Junie's Online Thoughts
Saturday, December 21, 2002
Today...let's see...went with Stacey to pick up the bus tickets....which may take off from where we bought them or may leave from the other bus station. The lady is supposed to call Stacey Monday morning to say for sure......doesnt that spell A-D-V-E-N-T-U-R-E??
Then we sat around and had some minerals while talking about being in Ghana, religion, culture shock and such. Came back to email...need to shower BADLY before we return to the tasty Ethopian restaurant for dinner. No real news.....in case I dont write for a while, have a great holidays, everyone. I will write when we come back from Mole.
Friday, December 20, 2002
Two nights ago, after we settled the plans to Mole, we went out for dinner with Stacy and Erin to Venus...where we waited forever for our meal. As we were finishing up, this guy comes over and says, "Do you guys want some wine?" I thought maybe he was from another table and had extras. We all froze...then he said, "its on the house." OKAY! It wasnt very good...he explained it as some new South African wine they were trying...but the whole thing was odd. We drank our free wine, and the guy, named Ben, asked who we were and why we were in Ghana. He then told us about his timber business and offered to host us if we ever came to his village in the mountains north of Kumasi. Dont know if I would ever take up a stranger on an offer to stay at his remote house, but he was nice enough. Then we went off to Dungan's to meet some of the other folks going to Mole.
Last night was the goodbye dinner for the folks in our complex. The Ethopian restaurant was fabulous---big platters of vegetarian options on the sourdough spongey bread stuff. Yummmmmmy. And pretty cheap for what you get. 40,000 cedis brings enough for two....thats $5. We thought we heard that everyone was heading to Bywel's afterwards...and took up Danielle and her husband Zack on their offer for a ride in their SUV. She works for the embassy (I played soccer with her) and they have a pretty posh deal. It turns out that no one from the party was at Bywel's, but we chatted with Zack...drank beers...listened to the house bar play high life and strange versions of Xmas songs and "My Way" by Sinatra. Surreal.
Today was shopping for gifts for our Secret Santa. We decided to brave Makola. AFter a late start and a long walk, we got there and it wasnt nearly as bad as the first time in terms of being overwhelming in the first two minutes. It took at least twenty this time...there are moments when I can completely zone out and be swallowed up by the waves of people shouting and shoving fish and toys and food in my face and hissing and calling, "Sister," "Madam," "Come look at my things." As we turned the corner, I had to stop by a vendor. Each time we go, I see someone selling this liquid stuff in a huge emptied out casava gourd and served with ice cubes. "What is this?" I asked. At first it sounded like "Coke" but then sounded like somethign else. She filled up a cup part way to give me a taste. Kind of like sweet tea, like flat Coke, like something. I took a tiny sip, lest I get sick...and JEremy did too. Then we became social central. The woman repeatedly shook my hand (complete with the Ghana snap at the end) while asking me my name, where I was from, if Jeremy was my husband or brother, if we had babies. Then another woman joined us and counted my earrings, tugged on my eyebrow ring, asked again if Jeremy was my husband. I said yes. She placed her hand on his chest and said, "I love him." "Yes," I said. "I love him too." She turned away from me to talk to JEremy in a bit of Twi and the original liquid seller asked me if I knew my day name. (I didnt.) The second woman was telling Jeremy that he resembled Jesus and that he was nice. (He gets the Jesus thing a lot...more about that one on another day.) We chatted some more...I declined the offer to buy her drink...but she didnt seem to mind. We shook hands for another few minutes and then were on our way. Finally leaving with a wooden spoon, cards, tomatoes, garden eggs (eggplants), nutmeg, a frying pan, and some strange fruit things, we weaved our way back to home. Along the way, Jeremy was commenting that you sometimes hear "Abruni" in passing Ghanian conversations, but they may not be talking about you. "Yeah," I said. "Two abrunis walk into a bar." "The first one says, Is that a Malta?" Jeremy continues. "Thats not a Malta. Thats my big rich mansion in the United States!" Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!! (Because every American is filthy rich.)
Then we walked forever to find lunch, bought this cute wooden chicken toy, bought groceries, picked up my clothes from the seamstress and are homeward bound for a nap. Tonight is another goodbye dinner...then drinks with Tim, who returned from Benin full of stories and advice. Its all good...
Thursday, December 19, 2002
This morning, on the way to the post office, I discovered that the weather was quite pleasant. Thank goodness for Harmattan, this dusty cooler wind that blows through the country from December to February. I didnt start sweating until I got sort of lost exploring where the post office road led to....and ended up turning around and following the usual Lokko Road to Oxford Street. Oh well...another day. I didnt really feel like walking all day, especially with my sunburn still a little achy. (Thats a funny thing about this place....wounds and skin problems take forever to heal. Dont know if its the heat or the humidity and the fact that Im perpetually wet, but my sunburn, some cuts on my hand...they still havent gone away in a week or more.)
Im pretty excited...we had one of those in-the-right-place-at-the-right-time moments....our complex mate, Stacy, asked what we were doing for Xmas...we lamely replied that we hadnt made any plans. She was like, why dont you come with us? We're going to Mole! Whoo hoooo! Mole is this big game park in northern Ghana, by the border of Burkina Faso. Basically, we take a bus to Temale (dont know if I spelled that right) that takes about 12 hours, then wait all day for another bus to take us to Mole (another 8 to 10 hours.) Six of us are going altogether, and we're opting for the "luxury" bus, with air conditioning, a toilet, tv and reclining seats. Its double the price of the cheap bus ($20 versus $10) but why start off miserable? We can take the crappy bus home when we've spent all of our money. We leave Monday evening and stay until after Xmas....we are even doing a secret Santa gift exchange between us. A little difficult to buy gifts for strangers, but the gal I got lives in this remote part of the country where they cant find anything. Im figuring a roll of toilet paper, a deck of cards, maybe some candy and other odds and ends. If she cant find a supermarket, maybe she'd like some bare necessities. (or maybe she will think Im lame...no matter, I probably wont see her again after this trip.) When we come home, Stacy, Nina and this other gal are going off to Mali (Timbuktu actually) for three weeks. I want to hear how it went because we are contemplating a trip there in the spring after the rainy season. Then we can take the boat there instead of the miserable hot bus. Wouldnt it be cool to say I've been to Timbuktu??? Keep you posted on that one.
This means that some things are rearranged a little...I will be calling my family on Sunday probably, as opposed to Xmas eve, but thats cool. On Xmas eve, I will be sitting in the Mole hotel room....where large monkeys sometimes wander into your room....and we can see the elephants....and take photos of camels....and hike for six hours a day through the forest.....Im pretty darn pumped.
Tried to exercise today. Good god, that was hard. I could barely do 25 pushups, and the situps nearly made me puke. Guess who's a little out of shape???? Yeesh. Gotta be better about that one. Tonight is a going away dinner for Neve, Ben & Sandra at an Ethopian restaurant here in Osu. Neve is returning to Ireland tonight and Ben & Sandra are off to South Africa, then home to Australia. They have been travelling for four years and have been all over the place....India, Spain, London, South America...makes me wish I were more well-travelled. If anything, it pushes us to travel more while we are here in Ghana...when everything is so close and relatively cheap. We wont go to the scary parts....and I probably wont get to climb Mount Kilamanjaro (I heard that the glacier on top of the mountain will only be there for seven more years, because global warming is already melting big parts of the ice) because its too costly to fly to Kenya or Mozambique (I think thats where it is....) and we didnt bring any winter coats and boots. Maybe next time, eh?
Tomorrow I pick up my clothes from the seamstress....Saturday we will probably go out with Tim, the guy who knows everything about Ghana and where to find things....Sunday an internet cafe is playing "Die Another Day," the new James Bond movie.....and then Monday we are off for our trip. Always something, even with no job....isnt that amazing??
Wednesday, December 18, 2002
Malta. Quite a phenomena. Made by both Guinness and Amstel, Malta is promoted like Budweiser back home. On the commercials, happy people are drinking away, the narrator comments on how the Malta will give you strength, little babies and kids gulp from the bottles and cans.....WAIT A SECOND!!!! What are the babies doing with a beer bottle in their little hands....
Its all good, though, because Malta is non-alcoholic. Jeremy tried it last time and hated it, but this time, it's grown on him. When I tried it, I liked it right away, although there is no real equivalent back home. Let's see. In Atlanta, down the street from our house, there was a co-op called Sevanandah. When we were feeling virtuous and health conscious, we would scan the aisles for treats to eat that wouldnt be so bad for us. More times than not, anything we bought would be disappointing because they used carob instead of chocolate or honey rather than sugar...and it just doesnt satisfy a craving like a Snickers bar. But one thing I really liked was this set of bars by Yogi Bajahn. They were these 2 inch by 2 inch blocks of peanuts and honey, or cashews and seasame, or sunflower seeds and flax...or something like that. They sure werent candy, but they were nutty and healthy tasting. Thats a bit like a Malta. It looks like a thick rich stout...much like a heavier version of a Guiness. It tastes like graham crackers and nuts and chocolate and malt and hops. Its a little gritty...and the colder, the better. I may bring some home and those who are interested can join in the taste test. Theres no point in bringing wine or beer home...the wine is cheap but not good......and the beer is cheap, but doesnt really taste any different than beer back home. But the Malta....thats something different.
Disclaimer: When I use my blogger lately, it substitutes for my journal. I havent had a chance or the energy to sit down and write in my actual book, so I use this instead. So...when Im having a bad day, I vent. When Im confused, I describe my experience. When we do something fun, I explain it. Because it feels to me like a journal, sometimes I forget that a bunch of people have this web address and read what I write. It shocks me when I get responses at times...until I remember...oh yeah, I put that on blogger and thats public. At times, I wonder if I should just create a separate account for myself so I can write whatever I want and not have to worry about anyone elses interpretation/consumption of it. But I want to share what Im feeling, because I think my rage and my wonder and my joy and my annoyance is part of the experience here....and figure that most folks would choose a whole picture of our time here rather than a short, happy, bland Reader's Digest version of it.
When I wrote yesterday about my bad Monday, I certainly didnt behave like a fool. We are very polite here and try to follow the cultural ways of doing things..whether that means slowing down or asking a lot of questions or leaving and coming back. This doesnt mean that its not frustrating as heck. I recognize the differences between here and home and dont expect things to be exactly like Atlanta or Minnesota or Wisconsin. I dont expect them to be even remotely close. But Im going through some culture shock and doing the best I can in adjusting to a culture that I know little about and dont always understand. Sometimes it would be really nice to return to my former life in ATL for just a little while, but I cant for the duration of this trip. So I do try to fit in, even when it feels totally wrong to behave like a typical Ghanian. (Some Ghanians FREAK OUT at taxi drivers, tro tro drivers, sales clerks, anyone...and I would NEVER do that, even if I was trying to acclimate to the culture.)
Likewise, I certainly dont mean to cause stress on those on the homefront who are taking care of my business while Im gone. Big apologies and thanks to mom for all she does for me....to Aunt Kathy and Stacy too.....its really, really, really hard to be totally removed from all of my finances and bills and personal items and have no control over anything...even the mail. So I dont mean to fly off the handle about the phone bill or freak about forwarding the mail. I appreciate all the work and time it takes to handle someone else's affairs...its really amazing all the details that would take me just a minute or two...but when someone else is doing it thousands of miles away, it takes a lot longer and with much more anxiety attached to it. You three will receive many gifts for your contributions. Trish, too, for looking after Squeak. Im not trying to be a pain in the butt.....Im really not. Im doing the best I can here with what Ive got....and I will work on not losing my patience or temper despite the unrelenting heat.
Tuesday, December 17, 2002
Guess who didnt wear sunscreen but did wear a tanktop? Guess who got really red and full of itchy sunburn? ME!!! Yesterday was a bad, bad day. It was an I HATE Ghana Day. Everything sucked. The day was hot, we had yet another blackout that lasted all day, we tried to find the post office and succeeded in locating it. However, when we inquired about getting a personal mail bag, the lady was like, oh no, you cant get one until we reallocate them in March or April. Well, how do we get one then? You have to fill out an application. Ok. Can I have an application? Oh no, there is no application...you just have to write a letter explaining that you are applying for a post office bag. Well, of course...silly me...why didnt I know that?? She didnt bother to include what information they needed on this make-shift application...I guess we were supposed to automatically know that too.
Then we tried to find a bank that would let us open an account...and stopped at another Standard Chartered down near Nkrumah Circle...and they wanted TWO references instead of one, and a minimum balance of $5000. So we walked and walked and tried to find a simple, cheap CD player. Shouldnt be hard, right? You can get a cheap little CD boombox for $40 back home...well, you would think I was looking for the holy grail here. There is no middle ground. Either they sell these big mother systems for 3,000,000 cedis or more, or they have little boomboxes for no less than 1,200,000 cedis. I refuse to pay that much. We tried numerous stores, all with no luck and the Ghanaian version of customer service (where they see that you are looking at an item so they walk over and stand really close to you and stare at you until you either say "how much" or walk away...whichever comes first.)
Everything seems like a major pain here...I mean, really...nothing comes easy. Even the most mundane, simple tasks take FOREVER to accomplish and you have to ask a million questions or get really annoyed while trying to wrap things up and go home. ARgh. Im sure Im speaking from my experience with American privaledge where everything is easy and instantaneous...and I recognize that this is a developing country and some things should be harder and take more time. But when EVERYTHING is like that.....I find it really, really irritating, you know? Cant there be just one little thing that comes quick and nice? Just one??????
So we stopped at an internet cafe on the way home...some off street place that Jeremy used to go to years ago and liked...well now it is slow and full of old computers and when I tried to send my email to my friend, the computer ate the whole thing up and then froze. I wanted to pick up the PC and throw it out of the window. But I didnt. Instead I brooded all the way home, whined about the heat when we still had no fans, killed as many ants in the kitchen as I could find and tried to lay down. Jeremy tried to appease me...feeling bad that he had brought me here only to have me enraged by it...he played a CD on his laptop, brought me water and Oreos, but when Im pissed and scorned...nothing will help except time to let the rage ride out. I dont mean to take it out on him...its not his fault....and I told him that he cant take it personal if Im like "I hate Ghana today" because then he's going to be depressed a lot. I have a feeling that this place is going to annoy me sometimes. But thats okay, because maybe tomorrow I will have an "Ghana is alright" kind of day.
But anyway, today is another day. Still sunburned, still hot, but this time with electricity and a small amount of hope. A gal in our complex (the one from WI) brought us to the US Embassy and we applied for a bank account there (no references and only $200 minimum balance.) We dropped all of our traveller's checks there and will get our account number this week. What a relief. Now if only the mother of our landlord wouldnt be difficult about our rent....she expects us to pay a higher amount of cedis for our dollars...but nobody pays that much for traveller's checks or cash...we are lucky when we can find 8,200 or 8,300 cedis for each $100...let alone the 8,500 that she expects. This woman scares me generally...we're supposed to call her Auntie C and I think she's a little off her rocker. Her son owns the place and her daughter, Margaret is really nice. But we seem to only deal with Auntie C and she's stern and confusing and blantantly annoyed by us foreigners.
Who knows what we are doing tonight....just want to cross my fingers and hope that we have electricity all night long.
Sunday, December 15, 2002
Whew...hace mucho calor hoy. Its way hot. We have had blackouts nearly every day, so that means that the frig is full of food waiting to spoil, the fans dont work, antoinette cant iron our clothes so I have no clean pants, and there is no relief from the heat. Im not sure if the part of town where the internet cafe lives isnt affected by the no-electricity or if they are running on a powerful generator, but the air conditioning isnt really working in here today, although the tv is. (Cartoon network, whoo hoo!)
Last night we went to a barbeque. A guy named Stephen, who lives in the big house next door, is house sitting for his boss for a month and invited us all over. It was great to chill out, drink beers and eat ultra spicy salsa and grilled veggies and salad (they also had meat, that for a brief time looked reeeeallllly good). Then we headed over to Indigo, a dance club, to check it out. After being peer pressured into spending the 20,000 cedi entrance fee, we danced to terrible music for short time. I didnt want to stay long, although I tried to dance as much as I could. Jeremy suffered a sudden burst of stomach cramps, conveniently timed with my urge to leave, so we took off for home. We even had a working fan for the first part of the night before the power went off.
The house is still nice, although it did look much better that first night in the dark. It still has big rooms and a dining room table with six chairs and two beds and desks and many windows, but we have traded some things for others. We gave up the porch for the spaciousness. We traded a good small frig for a crappy frig but with a separate freezer. We now have ants. But more counter space. We've traded the 6 am cleaning/scraping/talking/radio noise outside the bedroom window for a rooster that crows nonstop from 2 am until about 7. It wont be bad as soon as we have constant electricity and can start hosting dinner parties. Must put that table to use. However, for all the changes, its great to unpack all of our suitcases and psuedo-decorate and settle in. I keep having nightmares that Auntie C (the mother of the landlord combo) will suddenly say, oh wait, we dont want you to stay here, we are going to move you into a little shed in the back because its better. Yeesh.
