Dis be Ghana...

observations..

(see the picture to the left...betcha most of the people who read this blog won't know what it means but someday i will do a photo essay on the toys of Ghanaian children...blows your mind..everything from sardine cans on 'wheels' to leaves on the end of a stick as windmills..makes you really think)

Take 1...Like most of us who are living the life in Ghana, i try to ignore the bugs. They're (probably ) not going to kill me and there is no way that i can avoid them or make them go away. And so, one tries to pretend they don't exist.

But all my life (the US part) i have HATED these big brown flying cockroaches..i remember first encountering them one strange afternoon working in the garden in Minneapolis and they scared the bejeebers out of me then.

In Houston, of course, they're part of the rich fabric of Texan swamp life and i spent quite a few dollars and hours trying to beat back that brown tide. They are scary..they're big, they're tough, they're arrogant..and they intimidate me!

So i wasn't too happy to find out that they're an ever-present here in Ghana..not as populous as Houston, tho that might be because there are so many other bugs here.

They're bad enough outside, when i will sling rocks and blocks of concrete, mangoes, coconuts at them but inside the 'house' they can drive me bonkers.

They are fairly large here..probably bigger than in Texas...what ...bigger than in Texas!!! but fortunately they are just as dumb as their Occidental cousins (i live on the right-hand side of the Greenwich Meridian) and if one pursues doggedly then one can usually win through.

Last week, in the late evening, i was pecking away at my laptop when i saw this 'thing' scuttling across the lino. Massive, huge, massive..so i went after it ...dodging in and out the furniture (what furniture..two counters/tables, two plastic chairs and a stool that cost me $2.50..oh yes, plus the sometime fridge) i chased after it. Whacking it wasn't so easy so i got my can of Raid and blasted away like it was a video game. Bugger...it doesn't even slow it down and i drenched the sucker. And again...and i hate the smell of Raid and i'm sure i'm allergic to its toxins even if the cockroaches aren't.

But with Raid i finally got the sucker and killed it!!!

I cornered it and used the can to beat it to death! Another victory for modern technology.

Take 2.. Ghanaian workmanship (we unfortunately can't call it craftmanship). My work in the library covers a wide range of tasks,needs, etc and recently has involved getting people in to do some carpentry..lowering the table-tops/counters in the computer room so that we (me and the children/users can actually type comfortably). They did a sort of OK job..sort of OK...but when they did the lowering they left holes in the ..nope, not plaster (we don't use that here)..in the concrete and their tasks and skills didn't run to patching them. So i called in the mason... nah, if you want to knock down the wall and build a new one, he's your man, but delicate patching isn't his bag. So we called in a painter...patch the holes, paint over them.

Well, first thing you learn is that when you employ a craftsman, you have to front him all the money to 'prepare' for the job..so for the 'painter' that was money to buy sandpaper, paint, paintbrushes, and before i was finished i had to supply the masking tape. And i had to give him the 1.20 ghana cedis ($0.80) to go to the next town to buy the stuff.

He wasn't really very good, tho he worked cheap but the funny part was his process for patching the holes which were really just large screw holes in concrete. he has a quick-drying plaster compound which he mixed and proceeded to apply with his fingers!!! Well, yes, i could have bought him a spackling knife too...but he didn't ask!!

It took all day partially because odds and sods would wander in to sit and chat with him.

Everything is relative, of course, but his work was fairly awful, and despite the masking tape ..very messy.

But cheap..he worked (sort of) from 0700 to 1600 and his fee was 50 Ghana cedis..(about $37).

It's a trade-off..try hiring a painter for 9 hours work in the US for $4 an hour!!!! But you gets wot you pays for..when i go back home for R&R in June (less than 100 days!!!!) i will stock up at Home Depot with an interesting set of 'stuff')

So then yesterday in the library ..about 4 p.m...i was sitting at the Librarian's desk..and there were few serious users/students still reading..when suddenly there was this almighty crash from across the library!

A fluorescent light fixture had come crashing down...missed a student by less than three feet.

Now that is the serious downside of Ghanaian workmanship..cheap Chinese fittings and sub-standard (wot standard!!!!!) finishing. Happened once..will it happen again??? Liability, Accident Insurance?? Uh, wot, are you kidding!!! Sigh.....

Take 3..my Ewe (native Volta region language) skills are laughable (tho it must be said that anytime i exercise my 20-30 word vocabulary, the locals love it..but a conversation? impossible! (oh my goodness, i hope that PC don't read this....after all they declared that i tested out at 'Intermediate-Mid' in my PST language tests!! Could they have been so wrong!!)

They love it when i throw in a startled 'Ex(oh) asi!!!!' when they quote me a price in the market..the older the market ladies are, they more they cackle!! and by and large, you get some kind of break..price or they will throw in some extras..tomatoes, okra (okra..he lies..he's been buying it for months and never tried cooking it yet!!)

But more and more...i find myself speaking with the people in the street..tho not people at the Library or in meetings with the 10-20 people with whom i socially and professionally interact in Whuti (WH-oo-teee) ..and perhaps children in general...in a vague 'pidgin english'. Where you say things like...where you go? i go Accra, i go Anloga. i buy eggs...how much (nenie)? you help me carry? why you no fish today? i buy this or that!

It reduces life/survival to its basics which is fair enough.

In a way it is the 'basics' level of life in Whuti that i feel most comfortable with..i generally feel less comfortable with Ghana when i go up to PC or just to Accra.

The life that has me run every day at the beach..that has me haul rope with the fishermen a couple of times a week.. that has me walk through the community and wave, slap hands with more children than ever, that makes me make women laugh when i pantomine carrying stuff on my head, that works with children of all ages every day in the library , that spoofs when they sing yevu, we love you ..that lets me sit with Miss 9-year old who can't read and help her with D-O-G.

..would it be better if i spoke Ewe..probably........................won't happen!

But do i feel comfortable speaking 'pidgin english',...no, big-time..NO!

Take 4.....

ah, Thomas' favourite subject..

peeing.....

hard to get used to..hard to ignore..hard to figure.

both men and women 'pee' standing up???

and i suppose that there really is such a scarcity of toilets that the nearest patch of open ground becomes the 'place'.

There is one (sort-of ) public toilet in Whuti ..but it has fallen into disrepair. I'm amazed that 'we' built this swish 2,800 sq ft Library with no toilet facilities. I feel embarassed when in our long meetings there with the chiefs and elders, generally including a couple of women, people will exit and go behind or alongside the library.

Travelling or walking through the community you see so many people..men, women, children that you realise that they don't think twice about it..the side of the road is for peeing...that's it.

I've even seen (and sat beside!) women who will open the window of the tro-tro and will have their little boys pee out of the window!!!

Dis be Ghana..so imagine my surprise when i went to the public 'washrooms' in the Accra Mall and not only were they flush toilets, etc but there was a washroom attendant with his little saucer out of tips!!!!

Truly from the ridiculous to the sublime.

that's it..nothing heavy..Dis be Ghana1