Whatcha Ghana Do When They Come For You?

Sunday

So I tried to go to church Sunday morning, which turned out to be a slightly more arduous endeavour than expected. First off, this church is all the way on the other side of campus, about a 25 minute's walk right there--and it was 97 degrees outside. At freaking 8am. I think if I had gotten there on my knees it would've been a bona fide pilgrimage. And then I learned that mass was actually at 9am. After burning about 1000 calories I didn't really feel like waiting for an hour, so I hung out for a bit, made an offertory donation and then headed home without going to mass.

Judging by the rest of the day, I probably should have gone to mass.

That afternoon, Emma, Esther and I decided to head into Accra to check out a show at the National Theatre as well as the National Cultural Centre and Independence Square. Because I'm lazy, I'm just going to point you here, for a description of events. And because Emma's a better writer than me.

The National Cultural Centre (really just a huge arts & crafts market) was borderline absurd. Before we even got inside the gate, vendors were harassing us to look at their stuff. They are relentless, and they all want to be your madanfo (friend). Ahhhhh. I'm not a big fan of getting pushed around, but we decided to give one of the guys a chance. Turns out I scored some free African drum lessons, which was pretty awesome, and got to look at some nice handmade wooden Ashanti masks and carvings. Turns out I can bargain down a medium-sized drum from 100 to 20 cedis. :) I'm going to have to buy a second suitcase to bring back the stuff I'm getting. Totally worth it.

After escaping from the National Cultural Centre, we decided to walk down to Independence Square, where there's a collection of Soviet-era statues (think Goldeneye) as well as the Flame of African Liberation, lit by Kwame Nkrumah himself.

We didn't quite make it there.

Maybe 300 metres from the entrance, the three of us start getting followed by these two young (maybe 12-13 years old) boys. I don't really think too much of it, as they're keeping their distance and we're on a main road.

And then it became like something out of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Two more kids joined them. Then a few guys. Probably a few dogs and cats. Then more guys. Until we're being followed/surrounded by around 12-15 people. The creepiest part was that everyone was totally silent and just staring blankly. No catcalls, no cries of "obruni" (white person). At this point, we decide to hail a cab back to Legon, which luckily came to our rescue not a second too soon. And then it looked like the crowd was about to hail a cab of their own!! No joke! But they didn't get into anyone and we were able to get back safely. But seriously, this was in the middle of Accra in broad daylight! Craziness.

That night we went to the Paloma Hotel for some nice food and live jazz, which was pretty cool. Some of our people watched the Euro 2008 final (woooo Spain!), and we headed back around 9pm or so. Sure enough, one of cabbies didn't have his license, so half of us had to switch cabs at the gate. Typical.

Seemed like a normal enough night, right? Until we found out upon returning at the hostel that two people from a different delegation had been ROBBED AT GUNPOINT. Right on the university campus! They lost lots of important stuff, and we were (and still are) quite on edge. Oh man. Luckily they complied, and weren't hurt. :( Never a dull moment in Legon.

Monday

Today was fairly productive. I mailed off some postcards :), and set off for Tema Port around 10am. I was able to retrieve 38 of 41 pilot surveys, and it looks like I'm getting some decent variation in responses. Good stuff. I'll start some of the analysis today (read: relearning ordered probit...), so that stuff is going well. Though I wasn't too happy about spending 8 hours in Tema for one set of surveys, and swallowing like a pound of dust during my tro-tro adventures. Oh well, all part of the experience. :)

I'm off to Takoradi on Friday! woot woot

Oh, and the Canadians left early this morning for a village in the North. I miss them already :(.

Really Ghana Get Away

Today I went up to Aburi, located in the Akuapem Hills overlooking Accra, with the Canadians and Emma (12 in total). Aburi is well known for its botanical gardens, which, according to the Ghana Bible, was founded by the Brits as a sanatorium for colonial officials--with the higher elevation comes cooler temperatures (read: less malaria). Aburi's also well known for its market with nice Ghanaian curios and stuff without the pushiness of Accra.

The gardens were definitely a nice retreat away from the city. We saw some Ghanaian cocoa trees (woot traditional exports), as well as this massive Strangler Ficus that had taken over a much larger tree back in like the Coolidge Administration. The tree was massive and we were able to actually go inside the base of the trunk. Emma got a great picture of me sticking my head out of one of the holes in the trunk. I'd post it here if I could ... There was also this cool, really old helicopter on the grounds that had fallen into rusted disrepair. A bunch of us climbed around inside of it, and got some more sweet pics. Good thing I got that tetanus booster...

Afterwards was lunch in the garden (nice outdoor gazebo at the restaurant) where I had my first experience of the Ghanaian staple, red-red. Red-red is a rice and beans dish that's served with a somewhat spicy red palm oil. All in all, it was pretty good, though I'm not the biggest fan of overdoing the beans, especially with an hour-long tro-tro ride ahead of me. It was also served with fried plantains (ahhh so good!) as well as half a chicken (basically). Oh, all through the garden were these chickens and roosters running about. I probably ate one of them.

And then the heavens opened up.

Ghana takes its rain quite seriously. So we hung out at the gazebo for like an extra hour, and though about dashing back to the entrance when the rain would let up--only to have it pour even harder. Eventually they "evacuated" us to the actual restaurant part using umbrellas but it's fair to say that everyone was soaking wet when we got on the tro-tro (ah, such comfort!)

Oh, and this was the second time I saw some tro-tro drama. Yesterday a guy in Tema wouldn't pay full fare to the mate, upon which a full-fledged Ghanaian shouting match ensued. I think the mate was ready to throw him from a moving vehicle. Today, because it was pouring, the whole group of us boarded an empty tro-tro in Aburi--but it was empty because it as at the back of the line of all the other tro-tros heading to Accra-Tema. Tro-tros here are unionized (ironically enough) so they have to follow certain rules at each station, and our driver/mate thought they could pull a fast one.

Not so.

The "foreman" dude (really just some angry dude in a red shirt) held us up for about 10 minutes as the temperature in the van slowly crept up from hot to intolerable. Then some other drivers saw what was going on (they were getting screwed over by our driver) and started demanding that we--a tro-tro full of more-or-less white people--get out and into a different (theirs) tro-tros. At this point, we started sealing up our windows, fully expecting to get assaulted. In the pouring African rain.

Eventually our local guide decided that it'd be better for us just to get into a different tro-tro, which we were able to find--it was a bit nicer than the original one, so I guess we came out with a little something. It turns out it didn't even rain in Accra, but oh well, it was still nice to get away for a bit. Not sure what the plans for tonight are. Hopefully no cab rides alone this time.

The guy managing the internet cafe is watching Hostel Part II. Sounds pretty scary.

Surveying the Damage

So today I went back to Tema Port bright and early to recover the surveys I'd dropped off on Wednesday. I think the efficiency with which my visit on Wednesday was run lulled me into a false sense of security. So I fully expected to be at the Port by 11am, round up the surveys from the different locations and be back at Legon by like 2pm. Plenty of time to go back into Accra for the aftenoon, no?

Welcome! You're on Ghana time!

I actually got to Tema on time, only to discover that none of the surveys from Golden Jubilee had been finished, only 6 of 20 from Tema Port and 5 of 8 from Fishing Harbour. So basically I only got about 50% of surveys returned. Ahhhhh. I'll have to go back on Monday.

Okay, my Internet time is about to expire, so I gotta cut this one short. Tomorrow I'm off to Aburi in the Akuapem Highlands, which is supposed to be absolutely beautiful, and much cooler (in temperature). Beautiful gardens and curio shops. Good stuff.

Sowing the cedis of my own destruction

Thursday night was Romeo's birthday. So we all went down to Osu, to watch part of the football match at the bar (Russia v. Spain), and have some drinks before heading to a popular (with the expat crowd) Italian place called Mamma Mia's. Had my first Guinness Foreign Extra Stout (which is bottled in Accra, combining the original Guiness formula with some Ghanaian ingredients) as well--it was really good and surprisingly refreshing (better than the Star). It had the full, characteristic bitterness of a stout but it was not too strong like an ale. And tasted pretty good. Will have to try it again sometime.

Mamma Mia's was great, though it was definitely Western food--at Western prices. Had some rather tasty spaghetti bolognese (in West Africa, who would've thought?) that definitely hit the spot. Most people ordered some of the famous pizzas at the place, and I think all were pleasantly satisfied. This place also had the cleanest washrooms in Ghana. No doubt. We also got Romeo a nice almond tart that the restaurant fitted out with a candle and singing, etc. Good stuff. We even got to meet the owner (an Italian expat) who was really cool and showed everyone else to a nice club/bar afterwards to further celebrate Romeo's birthday. However, I had to be up early today (Friday) to go to Tema to recover my surveys, so I decided to take a taxi back to the University by myself. It was around 11.15 pm.

And so began the taxi ride where I almost died.

First off, I picked up this cab in front of Mamma Mia, and the owner said that he "knew all these guys (the drivers)" and that they were good. So, although I was a little surprised when the cabbie asked for only 3 cedis to get to Legon, I figured it was cool because he knew the owner.

Definitely wrong about that one.

First off, this guy started asking me for directions. Now the University of Ghana is pretty well known (read: it's the only good university in Ghana) and just about everyone knows where it is and knows a dozen ways of getting there. So I told him drive up Cantonments and get onto Liberation Road, which is one of Accra's main thoroughfares. But he starts driving DOWN Cantonments and further into Accra, and doesn't seem to understand what "Turn around! ... Turn around now! ... Turn around here! ... Turn this damn cab around!" means. This guy was utterly lost. Then started turning down some other street before finally going the right direction on Cantonments. But by this time I'd had enough and decide it's time to bail. Yes, in the middle of the night. In an African city.

I tell the guy I'm getting out. And so starts the shouting match. I think there are certain phrases in Twi that I'll need to pick up that shouldn't be elaborated here. But this guy was pretty adamant that he'd take me to Legon if I'd give him the directions. Now I could do that if I had to, but I really would rather not have to deal with a non-responsive (to directions) cabbie in the middle of the night. At this point he demands to know how much money I'll give him (it sounds like a holdup, but it really wasn't ... it was for "wasting" his time), so I'm like "one cedi!". He demands 2, but I basically throw one at him and tell him to F off and jump out of the cab. Which sounds cool, but it was only moving at like 2 mph. Luckily there were other people around so if it actually had come to fisticuffs I could've drawn plenty of attention. But anyways he drove off, and I was able to find another cab that actually knew the way to Legon.

Definitely one of my most absurd experiences. Probably should've just gone clubbing. Oh my freaking Ghana.

Diet Cherry Makola

I'm dividing Thursday into two posts because Thursday night was one of the craziest experiences of my life. Oh, just wait ...

Thursday (daytime)

Because I was able to deploy my 40 pre-test surveys on Wednesday (to be picked up on Friday), I was able to take Thursday off (ah, the research life ...) so I decided to sleep in and then explore central Accra in the afternoon.

As I've started to become accustomed to doing, I took a tro-tro down to Tema (thank God, not the port) station and even made a few more friends on the way using my Twi. It's so awesome how people just light up when they see foreigners trying to speak their language. I'm picking up some nice phrases here and there and was even able to get the tro-tro fare in Twi: "Mate, eyesen?" Good stuff.

First stop: the Ghana National Theatre. A rather nice building built by a Chinese firm looking vaguely like our Carpenter Center. I had lunch there because my Bradt guide (read: the Ghana Bible) said that the food was decently priced and pretty good--had some chicken and plantains (ah i could live off of those), but I think the waiter charged me the "foreigner's price". Yeahhhh. I scoped the theatre out for a bit and figured out that they were having a couple of nice cultural shows over the weekend, so I might hit that up. African drumming and dancing = excellent.

Afterwards I decided to wander around the city, which sounds pleasant except when you consider the 100% humidity and the 95+deg. heat. I made my way down to the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum and Museum (Musoleum?) which was really cool...a very quiet and peaceful park with beautiful trees at various stages of development planted by all sorts of different African figures and statesmen. The mausoleum itself is this inspiring, airy granite monolith surrounded by this dark reflecting pool. Got lots of nice pictures around there.

The Museum itself was pretty cool though a bit small and dark. They had lots of things from when Nkrumah was a student in the US as well as stuff like his famous walking stick, his telephone and his favorite picture (it's him dancing with Queen Elizabeth II ... shoutout to Martin Meredith on that one...). All in all a nice historical experience.

Afterwards, I wandered northwards up to Makola markets. You know how in the movies you always picture African markets as being these noisy, supercrowded, dusty, scorching masses? Yeah, it was something like that. And it was awesome. They sell everything there: from suitcases, to knock-off watches, to fruits/vegetables/fish (really stinky), to kente cloth and shoes, etc. It's crazy and yet it's organized (yeah, spontaneous order!) so that things are all kind of grouped together according to categories (clothing in this part, food here, etc.). Maybe the only difference was that all the vendors had cell phones. Great way to check on inventory and set prices, no?

Oh, and I bought a second hat while at Makola, and I actually like it better than the first hat. It's just a simple khaki one, but for some reason it has a Royal Bank of Canada logo on it (seriously). Makes me feel kind of official. :) They also had with University of Central Florida Golden Knights logos on it ... ah, a little bit of home. I ended up paying 2 cedis (2 USD) for it, but it was a bit funny haggling with the dude because he initially said 25. I was basically like, "WTF? No, 7." Then I realized he meant 25,000 cedis. Ghana recently redenominated their currency by dividing by 10,000. So he actually meant 2.5 cedis. I'm sure he would have been quite surprised if I'd given him like 25 or even 7 for that matter. Could have been possible under the water vs. diamonds scenario? Or something like that.

Then I tro-troed it back up to Legon. And so began the night ...

Anchors Aweigh

On Wednesday, I was able to deploy 41 pilot surveys throughout the Port of Tema area. Now I had never really thought about this before, but ports are incredibly busy, complex operations. This is the gateway for Ghana's--and much of West Africa's--free trade: cocoa, lumber, agricultural exports; American, European, Chinese imports. It's crazy just how much movement is going on, and much of the maritime terminology (today's cool word: stevedoring ... a rare Spanish (estivador) to English crossover). It's funny how terms like globalization, foreign direct investment, industrialization and economic development are just thrown around like candy, and we don't really think about the actual physical and logistical processes involved in making those things run. Really quite amazing. Even back in the States, it's boggling to think how the market allocates things from foreign markets (which are more than half the complexity), to their ports, across the oceans, into our ports, offloaded by the stevedores (who may work for private firms), loaded onto trucks owned by other private companies, driven into the heartland of our country, placed on the shelves of our supermarkets, bought by us and turned into tomorrow night's leftovers. That could be your $3 block of imported cheese. Or your Starbucks coffee.

At Tema Port (fun fact: it lies on the Prime Meridian!), I met again with the general manager, and he made a bunch of introductory phone calls for me, allowing me to deploy surveys to the four different areas: Headquarters, Golden Jubilee Terminal, (the actual) Port of Tema and the Fishing Harbour. All in all a massive operation, but this guy was incredible and has been a major help to my project. I consider myself quite lucky, especially since before I left I knew there was a very real probability that I would be able to collect no data whatsoever (which is why archives exist!). Pretty good start and I didn't even have to spend all day there. Oh, if you didn't notice my title is a pun on my methodology (anchoring vignettes) as well as my use of the ports. It's probably more funny to me.

I was about to publish this post, but I almost forgot to mention that I nearly got arrested by the Ghanaian Customs Service. So apparently the Fishing Harbour has had problems with refugees coming over from Cote d'Ivoire, Togo and Nigeria, so security is tighter there (though I don't think there are many ... ummm... fairer-skinned refugees from those countries ... just saying...). As our car (with official escort!) was about to leave the Harbour, a guy with military camos and a shiny sidearm ordered us to stop and demanded to see the white man's (yeah, that's me again) papers, meaning my passport. I was with an official from the Ministry of Ports as well as the private secretary to the Headquarters General Manager, but this guy was pretty obstinate, even belligerent. Luckily I had my passport, but I handed it over with much trepidation, fully expecting that he'd need to "make a photocopy". But he handed it back and chastised me for ignoring his English. I had half a mind to ask for his identification (he had no badge or sleeve/shoulder stripes), but I figured getting shot in Africa wasn't worth it. Oh my Ghana.

I can't remember if I did anything that night. Oh well...

Recap Part II

Okay this post is gonna be a bit of stream-of-consciousness--the days just blur together here anyways.

Before I start proper, I must say that it is entirely possible to get a lot of diseases in this country,
many with overlapping symptoms. Therefore, I feel an umbrella term is needed to cover all of them. I propose: Ghana-rrea.

I know. Terrible.

I'm plugged into a wired connection at Akuafo Hall where the Internet is decent, so I may camp out here for most of the afternoon.

Oh, I should also mention that there are a bunch of Harvard Summer School students here. Yay, familiar faces! Shoutouts to Emma and Romeo. And to Esther, who's working at a newspaper.

Sunday Afternoon

Probably the most exciting day of my summer so far! I went with a bunch of students from Harvard and the University of Alberta to the World Cup qualifier match between Ghana and Gabon. We (Ghana) owned them!

Getting to the stadium was an adventure. I mistook the Alberta tro-tro for Harvard's so I ended up chasing it down the parking lot--they let me on, but I was like passenger #21 in this van/deathtrap built for maybe 10. I sat backwards on top of some part of the front seat, no seatbelt, totally possible to fly through the windshield. Awesome. Of course, this tro-tros full of obrunis (white people ... I guess I'm white now ... whatevs) attracted a hell of a lot of attention as we went down the main road. When we'd stop guys would wash all of our windows, much to the dismay of the driver and mate, and I think most of the Canadian (or as Romeo calls them, the Ghanadians) girls got a few marriage proposals.

We got to the stadium about an hour early, and purchased our tickets "together". And yet none of our seats were next to each other. Oh, Ghana. I also had my first Star Lager, which is like the most popular local brew. It was pretty good--anything to take the heat off the West African sun.

If you thought the obruni attention was insane, upon entering the stadium, the Canadian contingent got a standing/cheering/singing/chanting/screaming ovation from an entire section!! Ghanaian guys were blowing horns, calling for us to come over and making entire rows of room to sit with some of the Canadian ladies. There was quite a bit of stroking and groping. It was crazzzzzy.

The match itself was awesome, with Ghana having the game in hand, 2-nil. I've got some video/pics on my camera, but bandwidth here won't let me post it up. Afterwards, our RA, Dennis, walked with us to Osu so that we could have dinner. I had to play rear admiral on this one, and make sure no one got abducted from the back.

Enter sketchy truck-load of horny Ghanaian men. Yeah, these guys were definitely harassing the ladies in our group, and they weren't too happy with getting rebuffed. It was really dark out, so we were probably in a good bit of danger. Eventually we got past them, but soon traffic cleared up, and they soon caught up with us.

AND THEN THEY STOLE MY HAT. WHO THE HELL STEALS A HAT?! Right from the passing vehicle, out of my hand. AHHHH. It was just a cotton full-brim hat, but it was perfect for keeping the hot African sun off my head/neck. Still need to find another one. Oh man.

Monday

Yesterday I went to Tema Port to meet with the General Manager of Administration. He kind of interrogated me, so I was afraid I wouldn't get the go-ahead. I knew coming in that ethnicity in the workplace is probably not the most openly talked about, but eventually he cleared me through. I just sent him my draft survey (10 pages ... eeek), so hopefully I can start sample selection (about 40 for pre-test) tomorrow.

Also, I hired a research assistant/interpreter (yeah, Weatherhead grant proposal!). Woooohooo! He's an MPhil Psychology candidate who is fluent in English, Twi and Ga, and he used to work at Tema Port. Kind of weird having a research assistant older than you.

A couple of days ago, a bird shat on me. Last night, Romeo got shat on on our way to dinner. Emma says that the Italians consider getting shat on by a bird to be good luck.

I've nothing against the birds. In fact, I'll just let bygones be by Ghana.

Okay, I'll stop now.