Come Tomorrow, Tomorrow I'll be Ghana

Okay, I admit it, I've been sitting on that title for about a month.

I'm definitely having mixed feelings about leaving Ghana tomorrow: on one hand, definitely excited to be back in the US, the promised land of television, Internet, hot showers, clean(er) air and good old home-cooking, but I'm definitely really sad to be leaving this country. I've spent the last couple days bidding farewell to my contacts in Accra and to my always faithful research assistant, which was definitely a bit harder than I thought it would be. Here in Ghana, where "impersonal" Internet/e-mail communication isn't quite the norm, contacts are made via other contacts and you talk over the phone and have personal meetings. So you certainly feel a close connection, especially with people who go really far out of their way to help you. For instance, my first couple weeks here my contact from the Ports Ministry, a planning officer, basically spent the whole day with me at Tema just getting me oriented and introduced to everyone. And there are literally a dozen people who have been just that helpful and friendly towards me.

I've spent a good part of the last couple of days just walking around campus, which currently is looking quite spiffy as the students are arriving. Buildings, sidewalks, walls have all been repainted a shiny white, the guards have crisp blue-yellow uniforms and traffic actually doesn't try to run you over any more. Even the market across from the hostel is getting a new paint job. August is also the coolest month in Ghana---say around 70-80F---so that has definitely made things much more pleasant. Despite the numerous logistical hassles along the way, I'm actually going to miss Legon a bit. I guess it kind of grows on you.

Before I left the US, my advisor had me read Fieldwork in Developing Countries, which in my opinion is indispensable for anyone doing research in Africa. This book mentions, and my advisor confirms, that after spending time in the field, you sort of expect everything to be the same when you return home. Normal schedule, familiar faces, a sense of routine. Supposedly that's not the case. I guess it'll be kind of weird not to haggle with taxi drivers, wait 2 hours for a crowded, sweaty minibus, or have to use hand sanitizer every hour. At the same time, the pace of life will be much quicker, as things tend to have a hard time overcoming inertia in Ghana.

But I've learned so much just being here for two months. Just seeing the level of poverty and yet the sense of hope that "Ghana is moving forward" (NPP political slogan) has been very enlightening for me. This is a country that is in its Fourth Republic, having experienced several military coups, countless attempted coups, ethnic bloodshed and severe economic hardship, but is only now getting its feet wet with democracy. Most Ghanaians I've talked with believe in democracy and are willing to wait in line for 12 hours to get registered to vote. (Sadly logistics has not moved at the same pace...). That certainly says something about a country. Contrary to popular belief, people here try to be politically informed, they want to know the issues and they are moving past just voting for the candidate from this or that religion or ethnic group or even party background. They even follow American politics closely--not just Barack Obama, who is wildly popular in Africa, but they even follow McCain's policies and speeches. Ghanaians understand the importance of being part of a global system and the pivotal role the US plays. Whenever they find out I'm from the US, the following questions revolve around US politics. They look at countries like the US, UK, Germany and they want the freedoms we have, our lifestyle, our values. Very few people want a return to authoritarian rule, even if democracy is still plagued with corruption and, to some extent, tribalism. The system (which also includes civil society, the media, etc.) isn't perfect, but it's getting better. I can only hope that the December elections go well.

I hope to return to Ghana in a few years, whether for research or just for holiday. This is a beautiful country with amazing people. Despite the poverty, parents do anything they can to send their children to school. That includes selling sachet water to passing traffic amongst other goods, but people here, unlike in many other African countries, believe that hard work and entrepreneurship actually pays off. This is something that even crosses tribal lines: I was just in Kumasi and it turns out the Ashanti king has sponsored an education fund for talented students from any background, any region. That means talented students, who don't have to be Ashanti, can travel to the UK or the US to study, no matter what their economic position.

It's stuff like that that makes me think that Ghana has a good chance of being an African leader and maintaining that position. It's difficult coming from a country like the US and understanding how people here put up with the daily troubles. But they know that they want peace, stability and accountability and many forces are in motion to ensure that that happens. Honestly, it's just the "spirit" of the local people that's moved me the most in the past 2 months. My thesis will be measured by the things I could survey and quantify. But my experiences here will be measured by the things I could not.

Not much going on...

Last few days have been relatively uneventful. Got back from Kumasi on Friday afternoon after spending basically the whole day on a bus with screaming Nigerian movies. That's one thing I won't miss ... Anyways, a bunch of international students who will be studying at Legon in the fall are moving into the hostel, and I was lucky enough to meet several of them. Oh, I remember being a Ghana newbie...

Yesterday I had lunch at Chez Afrique, which is a fairly new pan-African kind of restaurant out in East Legon. Had some classic Ghanaian chicken with fried plantains and red-red (a concoction of beans and rice in a spicy tomato sauce) that was very tasty. Really need to get some more Ghanaian food in before Thursday.

Today (Sunday) has been predictably slow since the entire country basically goes to church. For the whole day. However, I was able to see part of the voters' registration going on at Legon. Ghana is having national elections this December for the 5th time since the start of the Fourth Republic in the early 1990s, and, despite having a fairly good record, still has its share of growing pains. Voter registration being the most major one.

I saw a story on the Ghana Broadcasting Channel a few days ago about people who had waited 16 hours in line because the camera taking the photos for the voter ID cards had run out of battery. So it had to be charged. But then power went out in the district. So the Electoral Commission (which is already of questionable competence to put it lightly) people went to get a generator. But they forgot the petrol. So had to fetch that. By which time it was 5pm. Time to go home for the officials! Of the 100 people queued that day I think 30 might have been processed. The people left decided to stay the night and try their chances the next morning. Now that's what I call commitment to democratic process. To my American readers (which is almost all of you), do vote this November. You would not believe what people will go through here in Ghana (i.e. no food or sleep for the whole day) just to have the chance to vote, even though they know that one vote is inconsequential.

I just sent off an application for data to the Centre for Democratic Development which would really help my thesis. This is my final week in Accra, and I've got one final meeting tomorrow at the Trade Unions Congress but then I'll be bidding farewell to my friends at the Ministries and around Legon. I think, above all, that'll be one of the hardest parts about leaving Ghana. Doing research here has been surprisingly easy, and making contacts went much more smoothly than I had anticipated. Everyone is just so connected either through family connection or friendship or something else. Definitely one of the things I like most about Ghana.

But I'll certainly be glad to get home and watch the Olympics. I am counting down the days to departure in terms of the number of cold showers left (3). I was also just reading about (SPOILER ALERT) Michael Phelps's gold and world record, which is not quite the same as actually watching it. That guy is insane ...

A Hot Mess Indeed

Today was ridiculously busy for me. I decided to be ambitious and get the Manhyia Palace (home of the Ashanti king), Kejetia Market and the Armed Forces Museum in, in addition to more souvenir shopping.

First stop was Kejetia Market, which is reputedly West Africa's largest market. 'Insane' doesn't even begin to describe this place. It is about 12 hectares in area and has more than 10,000 trading stalls, selling goods ranging from fish to dishwashers to fake football jerseys. You know those pretty garden mazes with the 12ft grass walls out in like the midlands of England? Imagine that the garden is 50x bigger. And instead of lovely, manicured walls you have dilapidated shacks with corrugated rust roofs. And there are 50,000 people sweating it out with you, clamoring for goods every which way. I ran into a couple of Peace Corps volunteers who asked me what the market was like. All I could tell them: overwhelming.

One could easily get lost in there. Unlike the market in Takoradi or in Accra, you really can't see above the stalls. And there was a point where I was basically trapped for about a minute in this sea of people that wasn't really going anywhere. Never smelled so much of Africa before. But despite the craziness of this market, it actually does have some order to it. The clothing and textile stalls are in basically the same place, the food sellers (I failed in my attempt to avoid the fish market--possibly the worst smelling place ever) are in the western part and bead sellers are all together. And prices actually seem quite standardized between stalls. Oh, the market economy. I was able to snap some pics from the high ground, but I think the fact that I didn't get robbed of my camera and backpack was more of a "triumph of luck over judgment", in the words of the Bradt Guide. The Peace Corps volunteers I talked with had just been robbed in a taxi of their phones and cameras. In broad daylight. :(

Manhyia Palace was definitely cool, and I certainly learned a lot about Ashanti history and what not. The Armed Forces museum was quite entertaining, and I got lots of pics of rather out-of-place looking British colonial officers of the 1900s. Cool uniforms, though. I'd write more, but must conserve internet cafe time.

I had lunch again at Vic Baboo's, which I discovered is part of the Baboo Bazaar. I got bored so I thought of some slogans:

Don't feel blue at Vic Baboo's.
Use the loo at Vic Baboo's.
I pity the foo' who don't go to Vic Baboo.

Ah, it's such a good place. Maybe they can expand to America or something. Tomorrow I'm returning to Legon to wrap up my time in Ghana. Home in a week!

Thank you for shopping at the Kumasi Kwik-E-Mart

Hello from Kumasi--Ghana's 'second city' and the heart of Ashanti! I am here until Friday, and have been having an amazing time so far.

Quick recap:

I spent basically all of yesterday on a bus for what should have been a 4-hour ride. Ended up being 8. Didn't help that I also didn't get to leave until 3 hrs after I'd planned on. Yayyy for Ghanaian traffic! The two days before had basically been logistical nightmares, but I was lucky to be sitting next to this really nice high-school kid who was fascinated by the US and Harvard, so I was glad to make a new friend. Plus he bought me lunch. And just like that my faith in Ghanaian hospitality was restored.

The bus ride was so absurd that this one guy in the back started cursing out the driver. He just couldn't believe why we were approaching hour 6 of a 4-hour ride. Clearly he was not from around Ghana ... Yeah, delays are definitely a fact of daily life.

Anyways, I got to my hotel around 8.30pm, exhausted and starving. My room is basically a cottage, which was probably built during the British Empire. It's got everything you'd expect: the peeling imperial floor tiling, peeling yellow paint, a rickety ceiling fan (no AC), lighting is a lone lightbulb hanging from the ceiling and it smells of ... I dunno, colonial authority? The Bradt Guide describes the hotel as 'venerable'. Indeed. It is an experience.

I'll be spending two full days in Kumasi, and today was the first. I journeyed up to the National Cultural Centre in the morning, and it is decidedly less hassle than the one in Accra, though you still had your fair share of aggressive artists and hangers-on. I saw quite a few artifacts of Ashanti history, including the fake Golden Stool given to the Brits by the Ashantis, authentic royal kente cloth and the staffs/swords of office of the Ashtanti king. Very cool stuff.

I also did quite a bit of shopping at the Cultural Centre, and picked up a sweet drum (we are so gonna drive the neighbors crazy next year), an oil painting, two Ashanti masks and various other trinkets. Quite the haul.

On another note, today I had lunch at the fabled Vic Baboo's cafe, which is basically like an embassy of South Asian culinary heaven nestled in the middle of West Africa. Saw quite a few of South Asians there, rubbing shoulders with the Brits and other conspicuous non-Ghanaians. Ironically, I'd also been craving samosas, but sadly there were none. But the menu was the most extensive I'd ever seen--literally hundreds of dishes, ranging from continental to Indian to Chinese. Of course, I got the margherita pizza (VEGETABLES I HAVE MISSED YOU SO MUCH), and it was delicious. Probably the best meal I've had in Ghana.

Okay, gotta cut this short as it's getting dark and I need to get back to the hotel.

Thank you, come again.

Don't Rock the Botel

Today was definitely one of my more interesting days in Ghana.

The day started off nice and early--my alarm going at 5.30am to be exact--as we needed to reach Kakum before 8am to avoid large touristy crowds. Luckily, Phillip Briggs, the author of the Bradt Guide to Ghana, was correct about the tro-tro locations in Cape Coast, and we were able to find a tro-tro to Kakum without too much hassle. Of course, it took this tro-tro almost an hour to fill up (come on, where the obrunis at?), and it actually ended up being quite overcrowded.

Which is where we learned how to avoid getting stopped by the police.

See, tro-tros can only carry a certain number of people (it's imprinted on the medallion on the side of the tro-tro). If it's overcrowded, then the driver/mate get penalized according to union (yes, these things are unionized) rules.

But of course, overcrowding still occurs, and tro-tros have co-opted other forms of transport--namely, taxis--to be their eyes and ears for police checkpoints. A symbiotic relationship, indeed.

Anyways, the Kakum tro-tro had one adult too many (the 7 or so small, wailing children don't count in the equation apparently...), so the tro-tro pulled over before the checkpoint, the mate got out and met a taxi driver who was apparently his friend, and went ahead of us. The tro-tro passed through the check easily enough, and we picked up our mate about 50m beyond. Easy as pie.

We arrived at Kakum around 8.30 or so, and things were still pretty quiet. Kakum is one of two major national parks in Ghana, the other being Mole in the north, and this one is well known for its canopy walk, which was built by USAID (yeah!) and Canadian volunteers in 1995.

The canopy walk consists of a series of seven suspension-rope wooden bridges, hanging about 40m above the rainforest floor and stretching almost 400m. It's also about 10in wide, because the bridge itself is just a wooden plank. That is cracked in some places. And quite creaky. The guide assured us it was quite safe, though I don't think she went on it with us. Typical. Oh well, I haven't heard of anyone dying on it yet.

I'm not normally afraid of heights, though let me tell you, being on a rickety wooden plank bridge, suspended by ropes, in the wind, in a misty rainforest, in the middle of West Africa really makes you start to consider your life. Yeah, I was definitely a little scared. Part of it was that there was a group of Canadian tourists behind me on the bridge who were seriously freaking out and rocking this thing around. Not cool.

But all in all, this was definitely one of my best experiences in Ghana. The rainforest canopy was absolutely serene and beautiful. Never done anything like this in my life. I've got plenty of pictures (many of which are quite hilarious), which I will upload once I get back.

Right after the canopy walk, we decided to take a coconut-juice break. Now, Phil(lip Briggs) really recommends the chopped-open young coconuts as a refreshing mid-day drink in Ghana. We came to the conclusion that this must be more of an acquired taste. It tasted like ... warm water with a hint of sugar. It looked like soapy bathwater too. Oh well. Another thing to check off the Ghana list! Also some good pictures of me with a decapitated coconut and straw.

Afterwards we tro-troed it down to the Hans Cottage Botel. The main feature of this hotel is that it has a restaurant built on stilts above a crocodile pond (get it, boat+hotel). And the food was actually pretty good, as this place caters mostly to European and American travellers. Now the crocodiles were a constant source of entertainment. First off, we ran into the acrophobic Canadians again, who were purchasing some raw chicken so they could feed a crocodile. Of course, they were instructed to tempt the crocodile from the water and up the steps so we could all get a good view, lol. All we could think of was the late Crocodile Hunter dangling his baby over these things.

A little later on, we heard quite a bit of commotion coming from the Botel staff. One of the staff was playing around with this green water snake--that is, the snake was in the water, and the dude had a long branch that he was twirling the snake around with. The waitresses were all screaming about as the snake, which was thin and about 2-3 ft long, was splashing about quite a bit. Eventually it got tired of the game and decided to swim further into the pond.

Class, please open your textbooks to Chapter 3: The Food Chain.

So the snake is kind of coolly swimming along with its head above water. About 5m away, perpendicular to the snake, we see a pair of eyes emerge. *cue Jaws music*. Everyone takes a collective gasp. Of course, the snake has absolutely no chance. The croc snaps it up in its powerful jaws, the snake makes a few feeble attempts of splashing way, but it's definitely a Ghan-ner. And that was lunch.

It took about 6hrs to get back to Accra, namely because we did it via tro-tros and it was Saturday, when schedules are reduced. Of course, we boarded the tro-tro of gastrointestinal revenge. Esther and I were sitting in the second row of the tro-tro, so in the mate's row, right behind the driver and shotgun (which seats two people). The guy in the middle of the driver's row was apparently quite ill, though he didn't appear to be. The dude sitting shotgun seemed to be somewhat important as he had a briefcase with him. The Cape Coast-Accra highway is actually quite well paved, but to control speeds, the highway is fitted out with a series of "speed bumps" (they don't slow you down that much, but they do make you more cautious around the bends), which, if you're sitting right above the wheelbase, can be quite uncomfortable after a while. Anyways, the guy in front of me definitely could not handle it and ended up hurling all over the dash, the e-brake, himself and the other dude's briefcase. Driver and mate were definitely like, "oh mannnn...". Luckily we were near a store where we could get soapy water so they were able to clean up the tro-tro in short order and we got under way again. I then decided to move my bag up to my lap instead of the floor ...

Of course, we weren't quite so lucky the second time. The guy hurled again, much to the dismay of now-twice-vomited-briefcase dude, and we had to resort to using whatever newspaper was on the tro-tro. I also gave the mate my emergency backpack supply of sanitary wipes (because you never know ...), which kind of helped the situation a bit. He gave me the "this is a bit ridiculous" look. Yeahhhh. I figure of all the tro-troing I do in Ghana, someone is bound to get sick on one of them eventually. Just hopefully it's not me.

We got back to Accra around 4pm and boarded another tro-tro, headed for Madina, at Kaneshie Market. It took almost 2 hours to get back to Legon ... ahhhh. It's not that there was even traffic. The traffic lights in Accra are the most poorly designed I have ever seen. They are green for about 3 seconds, then amber, then red. This is for the main thoroughfare! Of course, the side streets stay green for a full minute--allowing all 2 cars waiting to pass with plenty of time to spare. I don't even understand. I wonder if the street hawkers rigged the lights so that more cars would be stopped so they could sell their goods. That'd actually be pretty smart...

11 more days in Ghana. Today I fantasized about having random American food. Like Cocoa Puffs. And tacos. And Velveeta cheese. Maybe not all together.

Off to Kakum!

Esther and I are off to Cape Coast to see Kakum National Park this weekend, home to Africa's one and only, death-defying canopy walk! Seven bridges, 400m long, 40m above the rainforest floor, one wooden plank wide and a complex system of ropes. It's Ghana be a hot one.