Ghana be fun...

International Vibrations

To make up for having been very quiet on the blog front over the last few weeks this week has been packed of fun and adventure.  Starting off on Friday night with a Diwali party.  This sounded like a fantastic event, good food, pretty clothes, fireworks, lanterns, interesting company- what a great way to spend a Friday night. I then got to thinking that I am getting old because I spent a large part of time before the party, whilst I was getting ready, thinking, “it starts at 8:30, which means food won’t be served until 9:00…” Looking back… but we live and learn.

Traffic in Accra is something else.  I have never experienced anything quite like it, the roads are often hit and miss as to whether they even count as roads, they are bumpy, muddy and a mish mash of higgledy piggledy streets.  There is, to my mind, no rhyme or reason to the system.  People drive wherever they want, whenever they want, and they seem to create extra lanes or reverse direction of traffic flow at will.  Just because you know you have been on a stretch of road already it does not mean that half an hour later it will 

a. still be there, or 

b. be flowing in the same direction.  

It doesn’t help that drivers seem to have no regard for personal safety, no regard for their vehicle, and very little awareness of the size of their vehicle in relation to spaces and gaps in the traffic.

It was thus with a little trepidation that a convoy of four cars, mainly containing Americans  and Europeans set off for the party, led by a native Ghanaian who was driving in a very un-Ghanaian way, and who was very aware that his boss and his boss’s boss were depending on him to ensure they (and their cars) arrives safetly.

So, a little after 8:00pm the convoy of cars started the journey.  By 8:30pm we hadn’t gotten very far.  The traffic was stop start and despite avoiding and ignoring many road signs, driving the wrong way down the street, and blatantly taking no through roads (which actually were through roads) we were not really a great deal closer to our destination than we had been at 8:00pm.  Given the cultural background of most of the occupants in the cars we were starting to get nervous.  It was after all due to start at 8:30pm.  How rude would we seem turning up so late?

Anyway, arrive we finally did- after a few detours, taking the scenic route and parking, very close to a gutter (I was very glad it wasn’t me driving) at about 9:10pm.  Just as expected the decorations were beautiful, the hosts had on gorgeous clothes, and the lights were dancing prettily.  It was also very empty… come 11:00pm when everyone else was arriving the food was served.  My worry about eating at 9:00pm was blown out of the water; but it was very much worth the wait.  It was amazing.  A variety of curries, naan, samosas, rice…. And great company all led to a very enjoyable evening.  I can’t wait until next year.

Saturday morning was not a welcome alarm call, particularly in view of the late night on Friday, but needs must and school was waiting.  It was International Festival Day!  There were over 40 counties represented in the parade, people often wearing national dress, or having gotten together to organize uniforms for their representatives.   The African nations really outdid themselves in the costume department.  They had such a huge variety of color and pattern, beautiful rich fabrics, I was also very jealous of some of the Asian national costumes too- beautiful kimonos from Japan… next year I am thinking of changing my allegiance based entirely on who has the best costume.  Then a again some of the food was amazing too!

Every country/ area had created a food tent and shared some of their national dishes.  I really wasn’t aware that I could eat that much and that variety of food at that time in the morning, and as people keep pointing out, I am very fixated by food.  Thus, before 11am I had eaten and enjoyed breakfast in Canada, mid-morning snack in South Africa, lunch in the USA, afternoon tea in Great Britain, antipasto in Italy, dinner in Lebanon, dessert in Israel, cheese course in France and chocolate from Belgium.

All countries represented had a flag and a chance to issue a greeting in their native language.  It was the oldest student in school for each country who carried the flag, and with some of the larger groups (149 students come from US Embassy related families) this fell to Grade 12 students; it was fantastic to see the youngest students also joining in with many elementary age students taking to the stage and issuing greetings whilst proudly waving their nation's flag.  Ghana did themselves proud by not only leading the procession but also including a dance number and continued drumming as they left the stage and started the congregation on the field.

I’m not at all sure the “flag running” was planned, or whether one or two too many students had consumed too much sugar in the sun, and just took off running in a large circle with the flags held high, but it led to an effective end to the amazing display of dance and drumming.  Ghanaian dance is as diverse as its music and its drumming, which I have previously pondered. Each ethnic group has their own traditional dances and there are different dances for different occasions. There are dances for celebrations, storytelling, etc and I am sorry to say I have no idea of exactly what I was watching.  I really should make it a priority next week to find out.   

Saturday evening was the turn of the Halloween party!  I have never been to Halloween party quite like this one before.  I am getting the feeling that Ghana doesn’t really do Halloween, and indeed a lot of the expat groups don’t really seem to participate in Halloween either-which could explain a lot! 

For starters, costumes were much of the British house party variety, or at least the sort I remember from growing up.  Very much down the withes, vampire, pirate, ghost route, and very unlike the Halloween in the US where ANY costume counts and those with a clever twist are generally appreciated.   Here- keep it obvious and keep it supernaturally evil.

So, the evening started off as a small house party gathering and then headed to Champs at about 10:00pm.  By day champs is a sports bar, and on a Sunday it serves a good Sunday lunch (well good at the minute, it can be a bit hit and miss in quality).   Even at 10:00pm I think our small group were the first or second people to arrive. The staff had blood-dripping T-shirts on, the decorations were scary and ghost like, skeletons and severed heads hanging from the ceiling, the shots all had appropriately vile names, BUT the soccer was still playing.  In fact the soccer would remain on all night.  Slightly strange in and of itself, but even more weird when they added ABBA, and Michael Jackson over the top, karaoke (not necessarily the same as the song the DJ had playing) and some VERY Ghanaian dance moves.  I have never before seen Ghanaian dancing done to Thriller.

I guess right in the spirit for Halloween was the eclectic-ness of the party.  There was a huge range of people there.  I would guess the majority of them were expats, some in full on costumes, some in face paint, some local Ghanaians who seemed to want a regular karaoke night out and had come in proper going out clothes, and a huge range of ages from VSO groups having a gap year before collage, to Peace Corp having done a few years after collage, to parents, and in one booth some grandparents (or some Peace Corp volunteers in REALLY good costumes.)  It really was the oddest party I have been to in a long time.  Then again it has been a long time since I was dressed as a vampire, dancing (in a way only I can) to The Time Warp and Dancing Queen and drinking Tabasco sauce for a dare.  It was a fun night- and only 365 days until it can be repeated.

The weekend closed in a slightly more staid and calm manner (I really am getting too old for two late nights and one early morning in a weekend- despite ABBAs claims I’m not 17) with book club.  The book had been The particular Sadness of Lemon Cake.  Interesting discussion ensured.  I am pleased to say I was not the only one who was less than taken with the dysfunctionality of it all, and I am also not the only English teacher to occasionally think “I just don’t get it”. 

All in all an interesting, fun and culturally enriching weekend.  Next weekend might have to be something quiet and calm, and with an extra day off, a trip to the beach might be in order.

Ghana be fun...

Salvador Dali and Dr. Seuss

This week I have decided I really do live a Dali meets Seuss house.  I can’t decide if the floor is even and has a dip where it meets the wall, if it is the wall that is wonky and bends first out and then in, or where the furniture is just completely uneven and built to different scales depending on which part was measured by whom.   Either way I was lying in bed this morning and I was completely bemused by what felt like a fairground hall of mirrors.

It hasn’t really been helped this week by the constant and unending (lack of) flow of electricity and water.  Having been really quite steady for the last month of so, this week has been one of flux.  Again this is a situation that makes almost no sense to me.  I could understand if the whole house lost power and/or water; but that would be far too easy.  Instead it is only certain parts of the house that are affected.  This isn’t even divided down on a room by room basis- again that would be far too simple, but instead seems to work on a socket by socket basis.  For example- the lounge has three lights, and two of these can be out of power but the third is still on.  The dual socket that controls the kitchen light and the bathroom light (don’t even ask) can work for the bathroom, but not the kitchen, the fridge can be off, but the toaster can still be switched on.  Even more confusing is the bathroom.  The same switch turns on the light and the fan, yet the fan nearly always works and the light is a bit hit and miss.  It really is a totally surreal house- I live in a 1920s painting.

As for water, this week it seemed to have managed to work out the exact moment I have finished squirting shampoo over my head and then, and only then does it turn off.  There is a tank of water kept for emergences, it just needs switching on… the only snag with this is that the pump is outside, down the side of the house and past the guards.  Only once this week have I had to explain that I wasn’t planning on heading out to work half dress and foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog- I just needed the water back on before I could finish brushing my teeth.  More than one I have found myself with my head over the kitchen sinking pouring iced drinking water over my head to try and get at least some of the shampoo rinsed before getting dressed!

Despite this I am liking it here; especially this weekend.  It has once again been mainly sunny, beautiful breeze, white clouds in the sky and a great temperature for being outside.   I have managed a few hours by the pool, looking up the blue sky, the green palm trees; the (for once) peaceful neighborhood there has been a holiday feel in the air.  It could easily have been southern France or Italy with baguettes or pizza just around the corner.

In actual fact there was pizza yesterday.  Ghana is definitely changing and you can see signs of it everywhere.  The café is a great example of this.  The pizza is a relatively new menu item- as is the prospect of delivery (a service yet to be tried) but more impressive is the people watching and the area in which it is located.  The pizza place is Lebanese and does a great shawarma and is located on fairly busy corner, it really is fascinating watching all the traffic, the police and the tro-tros coming and going.  Nearly as fascinating as watching the business and the shops and restaurants develop.  It just seems that something has changed every time one visits; be it the colors of the shops, the services they offer or the people populating the counters.  It is a little microcosm for the whole country: continued, small but important changes.  I’m now hoping that that electricity, and water fill follow suite. 

A final thought and comment for the week, on a completely unrelated note.  It has been commented upon that most of my blog is not about life, travel or observations of the country, those may follow in due course, but about the food I eat, the things I like to drink and contents of my tummy.  So, pizza notwithstanding, I have also discovered Ribena this week, so have supplemented my diet coke intake with another old favorite.  Although as a child this was usually reserved as a treat for birthdays or when I was sick with a sore throat, I have been ill all week so feel as though I totally deserved a treat- as ever, magic worked and I am back to my fit and healthy self.

Ghana be fun...

Chocolate or chips… chocolate… or… chips?

This weekend has really been one of two halves; mainly caused by the weather.  Saturday saw sudden, and torrential downpours of quite scary ferocity, so much so that being caught out in them resulted in physical pain.  Thus the day started slowly and very much undercover and shelter, by this I mean that on hearing the rain outside I was very happy to leave my PJs on and continue to read, safe in the knowledge that not much was going on in the world outside- other than my slight (but ever increasing fear) that the swimming pool might flood.  It does often occur to me, and more so lately, that my life is more than a little skewed when this is one of the troubling thoughts I have. 

After a nice lunch last week at DeliFrance it seemed like a reasonable location to try again as the weather dried up, albeit staying gray and overcast.   It is certainly a pleasant enough spot for people watching, one is sure to spot at least one familiar face, has good service, and an amenable ambiance, to say nothing of the authentic French food.  The only real issue is that the price reflects the real imported prices.  And then when it started again- the rain! 

I am more than a little concern about how much my mood seems to swing depending on the weather and the color of the sky.  Last week I was singing the praises of cute little bars and soccer playing children, as the sun beat down in golden streaks through a cloudless corn flower blue sky, yesterday, it was back to shacks and miserable piles of tires and squalor as the clouds continued to hang gray and heavy.  It isn’t just the appearance of the buildings but the fact the color seems to be sucked out of everything. 

I am pleased to say that most of Sunday has been bright blue skies and very little in the way of clouded interference.  The whole city seems brighter, color seems to flood everywhere you look and I feel more upbeat about the cracked walls, the holes in the road and missing roof tiles. 

To take a little detour back in time- Wednesday was also a bright and sunny afternoon, so much so that drinks in “The Mainland” after school were in order.  This was doubly delightful, because not only was the weather great, but Wednesday are early finishing days.  Lessons end at 1:10pm and the kids all head out on service learning trips or sports activities, meaning I can get jobs done, attend meetings and still be out of school by 3:30pm.  “The Mainland” is a bar/ internet café type establishment with a roof deck; it comes equipped with a fridge, a speaker attached to a TV- but no screen, and a few picnic tables and chairs which are liable to break should one sit too fast, too long, or too awkwardly.  Until last year these tables had fixed umbrella style shades, it was an open roof after all and some form of shade was needed in Ghana.  Now however, they have invested in a covered construction, a few rough-hewn timber supports and some corrugated iron hammered into place to form a more permanent roof.  What makes me giggle on an almost weekly basis tho, is that the umbrellas are still in place.  Rather than removed the fixed umbrella tables, they have simply built a higher area on the roof and gone straight over the top. 

With a sunny Sunday, a trip “Next Door” was on the cards.  Not literally next-door, although the neighbors are great (Italian/ German couple down the street; and I will be partaking of their hospitality in a few weeks for book club), but a beach resort outside of Accra and on the way to Tema.  The beach itself is not so much a beach at this point, but more rocky and less sandy but still gives great opportunities to see the sea crashing, and for more people watching.  It also gave me plenty of opportunities to watch large lizards doing press up, and crabs the size of my hand running over the rocks.  I am more than a little concerned about these lizards.  They are actually pretty large, well a good 8/9 inches and they sit in the middle of any surface one might be about to step on, and skillfully blend in.  The number of times I have failed to spot one and then just as my foot is about to land on it the ground has moves, and shot out from under me, causing me to lose my footing is getting immeasurably large.  I just end up looking like I have stepped on a roller skate and I flail my arms in a windmill fashion whilst I try to regain my balance.  It is like tripping over a small dog, or a child.  The crab was more fascinating than likely to cause me a sports injury until I decided that it was more Aragog like than Sebastian style and too many evil arachnid images followed for comfort.

Which brings me to heading for today.  I have discovered that this country can do two things rather well, one is chips and the other is chocolate, both of which, or indeed together these items form my staple diet, throw in some diet coke- or coke cola light and you pretty much have my meal plan for the week.  There isn’t much I can say about the chips, other than these are English style chips, proper chips not fries and fast food like, but proper home cooked chips, and they are readily available everywhere!  As for chocolate- well, really Cadbury… not only can you get English Cadbury bars in the super market, but you can get South African and Middle Eastern (I think they come from Saudi- but I might be wrong) versions too.  These taste pretty much the same BUT have so many varieties I have never even heard of.  It is like Cadbury heaven here.  I am guessing there must be a slight and subtle difference somewhere tho as prices tend to vary.  Today was the turn of coke.  Diet Coke from the UK in cans with regular western style tabs that tuck into the can, and cost 49p in a multipack (not to be sold separately) can be purchased here for the bargain price of 74p individually, if however, I decided to go for the Coke Cola Light written in Arabic with the early 1980s style ring pull that leave s the can entirely and looks like an exclamation point, one of those that you know you have cut fingers on multiple times in the past, you know, when the circle part pulls off and leaves the can sealed, and you start jabbing your finger in to try and open the can… well they are even more of a steal at 56p a can.  Having tasted both- and I will say there is a slight flavor difference, the main different does appear to be how easy the can is to open, and how likely you are to slice your finger.   But chocolate, chips and coke cola light- there is no doubt about it, this is a country that is on the up.

Having decided that the nearly flooded pool and books were calling, the last hour of fading sunlight was spent at home, just chilling.