It’s hard to know where to begin, hard to know how to articulate all that is racing through my mind! Today I’m in Accra, tomorrow I’m in Akoasi and then next Friday I’m in Toronto.
This past week has been full of goodbyes, goodbye to work placement people, goodbye to all the food people and goodbye to friends and random people that have been part of life here. It is hard saying goodbye to people that have made such a huge impact on me. I can only imagine how hard it will be to leave the village on Monday knowing it will be a long time before I’m ever back.
How I feel about food is basically how I feel about this whole experience in many ways. I love the food here and can’t imagine never eating it again, however I’m so excited for food at home. And just like those feelings, I can’t imagine never coming back to Ghana, can’t imagine leaving this place forever, and yet i’m looking forward to going home and seeing you all!
A week tomorrow, ready or not, the plane is leaving. So now I must go and pack up my things in Accra.
-This week at ‘work’ I went with my ‘boss’ Johnson to the Ghana Aids Commission two day forum on current and future research projects on HIV/AIDS. It was packed full of interesting presentations and there was fantastic snack breaks every couple of hours. I could of and should of written an entire blog about this but well I didn’t.
-This weekend I finally made it to the ‘Dead White Mans Market’, filled with stalls of used clothing from the west. The name comes from the fact that people here persume the people who used to own these clothes must have died in order to give them away because they are still wearable.
-I tried a springrole this weekend that I’ve been passing. It was served with pepe and although a little chewy was definitely a springrole.
-Water now costs double what it did a few weeks ago.
-The sun has gotten hotter this month and I got sunbrunt for the first time since october a few weeks ago.
-Apparently come April 1st littering will be illegal in Ghana. I wish I was going to be here to see if and how they enforce that.
This is my last weekend in Accra! Next Friday I meet back up with the whole group in Kumasi before heading to Nkawkaw to visit our village families. Then on the 30th we fly out. Time is definitely moving quickly. I’ve been making a list of things I won’t miss to help the transition, things like sweating, mosquito bites, car horns, garbage fires and smells and always feeling dirty. The things I’ll miss are much longer but I won’t focus on that now.
As this part of the journey ends I can’t help but hope that its just the beginning of a bigger adventure. Or maybe I’m just using this cliche rhetoric to calm my nerves are the big question mark that is my future. My brain is feeling muddled with all that will happen in the coming weeks. I am excited in part to get back to Canada (I get back to St.John’s on May 8th) but its hard knowing it might be a long time before I ever come back. I’m looking forward to seeing my village family again, I talk to them about once a week as they worry about me being in the big city. This week was Kwasi’s 14th birthday. Its definitely been comforting knowing they are there thinking about me.
-Driving home this week on the trotro a girl selling pure water sachets was also texting on her phone while she gave back change in the busy traffic.
-We’ve had lights out at work a lot lately, 4 out of 10 days. Battery power on computers only lasts so long. Also internet hasn’t been working so i’m not ignoring you I just don’t like paying for this time online.
-We had a staff meeting this week that last the entire day and everything was covered. Everything from how much toilet paper used to how many condoms sold.
-I have discovered the joys of the bean biscuit sandwich. Greasy bean biscuits between bread doesn’t seem like it should be allowed, i mean you would eat a donut sandwich would you? But here, here that is completely acceptable I’ve learned, and yes it is wonderful. I do love this country.
-On the first of March a man got on my trotro and started preaching. He among much else said, ‘You must march into March as March is a month to March forward into your destiny’. A lot will happen in March for me, the biggest being the return to Canada on the 31st, so I guess I need to start marching.
-Driving home this week on the trotro a girl selling pure water sachets was also texting on her phone while she gave back change in the busy traffic.
-We’ve had lights out at work a lot lately, 4 out of 10 days. Battery power on computers only lasts so long. Also internet hasn’t been working so i’m not ignoring you I just don’t like paying for this time online.
-We had a staff meeting this week that last the entire day and everything was covered. Everything from how much toilet paper used to how many condoms sold.
-I have discovered the joys of the bean biscuit sandwich. Greasy bean biscuits between bread doesn’t seem like it should be allowed, i mean you would eat a donut sandwich would you? But here, here that is completely acceptable I’ve learned, and yes it is wonderful. I do love this country.
-On the first of March a man got on my trotro and started preaching. He among much else said, ‘You must march into March as March is a month to March forward into your destiny’. A lot will happen in March for me, the biggest being the return to Canada on the 31st, so I guess I need to start marching.
The organization I’m volunteering for uses interactive theatre combined with behavioural change workshops to educate and promote awareness about HIV and gender issues. This week we were invited to perform at one our the sponsors events, Barclays Bank Ltd. It was an event promoting their community development projects and they needed some entertainment. Interactive theatre is more about participation and changing the dialogue, so using theatre as a means of getting into discussions that can be difficult, not really about entertaining.
We had five days to pull together a performance that focused on financial literacy, a new project we’re starting that connects financial inclusion and the rate of HIV infection rate as well as empowering women. The story comes from the actors, or facilitators as we call them, their experiences, their lives. So rehearsal is really them brainstorming and talking about what they have witnessed and slowly a story line comes out and from there its is mostly improv. The audience is key, as after they perform the story the audience has the chance to step in and take over for a character they think should have acted differently so this creates the dialogue of change. To see it in action in the communities is really powerful. But I was unsure how it would fly in a room full of suits and heels.
The event was at the Barclays Commerical Centre, decked out to the nines. Blue and white christmas lights everywhere, the tables and trees covered in blue silk. There was an open bar and waiters with trays of delicious snacks. The event was scheduled to start at 7 and by 7:01 all the fancy cars and white people had arrived and the speaking started. That shocked me more than the snacks. It was a networking event so I spent the evening talking to people from CARE, Plan Ghana, CIDA, Oxfam, Save the Children, The Right to Play, and then some Ghanaian run ones as well. I wish I had had a buisness card with me, at least I had my pearls.
The performance went over really well, and the audience did participate although its not really as effective a process when they know they right dialogue, but it definitely gave them reason to talk about what the organization does and hopefully it will lead to more funding at some point.
I was called over by my friends in the organization at one point, I had been ‘networking’, and turns out they needed my skin colour to get the waiters to come over. 30 seconds after I came over to them so too did the waiter. It was definitely a night that made me think about skin colour and development.
-Turns out the bo flout i eat for breakfast is actually called donuts, since they are smaller and a little sweeter than normal bo flout. Really? I eat donuts for breakfast? Thanks for making me fat Ghana.
-I went to the doctor this week because I’ve had an infected ingrown toenail for 2 months, yes disgusting I know. Anyways I was put on antibiotics for the second time and I looked them up online and turns out they are also used to treat and prevent malaria. I do have a lot of mosquito bites so I feel like I’m being proactive.
-I’m starting to know the mates and trotros. Most days I don’t even have to tell them when I want to get out. No one calls me obruni either on the commute so I figure that means I’m a regular.
-I found a new food place near the office last week, fried potatoes with the most delicious pepe I’ve ever tasted. I know I crave food like cheese, vegetables and candy but how can I leave all the delicious-ness here behind?
-There were torrential rains last week and it felt just like a snow day. The lights went out and we left work early. The roads were flooded and the next day garbage was everywhere, more than usual, and for a good 24 hour period it felt cool for the first time in a long while.
-Valentines Day in Accra was a big deal. Every bar and restaurant had some kind of even planned and everyone wishes each other Happy Valentines Day. My village family even called with good wishes. This surprised me a little, also no one seemed bitter about it which was a nice change.
-When I went to the bank last week, the teller asked me what part of Canada I was from and when i replied, ‘Newfoundland’, he said, ‘Oh where all the cod fish used to be’. No Ghanaian I’d met to that point had ever heard of Newfoundland.
-My clothes are falling apart. Every time I wash them I find new holes, my sewing skills just aren’t good enough to keep them at a level presentable for work.
