Friends! I had a change in plans, and now it’s been 2 weeks since I arrived in Accra, Ghana. Originally I was due to arrive at the end of August, but the fall program I’d intended to study with was cancelled (not enough people signed up) so I decide to go with the same program but for a shorter period of time in the summer instead. I’m studying here with Global Education Oregon’s (GEO) program focused on global health and incorporates an internship component. So far the pace has been slowww. We run on “Ghanaian Maybe Time,” GMT, as my class handbook labels it. I’ve been trying hard not to compare this experience to Switzerland, but having just been there and having fallen in love with my time in Swiss-land, it’s hard not to draw contrasts and parallels. Classes have been short and low-intensity, and my internship has not yet taken off due to a series of public holidays interrupting the usual schedule. So, I have little to discuss regarding my academic experience but I can tell you about some lifestyle observations and give some insight on several social and cultural surprises.Catch the photos at the end.
My observations, in no particular order:
“Tsst! tsst!” I hear hissing all the time, it’s a normal and casual way of getting someone’s attention
Tro tros: the vans that seat about 15 people and serve as a privatized system of cheap transportation for the public. For the equivalent of 25 cents to a single US dollar I can get pretty much get anywhere in Accra. I might be hot and squished next to strangers, but I’ll get there!
Food: Banku (fermented tasting stick dough ball made of maize), Eba (same consistency as Banku but a sweeter flavor, made of Cassava), Jolof (spicy flavorful rice), Red Red (bean and palm oil dish eaten around lunch), Palava (a Ghana “spinach-equivalent” based sauce that goes with rice), so much fried chicken and so much fried fish, fried plantains (so good!), the best mangoes my taste buds have ever touched, street doughnut balls, and today I tried a bite of my new favorite dish–wache (I made up the spelling for that one but it’s a spicy rice and bean dish that often incorporates yakisoba style noodles and has a stickier consistency than typical fried rice because of the spicy paste. It’s basically a fusion of all of my favorite characteristics of all of my favorite foods I’ve tried so far). I don’t know if you’ve noticed but we eat a lot of fried, carb based foods here. Shocking my arteries along with my taste buds, one exciting bite at a time.
To drink: we have Orijin, an herb based beer/cider-like beverage, palm wine, an “African” themed Guinness product that tastes like a weirdly tangy Guinness, and Club, a light beer that goes down like water (until it mixes with the jolof and then your tummy might disagree). Those are all various forms of alcohol, but I drink a significant amount of water, tea, and Nescafé everyday (the coffee is a self-perpetuated dependency, I hardly see Ghanaians drinking the stuff)
African print fridays: on Friday’s a lot of people wear traditional African prints, especially at work!
Yam phones: nickname for phones that aren’t “smart” that started from a popular commercial that shouted “drop that yam!” Regardless of your economic status, almost everyone has a phone, I’ve been told there is a strong phone presence even in rural villages (I’ll have to follow up on the accuracy of that). And, most people have at least 2 phones, 1 smart and 1 “yam” as your backup because the battery lasts longer.
Baby goats prancing in the streets (in Switzerland the cows were practically domesticated, lounging in grassy front yards. In Ghana there’s an abundance of goats). The other day I saw a baby goat messing with a chicken under a tree, chasing and nipping at it. I’ve never heard such strange noises coming from a goat or a chicken. We have a lot of chickens here too, which supports the obscene amount of fried chicken I have been fed at my homestay.
“It’s nice”: I hear this adjective more often here than ever. I like it, it’s nice.
Shopping in traffic: it’s convenient, fast paced, and really should show up in the States. It fits the American combination of time-consciousness and consumerism.
I’ve been trying to learn a little Twi (pronounced like “chwee”), which is the local dialect. One Twi saying I learned today was “ketoa biara nsua,” meaning nothing little is small. I love the appreciative sentiment that lingers behind this statement. It’s a positive attitude all can benefit from adopting.
Finally, every day, as I watch my anti-malaria pills disappear from their prescription bottle, I have an easy visual of how much time I have left on this adventure. It’s only been 2 weeks but I’m a 3rd of the way done with my bottle.
Photographs:
Bridge Over Distance 
awesome photos – I was in Africa a couple months ago but didnt get to Ghana!
But it seems like it would’ve been quite the experience!
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