As with many major cities in the US, Accra is broken up into different neighborhoods. Accra Girls’ is right on the cusp between three different neighborhoods, but because it is a walled, totally enclosed campus, it is kind of an entity unto itself. However, directly behind Accra Girls is Mamobi. Most of these neighborhoods have a market of some kind and Mamobi is not exception. Some parts of Accra are very nice and others are “still developing”; Mamobi is one of the latter. However, I love going to Mamobi market. Here, there are 3 or 4 “grocery stores” in the entire city and they are ridiculously expensive even for American standards. Almost all Ghanaians do their food shopping (all of their shopping, for that matter) in the local markets. For these reasons, I do almost all of my shopping for food and other necessities in Mamobi market.
The first few times that I went to the market, was very nerve-racking. Everywhere I went people stared at me and in a 30 minute trip, I would here “obruni” at least a dozen times. But, with a little persistence, patience, and a lot of smiling, things have turned around and I now love going to Mamobi market. The fruits and vegetables are so fresh and good that they don’t really even compare to American standards. The selection may be slightly limited in comparison to US grocery stores, but there are many things here too that I do not normally cook with in the US (pineapple, papaya, mango, garden eggs, green onions, etc). The real joy of going to the market however, is not in buying the food (although, do not misunderstand, I do like food), but rather is talking with the people. Now, after 2 and ½ months, the people recognize who I am and actually call me by my name as opposed to obruni. Also, I have learned that I will go to the same ladies (ladies are the only ones who sell in the market, no men) and but the same things from them each time I go. One lady I buy milk and soap and cookies from, another lady I buy all of my vegetables from, another fruit, another bread, etc. All together there are about 6 or 7 different “shops” I stop at to buy what I need. This way I get to talk with the ladies and they get to know me as well. Now that they know that I will be here for a while and that I am not all bad, they give me real Ghanaian prices for things, not inflated “white man/tourist” prices. Even though I have been told on different occasions that I should not shop in Mamobi by myself, I feel more comfortable there than I do in any of the more well-established well-to-do areas. A place like Osu, which attracts many white tourists, in turn, attracts many pickpockets, scam artists, and prostitutes. In Mamobi, I am the only white person I have ever seen. Therefore, there does not exist the plethora of nare-do-wells that thrive on obrunis in other, more affluent neighborhoods. Although this culture is still completely foreign to me and I try to be aware of my surrounds wherever I am, I feel comfortable in Mamobi.
Last week I received two packages from home. In one of them was a bag of miniature Heath bars. The last time I went to Mamobi I brought my bag of Heath bars and gave one to each of the women that I buy from. They loved it! There is nothing like American chocolate to suck-up to a market vendor!
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Wisdom...
About two weeks ago I was walking back to Accra Girls’ and a young boy saw me, crossed the street and asked if he could walk with me. Although this may seem strange in the US, it happens on a fairly regular basis here (it is crazy when I run, a pack of school children will often follow along for half a mile or so). Normally the children will want to ask tons of questions and hold my hand (because it is white) and. Inevitably they ask me for money, or food, a phone number, or an address. However, this kid was content with just simply walking. I asked him his name and he told me; Wisdom. For real, Wisdom. After walking about half a mile, I started to ask him questions and found him to be very cordial, polite and well spoken. As we reached Accra Girls’ I had to buy a loaf of bread, and again, he asked if he could accompany me. He asked for nothing, but actually translated what the bread women were saying in Twi about me (they said they liked that I try to speak Twi with them). So I decided, since this kid had not asked for anything and been so nice to buy him a Fanta (soda). We sat on the curb and drank our Fanta and this kid turned out to be super cool. He is 13, goes to school, has a sister, his favorite class is social studies, wants to be a lawyer, likes soccer, and wants to visit the US. I gave him an SHG pen and told him that if he ever makes it to the US to call the number and come and visit Springfield. I also gave him my phone number here in Ghana. He then told me that he does not even have a phone to call me. So we parted ways after a nice conversation nonetheless.
About two weeks later Wisdom called me. He borrowed a phone and told me he would show up at the gate of Accra Girls’ at 2pm! I met him there, we walked to the market, I bought some fruits and vegetables, and we sat and had a Fanta and a conversation about Barack Obama being president elect and what that means for the world. This kid is 13, acts like a 30 year old, and his name is Wisdom! I invited him over for dinner and he and I cooked for an hour making fried rice. A really neat experience: cooking with a 13 year old Ghanaian. We sat down to eat and, he did not like the rice, but he tried to eat it. I asked him what he usually eats for dinner and he said “Banku with okra stew” (a traditional Ghanaian dish). I asked what he usually eats for dinner each night: “Banku with okra stew”. I asked what he eats for breakfast: “Banku with okra stew”. For lunch: “Banku with okra stew”. How cool is that! He gets to eat his favorite food for each and every meal! I can now understand why maybe he did not like the fried rice. After dinner we chatted for a while, he was for polite and said thank you more than enough and then excused himself to go home.
After he left, I found myself just sitting there mulling it over in my head and really being impressed with the kid. I am not sure what really to take from the whole experience, but I know that it was cool. Wisdom is one of the brightest, most polite 13 year olds I have ever met. I can’t imagine doing something like that in the US, but it was neat to have such an evening here in Ghana.
About two weeks later Wisdom called me. He borrowed a phone and told me he would show up at the gate of Accra Girls’ at 2pm! I met him there, we walked to the market, I bought some fruits and vegetables, and we sat and had a Fanta and a conversation about Barack Obama being president elect and what that means for the world. This kid is 13, acts like a 30 year old, and his name is Wisdom! I invited him over for dinner and he and I cooked for an hour making fried rice. A really neat experience: cooking with a 13 year old Ghanaian. We sat down to eat and, he did not like the rice, but he tried to eat it. I asked him what he usually eats for dinner and he said “Banku with okra stew” (a traditional Ghanaian dish). I asked what he usually eats for dinner each night: “Banku with okra stew”. I asked what he eats for breakfast: “Banku with okra stew”. For lunch: “Banku with okra stew”. How cool is that! He gets to eat his favorite food for each and every meal! I can now understand why maybe he did not like the fried rice. After dinner we chatted for a while, he was for polite and said thank you more than enough and then excused himself to go home.
After he left, I found myself just sitting there mulling it over in my head and really being impressed with the kid. I am not sure what really to take from the whole experience, but I know that it was cool. Wisdom is one of the brightest, most polite 13 year olds I have ever met. I can’t imagine doing something like that in the US, but it was neat to have such an evening here in Ghana.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Ouagadougou (Wa-ga-do-gu)…
Last Monday I learned that Accra Girls’ has a midterm break that would start on Tuesday after school and last until the following Tuesday morning. With 6 full days off, I wanted to take advantage of it and to travel and see as much as I could. I learned that some of the other Fulbrighters were planning a trip north to Burkina Faso and the capital city of Ouagadougou and they invited me to come along. Every other year there is a weeklong festival of African arts and crafts in Ouaga that supports more than 28 different countries. The only thing that stood in my way was the fact I did not have my passport. Upon arriving in Ghana, I turned my passport over to Ghana Immigration Service so as to get a 1 year residence visa. I had not gotten it back yet, so I went down to the Immigration on Tuesday after classes just to find out that they did not have my passport ready. I tried everything I could, but to no avail, I could not convince them to give me a visa. They did give my passport and told me I could get into Burkina with it, but that when I returned I would not be allowed back into Ghana without the visa. They promised that by 10am Wednesday morning I would be able to pick up the passport. So, unfortunately, the other Fulbrighter took off Tuesday afternoon from Accra. I was able to get my passport, with visa, and got on a bus Wednesday afternoon, and there I sat for the next 15 hours. I got into a town in northern Ghana at around 4:30 in the morning, met one of the Fulbrighters, and stayed with a friend of a friend of a friend. Then next morning, we met the other Fulbrighter and her husband in a small, neat village called Bongo. We spent the day and one night and the next morning caught a taxi to the border. We changed just enough money to pay for a visa into Burkina and then got on a bus to Ouaga. Three hours and a pretty bus trip later, we were in the capital of Burkina Faso. We arrive around 4 pm and the situation was this; We were in a French speaking country (none of us speak any French more than what was learned from one year in high school), no water (this is city on the edge of the Sahara so it is hot and dry), no money (little did we know there is no place to change Ghana Cedis to Cefas- currency in B.F.) and no place to stay (we were suppose to meet a Ghanaian lady who was selling at the festival, but had no idea where she was). So after about 2 hours of walking around and darkness falling, we were able to find a Ghanaian women who helped us find our contact, Florence. Florence was amazing! She loaned us 10,000 cefa (not a lot, but more than enough to buy water), and told us that the house we were staying in was only a few blocks away. What started out as a pretty trying experience in Burkina quickly turned out to be really cool.
We all went back to the house (which was very nice), bought pasta and tomato paste, because it was what we could find and afford cooked dinner and then talked with Florence, her husband, and “the boys” (the workers she brought along, I am not sure if they were really her boys or not). The next morning dawned anew and we were able to find an ATM and two of the others had cards that worked and so we were able to withdraw money, a nice feeing. The next couple of days we explored the festival and the city. The festival was nice and Ouagadougou was ok. It is so hot and dry that there is dust everywhere; it is actually hard to breath sometimes. Also the country is so poor that food can be hard to come by in comparison to Ghana. Regardless, it was a very neat experience.
Monday morning at 8:30 two of us got on a bus to in Ouaga to head back to Accra…22 hours later (6:30 am) I was walking back on the campus of Accra Girls’ having had almost no sleep, dirty, carrying my backpack, and a 6 day beard on my face. The girls all have chores to do in the morning on campus so they all watched me walk back to my house. I took a bucket bath, shaved, got dressed at was in the classroom and teaching at 7:40am. Tuesday is my busy day so I taught seven classes and then went home and crashed. But because Tuesday was the election, I had to get up in the middle of the night here and I went down to a hotel in Accra that was broadcasting the election results. I stayed there until around 5, long enough to hear Obama’s speech, then went to the embassy because they were having an election celebration breakfast. Then it was back to school to teach.
A side note on the US election here: 99% of the people here that I have talked with support Obama. I was told by some other Americans who have been here for elections before, that if Obama had not won that people would look at me differently and some may even blame me. However, with an Obama victory, many Ghanaians approached me and congratulated me; not only for the result, but also for simply having a smooth, non-violent election!
All in all I think that in a three day period I slept only a handful of hours. However, it was a really neat experience and I enjoyed every minute of it.
We all went back to the house (which was very nice), bought pasta and tomato paste, because it was what we could find and afford cooked dinner and then talked with Florence, her husband, and “the boys” (the workers she brought along, I am not sure if they were really her boys or not). The next morning dawned anew and we were able to find an ATM and two of the others had cards that worked and so we were able to withdraw money, a nice feeing. The next couple of days we explored the festival and the city. The festival was nice and Ouagadougou was ok. It is so hot and dry that there is dust everywhere; it is actually hard to breath sometimes. Also the country is so poor that food can be hard to come by in comparison to Ghana. Regardless, it was a very neat experience.
Monday morning at 8:30 two of us got on a bus to in Ouaga to head back to Accra…22 hours later (6:30 am) I was walking back on the campus of Accra Girls’ having had almost no sleep, dirty, carrying my backpack, and a 6 day beard on my face. The girls all have chores to do in the morning on campus so they all watched me walk back to my house. I took a bucket bath, shaved, got dressed at was in the classroom and teaching at 7:40am. Tuesday is my busy day so I taught seven classes and then went home and crashed. But because Tuesday was the election, I had to get up in the middle of the night here and I went down to a hotel in Accra that was broadcasting the election results. I stayed there until around 5, long enough to hear Obama’s speech, then went to the embassy because they were having an election celebration breakfast. Then it was back to school to teach.
A side note on the US election here: 99% of the people here that I have talked with support Obama. I was told by some other Americans who have been here for elections before, that if Obama had not won that people would look at me differently and some may even blame me. However, with an Obama victory, many Ghanaians approached me and congratulated me; not only for the result, but also for simply having a smooth, non-violent election!
All in all I think that in a three day period I slept only a handful of hours. However, it was a really neat experience and I enjoyed every minute of it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
