Junie's Online Thoughts
Saturday, December 07, 2002
I am not having a very good day. We made the mistake of going to this gallery with some folks who live in the complex and suddenly 4 people turned into 8 or 9. Then everyone slid into that "group think" space where no one can make a decision and everyone gets all wishy washy and if you actually push people to do the thing that you're all there to do, then you look like a bitch. Well, first, instead of going to the gallery as planned, we headed off to the art market so two of the gals could do xmas shopping. The Arts market is smaller than Makola markets and much, much more aggressive. Most of the market is contained in this one building with tight rows of seller after seller who get all up in your face and try to coerce you to come into their stall and buy their wares. Even when you say no, then try to guilt you into looking, or run after you and follow you, yelling. That got annoying in about oh, seven seconds. Then we stood around and waited for an hour for the two gals to show up....then, right when we convinced a vendor to give them a message when they finally arrived, they strolled over like it was no big deal. Oh, you werent waiting long were you?? Ug. Then we filed into two taxis and drove to the gallery called The Loom. Its an upscale art store with lots of nice paintings for Ghana expensive prices (although not that expensive for U.S. art prices.) We ended up waiting another two hours while the gals decided over more xmas gifts....by then i was mad at everyone, mad at myself for not leaving hours earlier, mad at jeremy for accidentally tearing my shirt as he ripped off my tag like i asked him, starving hungry, hot and bored. I was finally like, look, Im going home....you have 30 seconds to decide if you are going with us...if not we are leaving. Again they attempted that wishy washy stand around with a blank look garbage but we said, we're out of here.
I blew up at poor jeremy when we got home...both because Im getting my period tomorrow and am chock full of hormones, because I was so hungry and because he was there. Also, we had hired this girl to do laundry for us and left our front door open so she could go in and do it. Well, she didnt do anything and when we asked her about it, she acted like it was the first time we had arranged such a thing. It makes me want to scream....I will do it myself! Just decide so I can have clean pants and a bath towel that doesnt smell foul!!!! But I didnt...and she put us off until tomorrow.....ugh.
So I needed a time out. After scarfing down lunch, I went by myself to my favorite internet cafe. Now that Ive had air conditioning and tv, I feel much better. (Im so TV hungry that the Miss World pageant looks like nirvana...and just to hear the gals in the internet place coo and clap for the winning Miss Turkey was joy enough for me). I guess we are going out for Indian food for supper with another girl in the complex. If it turns into another group fiasco, Im staying home and having a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Its not like its terrible...but after a day full of aggressive people and constant compromises when I just wanted to be left alone to look and enjoy my day, I just cant deal with more inconveniences, you know? Right now, I would give both suitcases full of stuff to be sitting on the futon in our old apartment in Atlanta, purring cat in my lap, watching tv and eating thai takeout, knowing there was haagen daas in the freezer, a glass of merlot after that and a nice comfortable big bed upstairs with cool, refreshing December air blowing through the window. Sigh. Its too soon for homesickness...what will I become in two months? In four months? In six months? Will I be a crazed monster when that ten month mark rolls around? ARgh...I shudder to think about it.......
Friday, December 06, 2002
Let me back track a little bit. On Wednesday we travelled to the National Museum. It contained a mix of old pottery and tool shards, carvings, staffs, metal figurines, a few "modern" paintings (none of which were before 1980) and a display on a slave ship that sunk. We ate lunch at the museum restaurant--a buffet of salad, veggie stew, red red, fried rice, white rice, fish, some crab thing and plantains. I made the mistake of eating WAY too much, then a fire ant bit me in the wrist. My stomach felt bloated and it was hard to walk back home.
Yesterday we made our way to the University of Ghana in Legon. Getting there, we first took a shared taxi. Shared taxis are less expensive than normal taxis, they follow a certain route and use a different set of hand signals to hail them (pointing in the direction you want to go, rather than down...or in our case, making a circle to indicate we wanted to go to the main circle.) Then we took a tro tro to the University. Tro tros are big vans that act sort of like buses. The driver follows a certain route and the driver's mate hangs out of the side sliding door, making a hand gesture and yelling his route. (To me it sounds like jibberish and I cant tell the difference between the routes.) It wasnt that busy in the morning, and we easily found a tro tro to Legon. (The mate yelled something like Lego-la-loo-loo-iddly-wa-la-loo-loo, lego-la-loo-loo-loooooo). Midway through the route, the mate keeps track of who has paid, where they are going along the route and how much to charge. All in all, we paid about 2,600 cedis to get to Legon, compared to 12,000-15,000 a single taxi would have taken.
The campus is quite pretty and after walking around for a bit, we ate at the restaurant place. They were out of fried rice, so we had yet another lunch of red red. Its tasty, but too much palm oil and too filling to eat so early in the day. Again I felt bloated and moody. After a stop at the bookstore and library (very outdated books), we tried to catch a tro tro back to the circle. Unfortunately, it was rush hour and people were pushing and shoving their way onto the few tro tros headed in our direction. It took about 30 minutes to fight our way into the back of a crowded van. (trotros can usually hold 22 people, not including the driver and mate.) Jeremy made a mistake as to when we should get off...so we ended up walking back to Nungwa circle.
Since the landlords had put gas and dishes in our kitchen, we decided to cook dinner at home instead of eating out. We bought carrots, onions, garlic, pasta, zuccini and eggplant and made a mediocre meal...although not bad considering we didnt have a wok or a frying pan or pepper or any herbs or mushrooms or a spatula. :) Afterwards, we met up with two other folks in the complex and walked to Bywel's, the bar down the street. The house band was playing. So surreal. Highlife versions of "Im dreaming of a white xmas," "santa claus is coming to town" and a few other xmas songs...as well as "somewhere over the rainbow," and other classic ditties. Highlife is kind of like reggae, kind of like happy swing music, kind of like 50's do wop..its hard to explain, but fun to listen to.
Today I was supposed to accompany Susan, a gal from San Francisco, to her junior high art class. We walked to her house and along the way I felt sicker and sicker. (I had already been feeling yucky and think I ate too much pineapple for breakfast.) When we got to the Geekcorps house, we discovered that Susan was gone. Her partner, Bosco, told us that since it was the day after Ramadan, all classes were closed. Susan, therefore, took her own holiday and left at 7 that morning. He added that she wanted to talk to me about taking over the class when she returned to the U.S. in a few weeks. Dont know about that one...Ive never had any training in teaching, dont know what I would teach...and kids sort of scare me. I wouldnt mind watching or helping, but I dont think Im qualified to do it all by myself. That should be an intersting conversation when she gets back in town.
So instead, we are ditching our plans of going to the bank and post office (also closed due to the Muslim holiday) and instead are having a slow easy day of writing emails and letters, reading, hanging about the house and maybe going out for Indian food for supper. Fine by me. We've been running so much..its nice to have a lazy day.
PLUS>>> my cousin wrote that she received the lost invitations. HOORAY! I dont need to cry for days....
Wednesday, December 04, 2002
God damn keyboard. Just wrote a bunch and the computer ate it. ARgh. Take two. Im not having a good day....am amidst a mail crisis. I mailed my sisters completed shower invitations to my cousin before I left Atlatna and they are MIA. I would be devastated if they were lost...might have to have Leah call the post office to see if its still there. Cant remember if I did a return receipt or not....and cant remember which address I put down for mine. Everyone keep their eyes open (stacy, nancy, leah and mom) and I will try not to get an ulcer. That would suck if I lost all the invitations, the return cards, the 60 stamps...after all that work and over $75 worth of supplies. Ugh. I cant even think about it.
Anyway, the day before yesterday we went to a ghanian restaurant for lunch. Jeremy had ground nut soup, a mixture of peanuts, palm oil and other spices, served with fu fu. Fu fu is a national dish, and is made from either casava flour or other types of flour that has been pounded into a paste. It looks like a big gooey dumpling as big as two fists and you break off a little bit with your fingers, dip it in the soup and swallow it. You dont want to chew it because it never gets any softer...I had evergreen soup...spinach, lots of pepper and scotch bonnet peppers, and even though they told me it was vegetarian, it had some sort of aniimal kibble in it..probably fish. I opted for rice instead of fu fu, but tried jeremy's. In Ghana, you use your right hand for greeting and eating and supposedly use your left hand for hygeiene and such. Youre not supposed to touch folks with your left hand or take money, although they would probably forgive me since Im a foreigner. But they bring out big water basins to wash your hand, as well as steamed washcloths. Then we ate. The fu fu doesnt taste like much, but I dont much care for the texture. The soup was spicy, but good. Its hard not to use my left hand.
It was a hot day, and we tried again to go to Makola markets so I could find some fabric to make pants. We walked down there and found ourselves deep in the maze of the markets...stretching for miles in either direction before you even get to the main market area. You can find anything there...and many duplicates--clothes, house hold items. tomatoes, onions, yams, animal fat, dried fish, snails as big as your foot, garden eggs (eggplant), carrots, lettuce, shoes, jeans, fabric, shampoos and soaps, spices, and a million other things. We kept it to the minimum and just bought 4 yards of fabric and some plantains as a snack. Exhausted, we walked home, stoppign for Fanta and a gallery along the way.
Yesterday we went to the internet cafe. THe landlords finally hooked up our gas and gave us a few dishes to use. Today we will buy veggies and pasta so we can cut some costs and eat at home. We are moving into the other apartment on the 12th, its next door and supposedly bigger. A two bedroom for $50 more each month. Kind of pricey, but we are going to try it. After internetting, we walked around, then ate at a Thai/Chinese restaurant. Its strange...and disappointing so far. Like a weird Ghanian interpretation of chinese food that isnt even close tot he good real stuff we're used to. Oh well, we tried. Then we chatted with some of our neighbors--a student from Chicago, a gal from Canada, a couple from the UK who are leaving for South AFrica and Australia in a few weeks. Then Tim, a grad student and historian met up with us so he and Jeremy could go out for a beer and talk shop. I tagged along...mostly to ask him questions now and again about logistics like the post office or taking classes or getting around. They talked grad schools and African authors and nationalist theories (snore) and I looked around the Blue Plate restaurant where we started---apparently their tilapia is fabulous---I was too full from dinner to try it, although I did try Kenkay and banku. Both are more dumpling-ish things to accompany a meal...instead of being all squishy like fu fu, these are fermented and boiled to various firmness---they come of in chunks and tasty awful sour something. Didnt like it.
Right now the TV in the internet cafe is playing the Young and the Restless. Usually its this melodramatic ghanian soap opera, but at least I can understand what they are saying. Havent watched this show since high school---dont know if its current or not. Anyway, we are off to the National museum today.....wish me good blessings that the shower invites show up. This really has my stomach all twisty like.
Monday, December 02, 2002
Key-rist its hot as hades here. Today and yesterday were/are really bad....by 9 am its already burning burning sun. After we emailed yesterday, we walked the 2+ miles to the Makola markets, only to learn that they are closed on Sundays. By then my feet were killing me and I was getting bitchy, so we took a taxi to Danquah Circle, where Koala, the supermarket is. There we bought a few things...and the check out lady made fun of me for paying 10,000 cedis for a small amount of olives...certainly expensive by Ghanian standards, but cheaper than home (about $1.50). They were tasty and I needed something salty to help me retain some water and not feel so dehydrated. We walked home, played cards, and tried to take a nap. This was impossible because the relative of the landlord was having a party right outside of our window...and the stereo system stood directly in front of our bedroom window. Much too loud to sleep, especially when the music bounces between christian hymns, ghanian high life music and Shaggy banging on the bedroom floor. We gave up on the nap, walked back into downtown Osu and got a beer at a spot called Dungan's. That is one of the really good things about Accra. Beer is dirt cheap. To buy a big almost 40 oz beer of the local lagers/stouts (Star, Club, ABC, Castle) is only about 60 cents. (5000 cedis.) its crazy. We sat there for a while, arguing about culture shock and the heat, then ate at Cedars, a Lebanese place. There seem to be a lot of Lebanese restaurants here...cross cultural entrepreneurs. Falafel (except they add either hot pickles or pickled okra) and Fanta/Coke. Then we walked to Frankie's to get my first taste of Ghanian ice cream. Its kind of like a cross between gelato and ice cream....four scoops for about a dollar. Good, but too milky for me in this heat...makes my stomach feel yucky.
Came home, played cards, and I went to bed. Jeremy was restless and sat outside for awhile. Then he came to bed too.
This morning, after breakfast, we finally figured out our staying situation. We had been in limbo, until we talked to the mother part of the landlord team. We're paying $300 a month for the both of us to stay in the little bungalo-esque place we are now. We have our own kitchen, own toilet, own shower and sink, own bedroom, big living room and front porchy-thing. Its nice...bigger than a room in the big house but more separate. Thats okay..we're going to try and finagle a key so we can go into the big house next door and sit on the roof. Its nice to know for sure where we are living so we can unpack and get settled. We hired a girl to clean the house once week and do our laundry once a week. We could do it, but im not so good at hand washing my stuff in a pail and then ironing it. Feels weird to have a maid-ish person, but its only 30,000 cedis a week for both of us (less than 4 dollars) and it helps her to earn some money. Today we already did the post office, stopped to email and then will go to the bank and store to buy bagged filtered water and other supplies. Before I leave, here is your daily Twi lesson. Dont know how its spelled, but heres the phonetic pronunciation. Ma-ah-che: good morning. Ma-ah-po: good afternoon. Ma-ah-joe: good evening. Pee-aye-son: response to any of the previous statements. May-dah-say: thank you. Brew-nee: foreigner (essentially a white person.) There you go.
Sunday, December 01, 2002
Its our third full day here and already I feel like Ive seen a lot of Accra. On Friday, after I wrote, we walked around more, exploring side streets, Koala, the foreigner supermarket (full of imported goods and foods like Oreos and Haagen Daas), and ate an extravagant dinner at a "Chinese" restaurant. Of course there were no chinese people, and the place was hot as hell, and food was kind of weird and expensive, but at least we got some vegetables to eat. See, the deal is, we're not supposed to eat any raw veggies or fruit that cant be peeled. Otherwise, they are usually washed in the water and can make us crazy sick. So I was craving a salad, but no salad for me until I come home. I had to settle for strange cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and lettuce. That hit my fix.
Its hard to stay hydrated here . Im trying to drink at least two big bottles of water each day in addition to spirits (coke, diet coke, sprite and various Fantas), and beer. But Im sweating like a hella sweat machine and just feel tired and wet all the time. After walking around and eating, we went to the party on the roof upstairs. There we met a ton of people living in the house and their friends. Most were extremely nice and offered advice or stories about their stay. Many were working and doing either development, IT stuff or engineering, or affilitiated with the Geek Corps, this volunteer organization that brings teams of seven people from around the U.S. and Europe to work with area businesses and help them with their computer needs. Later I met a woman named Susan, who was slightly strange and intense, but she invited me to go with her to a batik lesson at an art house the following day in a little town east of Accra. I also got an invitiation to join a soccer club on Sundays...maybe next week...too tired right now.
After we left the party, a big rain storm hit and we went to bed. The next day we woke up early to meet Susan at the Geek Corps house by 8:15 am. There, with another girl named Olivia, we bargained a taxi to take us to Nugawa? (not sure of the name). A woman named Aba owns the house and has created Cross Cultural Collaboration, a way to encourage artists to visit the area and teach locals about art and to basically encourage art making in daily life. Two local batik makers were there, volunteerign their time to teach us how to tie and dye, do wax and starch resists and let us create our own designs. I made two napkins and a big blue batik fabric. It was fun, albeit frustrating with the ghanian slower pace and seeming disorganization. Many times I just wanted to say, lets go already? What are we doing just sitting around? But thats just the way it goes. We also got the chance to see their kiln, their hand crank pottery wheel and the nearby Kente weavers, three guys who weaved with amazing speed. I'll explain more about Kente later.....
I had my first Ghanian meal of red red and fried plantains. Red red is typically black eyed peas, seafood or chicken and palm nut or oil, this thick bright red oil/paste thats tasty but terrible for your cholesterol. Lucikily they didnt add any meat (or so they said) so I ate it.
We finished around 5 pm and took another taxi home (crazy driver that nearly got into numerous accidents amidst angry honking and swerving....sadly typical of most taxi drivers). Susan invited me to her class on Friday and Olivia invited me to come with her to meet a good tailor. (most people buy fabrics from the markets and hire a tailor to make the garments.) We ate, sat around and went to bed early. I was beat.
This morning, after a shower (I take two a day now....a real one at night and another rinse in the morning. There is no hot water, but the cold water feels good in the hot air.) We walked up the street to buy brown bread, bananas and some ground nuts (peanuts.) After eating and looking at the map and feeding the skittish skinny kittens some bread, we walked to the closest phone so I could try to call my mom and wish her a happy birthday. Sadly, I think I need to buy a local phone card to get a dial tone, becuase my 500 minute Sam's Club card did NOTHING. Sorry mom.....I tried.....happy birthday! I miss y'all.
Right now Im at the internet cafe catching up. Jeremy is looking for a pop (we couldnt share this tiny sweaty plastic chair anymore.) Since its Sunday, most businesses are closed and folks are either at church, at funerals or at other festivities. (most folks here are christians, with a few muslims). We are now headed to the Macola markets, the main markets that you see in touristsy brochures or on tv when showing the big noisy crowded busy markets with cloth, statues, jewelry and kente. Next week proves to be another busy week---we will register with the immigration office, find some fabric and the tailor, explore some more and get Jeremy started on his work at the Legon University and Archives. But today we shop and walk and explore.
