First thing I noticed. Ghanians have no sense of lines or order- or personal space for that matter. Getting off the plane here took easily half an hour and I was cut in front of at least 3 times at the store the other day. I don't know where it comes from but the personal space bubble is much smaller here than America. I have heard that Americans have rather large space bubbles but seriously, when I'm walking down the street you don't need to be on my heels. And if you have a question, I can still hear you when you aren't in my face. Because of this tro-tros and taxis make for very touchy times. I really don't mind it that much, really though, it's just that I'm usually sweating anyway and with your leg resting on mine- I'm going to sweat all over you. And nobody wants that.
Another thing, logic and reasoning- not so common around here. I think it comes from sub standard education; you know those grouping work sheets we all did in kindergarten, which one of these is not like the others? And the logic puzzles, who's wearing what to the party? I didn't realize how important those were to critical thinking skills until I came here. Someone told me that other day: if you give a Ghanian 10 chickens and explain to him that they will lay him eggs for the next 2-3 years, with which he can sell to buy more food, or eat himself- the Ghanian will eat chicken for 10 days.
Oh and did I mention that Ghana is one of the most religious places in the world? Nothing stops a get-to-know-you conversation faster than telling people I'm not all that religious. That's ok right? Not many people ask about religion at home. Every single person I've talked to for more than 10 minutes has asked me. I've started lying and saying I'm Jewish just to see their reaction. Oh and everything is named after Christianity. God is good beauty salon. Christ has risen mechanic. I ate at Everything in the name of the Lord food joint the other day.
English is spoken a little differently here. I'm actually starting to really like it, but everything is described or conversed to the highest degree possible. Everything is searched for, not looked. Things get spoiled, not broken or dirty. And the progressive tense is nearly non existent. 'She's coming' turns into 'she will come'. I got corrected on that pretty early. Another time someone was dropping off a bag of water for one of the nurses to sell the next day at clinic and she wasn't there at the time. Turned out she had sent him to do this task for her. 'Was she wearing a uniform identical to mine?' another nurse asked the man. Really? Identical? Your uniforms all look similar but, actually, none of them are identical! Yours have green bands around the arms and hers doesn't. The nurse over there has fewer button then you. I know I'm nit picking but if you are going to choose a word as strong as identical, I'm going to nit pick about it being true. Strangest of all, and it happens all the time, when someone wants a favor they will beg you for it. 'Please, I'm begging you, can we change the time of our meeting?', 'Can you grab me a water on your way here, I'm pleading'. Ok! Ok, yes! If it means that much to you I will pick up your baby's hat that he just to threw on the floor- begging isn't necessary.
Final thing. People are so happy and helpful here. Someone will wake up in the morning, not knowing if they will be able to eat dinner that night but he or she will be able to help you find a cab to where you need to go and they will negotiate the price for you too. These are the people that get me through the day.
This week was very restoring. I knew there wasn't much for me to do at the nutrition center on Monday and when I showed up I was right. I sat on my computer all day spending as much time as possible trying to develop a list of foods and their market prices to use as a budgeting tool later. At the end of the day I had it only about half way done and Bismac asked me if I just wanted him to fill out the rest and why I hadn't asked him earlier. Dude, come on. Tuesday was baby weighing day. Then came Wednesday. I had been invited along for a visit to another refugee camp that Point Hope has programs at earlier in the week by Jan, Point Hope U.S. executive director, to check on the nutrition program there and see how things were running. It would be a 3 day trip and we were set to leave Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday morning I went to the farm. I almost passed out in the field harvesting eggplant and spring onions but we managed to fill half of a 5 gallon bag of egg plant and a full one of spring onions. The truck was late picking me up for Krisan (other refugee camp) but eventually we got on the road. On the 6 hour car ride heading west along the coast we passed a rubber tree forest and one of Ghana's 2 port cities, Takoradi. It was such a relief; the roads around Krisan are the best in Ghana since they recently found oil in the area and Chinese oil companies, and their money, have started moving into the area. Since we left late, we got in pretty late so camp would wait until Thursday. We woke up and had lousy excuses for omelets for breakfast and got to camp in the mid morning. Krisan is actually still considered a refugee camp but is much smaller than the one I've been working at (about 1200 refugees, instead of the 10,000 at Buduburam) and is much more rural. Because of this there is no access to food unless you grow it yourself. And I mean that. There is one little food joint and I didn't ask the prices of the dishes but I'm sure it's more than someone that isn't working can afford. So we get to camp, check in with the camp manager and go drop off our vegetables at the day care center set up by Point Hope. There they have 2 class rooms for children 2-3 and 3-4 years old. This also is the site for distribution of 2 meals a day for children 6 months to 5 years old and a select few vulnerable people (HIV positive, TB positive, etc.), about 100 people total. After dropping off the vegetables we got a tour of the fields from farmer Ralph and the school where some of the older kids on the program are. During our tour the cooks started preparing eggplant and fish stew for distribution. Once we got back we spent some time putting together the new toys we had brought as well until it was time. Finally! My time had come. I had waited 6 weeks but I was able to witness full circle the food that I had help grow and harvest in the field feed people that would other wise not be able to eat. I almost started crying on the spot. One little boy in line thought I was so crazy. Afterwards we went to lunch at a Spanish place right by the canoe launch for Nzulezu, a stilt village. Seriously, everything is on stilts. And canoes are their transportation. We didn't have time to go to the actual village but it was still pretty cool. During lunch Adam, the executive director for Point Hope Ghana, helped explain to me how to see instant need in places like Krisan and Ampain (another refugee camp very close to Krisan) where food is very scarce and the level of malnutrition is very high over places that have had programs set up for 7 years, like Buduburam. He even invited me to help write a grant to start a new program in Ampain since the UN stopped their feeding program there yesterday. Getting to play administrative staff was fun and seeing programs succeed are so necessary for refilling my soul bucket here. So much so that I didn't even mind spending 2 hours in traffic on the way home. To our guest house where there was no water and our neighbors were doing an amplified prayer service until 2 in the morning.
And one more thing. I got a cold this week. A COLD. In an equatorial country. .. everyday is an adventure.
Ghanian food this week: Octopus. Yeah, really. It was somehow fried or something to make it kind of jerky-like and was spicy but was basically oversized calamari.
Best thing carried on someone's head: Sewing machine.
Number of times the lights went out: 8 all day today and I never wanted them to go out more than Friday night. Who can sleep through a screaming pastor?
This I find so interesting. For a country that speaks such proper English they sometimes have a hard time spelling. I saw a place that cooks bread (bakery) spelled berkrey..
Here is the canoe launch for Nzulezu. They were filling the canoe with rice bags to bring out to the village.
This is just an internet picture of the village. We didn't have time to go all the way out there but I wanted you to get the idea. I'll go next time.
Eating the octopus. Mmm tentacles.
Here's the line for our food distribution. The boy that is waving is the one that thought I was crazy. He eventually came around. And yes he's older than 5 but since there are only about 100 kids on the program Tutu (director of the day care) explained to me that she gets to know the families and allows for others to do the pick up. 'And this way if he gets a few bites on the way home it's not so bad'.
See. Here he is happy to have lunch for the day.
Here are the portions that would be handed out to each of the school children. A little different than American school lunches.
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