White Cane Day 16th October
Today (16th October) was White Cane Day. I went along to support the activities organised by The Ghana Society for People with Disabilities. I knew they were going to march through town but I was totally unprepared for how far they would march! It was so hot and I was carrying my laptop so was extremely hot and sweaty by the time we finished, at Veteran’s Square. I suppose I cant complain since most of the other people on the march were blind or with other disabilities so much harder for them.
It must be so hard being blind in
Ghana . The roads are a nightmare with random holes all over the place and cows, goats and chickens wandering around. Plus the fact that cars, motorbikes and bicycles pay absolutely no attention to any rules or road markings.
We were all given white canes to hold. A cute wee girl attached herself to me and I had my sunglasses on, so lots of people thought I was actually blind, which seemed to cause some confusion – could a white person actually be blind? In a funny way I wish I could have said I was, so that they could see that white people can be disabled, and somehow I felt like a fraud when they realised I wasn’t blind. One of the blind people was wearing this weird mask which looked a bit like Michael Jackson but scarier if that’s possible. At first glance he looked like a white person and I felt a bit uncomfortable, especially when I found myself walking next to him and passers by would look at him with his creepy mask and then me and just stare open-mouthed at the two freaks!
It does get tiring being stared at and shouted at all the time. Often people will just come up to me and say “white person” (10/10 for observation), “give me money” or just “money” (well, seeing as you asked me so nicely…) It’s very strange. This afternoon a young girl followed for about 5 minutes holding on to me and asking for 2,000 to buy rice. I have often been asked for my clothes too, I mean do they expect me to strip off there and then and give them my trousers?
