10August2010 Musings

Blog..10 AUGUST 2010

I often ask myself..for you, my enraptured readers..whether Ghana is beautiful.

If i had come here as a tourist for a three or four week trip then i might be able to say..Yes, Ghana is indeed beautiful; its slave castles, and hardly-visited national parks are indeed beautiful; and the birds and animals in the parks and sanctuaries are marvelous and so approachable..and the Ghanaian beaches are a little-known treasure ..and the food if one works at finding the right places is surprisingly good..and the sale of all these English biscuits..Rich Tea, Bourbon, Digestives..is really quite quaint! One could do three weeks in Ghana and see and do all these things without spending any time in crazy traffic-jammed Accra or having to brave the tro-tro transportation system..and one could even get by without trying fufu, banku or..grasscutter!

But that isn’t what happened...and so, perforce, the answer might be different..especially since i’ve never seen the slave forts or the national parks and i’m sure that i’ve never been to any of the ’right’ places to eat ...and i do have to endure the tro-tro’s and I do eat fufu and banku..and even grasscutter (..tastes just like chicken!).

But what i might not be able to rave about visiting as a tourist would be the people..meeting them as a a tourist would they be as friendly, as welcoming, as smiling, as helpful? Maybe not.

I can definitely say that the Ghanaians are beautiful people! I’ve known this from my first days here. It is true across the board, all ages, all the parts of the country that I’ve been in so far. More Akwaaba’s (Welcome) than one could imagine..from total strangers or new friends. More smiles of greeting than one would have thought possible ..even makes me smile in response! So, for example, going running in the morning is a constant smiling, waving, welcoming exercise! The total workout.

The Ghanaians are without a doubt both the friendliest and (apparently) the happiest people I’ve ever met...and this is true across the country. They are unreserved about their joy to see us and to meet us and to talk to us..and this is true of all the PC staff also..and that’s kind of nice too.

As for the country, i would say that i’m too close to it now and its people to be able to assess its beauty!

There are trees and views down red roads and mist-covered hills and outcrops that are rapidly becoming so familiar and unforgettable..and there will be the amazing 25 miles of beach at Whuti..sometimes foggy off the sea in the early morning until the sun burns it off...long views of huge palm trees peering through the fog in the distance.

To some extent I’ve stopped seeing the mess that the villages and towns and cities are in...half-complete buildings, ruins, delapidation, culverts along the roads as rudimentary drainage and sewage systems, buildings, shacks really, or stands that are put together any old way and are falling apart from the day that they are built...piles of stones, rubble, sand for some forgotten project, holes in the ground, terrible roads, asphalt patched with packed dirt, too much plastic garbage in the villages and towns and along the roads....tumbledown, falling apart, never properly completed, wireless towers growing like weeds, TV aerials on 20-foot bamboos lashed to each house. In truth there is very little redeemable in the current state of Ghana’s villages, towns and cities...and the roads in between...but at night, with limited street lighting, and with the flames of street food vendors, and the smiles of the people in the streets, it all seems very exotic.

I don’t know if i will ever think of Ghana as beautiful but i think it will always be exotic and welcoming and fascinating to