“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” -Mark Twain
There’s a lot that I don’t know about Ghana, but that isn’t really the hard part about being here. It’s what I do know, my own way of living, that makes it hard. Someone asked Alison and I what is different about Ghana compared to the U.S., and our answer was a simultaneous “everything.” For example, in Ghana it’s okay not to use silverware or plates most of the time. We can get to work at 10 am. Cold showers are the only relief from the heat and humidity. The word “productivity” doesn’t carry much meaning. There are no rules of the road (I’ve been told that you can only get pulled over if you don’t “take care”, whatever that means). Cheese is surprisingly hard to come by. It’s normal for your cab driver to take you into his church on the way home (this one I’m still not sure about). People often call you “obruni”, meaning white person, and no one cares about its political incorrectness. Power outages are a usual occurrence. The list goes on and on.
Although just about everything is different, I am becoming more comfortable every day. It have learned that the best place to buy anything is on the street. Food, clothes, tools, cell phones and even SIM cards. To me it’s chaotic, but the locals know their way around. The other day I needed a screwdriver, and Amos, one of the engineers at Bright Generation, said he knew where we could get one. I immediately pictured a Home Depot, but we walked up to a woman selling various sized screws and screw drivers on the side of the road. We quickly found one that suited our purposes and paid her about 50 cents for it. Cheap and effective.
Although celebrating 4th of July outside of the U.S. was not ideal, July 1st happened to be a national Ghanaian holiday so we went to Cape Coast for the weekend. Our hotel was on the beach and we spent Friday afternoon lounging by the water. We happened to be there at the same time that a local midwives school was taking a day trip, and the students approached us asking if they could take pictures with us (white people are quite a rarity and we get stared at just about every where we go). The girls were about the same age as us and they loved Nick, especially after we told them that he was single. I found myself pretending to be a celebrity in order to make the whole thing feel less weird.
Last week we also went to the villages to work on impact assessments and find a school where we can implement the solar lights. The kids were basically mute; they stared at us the whole time with only a whisper to each other here and there. It was difficult to communicate with them because their first language is their local language rather than the national language which is English. I quickly learned that they love having their picture taken. I started by taking pictures of a few kids and showing them, and gradually everyone wanted to be involved. After I took them, they all looked at the pictures and snickered. The other way of communicating was through high fives. I gave one kid a high five and slowly everyone else stuck their hand out. Some things are just universal.
It’s been a crazy few weeks and I am still getting adjusted, but I am excited for all the adventures to come. And last but not least, as I’m sure you’re anxiously awaiting the follow up from my last blog, the batteries arrived about an hour before I left for the airport. However, the airline only let me bring 9/20. Take what you can get, right?
