will never get voted in because she is unmarried there is something wrong with her and if a woman does have a husband she will bring disgrace on him if she is elected as she will be seen as the stronger party. What was perhaps more alarming than these research findings was the very man presenting the research with a PHD from the USA told us how he felt that women were not capable of dealing with the ‘mudslinging’ involved in politics!!!
You only have to look out of your window here in Africa and see a woman with a baby on her back selling oranges to know the ultimate working mother, these women work so hard. Moreover micro finance organizations in the developing world give over 80% of their services to women as it has been proved that women are far more trustworthy and industrious in making small businesses work than men.
On a recent trip to the north I went with my housemate to a ‘witches camp’, we travelled for hours to get to this remote place in a small village where women who are said to be ‘witches’ by their communities come to live, away from persecution. Before visiting the camp I read a number of reports, some very positive, some pretty horrific about this place, one report said that the women were prisoners here, another said that is was a sanctuary where these previously persecuted women could come and live in relative peace. A woman can be accused of being a witch because she has given birth to a disabled child or because her husband’s second wife is not getting pregnant…it seemed to me that none of these so called ‘witches’ were actually practicing witch craft, just another way men are oppressing women. Before I went I was told that the church had now got involved with this project and women were learning various skills such as soap making to help them earn a little money, unfortunately when we went it seemed this help had somehow finished… come on church don’t leave a job half finished!
Before we were allowed to see the camp we had to greet the chief and present him with kola nuts as is the tradition here, the chief could not speak English so we used a local girl (whom we had met whilst having lunch earlier) to translate. We entered to find a room full of men sat on the floor and as 3 women before them it was fairly intimidating, we were given chairs to sit on and asked what our business was there, after a few minutes of my over enthusiastic flattery we were allowed to enter as long as we were accompanied by the elders. So off we went to meet the women and see how they live. The was one of those slightly uncomfortable experiences for many reasons, most notably the presence of the elders (many of whom were drunk) who kept telling us not to ask the women questions and rather annoyingly the chief’s son who kept making a pass at our 16 year old interpreter who was clearly distressed. The women seemed happy enough in the camp and greeted us with smiles full of joy, but I couldn’t help feeling that these men who ‘allowed’ them to be there were complete creeps…it was either a business opportunity to get cheap labour in the form of persecuted women or goodness knows what but we both came away feeling uncomfortable. Before we left we made sure that we told our 16 year old female interpreter to stay well away from those men and to tell her mother!
So I conclude that women might possibly be the ‘The world’s greatest untapped resource’, if more women can be educated and empowered to get formal jobs outside of petty trading the economy will develop, if more women can get involved in politics then they (given their proven honesty with loans) may help Africa with it’s deep rooted corruption, if more men can be educated about women as equal citizens then the all too common horror stories you hear about domestic violence and sexual harassment will be lessened .
So what can we practically do….that one I’m still trying to figure out…but I want to help I really do…but like all things the starting place is our own hearts, we must check our own actions and opinions to make sure we are practicing what we preach, probably one of the biggest lessons I have learnt so far in Ghana, that our thoughts and actions in the ‘small small’ things are vitally important in the bigger picture.
Those who know me well will know that I am not a feminist by nature…in fact I think I have even been known to make comments which have enraged some slightly more feminist friends in the past!! But the plight of women here in Africa and indeed in all developing countries has come to be an issue which I am excited about and am trying to stay optimistic!!
VSO Ghana has currently been undertaking a gender audit to see how it includes women in its programmes and to what extent women are being empowered and allowed to develop, I have played a part in this audit and worked with some amazingly inspiring women who are fighting hard for this corner. This combined with much of my work being focused around helping disabled women get involved and set up their own businesses has really contributed to my interest in this area.
I have had the opportunity to see first hand how hard the average African woman works, no matter what level of society they are living in the woman is the power house of the family, she plays the role of mother, nurse, business woman, wife, cleaner, washer woman, cook, spiritual advisor and mediator to name just a few. Research has shown me that even in the most liberal of families, where the women is holding down a serious business job (perhaps even more demanding than her husbands) she is expected to come home from work and start preparing a home made supper with fresh ingredients while her husband rests. I have learnt that women are afraid of getting a ‘top job’ as it will make them unattractive to potential husbands who do not want a woman who will earn anything like what they can earn. I have learnt that a man wants to marry a woman younger than him so she will not challenge him, in fact a good friend of mine who is a journalist here from Cameroon was so shocked when I told him my parents were the same age he couldn’t stop laughing!
I have also learnt that attitudes are deep rooted, a research consultant presented some fairly alarming information about the lack of women in government here in Ghana suggested reasons such as women not voting for other women because they have been told women are incapable of leading, that a woman without a husband will never get voted in because she is unmarried there is something wrong with her and if a woman does have a husband she will bring disgrace on him if she is elected as she will be seen as the stronger party. What was perhaps more alarming than these research findings was the very man presenting the research with a PHD from the USA told us how he felt that women were not capable of dealing with the ‘mudslinging’ involved in politics!!!
You only have to look out of your window here in Africa and see a woman with a baby on her back selling oranges to know the ultimate working mother, these women work so hard. Moreover micro finance organizations in the developing world give over 80% of their services to women as it has been proved that women are far more trustworthy and industrious in making small businesses work than men.
On a recent trip to the north I went with my housemate to a ‘witches camp’, we travelled for hours to get to this remote place in a small village where women who are said to be ‘witches’ by their communities come to live, away from persecution. Before visiting the camp I read a number of reports, some very positive, some pretty horrific about this place, one report said that the women were prisoners here, another said that is was a sanctuary where these previously persecuted women could come and live in relative peace. A woman can be accused of being a witch because she has given birth to a disabled child or because her husband’s second wife is not getting pregnant…it seemed to me that none of these so called ‘witches’ were actually practicing witch craft, just another way men are oppressing women. Before I went I was told that the church had now got involved with this project and women were learning various skills such as soap making to help them earn a little money, unfortunately when we went it seemed this help had somehow finished… come on church don’t leave a job half finished!
Before we were allowed to see the camp we had to greet the chief and present him with kola nuts as is the tradition here, the chief could not speak English so we used a local girl (whom we had met whilst having lunch earlier) to translate. We entered to find a room full of men sat on the floor and as 3 women before them it was fairly intimidating, we were given chairs to sit on and asked what our business was there, after a few minutes of my over enthusiastic flattery we were allowed to enter as long as we were accompanied by the elders. So off we went to meet the women and see how they live. The was one of those slightly uncomfortable experiences for many reasons, most notably the presence of the elders (many of whom were drunk) who kept telling us not to ask the women questions and rather annoyingly the chief’s son who kept making a pass at our 16 year old interpreter who was clearly distressed. The women seemed happy enough in the camp and greeted us with smiles full of joy, but I couldn’t help feeling that these men who ‘allowed’ them to be there were complete creeps…it was either a business opportunity to get cheap labour in the form of persecuted women or goodness knows what but we both came away feeling uncomfortable. Before we left we made sure that we told our 16 year old female interpreter to stay well away from those men and to tell her mother!
So I conclude that women might possibly be the ‘The world’s greatest untapped resource’, if more women can be educated and empowered to get formal jobs outside of petty trading the economy will develop, if more women can get involved in politics then they (given their proven honesty with loans) may help Africa with it’s deep rooted corruption, if more men can be educated about women as equal citizens then the all too common horror stories you hear about domestic violence and sexual harassment will be lessened .
So what can we practically do….that one I’m still trying to figure out…but I want to help I really do…but like all things the starting place is our own hearts, we must check our own actions and opinions to make sure we are practicing what we preach, probably one of the biggest lessons I have learnt so far in Ghana, that our thoughts and actions in the ‘small small’ things are vitally important in the bigger picture.
Thursday, 15 April 2010
April the month of celebrations!
For me the month of April has always filled with great excitement and joy, I have many fond memories of my childhood In April, seeing flowers budding up from the ground, hearing the birds start singing in the morning, smelling the distinct smell of hot cross buns and mown grass, walking home from church carrying palm crosses on Palm Sunday, making chocolate crispy cakes with mini eggs and of course eating Easter eggs!!
It is hardly surprising that April is one of my favorite months of the year given the fact it contains not only the celebration of Easter but also my birthday! This year I turned 25 in Ghana. Being overseas on my birthday is not an unusual experience for me; in fact I think I can remember more birthdays in foreign places than I can in the UK but being away from friends and family on ‘the big day’ was a new one for me, it is fair to say that thanks to so many people who sent birthday wishes, gifts, money and cards I felt truly loved and had a great day (thank you everyone!). My friends here in Ghana also made it one to remember!!
The day started with my new housemate preparing a lovely surprise birthday breakfast before I headed off the Saloon for a little birthday treat of highlights, hair cut and a facial. It has taken me 6 months to find a saloon in Ghana which I trusted to dye my hair and I settled on a lady in my neighborhood who did a fantastic job. I was slightly worried when she looked at my skin and asked me ‘Do you take plenty Mango’ (Plenty is used here in day to day language to mean ‘a lot’ or ‘many’, for instance you might say ‘That man has plenty money’ or ‘Please add plenty pepper to my food’. The opposite of plenty being ‘small’ or if you want to convey a very little amount you may say ‘small small’, for example my response to the mango question was ‘small small’. The word take is also used more often that not to mean ‘eat’). I could not for the life of me understand why she was asking me if I ate a lot of mango, I guess I eat around once a week or something…she said I needed to ‘take’ more cucumber and coconut…oookkk I thought to myself…where can I buy cucumber!! ??
The evening was spent with some other VSO friends eating supper at our apartment before heading on to a party of a friend of mine who works for US Embassy…most of us VSO’s had not seen a free bar for a pretty long time, needless to say a fair amount of cocktails were consumed before heading on to my favorite nightclub in Accra for some dancing. We made our way home at around 5am…a great effort for some of my friends who are in their 40’s!!
Easter was spent in the Upper West region of Ghana with a great group of girls of all ages and nationalities. After a VSO conference in the north 6 of us headed to a place on the boarder of Burkina Faso to canoe down a river and watch hippos from the boats. Getting there was pretty much the most hairy bus journey of my life, 7hrs down dirt tracks in un road worthy vehicles needs no embellishment, use your imagination…it was shocking! We slept in a tree in the forest and took our own picnic supper and breakfast. Easter Sunday was spent in the village of Nadowli at an Irish friend’s place who is really living and working in a remote area as a teacher. We attended church on Easter Sunday, it was all in the local language of Dagaree but we felt the sense of celebration during the music and dances. It was great fun to dance with the children who were delighted to see us. No Easter Sunday lunch of spring roast lamb for me this year but a meal of Fufu and light soup washed down with Pito (local brew) at a local’s house was a real joy! (The highlight being asked to hold the new born baby whilst the mother prepared food!)
In other more practical news there has been a number of likes and dislikes this month summarized as follows!
Likes
• Working on a number of projects to develop the relationship between USAID and Ghana National Association of the Deaf
• Holding a successful meeting of deaf women in business and reaching a number of important decisions!
• Attending my first piece of performance art in Ghana
• Receiving a few birthday delights in the post!
Dislikes
• Being without water for 10 days
• Having constant power cuts in the office
• Waking up to find a cockroach walking over by body!
• Being unable to sort out a postal vote for the May 6th elections due to postal service issues!
It is hardly surprising that April is one of my favorite months of the year given the fact it contains not only the celebration of Easter but also my birthday! This year I turned 25 in Ghana. Being overseas on my birthday is not an unusual experience for me; in fact I think I can remember more birthdays in foreign places than I can in the UK but being away from friends and family on ‘the big day’ was a new one for me, it is fair to say that thanks to so many people who sent birthday wishes, gifts, money and cards I felt truly loved and had a great day (thank you everyone!). My friends here in Ghana also made it one to remember!!
The day started with my new housemate preparing a lovely surprise birthday breakfast before I headed off the Saloon for a little birthday treat of highlights, hair cut and a facial. It has taken me 6 months to find a saloon in Ghana which I trusted to dye my hair and I settled on a lady in my neighborhood who did a fantastic job. I was slightly worried when she looked at my skin and asked me ‘Do you take plenty Mango’ (Plenty is used here in day to day language to mean ‘a lot’ or ‘many’, for instance you might say ‘That man has plenty money’ or ‘Please add plenty pepper to my food’. The opposite of plenty being ‘small’ or if you want to convey a very little amount you may say ‘small small’, for example my response to the mango question was ‘small small’. The word take is also used more often that not to mean ‘eat’). I could not for the life of me understand why she was asking me if I ate a lot of mango, I guess I eat around once a week or something…she said I needed to ‘take’ more cucumber and coconut…oookkk I thought to myself…where can I buy cucumber!! ??
The evening was spent with some other VSO friends eating supper at our apartment before heading on to a party of a friend of mine who works for US Embassy…most of us VSO’s had not seen a free bar for a pretty long time, needless to say a fair amount of cocktails were consumed before heading on to my favorite nightclub in Accra for some dancing. We made our way home at around 5am…a great effort for some of my friends who are in their 40’s!!
Easter was spent in the Upper West region of Ghana with a great group of girls of all ages and nationalities. After a VSO conference in the north 6 of us headed to a place on the boarder of Burkina Faso to canoe down a river and watch hippos from the boats. Getting there was pretty much the most hairy bus journey of my life, 7hrs down dirt tracks in un road worthy vehicles needs no embellishment, use your imagination…it was shocking! We slept in a tree in the forest and took our own picnic supper and breakfast. Easter Sunday was spent in the village of Nadowli at an Irish friend’s place who is really living and working in a remote area as a teacher. We attended church on Easter Sunday, it was all in the local language of Dagaree but we felt the sense of celebration during the music and dances. It was great fun to dance with the children who were delighted to see us. No Easter Sunday lunch of spring roast lamb for me this year but a meal of Fufu and light soup washed down with Pito (local brew) at a local’s house was a real joy! (The highlight being asked to hold the new born baby whilst the mother prepared food!)
In other more practical news there has been a number of likes and dislikes this month summarized as follows!
Likes
• Working on a number of projects to develop the relationship between USAID and Ghana National Association of the Deaf
• Holding a successful meeting of deaf women in business and reaching a number of important decisions!
• Attending my first piece of performance art in Ghana
• Receiving a few birthday delights in the post!
Dislikes
• Being without water for 10 days
• Having constant power cuts in the office
• Waking up to find a cockroach walking over by body!
• Being unable to sort out a postal vote for the May 6th elections due to postal service issues!
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
Visiting the Chief, Elephants and Crocodiles!
I decided to have a few ‘cultural’ experiences while in the north and my Kentish friend Samantha who is placed on the Ghana/Burkina Faso boarder took me to a nearby hilly area for an explore. I cannot tell you how delighted we were to find we had arrived on the day of the tribe’s annual festival!! A we pulled into the village there were many crowds of people all wearing colourful towels, dancing, chanting and waving what looked like hairy sticks in the air…we asked a local women who said we were most welcome to join in…as long as we took off our tops and adorn the toweling robes she would give us! Apparently the towel was part of the festival and you are showing respect by not sweating (how anyone would not sweat in the 40c + heat is beyond me but hey I guess the towel offered some sort of absorption! So we joined in and went over to see a whole crowd of men stomping their feet so much the earth churned up and a fine mist of dust covered them and the goat skins they were wearing – it was quite something.
We continued to enjoy the festival and got involved with some of the dancing, we couldn’t quite work out the purpose of the festival as not many participants spoke English but after a number of questions to a man who turned out to be the chief’s son we managed to understand the tribe were giving thanks to the ancestors who had kept them safe that year. The chief’s son took a bit of a shining to us and asked us if we wanted to see the chief’s palace where he lived, so off we trundled in our towels (mine was a Joseph’s Technicolor dream coat affair for those of you creating a visual picture!!). We met the chief, clad in goatskin who told us he had 17 wives and over 75 children! The chief’s palace was enormous and was home to 307 people. Of course the staple Ghanaian questions followed, ‘Are you married’ (to which more often than not I respond yes for an easy life!), this time however we decided to be honest and say no…this led to an invitation to stay for lunch, which was a great honor. We feasted on rice and some sort of unrecognizable meat dish with a smoky taste, served by a rather substantial wife adorned in what else but a towel! We washed our meal down with some locally brewed alcohol ‘Pito’ which the chief’s son gulped down thirstily as I sipped, conscious not to get drunk in the chief’s palace in the middle of the day wearing nothing but a towel! We were taken around the palace seeing a number of shrines with various dead animals sacrificed in front of them. Talking to the chief’s son I came to believe that the chief was a pretty good guy who ran his community well, people were allowed to chose who to marry, children both boys and girls were made to go to school and individuals could chose their religion, Christian, Muslim or ancestral worship. I left the village feeling like I had had a unique glimpse into an element of Ghanaian culture and was very grateful to the community who had opened themselves up to us.
I decided to make the most of a bank holiday weekend which fell while I was in the north and went with another British girl to Mole National Park for a safari, the park is in the middle of nowhere, hours down a dirt track but the trip was certainly worth it if not for the sky alone – the stars were incredible! We were lucky to see many elephants, baboons, crocodiles, antelope, warthogs and various other monkeys – the perfect way to end my trip!
We continued to enjoy the festival and got involved with some of the dancing, we couldn’t quite work out the purpose of the festival as not many participants spoke English but after a number of questions to a man who turned out to be the chief’s son we managed to understand the tribe were giving thanks to the ancestors who had kept them safe that year. The chief’s son took a bit of a shining to us and asked us if we wanted to see the chief’s palace where he lived, so off we trundled in our towels (mine was a Joseph’s Technicolor dream coat affair for those of you creating a visual picture!!). We met the chief, clad in goatskin who told us he had 17 wives and over 75 children! The chief’s palace was enormous and was home to 307 people. Of course the staple Ghanaian questions followed, ‘Are you married’ (to which more often than not I respond yes for an easy life!), this time however we decided to be honest and say no…this led to an invitation to stay for lunch, which was a great honor. We feasted on rice and some sort of unrecognizable meat dish with a smoky taste, served by a rather substantial wife adorned in what else but a towel! We washed our meal down with some locally brewed alcohol ‘Pito’ which the chief’s son gulped down thirstily as I sipped, conscious not to get drunk in the chief’s palace in the middle of the day wearing nothing but a towel! We were taken around the palace seeing a number of shrines with various dead animals sacrificed in front of them. Talking to the chief’s son I came to believe that the chief was a pretty good guy who ran his community well, people were allowed to chose who to marry, children both boys and girls were made to go to school and individuals could chose their religion, Christian, Muslim or ancestral worship. I left the village feeling like I had had a unique glimpse into an element of Ghanaian culture and was very grateful to the community who had opened themselves up to us.
I decided to make the most of a bank holiday weekend which fell while I was in the north and went with another British girl to Mole National Park for a safari, the park is in the middle of nowhere, hours down a dirt track but the trip was certainly worth it if not for the sky alone – the stars were incredible! We were lucky to see many elephants, baboons, crocodiles, antelope, warthogs and various other monkeys – the perfect way to end my trip!
Thursday, 11 March 2010
The North/South Divide
It was with a sense of great anticipation that I ventured ‘up north’ for the first time In Ghana. Being based in the southern capital the furthest north I had been was the old Ashanti capital of Kumasi (around 6hrs away) with the fantastic coastline to explore here in the south I had spent much of my spare time discovering Ghana’s palm fringed beaches and interesting, yet slightly uncomfortable slave forts. A work trip was to take me to Tamale (12hrs due north on the bus) and I decided to use that as a springboard to explore the regions which are imaginatively named ‘northern’ and ‘upper east’. I wanted to see and experience first hand the extreme differences between northern and southern Ghana which I had so often read and heard about.
I spent some time before my trip pondering the differences between the geographical areas in countries and indeed continents I was more familiar with. I thought about England and our very own north/south divide and the interesting quirks, differences in accent, food, the nuances in language and even to a certain extent cultural and social problems we have. We all know the jokes surrounding our status as either a ‘northern monkey’ or ‘southern fairy’ and having grown up in rural Lincolnshire (which I don’t think is altogether clear on its geographical status!) and having spent all my adult life ‘down south’, I am left quite unsure of my status as a northerner or southerner, I remain fiercely proud of my Lincolnshire roots but I’m told my accent is starting to sound less yokel and more yuppie these days.
In Ghana the vast majority of the countries industry, wealth and resources are based in the south with much of the northern population working as peasant farmers or petty traders it is hardly surprising that the statistics surrounding poverty, literacy and numbers of girls in education are appalling. Most families have over 10 children and many parents are unemployed. To say I wasn’t fully prepared for what I saw, the people I encountered and the challenges the north faces was an understatement. So I boarded the early morning bus (have had rather a late night) and was prepared for my trip. The buses in Ghana are jam-packed and very unreliable so I was advised to opt for the top class bus at the princely sum of just less than ten pounds for a 12hr trip I was not complaining. The bus was crammed full of people, sacks of tomatoes and yam and a few chickens. Next to me sat an old lady and what looked like a 6/7 year old girl who was placed between us and spent most of the journey sat on my right thigh! 6hrs into the trip we were out of the south and as we stopped for a comfort break I was captivated by the number of Muslim passengers who jumped off the buses to wash their feet with brightly colored teapots before kneeling down to pray. The south of Ghana is fiercely Christian but the north is mainly Muslim, amazingly these communities live in harmony with each other and respect one anothers faith. As we drove on the landscape became drier, the environment less humid and the road bumpier until is descended into mud tracks.
During my time in the north I stayed with many VSO’s who had arrived when I did and it was a joy and a comfort to spend time with them, hear about the experiences and challenges they were facing. One British couple I stayed with during my time had employed a house girl called Fati (short for Fatima) and I spent time getting to know her, riding on the back of her motorbike (the main mode of transport in the north). Fati is a positive young career woman, she should be seen as a shining light for Ghana’s future, holding down a job and bringing up a little girl, she has been able to buy her own motorbike and fund numerous visits to the beauty saloon. However my heart was burdened when she told me of the anger she felt towards men in her community who beat their girlfriends with their fists or their belts, this in itself is terrible but I was shocked when this sparky, educated woman told me that the men did not have a right to do it because they weren’t the husband, once you are married the man is allowed to beat his wife freely! We talked about leaving such men, but Fati told me that if you live as a single woman alone or with a child but no man you are thought to be a prostitute. Like so many situations I have seen in Ghana, these women are trapped in their circumstances and I fear the end is a long way in sight.
I went to stay with my Kenyan friend Sam in his mud hut in a very rural village; he is working on an agricultural project. I loved being out in the country (I guess that is the Lincolnshire in me?!). Sam introduced me to a Ghanaian friend of his, who when he heard I worked in the disability sector asked me how we can help his friend who has a disability he received when he suffered an attack with a machete. I was frustrated because in the south of Ghana I could have pointed him in the right direction, to the relevant support groups and potential opportunities for this young man, but in the north these systems and networks are so underdeveloped there was no one for him to turn to. I’d heard stories of disabled babies being killed or left to die as tradition says that disabled babies are a curse, after spending just 2 weeks in the north I could believe that his was true.
I had a fantastic time in the north, I loved it, despite temperatures reaching 44c and not an A/C unit in sight, and I came back refreshed, motivated and knowing more about this great country. But I have returned questioning, Ghana is supposed to be a beacon of hope and sustainability in West Africa, politically things are developing, the economy is growing and many say with the recent discovery of oil the future for Ghana is bright….that maybe so for the south where in the capital men are getting rich and fat, sushi bars are springing up, many have university degrees and are working professional jobs, the roads are full of 4x4’s and shops are selling flat screen TV’s. But elsewhere in the country children are still dying from diarrhea, women suffer at the hands of their husbands and men cannot grow enough crops in the climate to sell and feed their families. I returned feeling relaxed, yet somehow burdened… I’m not sure that was helped by my 14hr trip home through the night with no seat on the bus – I thank God for the lovely lady selling tomatoes who let me sleep in the aisle all the way back to Accra laying down on her precious tomatoes she was to sell at market the next day!
I spent some time before my trip pondering the differences between the geographical areas in countries and indeed continents I was more familiar with. I thought about England and our very own north/south divide and the interesting quirks, differences in accent, food, the nuances in language and even to a certain extent cultural and social problems we have. We all know the jokes surrounding our status as either a ‘northern monkey’ or ‘southern fairy’ and having grown up in rural Lincolnshire (which I don’t think is altogether clear on its geographical status!) and having spent all my adult life ‘down south’, I am left quite unsure of my status as a northerner or southerner, I remain fiercely proud of my Lincolnshire roots but I’m told my accent is starting to sound less yokel and more yuppie these days.
In Ghana the vast majority of the countries industry, wealth and resources are based in the south with much of the northern population working as peasant farmers or petty traders it is hardly surprising that the statistics surrounding poverty, literacy and numbers of girls in education are appalling. Most families have over 10 children and many parents are unemployed. To say I wasn’t fully prepared for what I saw, the people I encountered and the challenges the north faces was an understatement. So I boarded the early morning bus (have had rather a late night) and was prepared for my trip. The buses in Ghana are jam-packed and very unreliable so I was advised to opt for the top class bus at the princely sum of just less than ten pounds for a 12hr trip I was not complaining. The bus was crammed full of people, sacks of tomatoes and yam and a few chickens. Next to me sat an old lady and what looked like a 6/7 year old girl who was placed between us and spent most of the journey sat on my right thigh! 6hrs into the trip we were out of the south and as we stopped for a comfort break I was captivated by the number of Muslim passengers who jumped off the buses to wash their feet with brightly colored teapots before kneeling down to pray. The south of Ghana is fiercely Christian but the north is mainly Muslim, amazingly these communities live in harmony with each other and respect one anothers faith. As we drove on the landscape became drier, the environment less humid and the road bumpier until is descended into mud tracks.
During my time in the north I stayed with many VSO’s who had arrived when I did and it was a joy and a comfort to spend time with them, hear about the experiences and challenges they were facing. One British couple I stayed with during my time had employed a house girl called Fati (short for Fatima) and I spent time getting to know her, riding on the back of her motorbike (the main mode of transport in the north). Fati is a positive young career woman, she should be seen as a shining light for Ghana’s future, holding down a job and bringing up a little girl, she has been able to buy her own motorbike and fund numerous visits to the beauty saloon. However my heart was burdened when she told me of the anger she felt towards men in her community who beat their girlfriends with their fists or their belts, this in itself is terrible but I was shocked when this sparky, educated woman told me that the men did not have a right to do it because they weren’t the husband, once you are married the man is allowed to beat his wife freely! We talked about leaving such men, but Fati told me that if you live as a single woman alone or with a child but no man you are thought to be a prostitute. Like so many situations I have seen in Ghana, these women are trapped in their circumstances and I fear the end is a long way in sight.
I went to stay with my Kenyan friend Sam in his mud hut in a very rural village; he is working on an agricultural project. I loved being out in the country (I guess that is the Lincolnshire in me?!). Sam introduced me to a Ghanaian friend of his, who when he heard I worked in the disability sector asked me how we can help his friend who has a disability he received when he suffered an attack with a machete. I was frustrated because in the south of Ghana I could have pointed him in the right direction, to the relevant support groups and potential opportunities for this young man, but in the north these systems and networks are so underdeveloped there was no one for him to turn to. I’d heard stories of disabled babies being killed or left to die as tradition says that disabled babies are a curse, after spending just 2 weeks in the north I could believe that his was true.
I had a fantastic time in the north, I loved it, despite temperatures reaching 44c and not an A/C unit in sight, and I came back refreshed, motivated and knowing more about this great country. But I have returned questioning, Ghana is supposed to be a beacon of hope and sustainability in West Africa, politically things are developing, the economy is growing and many say with the recent discovery of oil the future for Ghana is bright….that maybe so for the south where in the capital men are getting rich and fat, sushi bars are springing up, many have university degrees and are working professional jobs, the roads are full of 4x4’s and shops are selling flat screen TV’s. But elsewhere in the country children are still dying from diarrhea, women suffer at the hands of their husbands and men cannot grow enough crops in the climate to sell and feed their families. I returned feeling relaxed, yet somehow burdened… I’m not sure that was helped by my 14hr trip home through the night with no seat on the bus – I thank God for the lovely lady selling tomatoes who let me sleep in the aisle all the way back to Accra laying down on her precious tomatoes she was to sell at market the next day!
Friday, 29 January 2010
Working away...
My work in Ghana is very varied and this week I have been called upon to travel out of town to a number of different locations for various reasons. I start this week in Akropong in the Eastern region of Ghana. I like it here because the climate is slightly gentler than that of Accra and the mosquitoes are certainly less hungry. The Eastern region is also where they grow the cocoa and mine diamonds and gold...what more could a girl want!? I’m here to work with the deaf members on writing the fundraising strategy for the next 5 years, rather a large piece of work a Danish donor has quite rightly requested to see, but no one here seems to understand why this is important despite my various attempts at presenting it in different ways!!! The reason I right about this is because of a disagreement which occurred this very morning. Many of you may have heard me mention my rather annoying boss who goes by the name of Mr Asamoah, he is in his 70’s and runs the organisation like a dictatorship, men in their 30’s are treated like the work experience student, staff wings are clipped or publically put down on a regular basis, the communications officer has to iron all his clothes and do his church administration for him and all he seems to do is listen to the radio and watch T.V at the same time oh yes and occasionally tell the deaf that they are stupid. So a little bit of a nightmare really, when I gently tried to ask about some issues to do with internal communications I felt that the organisation had, he shouted at me and then said to a colleague of mine in Twi (the local language, that I am only a small girl, but I am like all whites, so impatient and too demanding!!). So we have our work cut out trying to deal with this man...but I am not one to shy away from a challenge! This very morning the deaf themselves decided that they didn’t want him in their meeting, they didn’t need a welcome address from him (which more often than not is a fairly discouraging, disempowering message telling them how bad and unmotivated they all are – ironic to say the least!) I could not believe how Mr Asamoah reacted, like a small child he walked out of the meeting hall followed by 5 grown up men who listened and cooed as he threw his toys out of the pram (not because they wanted to but because he is their elder so they have to). He had to be coaxed back into taking part in the later stages of the meeting by them telling him how amazing he is, how much knowledge he has, how he has changed people’s lives etc, then a special table and chair had to be fetched for him to feel comfortable. I stayed well out of it all, all I wanted to say was that actually the organisation belongs to the deaf; they are well within their rights to say they didn’t want him in the meeting and actually it isn’t surprising given the way that he normally talks to them!
The frustration I used to feel about this man was enormous, the way that it is him himself who is standing in the way of the organisation making progress because he has to control EVERYTHING, from ordering stationary to allocating hotel rooms, making phone calls, he is incapable of letting others do their jobs properly and knows next to nothing about running an organisation and managing people! The staff are trapped, they see that he is behaving in an inappropriate way, they really care about the progress of the organisation but they have to bow down to him otherwise he will make their lives hell, he threatens people with the sack. So I have decided to focus on small wins, on training staff, on working with deaf members directly and bypassing him at the end of the day he does not control what I do, so I will look for other ways to make a difference and find satisfaction, my colleagues unfortunately are not so fortunate...
So things are looking up at work, I have had a fantastic few days travelling around the Eastern & Central regions meeting the deaf in the villages and small towns, improving my sign language and Twi and working out how together we can change things. There are a number of projects I am now chomping at the bit to get my teeth into, including managing a project training deaf women all over Ghana in hairdressing enabling them to set up their own small scale enterprises and raising funds for a partially completed bakery for the deaf in the beautiful town of Cape Coast right by the sea. I’ll be sure to tell you about these soon...
It just so happens that my travelling for work has coincided with the Africa Cup of Nations, a huge football tournament which has whipped Ghana into a frenzy as we are doing rather well. It has been hugely enjoyable to sit in local spots with people with a nice cold beer, watching the football and observing the ooohs and ahhs and screams of the Ghanaians and it has been amazing to see how the people react when the team wins, running through the streets wrapped in flags, car horns blaring, elderly people dancing uncontrollably...what fun! So Ghana play their rivals Nigeria on Thursday in the semi finals....the match is during office hours, I wonder what Mr Asamoah will do given his normal love for television...perhaps the office will be full of televisions and radios that day!!!
The frustration I used to feel about this man was enormous, the way that it is him himself who is standing in the way of the organisation making progress because he has to control EVERYTHING, from ordering stationary to allocating hotel rooms, making phone calls, he is incapable of letting others do their jobs properly and knows next to nothing about running an organisation and managing people! The staff are trapped, they see that he is behaving in an inappropriate way, they really care about the progress of the organisation but they have to bow down to him otherwise he will make their lives hell, he threatens people with the sack. So I have decided to focus on small wins, on training staff, on working with deaf members directly and bypassing him at the end of the day he does not control what I do, so I will look for other ways to make a difference and find satisfaction, my colleagues unfortunately are not so fortunate...
So things are looking up at work, I have had a fantastic few days travelling around the Eastern & Central regions meeting the deaf in the villages and small towns, improving my sign language and Twi and working out how together we can change things. There are a number of projects I am now chomping at the bit to get my teeth into, including managing a project training deaf women all over Ghana in hairdressing enabling them to set up their own small scale enterprises and raising funds for a partially completed bakery for the deaf in the beautiful town of Cape Coast right by the sea. I’ll be sure to tell you about these soon...
It just so happens that my travelling for work has coincided with the Africa Cup of Nations, a huge football tournament which has whipped Ghana into a frenzy as we are doing rather well. It has been hugely enjoyable to sit in local spots with people with a nice cold beer, watching the football and observing the ooohs and ahhs and screams of the Ghanaians and it has been amazing to see how the people react when the team wins, running through the streets wrapped in flags, car horns blaring, elderly people dancing uncontrollably...what fun! So Ghana play their rivals Nigeria on Thursday in the semi finals....the match is during office hours, I wonder what Mr Asamoah will do given his normal love for television...perhaps the office will be full of televisions and radios that day!!!
Back to Ghana
It was with a sense of great excitement that I returned to Ghana after 2 very festive weeks spent in the U.K, I was encouraged to see how much I looked forward to going back as coming home after only 3 months away it could have been very unsettling. As soon as I stepped off the plane the familiar surge of tropical heat hit me and as the smells of mangos, household soap, roasted plantain and sewage washed over me, I knew I was glad to be back.
I returned to my apartment to find that the hammatten had been and gone (winds bringing the sand down from the Sahara to west Africa) and had left a fine dust over everything, the mosquito screens and plastic slats I have for windows had not done much to shield the inside of my house so I spent the next day cleaning the place and getting settled back in.
I was delighted to find the women downstairs ready to great me and even insisted on carrying my suitcases from the car to my house for me, they told me about their Christmas break and were really pleased with the presents I had brought them, just some tea, biscuits, chocolates and some bits for the younger children. As I have alluded to before I am really happy in my apartment and the ladies that live downstairs certainly have a role to play in that. I live in a house, divided into 2 apartments, I Iive in the upstairs one which has 2 bedrooms and downstairs lives Agatha, Becky, Gladys and Sarah. Agatha is in her 30’s, Becky is 25 and Gladys is in her teens, they are all sisters and Sarah who is a very beautiful one year old belongs to Agatha. These ladies are always happy to great me, they look out for me and are concerned if I am later than normal or if they haven’t seen me for a few days, I often get a phone call asking if I am ok, or hear the younger girls calling at my door ‘Auntie Emily do you have...’. The sense of community in Ghana never ceases to amaze me, communal living is the norm, and people are always very surprised to hear that I live on my own. In the compound behind my house (which I can see directly into from my bedroom) live a number of families, or perhaps they are the same family, brothers and their wives and children. They live together in a small compound and from 4am (after I am woken by the call to prayer from the mosques in the nearby Muslim neighbourhood) you can hear them clattering around with pots and pans, peeling yam, feeding babies, washing clothes and rather annoyingly the men revving their taxis ready to start a day’s work, the way they live together is literally on top of each other but it almost makes me envious, perhaps that is the way we are supposed to live. In the west we tuck ourselves away in a little bolt hole which we may spent almost all our money on or spend years saving for a property for ourselves because someone once told us (and the media continues to tell us) that in this we will find security – how bizarre to think that security can be found in bricks and mortar!? Many of us in the west don’t even know our neighbours, let alone invite them in to their homes, for some this must be a lonely existence. I can’t help thinking that the Africans have got it right, their homes are where their community is, they share everything with their friends and families, eating, sleeping, washing, even birth and death – to me it seems to makes much more sense.....although I don’t always think that at 4am when someone has decided to rearrange the cooking pots outside my bedroom!!!
In Ghana life is public, there seems to be almost nothing which you would be embarrassed or uncomfortable with others seeing, from men and women urinating on the street, to mothers breast feeding whilst selling street food, to my boss greeting me in his vest (it is worth pointing out that this was whilst working out of town in a hotel). One Sunday evening I was just finishing my washing up thinking that I would have an early night when I hear some shouts and knocks at my door...’Auntie Emily’... it was the ladies from downstairs, they were concerned that they hadn’t seem me for a few days so they had come to greet me. I was only wearing a wrapper at the time (a fairly large piece of brightly printed cotton, which is worn wrapped around the body like a dress, many women wear them in the house because it is so hot, I would never want to be seen outside in this!), I wanted to change before answering the door, but there was not time. I opened the door and the ladies were so happy to see me they barged past me and came into my lounge, needless to say they were wearing similar things themselves so it didn’t matter that I was wearing this, in fact it probably helped. The ladies sat and we talked about some ‘small’ things as they would say here, but talking was not their objective, neither was tea, they were happy to sit and just be in each other’s company – it was truly a special moment for me, the fact that they were happy to just sit and be comfortable with me in my space indicated I was starting to become part of the community....
I returned to my apartment to find that the hammatten had been and gone (winds bringing the sand down from the Sahara to west Africa) and had left a fine dust over everything, the mosquito screens and plastic slats I have for windows had not done much to shield the inside of my house so I spent the next day cleaning the place and getting settled back in.
I was delighted to find the women downstairs ready to great me and even insisted on carrying my suitcases from the car to my house for me, they told me about their Christmas break and were really pleased with the presents I had brought them, just some tea, biscuits, chocolates and some bits for the younger children. As I have alluded to before I am really happy in my apartment and the ladies that live downstairs certainly have a role to play in that. I live in a house, divided into 2 apartments, I Iive in the upstairs one which has 2 bedrooms and downstairs lives Agatha, Becky, Gladys and Sarah. Agatha is in her 30’s, Becky is 25 and Gladys is in her teens, they are all sisters and Sarah who is a very beautiful one year old belongs to Agatha. These ladies are always happy to great me, they look out for me and are concerned if I am later than normal or if they haven’t seen me for a few days, I often get a phone call asking if I am ok, or hear the younger girls calling at my door ‘Auntie Emily do you have...’. The sense of community in Ghana never ceases to amaze me, communal living is the norm, and people are always very surprised to hear that I live on my own. In the compound behind my house (which I can see directly into from my bedroom) live a number of families, or perhaps they are the same family, brothers and their wives and children. They live together in a small compound and from 4am (after I am woken by the call to prayer from the mosques in the nearby Muslim neighbourhood) you can hear them clattering around with pots and pans, peeling yam, feeding babies, washing clothes and rather annoyingly the men revving their taxis ready to start a day’s work, the way they live together is literally on top of each other but it almost makes me envious, perhaps that is the way we are supposed to live. In the west we tuck ourselves away in a little bolt hole which we may spent almost all our money on or spend years saving for a property for ourselves because someone once told us (and the media continues to tell us) that in this we will find security – how bizarre to think that security can be found in bricks and mortar!? Many of us in the west don’t even know our neighbours, let alone invite them in to their homes, for some this must be a lonely existence. I can’t help thinking that the Africans have got it right, their homes are where their community is, they share everything with their friends and families, eating, sleeping, washing, even birth and death – to me it seems to makes much more sense.....although I don’t always think that at 4am when someone has decided to rearrange the cooking pots outside my bedroom!!!
In Ghana life is public, there seems to be almost nothing which you would be embarrassed or uncomfortable with others seeing, from men and women urinating on the street, to mothers breast feeding whilst selling street food, to my boss greeting me in his vest (it is worth pointing out that this was whilst working out of town in a hotel). One Sunday evening I was just finishing my washing up thinking that I would have an early night when I hear some shouts and knocks at my door...’Auntie Emily’... it was the ladies from downstairs, they were concerned that they hadn’t seem me for a few days so they had come to greet me. I was only wearing a wrapper at the time (a fairly large piece of brightly printed cotton, which is worn wrapped around the body like a dress, many women wear them in the house because it is so hot, I would never want to be seen outside in this!), I wanted to change before answering the door, but there was not time. I opened the door and the ladies were so happy to see me they barged past me and came into my lounge, needless to say they were wearing similar things themselves so it didn’t matter that I was wearing this, in fact it probably helped. The ladies sat and we talked about some ‘small’ things as they would say here, but talking was not their objective, neither was tea, they were happy to sit and just be in each other’s company – it was truly a special moment for me, the fact that they were happy to just sit and be comfortable with me in my space indicated I was starting to become part of the community....
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
3 Months in....
Please note that this was supposed to be updated before Christmas..whoops! A new one will come very soon.....
3 months in....
I must start this post with an apology for the late blog entry, I realise that it is well over a month since I last posted on here, but as I started out with this blog I decided that I wouldn’t become obsessive over it , feeling like I HAD to put in an entry. The reason why I haven’t updated anything on here for a while is that I have been really busy, busy living life I guess which after 3 months in a new environment can only be a good thing!
I have thought long and hard about a suitable subject to write about, there are so many things that have happened, many new exciting and (some) frustrating things. There have been numerous parties, weekends away, trips to the market, outings to the beach, achievements and challenges at work, new people met etc. But since today marks my 3rd month in Ghana and I have been doing a lot of reflecting of late I thought it might be nice to look back to some of my thoughts before I came out.
Many of you will know that the thought of living on my own in Accra was not something that appealed to me so much; in fact I even went as far as to request that this wouldn’t be the case. As it happens my flat mate Julia has returned to Kenya and I am now living in a 2 bed apartment on Mango Tree Avenue on my own. I wondered how I would feel about this; it is not so much the security situation which bothers me, far from it in fact coming back to my apartment in the small hours feels perfectly safe to me which is amazing. My concern about living on my own was more about being lonely, having no one to talk to about my day, no one to just spend the night in with, no one to sit in the dark with when the lights go out, no one to complain about the lack of water or stifling heat! However nearly 6 weeks in to living on my own I can declare that I am really enjoying it, the house is always clean and tidy, I can have friends over whenever I want, guests to stay for the weekend...the truth of the matter is that I never seem to be at home..I am always out and about and when I am in, my apartment is here as my sanctuary where I can relax and be alone. As I came out to Ghana, I imagined many nights in thinking about big questions, reading books, learning the guitar and sleeping early. For my first three months my feet haven’t touched the ground, it has been a whirlwind of new experiences and challenges and it has been brilliant. As I sit here typing this blog entry and packing for the holidays I can only think that my life in Ghana is only just getting started........
One of my hopes before coming out was that I would make friends with many Ghanaian ladies...in reality this has proved to be much more difficult than anticipated. I know that I have alluded to the friendliness and hospitality of nearly every Ghanaian I have met in previous blog posts and this is certainly true. Meeting and becoming friends with the men here has not been a problem, in fact it is almost the opposite, it is almost too easy and everyone you meet in the street seems to want to ‘take you as a friend’! It has been a real joy and a privilege to get to know some of these people...Perhaps not the ones you meet on the street! And they have been so kind to me. The fact of the matter is that most young Ghanaian women are not free like there are in the west; there is limited freedom on the money they make and the way that they spend your time. The men go out at weekends, the women stay at home, the men sit and drink in a ‘spot’ women only ever seem to be there accompanying them occasionally. They don’t seem to go on shopping trips, meet each other for coffee etc. This has made it hard to build relationships with women, you meet them, get on well with them but then you cannot meet up with them again as it isn’t really possible. To say that I haven’t met women is not entirely true, the running club has been a great opportunity to meet ladies and the family living below me are all women...perhaps I will tell you a little more about them in my next posting...
3 months in....
I must start this post with an apology for the late blog entry, I realise that it is well over a month since I last posted on here, but as I started out with this blog I decided that I wouldn’t become obsessive over it , feeling like I HAD to put in an entry. The reason why I haven’t updated anything on here for a while is that I have been really busy, busy living life I guess which after 3 months in a new environment can only be a good thing!
I have thought long and hard about a suitable subject to write about, there are so many things that have happened, many new exciting and (some) frustrating things. There have been numerous parties, weekends away, trips to the market, outings to the beach, achievements and challenges at work, new people met etc. But since today marks my 3rd month in Ghana and I have been doing a lot of reflecting of late I thought it might be nice to look back to some of my thoughts before I came out.
Many of you will know that the thought of living on my own in Accra was not something that appealed to me so much; in fact I even went as far as to request that this wouldn’t be the case. As it happens my flat mate Julia has returned to Kenya and I am now living in a 2 bed apartment on Mango Tree Avenue on my own. I wondered how I would feel about this; it is not so much the security situation which bothers me, far from it in fact coming back to my apartment in the small hours feels perfectly safe to me which is amazing. My concern about living on my own was more about being lonely, having no one to talk to about my day, no one to just spend the night in with, no one to sit in the dark with when the lights go out, no one to complain about the lack of water or stifling heat! However nearly 6 weeks in to living on my own I can declare that I am really enjoying it, the house is always clean and tidy, I can have friends over whenever I want, guests to stay for the weekend...the truth of the matter is that I never seem to be at home..I am always out and about and when I am in, my apartment is here as my sanctuary where I can relax and be alone. As I came out to Ghana, I imagined many nights in thinking about big questions, reading books, learning the guitar and sleeping early. For my first three months my feet haven’t touched the ground, it has been a whirlwind of new experiences and challenges and it has been brilliant. As I sit here typing this blog entry and packing for the holidays I can only think that my life in Ghana is only just getting started........
One of my hopes before coming out was that I would make friends with many Ghanaian ladies...in reality this has proved to be much more difficult than anticipated. I know that I have alluded to the friendliness and hospitality of nearly every Ghanaian I have met in previous blog posts and this is certainly true. Meeting and becoming friends with the men here has not been a problem, in fact it is almost the opposite, it is almost too easy and everyone you meet in the street seems to want to ‘take you as a friend’! It has been a real joy and a privilege to get to know some of these people...Perhaps not the ones you meet on the street! And they have been so kind to me. The fact of the matter is that most young Ghanaian women are not free like there are in the west; there is limited freedom on the money they make and the way that they spend your time. The men go out at weekends, the women stay at home, the men sit and drink in a ‘spot’ women only ever seem to be there accompanying them occasionally. They don’t seem to go on shopping trips, meet each other for coffee etc. This has made it hard to build relationships with women, you meet them, get on well with them but then you cannot meet up with them again as it isn’t really possible. To say that I haven’t met women is not entirely true, the running club has been a great opportunity to meet ladies and the family living below me are all women...perhaps I will tell you a little more about them in my next posting...
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