Random Thoughts, Observations, and Photographs

Interesting artwork.  On top at "Global Mammas"  underneath,  one of the many bottled water company's logos.

Want to check out a set of these before I leave!

There are several things going on in my daily life in Ghana that don’t actually warrant a complete blog entry on their own but are definitely worth mentioning.  As stated before these are my observations and interpretations of events and are not necessarily “facts”. 

Ø  I have an accent!!!  What a surprise to me.  I am a bit ethnocentric, OK a lot ethnocentric, and I figure everyone knows U.S. English is the “proper” way to speak the language.  Not considering that, being from the Pacific Northwest, I often have trouble understanding my Southern friends or that Northeastern hard “a” and missing “r”.    In Ghana, where English is the national language, people actually have trouble understanding me.  What???  I’ve been told, “Speak slowly and loudly and enunciate clearly".  Still, it is interesting how two people speaking English    have such a hard time understanding each other’s words.  I am, however, starting to get an ear for Ghanaian English and saying “huh?” much less often.  I am truly grateful for the helpfulness of the Ghanaian people.  If one person does not understand (either me or the other person) there is often a third person around who is able to translate. 

o   I should add here that there are at least 19 different tribal languages and several dialects of each language. Nearly every Ghanaian, in addition to English, speaks their tribal language and at least one other tribal language and many also speak French; pretty impressive. Sometimes though I am actually correct in assuming that two Ghanaians are “not even speaking English”.  

My Classmates:  Lisa, Kari, Tim, and Katy

Ø  People here “hiss” to get your attention.  It took a bit of getting used to.  There are a few other methods used for attracting my attention.  “Obroni” is, perhaps, the most common and the most effective considering I am usually the only “obroni” around.  Madame is used often and sometime sister. But my personal favorite is “Auntie”.  Seems that all women of a “certain age” are referred to as Auntie.  Whatever the cut off is for the “Auntie” stage of life it seems I have met the requirement.

 

o   A few comments on the words “obroni” and “obibini”; they have come to mean “white person” and “black person”.  Because I have an interest in Etymology and Morphology these two words caught my interest and I wanted to know more about them.  Research tells me that the original meaning of the words were “from away” and “from here”.  So, one could be black and not from Ghana and still be “obroni”.  Over time, with more connection to Europeans, the “from away” came to mean “white person”.   Is this true?  I don’t know, but I love it.    

Average day at the market

  Examples of various farm animals I no longer take picture of!!                                                                                                  

 

Ø  Goat, cow, chicken, sheep are all “free range” here.  Even in the cities!!  It is not uncommon to see cows being herded across busy streets or goat herds, at the end of the day, running down the road as if they know exactly where they are going and are in a hurry to get there.  These “farm animals” are actually a benchmark for me in my adjustment to life in Ghana.  For the first couple of weeks I would take out the camera every time I saw a cow and start snapping pictures – much to the amusement of the people around me.  Four weeks into the gig I just wind my way through the herd and keep on going.

Not sure  "wash me" will be enough for this one.

Abandoned car I pass each day on the way to work.

Ø  My skin seems a fascinating topic to some of the women here; probably the men, too, but the women are much more vocal in their “curiosity” and “opinions”.  Although familiar with white skin through a variety of mediums, especially television and film, I think that I may be the first white women that some have spent a significant amount of time around.  They have seen my skin color change over time.  They also observe that I am a “variety” of different colors:  pink when there is a slight burn, white where sun does not reach, and a variety of shades of tan depending on a particular body parts exposure to the sun.  I have been told that it is anywhere from “interesting”, “strange”, “unattractive”, "funny" to, my personal favorite, “ugly”.  One woman said that I should lie naked in the sun so that I would have one skin tone all over and it would look much nicer. 

o   After looking at my naked body in the mirror for a while I have to say that I am inclined to agree.  The various skin tones of my body are very noticeable and not very attractive; especially the blotchy areas where I have burned (despite liberal applications of 45 SPF) and began to peel.  The more uniform skin tone of the Ghanaian women is much more glamorous.

Light load today.

Ø  I’ve said a lot about tro-tro’s in previous posts.  I found out something about them that makes me admire the system even more.  Since I’ve been in Ghana, a whopping one month now, “petrol” prices have steadily increased.  The price has risen from about $4 per gallon (it’s sold in liters; had to do some math to figure out that one!) to around $4.50 per gallon.  Yet the tro-tro fares have not increased.  Since the fares are amazingly cheap – it costs me less than one dollar to get to work (35 cents) and back (25 cents) – I was surprised that the price has stayed the same.  It turns out that tro-tro's are “fixed priced” and any increases are determined at a governmental level.   The Ghanaian government subsidizes the system.  Drivers and their mates need to feed their families too!

o   Someone with a better understanding of economics may disagree with me but I think this is pretty amazing.  This subsidization of a major public mass transit system allows thousands, if not millions, of Ghanaians to be able to afford to get to work each day.  Although Ghana is considered a LEDC (Less Economic Developed Country) it is also recognized as the having the fastest growing economy in all of Western Africa.  My uninformed opinion is that the tro-tro system contributes significantly to this economic growth.  

Mmmmm, turkey.....

o   I have also become aware that this system of transportation is classist.  The family that I am staying with finds it very “amusing” that I am so fascinated with the tro-tro’s and “quaint” that I find the experience an adventure and quite a lot of fun.  My host’s 21 year old nephew has only ridden on a tro-tro three times in his entire life!!  They say that if I had to do it every day I would soon grow tired and purchase my own car (side note: car prices in Ghana are at least twice as much as in the U.S.).  No doubt this is true.  But it does not lessen my admiration of this system. 

Ø  Although I have lots of bits and pieces of Ghana running around in my head I think I will end with one last observation (I’ll have more random bits at a later time – if the internet gods allow).  There is a copious number of “Goodwill” type used clothing vendors around.  I’ve learned that used clothing is referred to by some as “Obroni wawu” which translates as “dead white man’s clothes”.  The source of this affordable clothing often comes from “charity” imports.   

These guys are everywhere and they are fast.

o   A result of the used clothing business I see shirts advertising all sorts of “things” and, I have found,  the wearer most often has absolutely no idea what they are advertising.  The shirt fit, was in good shape, and at the right price.  A few of my personal favorites:  a guy wearing a bowling shirt for some team called the Red Devils and the name “Shirley” embroidered over the left front pocket, a kid wearing a Spiderman t-shirt and having no idea who Spiderman is, a tro-tro mate wearing a Walmart vest and using the pockets to hold change, a guy wearing a soccer team shirt from Wichita, Kansas (my home state), and a woman wearing a Top Ramen shirt. 

o   One t-shirt actually had the power to make me homesick.  It said, “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die.”  A football (soccer) playing pre-teen boy was wearing this shirt and I have little doubt that he had no idea who William Goldman is let alone read his book or seen the movie, The Princess Bride, yet it brought a pang of homesickness that nearly brought me to my knees.  This is my one of my best friend’s favorite movies and I love it, too.  I miss you, Laurie.  Thanks for taking care of my boys!!!!

Pond near where I live in Mataheko.

Cute little goat scratching its back on farm equipment

o   Another made me realize that the universe works in some mysterious ways.  The shirt a young woman was wearing congratulated the owner of the shirt on 10 gallons of blood donated at the Akron, Ohio Blood Bank.  A little over 78 years ago an event happened in that same U.S. city that saved the lives of countless people all over the world; including my own.