Football in Saaman!

 
Representing my football team IBP United in Saaman, Eastern Region.

Visiting gold mining communities in Abirim North District, Eastern Region - Ghana

Visiting gold mining communities in Wassa, Western Region - Ghana

 

Will be writing about what the community members told me about the situation in their communities soon

Weekend in Accra

Things fall apart (Chinua Achebe)

Just finished ‘Things fall apart’ by Chinua Achebe, the most-selling novel written by an African author. If you’re going anywhere in Africa or if are interested in indigenous African culture, it’s great and easy to read, just about 180 short pages. Since the African languages do not have an established written tradition, the amount of literature produced is still small compared to other language groups, and indeed ‘Things fall apart’ was written in English – although at a later point Chinua Achebe started writing in the Obi language. 

Recently 50 cent wanted to name his new movie Things fall apart. When Chinua Achebe found out he stopped that, but 50 cent was persistent and offered 1 million US dollars for the title... Achebe declined!

Bokoo (learning Twi - the Akan language)

Once in Ghana, if someone asks you Wo ho te sen? you answer: Me ho 3y3! (‘I’m fine!’). This is Twi, the language spoken by the Akans. à en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akan_language. I’m now studying Twi every Wednesday after work together with 9 other ex-pads and interns. 52 % of Ghanaians speak Twi - making it the most spoken indigenous language in Ghana. The Akan ethnic group spreads over most of the southern part of Ghana, and also the Akyem people – who I am working with - is a part of the Akan ethnic group.

79 indigenous languages

Although English is the language used for all governmental purposes, there are 79 different languages in Ghana, many of them being as different as Greek is to English or even to Chinese, at least according to the ‘experts'. Various languages belong to the same language group, but between these language groups the differences can be quite large. Some Ghanaians I have met claim to speak up to as many as 8 different indigenous languages - typically acquired as they have moved around the country with their family, in search for jobs, through their occupation as e.g. drivers, or a combination of these. 

For a categorizing list of Ghanaian languages check out this link:  http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/tribes/languages.php. 


Mepaakiew, bokoo!
Often Ghanaians don’t speak English very well, so knowing a couple of words in a local language can be useful. To get back at the Ghanaians when they call ‘oburini’ (white person) a good way to reply is to say: Obibini (black person) showing that you understand what they're up to! By the way, if you want to dress your tongue to impress, when someone asks you Wo ho te sen?, you can also reply ‘Bokoo’… (you are cool, chilled, taking it easy). 

Same thing if you want a taxi driver to slow down, you can say 'Mepaakiew, bokoo', meaning, 'Please, take it easy'. The Ghanaians are very respectful and not to say please to a stranger before asking for something would be considered as rude and as a reason for someone not to do what he was being asked for, although that actually happening would be quite unusual. As a Westerner you are often excused for your lack of awareness of local customs, but being polite and asking people how they are doing can gain you some extra points.

Games in Ghana (football and drafts)

Playing football wearing my white IBP United outfit has given my outfit a shade of red from the dust which is everywhere… Ghanaians have excellent flair and skill, both in the offence and in the defence, but they are really not strong as a collective…

Bought a drafts game (checkers), and learned to play with Ghanaian rules. Ghanaian rules? All tricks are allowed, so precaution and creativity is rewarded! (And sometimes a bit of luck comes in handy). Oh, by the way, the rules are up for discussion. Chiefs are usually not allowed to play drafts because humiliation is at stake.

Together with the 4 interns at the Danish embassy I saw Ghana beat Swaziland 2-0 at the Accra Stadium! The supporters form different groups each singing and drumming their own songs and dressed in the colours of their own group, not the team they are supporting… The resulting noise – a humming, drumming, vibrating feeling – was as loud as if a goal was being scored every moment of the match. At least there was no change in the volume on the occasions when that did happen.

Food

Although some of the local delicacies are delicate, they are quite often quite… different... and high in starch and strong pepper. It can put your stomach and your courage to work! One thing I had to pass on after one – *PROUD* – mouthful was a snail boiled in a green soup, similar to the black snails we find in the forest in Denmark, except bigger, and with eyes and feelers… My favourite on the other hand is the snacks and drinks… Juices, nuts, different kinds of doughnuts, corn juice, palm wine, pito (corn beer)…. 

On this picture (above) I am drinking a coconut which had moments before been cut down by Daniel (below) who is a community member participating in the activities arranged by Wacam and IBIS.

Compound 2

Last Saturday, Marisa from Austria and Simonne from Switzerland bought three chickens (Harry, Leo and Sven) and built a small house for them together with Philo the landlady's 9-year daughter. The chickens have laid two eggs, so far! 

Geckoes are literally everywhere. The most common one is called the compound gecko, because you see it in everybody’s homes… One is running around on the floor right now, as I’m sitting in our outdoor common area at the compound.

Flushing the toilet requires precision and persistance, or that you are willing to leave the work half done!

Back on the blog!

Mmm… espresso! Laura from Switzerland has brought one of those Italian espresso-makers, which is a sweet deal... Most restaurants don't serve coffee, and if it is there it's usually Nescafé. While drinking my double espresso, I have written a couple of posts about everyday experiences and things I have done in the last month. 

I've been too busy to write on the blog, but I've tried to get a bit back on track today writing about the experiences of a visitor in Ghana. Soon I'll also be writing about my experiences in the communities affected by gold mining and describe my work here. 

Pictures will be coming!

Compound

Monday morning I moved into my new place a bit sooner than expected (my landlord Rosa had forgotten to let me know that my place was available already when I came, but I didn't find out until late Friday). The place is a compound in the mixed Christian/Muslim area Newtown, which the previous Danish intern at IBIS had recommended. Other than me, there are only German-speeking girls from Austria, Germany and Switzerland living here, all of them working as interns in different positions for the German state's main aid-organisation. The compound has two large common areas, a nice kitchen, a washing machine and internet connection. Now, I'm home alone with a cup of Nescafé trying to organise myself and update this blog, while the girls have gone to the beach. I'm sitting in the outdoors common area wearing my football shorts, a t-shirt and my Ghanaian sandals (see picture), that are actally meant for Fridays, where Ghanaians dress up. In a minute I will go have a look at what's going on in my neighborhood where the Muslims are celebrating the end of fasting dancing, singing, eating, drinking, basically doing everything they feel like. In Ghana most of the population is Christian, but there are a lot of Muslims, though mainly in the North. Both Christian and Muslim holidays are days off, so today there's no work.

In all fairness

I trust you, I said, to Nana, the bellboy at Frankies Hotel as I handed him 100 USD. I had just arrived to my hotel and I had asked Nana where I could get some water or exchange some money. I can do it for you mr. Borch, he said, and I thought it was a good idea. After all, it felt like I was pretty likely to get scammed if I tried to find a place to buy water on my own at 8 pm in the evening in a touristy neighborhood. Osu is a part of Accra famous for its upscale restaurants and where plenty of salesmen are lurking in and outside of the shadows for an opportunity to earn a cedi or two. Really, it is relatively risk-free to get around once you know the basics, but having just arrived to Ghana for the first time, and all alone, I was not feeling very relaxed with the situation. I didn't want to start out my time in Ghana with negotiating with a street vender that I couldn't know whether or not to trust. So I accepted Nana's idea, and offered him a 10 USD bill. But he told me that small bills don't provide good exchange rates, and that it would be better if I could give him 50 or 100. I sighed and wasn't sure whether I was making a naive move handing over 100 bucks to the first person I talked to in Ghana. I decided to do it anyway. After all, my reasoning was that I had to take some chances in the beginning. Also I felt like I owed it to test my guide book which had really underscored that Ghana was a safe place to be and that Ghanaians were generally speaking very honest people.

Testing trust
Still, for some reason I quickly decided that since I was going to trust Nana, it would be better to let him know that I was in fact sceptical about whether I could trust him. By saying that I was of course letting him know that if he fooled me, I was going to find out, even if I couldn't do anything about it - I was putting him on a test. I felt a little uneasy about placing him in that situation, but Nana came back with 140 Ghana cedis, which I knew was probably a common exchange rate here, and two bottles of water. I had a bad taste in my mouth for what I had said, but I was happy that it was not a mistake to give Nana the money. Nana didn't seem to mind the situation, and told me he hoped we could be friends, and he asked how long I would be there. A week, I said, and he offered me his cell phone number. Knowing that I would be spending the weekend alone I thought, why not?, and he said I could call him Friday afternoon after finishing my first day of work.

Nana comes back
Although when I got home I was tired and didn't call him, he turned up together with his brother at the hotel on the next day (his one day off) and we went to a brand new KFC a couple of hundred meters away. KFC was fresh and clean, and full of Ghanaians watching football, FC Barcelona - FC Porto, the Uefa Super Cup, and even John Kouffour, a past president of Ghana, came to pick up a meal! After that we had an icecream and agreed to hang out when Nana was free the day after, maybe go to Accra mall, maybe to the beach and play football. We ended up going to the beach and paying the entrance to a place full of restaurants, with horseback-riding opportunities, a small marketplace, sun chairs for tanning, and kids playing on the edge of the water with volleyballs and footballs. Nana and I went for a walk to check it all out and when we came back we played ball with a crowd of boys who were probably a few years younger than me, and very good at it! After playing football, we sat down on a bench on the beach, just hanging out and watching the waves. Nana asked me, So, can I be trusted?, laughing sarcastically and referring to the episode at the hotel. I told him I was sorry about that, and attempted an explanation, but I knew it was kind of pointless telling him that it was not him, but my Western based presuppositions, I was testing... I felt a bit embarressed - but also a bit wiser!