Amy’s adventures in Ghana

I travelled to Accra for Christmas and New Year.   I only just made it though, because by the time I’d decided I would travel all of the busses and planes were fully booked!  I managed to get a seat on the military helicopter to Accra which was possibly the most bizarre transport related experience I have ever had!   Squashed inside were about 25 adults and 20 children all sitting on benches intended for about 20 people.  As well as this we had sacks of corn, yams, watermelons and a corpse (in coffin)!  Wished I’d had my camera as fear people wont believe me.  It was very uncomfortable, noisy and hot but it was free, fast and funny!  Most importantly it took me to Accra for my holidays.

Every time I go to Accra it shocks me by how developed it is compared to Tamale.  You can buy anything.  There is a shop that sells imported food and lots of the items are marked in pounds.  I wandered around for about half an hour then left without buying anything as there was too much choice.  I later went back and bought, after much consideration, brie, pesto, yoghurt, mueslie, pickled onions, tetly teabags and shampoo.

Also Accra is massive!  Every day I visited somewhere new and there are so many people. It’s pretty crazy and I was happy to be with Ghanaian people most of the time.   I was also happy any time I saw a Dagomba.  I think it’s quite easy to tell if someone is a Dagomba- especially women as they nearly always wear head scarves and brightly coloured clothes.  A lot of young girls go to Accra to work before they get married - they end up doing menial work like carring goods for shop owners.  Any time I saw a Dagomba, I’d greet them in Dagbani and they’d be so suprised and happy! 

One time we met a Dagomba Cheif in the street - he was carrying a Cheif’s stick -so we greeted him by crouching down. I think he and the other people who saw us were surprised.  If that was in Tamale or a village, everyone would have crouched down and it made me miss the North and it’s culture.

Christmas day was spent on the beach near Accra with 3 Ghanaian friends, Abdul-Basit, Fadilla and Huda, who are like family to me. They are lovely and I didn’t feel homesick, party cos it didn’t feel like Christmas at all, and partly cos they make me feel so at home.   I took them out for an Indian meal in the evening, I fancied something different. It was very funny as none of them had tried Indian food before and didn’t really like it.  We stopped on the way home for some banku as they were still hungry!

Abdul and I went to Koforidua for a day, about 2 hours north of Accra.  It’s famous for making glass beads and there is a huge bead market which was colourful. The beads are very beautiful and distinctive - some are made from recycle bottles.   Certain tribes wear them as bracelets and most girls wear beads round their hips.  I bought loads.  Again, sorry I didn’t have my camera…

Surprised to find myself in Accra for Sala day, I thought it was in January and really disappointed that I wasn’t in Tamale.  I’m sure I asked before and I was told it was after New Year.  There are not so many Muslims in Accra, so not much really happened.  It’s the festival of sacrifice, so in Tamale lots of cows and goats were sacrificed and then roasted and big feasts.   Everyone seemed angry that Sadam Hussain was killed on Sala day, as it’s very holy for Muslims.

I had a typical New Year spent waiting for people, wandering around in uncomfortable shoes and not getting into a nightclub!  It wasn’t bad though, just amused that New year is the same all over the world! 

Last week some fool nicked my bag from right under my nose. It was in my bicycle basket and he snatched it whilst driving past on a motorbike. Very pissed off about it.  It contained my camera, pen drive, phone, money etc.  Most annoyed about my camera as there were loads of great photos on it which I hadn’t downloaded.

Some photo highlights you will never see now:

Me and Laura making mashed potatoes in a fufu pounder

Sahadatu and family "enjoying" our specially prepared Haggis

Sahadatu and other adults theiving lollypops from small children.  Patience hid several lollypops in her pants so the kids wouldn’t see!

Wumpini (very cute wee boy who is usually a bit scared of me) smiling and sitting on Laura’s knee

Me teaching a primary class 4.  Trying to get them to understand "I like …" by drawing what they enjoy.  I did a particularly bad drawing of me riding a bike, which they then all copied and all said I like riding my bike, when asked "what do you like?" hmmm..

Me and Laura with Gbanlanapaga - the regent chief’s wife - at funeral. 

About 10 armed "warriers" firing guns into air and at ground about 5 meters from me at funeral. 

The "warrier Chief" dancing under an umbrella at funeral

  Laura (aka Suhuyini) is here!

We’ve had some mad journey’s, which I’ll fill you in on later…

and seen some nice sights whilst travelling the worst roads in Ghana!

Last week a group of us travelled to Kintampo, about 3 hours south of Tamale to visit the waterfalls.  As it’s the end of the rainy season, it’s meant to be the best time to view them as there should be plenty of water.  We were a fairly random bunch - me, my "brother" Kailan, my colleage Adnan, Anirban, Eva and Sharon -  VSO volunteers and Matt a friend of a friend working in Ghana. 

Somehow we all managed to arrive in Kintampo withinn 5 minutes of each other which was fairly miraculous given Ghanaian transport. We took a taxi to the falls, about 5km out of town and I have to say I was really surprised by how spectacular the falls were.  There was a kind of smooth shelf under the falls that you could walk about on which then fell into a pool which was about knee depth.  So you could climb up the shelf and slide down into the pool.  The water was really heavy and standing under it like a mega power shower.  I found it quite hard not to fall as the flow of water was so strong. 

We stayed the night in a cheap hotel with bedbugs.  It rained really heavily over night so that when we visited the other waterfall in the area it was far too full and fast to swim, but looked and sounded amazing!   

Since I arrived back, Ghana has been experiencing an electicity shortage which has resulted in the government rationing power.  This means we have no power for 12 hours every 4 days.  Very annoying.  Last week when I came into work on Monday I was surprised that there was no power as it was not a scheduled "off" day.  Turns out the transformer that supplies our power has broken.  This meant we had over a week with no power in the office.   Simli Aid do not have a generator, although we did try to beg/borrow/steal one, with no luck.  Thankfully they have now fixed the problem and we have power again, woohooo!!  Lots to do, as I think tomorrow is an "off" day! 

yAs promised, here are some photos of the inside of my lovley new house!!

And our new guard dogs, Ginty the 2nd and Pumba

Monday was officially the end of Ramadan, but most of the people I know fasted for an additional day because the new moon had not been sighted in Tamale. It was seen on Tuesday so that was when the major celebrations for Eid took place. I went along with my "family" to the main prayers in town.  I wore my new dress and borrowed a veil. 

It was an amazing experience.  Literally thousands of people all praying in unison.  Although I’m not a moslem, so didn’t pray, I was made to feel really welcome, everyone was just pleased and amused that a siliminga was there and wearing their traditional clothing.   The sound of so many people chanting their prayers together was actually quite moving and somehow peaceful, as the call to prayer and the prayers themselves have a kind of hypnotic quality.

After the prayers we visited family members and ate lots of food!  Everywhere I went I was greeted so warmly and I really do feel like part of the family.   

Everyone at the office was shocked this morning to learn that Simli’s Lawyer had died suddenly.  He is (was) married to Jafara’s sister and they just had a baby, whose naming ceremony I went to just one week ago. It was completely unexpected.  His baby daughter is just two weeks old now. 

The custom here is to bury the body on the same day as death.  It is amazing how quickly word spreads and by the time we got to the house there were already several car loads of people there. It was so strange as they’d set up the courtyard in exactly the same way as the naming ceremony with canopies and chairs arranged in rows.  I had a very bizarre feeling of de ja vu. 

The first thing you have to do is greet the mourners which was terrible. The wife and parents were totally inconsolable and the wee baby was lying sleeping in the corner. They also have another child, a 3 year old boy, who was wandering around looking confused.  Although I couldn’t really understand what anyone was saying, it was obvious that there was a profound sense of shock.  Everyone was looking at each other as if hoping that someone would admit that it was a joke.  We were sitting in his living room with photos of him and the family all around.

Because he was a Lawyer, he was fairly well off and has a lovely big house in which several of the extended family stay.  I don’t know what will happen to them. 

I have never been to a Muslem funeral before.  There is a marked segregation between men and women. All the women had to stay inside the room and the men were all outside. When they brought out his body, the women were not allowed to enter the room and it was only the men who go to the cemetery to bury him, not even his wife or mother is allowed to go.  Then all the men went to the mosque to pray for him before returning to the house. 

I learn that they believe you should not cry at this pre-burial ceremony as they believe that if a tear touches the ground it will burn the body of the deceased once he is buried.  I was told this after the dead man’s sister, who was wailing terribly, got severely told off by another lady. It was obvious that she was certainly not offering her condolences.  I asked my friend what was going on and learnt she’d be telling her off for crying and saying that she was punishing her brother. 

We were there for about 5 hours.  By the time it ended there must have been about 200 people there.  His colleagues had come from work, they were expecting him in court.  He’d been at work yesterday. 

There will be further ceremonies after 3 days, 7 days and 40 days. 

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? 

Last night I heard some commotion outside my house so went to have a look to see what was happening.  I immediately saw what the problem was, there was a huge storm cloud approaching and the sky was black on one side.  I was quite excited, I quite enjoy a good storm!  It came closer and closer.  The thunder sounded like some one was smashing plates in my room.  So I was all set for a huge storm and some exciting lightening displays, but it just passed over head really quickly.  I could still hear the thunder but it was a long way off. 

I tried to take some photos of the storm approaching, but again it doesn’t do it justice. 

This is my lovely watchman, Yahaya, who comes everyday between 6pm and 6am.