Rain, Red Red, and Retail Therapy

After a very relaxing and relatively uneventful weekend (save for a trip to the beach Saturday night where I dipped my toes in the other side of the Atlantic!), Monday hit with a vengeance. Firstly, Mondays are always difficult to handle; but toss in the unpredictability of transport and length of travel time to work in a new country, and it is a whole other experience! After waiting at the trotro station for an hour, Jessica and I decided we had to suck it up and take a cab. Long story short, we ended up not at Nkrumah circle (where we were going to get another tro), but at the Tigo headquarters (a cell phone/internet company). Needless to say, there was some miscommunication, and Jessica and I were discouraged, but managed to orient ourselves and get to work at a fairly reasonable time. The good news is, our colleagues are quite used to the traffic situation in Accra. It is common knowledge that traffic is almost constantly heavy, and some days it is much easier to find a tro than others. They are very understanding ladies!


Jessica and I have been spending this week looking through newspapers from January until the present, looking for human rights stories about Ghana that have some sort of gender lens. This is part of the baseline work for a new project the Gender Centre is starting in June which will focus on encouraging female leadership. We are finding it difficult to find stories with a gender lens - thus the point of this exercise. The hope is that after the program, there will be an increase in these kinds of stories in the newspapers as women are encouraged to be leaders and the media picks up on their involvement. Hopefully this will lead journalists and people in general to specifically consider gender issues when analyzing human rights issues. 


Tuesday was a better trotro day, and today was even better. So good in fact, that Jessica and I left for work at 6am, and got there at 7:40am. To put this in perspective, it took us 3.5 hours to get to work on Monday! Unfortunately, this luck came at a price - we were at work much too early! However, this is obviously better than being late! While we made it to work before the rain got too bad, once we were there it started to rain fairly hard, and continued until about 10am. Now, listen up fellow Canadians: rain is an interesting event here in Accra. Traffic slows to a halt, vendors gather their wares and seek shelter in which to wait out the storm, and the city ultimately seems as if it is on pause compared to what it feels like on a sunny day. The rains don't seem to last more than a few hours though, and when it starts to let up the city is once again teeming with life, with people repairing what the rain damaged and getting on with their busy lives. 


Since it was raining, causing our co-workers to be either trapped in traffic or their homes while they wait for small floods to resolve themselves, and we were also incredibly early, the office was locked when we arrived. Luckily, the maintenance man - who  greets us with a smile each and every morning - would not have us just stand under the overhang while we waited. He pushed aside his own chair and radio and let us wait with him in a small maintenance room. The three of us chatted somewhat, listened to the radio, read the newspaper, and some of us (i.e. yours truly) decided that taking a little nap was as good a use of time as any. With the arrival of Joanna and a call to Gladys, we finally got into the office mid-morning. Jessica and I made a bee-line for the tea, set up our stacks of newspapers, and spent a nice day doing our work. For lunch we tried a Ghanaian dish called Red Red; my favourite so far! The only way to describe it is as a kind of spicy chili, with strips of meat as opposed to ground. I am not sure what else was in it, but it sure disappeared quickly! 


After work Jessica and I made our way to busy Oxford Street, a 10 minute walk from work, and set out to go to the bank. Naturally, we became slightly side-tracked by the beautiful dresses for sale on the way (partly because our roommate Leah came home in such a beautiful dress this week - we figured we needed some too!). We found this nice little stall run by a sweet young woman with an absolutely adorable son named Prince. He was probably less than two years old, but already making his mother chase him and able to give a great high five! I broke down and did end up buying my first African dress - it is long, handcrafted, and beautiful! So excited to wear it out somewhere. 


On the drive home (which ended up being very quick as well), Jessica and I got yet another hankering for some FanIce. The woman in front of us had bought one, and we decided we needed our fix. When stopped in traffic in the trotro, we caught the eye of a maybe 13 year old boy selling FanIce on his head. He seemed to be rather new at the selling game, but was a pro nonetheless! He could definitely tell we were thinking about it, and he gave us a coy smile. We turned away to discuss how badly we wanted it (which was confirmed as quite badly), and then called him over. This boy could not have looked happier. We think it was either his first sale, or at least his first sale to an obruni (white person)! I gave him his money, and he happily went about getting 2 FanIce out for us. He carefully wrapped each one in a piece of magazine to use as a napkin, smiling all the while. I made sure to thank him greatly, and pretty soon he was selling to the rest of the back of the tro (FanIce cravings are definitely contagious). While he was about to walk away, I heard him yell, "Obruni!". Knowing he meant me, I turned around , thinking he maybe wanted to sell me more. I looked out the window at him, and he was smiling ear to ear and just gave me a big thumbs up. While I wish that he did not have to sell FanIce on the side of the road, his smile was infectious and meeting him was the cherry on top of a great day filled with amazing food, friends, dresses, and laughter! An absolutely great Ghanaian Wednesday.

Holidays and Summer Nights

Yesterday was the final day of the first week of work, as today is Africa Unity day which is a national holiday. After taking 3 hours to get to work, Jessica and I finished our preliminary readings and notes on the Gender Centre, its programmes, and the architectures of violence. This means that next week we will be starting a new work load, and we are very excited!
At lunch we decided to venture out to get some real Ghanaian food (with the help of some of the office ladies). We were told to go to this little alleyway where they sold various kinds of food - cramped and quirky! We got chicken and rice, deciding to play it relatively safe. The food was delicious, but SO spicy!! This was the hottest food I have had so far, but the nice thing about the spiciness of Ghanaian food is that it has quite a kick to it, but the heat of the spice does not over-whelm its actual flavour. As someone who has a very boring palette and so little tolerance for spicy food, eating is an adventure in itself! But I love branching out and trying the food, as everything so far has been great.
After work we met Leah and her Australian friend Nikki from her work at the mall. We were just going to take a tro-tro to get there, but when Joanna (a co-worker and our project leader for the week) saw us walking to the stop she told us to hop in her car! Apparently she was going that way anyway, and it was so unbelievably nice of her to give us a ride. On the drive over we laughed about the differences between Canadian and Ghanaian weather, birds, and bats and had a blast. 
After meeting the girls in the mall, Leah got a call from her boss that we should come to this spot called "+233" before a concert that we were planning on going to at the national theatre. We headed over there by taxi, asking people who looked "hip" where this place was, as the taxi driver did not know. 
+233 ended up being this amazing little outdoor bar and grill, with an indoor room where these fabulous musicians were playing. We got there before dark (which happens at 6:30, without fail as it is winter in Ghana) and ordered drinks and food. The group grew quite significantly as more of Leah's co-workers showed up, and we all ended up having a blast. I sampled Star (Ghana's favourite beer since 1937 according to the billboards!) and it was quite good! Very refreshing after having a long day. 
Being in this spot, surrounded by new friends and good food (the pizza was to die for) made me a bit nostalgic for Halifax summers outside on patios, but also made me feel so lucky. Here I was, listening to great music with great people, food, and drink, spontaneoulsy at the end of a long, hot work day. Just sitting at a bar in Africa. Not a bad way to spend a summer! I wake up everyday feeling so lucky to be here. I miss home of course, but I am so glad to have had this opportunity and even when it is difficult, I have great friends to laugh with at the end of the day; what more could you ask for?

FanIce and First Days

Hello all!

Monday was the first day of work for those of us living here in Accra, as well as for those in Cape Coast. It was an exciting day, as we really did not know what to expect in terms of our jobs or the traffic! Jessica and I started to head down the hill around 7am, and had a very hard time getting a tro-tro. Since we really wanted to make a good first impression and get to work on time, we opted to get a taxi part of the way in order to potentially save some time. We did end up getting a tro really easily to the next stop though, but since we did not recognize our stop we had to ask someone in the tro - luckily, this is not hard, as everyone is so friendly! We got off at Labone station, and the walk to work should only have been about 5 minutes. Unfortunately, Jessica and I are challenged in the navigation department! We had visited our workplace last week, but apparently this was of no help to us as our memories were not kind enough to retain the location of the office in a maze of quiet suburban streets. So here we were, in this neighbourhood that is quite nice, turning in circles, asking for directions, when we decide to just call our boss (despite the embarrassment). Dorcas just laughed and gave us directions. Long story short, it took us 2.5 hours to get to work on the first day!

The Gender Centre is amazing - full of just a handful of women who are so educated and passionate about what they do. It is amazing that such a small group of women can impact such big change.  The GC is partners with many local, national and international organizations and have published so much detailed research and led so many workshops, it is astounding. I could not be more impressed with the work that the Centre does on educating people about domestic violence and its link with HIV/AIDS, as well as trying to change attitudes and eradicate this destructive behaviour. Jessica and I have been assigned lots of readings for this week, about the theories of violence as well as the work that the GC is doing itself. Next week we will start actual work...excited to find out what this will be!

Getting home after our work days has been an adventure in itself - we went to get groceries yesterday and so we cabbed home. Our cab driver took this really unfamiliar route through town where we got to see everything from an industrial park, to cows, to a lovely neighbourhood! There is definitely a level of trust and faith you have to have when taking a cab in a new city - Jessica and I definitely just laughed at how lost we were and decided to keep an open mind and trust that our driver knew the way!

On another note:

There is this type of  ice cream that comes in a little individual bag called FanIce - in short, it is delightful and perhaps the only source of dairy we are getting on this trip haha. It comes in three flavours: vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. Jessica and I had a long day yesterday getting home and all we wanted was some FanIce. We scoured the streets waiting to hear the beeping of the horn that is attached to the FanIce carts for most of the ride home. When we had almost given up on the cause, a boy walked by the car with a box of FanIce on his head (a typical sight on the busy streets!). Jessica practically threw 5 cedi at the boy in a mix of desperation and excitement. We decided to branch out and try the strawberry flavour. We teared into the packages, take the first taste of the cold ice cream - and look at each other with confused looks. Sadly, the strawberry FanIce (in our opinion) is far inferior to the other flavours. Regardless, we got our happy fix of ice cream, and laughed all the way home. A good end to a long day!

Today was another good day at work, and tomorrow we are going to try some Ghanaian food (other than fufu, which is delicious!) on our lunch break! Super excited, and also excited for a long weekend that is coming up, because African Unity day is on Friday, making it a holiday! A holiday that will most certainly involve more FanIce.

The End of Our First Ghanaian Weekend

Today was our first day without our guides in the big city. It was labelled in our orientation schedule as a day of rest, but anyone who knows the three of us knows that that was never going to happen! We slept in for the first time since our arrival, and I woke up to the sounds of singing at the morning masses. Everyone says that Sundays, particularly before 1pm, are quite quiet in the city because everyone is in church, and this was certainly the case! We spent the morning curled up with our books on the balcony, with palm trees, the beach, and the beautiful city in view - it certainly felt like a vacation!

After eating a bit of breakfast, we ventured out to tackle the tro-tro system on our own. We walked down the shortcut hill the main highway, noticing our favourite goat friends and saying some hellos along the way. Since it is Sunday, there were far fewer tros. But we managed to get a tro to the circle, and make our way to Oxford street so we could get some errands done. We were immediately swarmed with people showing us their wares, complementing us, and asking if we were from Britain or the United States - typical question! When you answer that you are from Canada, most Ghanaians I have met have gotten quite excited and asked if we were from Toronto or Vancouver - they nod with recognition when we reply that we are from the east coast, but I am not sure that is registers as easily as the big cities do in the minds of anyone outside our continent! The vendors are very proud of what they have made, from bracelets to beaded jewellery, to bags and paintings. I did purchase a painting today depicting the many colours, one world concept that each of us is different but we all belong to the same  family - a great message, and a beautiful work.

Since our guides Nana and Philip have become friends, and since they worry about us constantly (which is quite cute), Nana asked us to meet up with her at her home to meet her family - one of my favourite moments of the trip so far. Nana's family was so generous, kind, and inviting (just like Nana!). It was great to meet a typical Ghanaian family, and I hope to be invited back soon!

From Nana's we went to the mall to get dinner and food which was great, and then we treated ourselves to a cab ride home. We came home to no power (which we lost during yesterday's very destructive storm) and waited for Ken, our caretaker, to come and take a look at it since we saw that many of those around us had regained power. He fixed it immediately, and we learned that we have a generator! We are so spoiled rotten. As is their nightly ritual, Philip and Nana called us each several times to make sure we got home safely. It is so unbelievably nice to have people in the city who care so much about us and our well-being.

Tomorrow is the first day of work, and none of us could be more excited. Jessica and I are hoping that since it is an election year in Ghana as well, that our job will be made that much more interesting. So excited to start learning not just about the city, but about our actual jobs!

Sending love to home, across this lovely ocean!

Departures, Arrivals, and Crazy Rainstorms

Greetings!

So despite m absence from the internet, I have arrived in beautiful Ghana. The flights were long and the goodbyes were hard but we landed safely in Accra on Wednesday night. Getting off the plane onto the tarmac was an experience in itself - the heat was a kind I have never felt before! It felt as though you were standing in between two cars that were back to back, and you were feeling the burn of their exhaust fumes on your skin. Getting used to the heat though! Sweating all the time is just a new way of life, but despite the humid air there are often breezes which are such a relief.

The house we are renting in McCarthy Hills is beautiful, and we have not lost power or water yet (fingers crossed)! There is the most amazing view of the city, beach in sight, from our front door; however, this view comes at a cost! We have to hike a crazy hill in order to get home. Difficult, but worth it for the spectacular view!

The first two days have been filled with exciting and over-whelming experiences, but we are settling in nicely. We explored the city with our guides, Philip and Nana, for the last few days. They have showed us the busy city centres, how to get from place to place, and where to get to work. We all start work on Monday and are nervous about getting to work on the tro tros (rickety vans for public transit, but fun!) by ourselves, but we will all get used to it!

Today we spent the morning with our orientation leader, Akua (former Acadia student). She is so great and is extremely helpful, making sure we get access to everything we could ever need. Then we took the tro by ourselves to Nkrumah Circle, where lots of vendors are, to meet Philip and Nana. We were supposed to go to Champs today, the restaurant owned by Canadians, but the second we got off the tro there was a crazy wind storm, blowing dirt everywhere, and then a torrential downpour began! Rain like I have never seen before! But we stopped in to a restaurant called The Bus Stop just now, and that is where I sit writing this (as the internet we have at home barely works if at all unfortunately).

Since I missed out on the first few days, this post is just a very basic rundown of recent events - I hope to add more later to attempt to describe the things I am actually seeing and experiencing, especially the genuine friendliness of all the Ghanaians I have met. I have felt truly welcomed by everyone I have met, and while it is very difficult to be away from home, I am enjoying every minute of my trip so far!

Will update soon!

Weekend Before Departure!

Hello all!

Here I am, spending my last weekend in Halifax until August. Time has flown since I found out that I was going to Ghana to do an internship at the Gender Studies and Human Rights Centre in Accra. I am so excited to work at the center and learn about domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, women's rights, and the legislation surrounding these issues in Ghana. I know that there will be lots of culture shock and homesickness, but it will all be worth the experiences I will have!

Packing is such a process. It has been a whirlwind 6 weeks trying to prepare to go away, between getting my visa, vaccinations and bug spray, let alone writing all those pesky exams! I have really been enjoying these last few weeks in Halifax catching up with family and friends. Perhaps they can help me sort out the horror that is my packing pile, most of which consists of medications and baby wipes!

I of course have mixed emotions about my imminent departure, but this is an opportunity (generously provided through Acadia and the AUCC) that I could not bring myself to pass up, and I am ready to welcome the new experiences this adventure will give me.

I will try and update this blog as much as possible to give those of you at home a taste of what I am experiencing abroad!

Cheers for now!