Food

In terms of local food, there is a lot I have yet to try because I am vegetarian and veg versions of local dishes are hard to come by.

What I do eat on a regular basis is food that comes in bags. I have already mentioned the water in sachets or small plastic bags, containing roughly 500 ml of water (see bottom of picture below - it only looks brown because it is sitting on my coffee table). The pink thing is FanYogo, frozen strawberry yogurt, but not frozen yogurt - more like what you would get if you stuck a container of regular yogurt into the freezer. They are sold in stores or you can get them from the Fan Man. The Fan Man has a cart that he pushes or is attached to a bicycle. He has a horn with a distinctive sound, no other hawker has a horn that sounds this way - you immediately know it is the Fan Man. He sells FanYogo, FanChoco (not a fan, no pun intended), and Fan Milk. I LOVE Fan Milk. It is like soft serve vanilla ice cream in a pouch. It costs 30 pesewas (a little under 30 cents). It is also a little creepy - they really don't completely freeze, which makes me wonder exactly what chemicals it contains to make such a thing happen. This pondering does not hamper my affection however.

Vendors on the streets also sell rice and beans in plastic wrap, sugar cane wrapped in plastic, plantain chips in plastic baggies (these are very good also), peanuts in plastic wrap, the list goes on and on.

I eat a lot of locally made peanut butter, which here is called ground nut paste, and not surprisingly the peanuts I buy and eat are called ground nuts. The pb here is similar to the organic or "all natural" pb at home - it separates and settles. However, it is very good. I had brought 2 jars of pb with me to get through the first couple of weeks, and I had a spoonful the other day and, in comparison to the local pb I have been eating, it has a chemical taste to it. That is one thing that is true of my diet here, it is more macrobiotic (not including the ramen I sometimes buy from the expensive grocery store, and the chemicals in the Fan Milk) than at home.

Of the native dishes that are common in Ghana, I have tried two in restaurants: red red with plantains and fufu. Red red with plantains is made from black eyed peas, powdered cassava, palm oil (from whence the red color comes), and is served with cooked plantains. It is very good. I finally had fufu last week at a vegetarian restaurant in Accra. Fufu is served with soup. The fufu itself is a paste made from boiled and pounded starchy vegetables, such as cassava, yam, and/or plantain. I had fufu with ground nut soup, which had mushrooms, seitan, and garden eggs in it. (Garden eggs resemble white or yellow miniature eggplants.) It is meant to be eaten with the right hand, scooping up some of the fufu and the scooping up some of the accompanying soup. I enjoyed it a lot.

At home I have made garden egg stew, which is boiled garden eggs, finely diced tomatoes, some hot peppers, and oil. It is served with rice, and is also very good.

Below is a photo of me pretending to pound fufu with a mortar and pestle. This is inside the kitchen of a fufu restaurant owned by the mother of a colleague. Samuel, who is seated, is turning the fufu in between strikes of the pestle. When the professionals do this, it is very fast (such that I wonder that people's fingers aren't crushed on a regular basis) and there is a rhythmic thumping sound of the pestle striking the fufu in the mortar. It is very impressive.

There is a lot of wonderful fruit here as well, but different than at home. The local bananas are smaller than the imported ones we are accustomed to, the oranges are green on the outside, the pineapples and mangoes are amazingly delicious, and the papaya plentiful.

My home

This is my home. It is a duplex, another family lives on the other side in an almost identical place (they do not have their porches fenced in). This is also before the painters came and spruced up the outside of the house with new paint and before the carpenter came and hung new nets (screens) on the windows and on both porches. They give the windows a yellow tint.

This is my bathroom on the day after the water was running. I filled up all four buckets with water as well as my reserve containers (see them in the kitchen and on the porch - next photo). There is a hot water heater that I do not know how to use, and no shower heads. I take bucket baths - that is I fill two buckets halfway: one is for washing my hair and one for bathing.

The porch between my bathroom and WC and the kitchen. See the yellow screens? This is one of my reserve water containers that I fill when the water is running and use when it is not.

This is the porch between the kitchen and the living room. The yellow door at the end has a spring on it, so I have to be careful to not spill or drop food while carrying it from the kitchen to the dining area. I dropped a sachet of water one day getting through that doorway, it broke like a water balloon!

The kitchen features a gas cooker (a gas stove that does not have a pilot light, so has to be lit with matches - you cannot see the propane tank, it is out of frame on the left), my other water reserve container, a sink, a yellow cabinet, and a refrigerator that is currently on the fritz (the freezer part works, but the fridge part is warm).

My bedroom featuring my mosquito netted bed and the yellow wardrobe. The window in the background has a window air conditioner that I used once. I prefer the ceiling fan and an open window.

The dining area, I rarely use this at the moment.

My living room. I have a sofa and three mini papasan chairs, a desk with chair by the far window and a relatively newly acquired bookshelf. I spend most of my time in this room. It has a ceiling fan and cross ventilation. I read sitting on the sofa, grade and play computer games at the desk, sit in one of the chairs to watch a dvd on my laptop, and eat meals here in all three of those locations.

An appropriate Halloween?

I went away with friends over Halloween. We left Thursday and returned on Saturday. We went to a place called Big Milly’s Backyard (check it out online: www.bigmilly.com). Let me start by saying that I had a good time. Despite all that will follow, it was relaxing, I enjoyed the people I was with, we ate some good food, I read two books, did some shopping (some for gifts, some for me).

We arrived on Thursday, had a drink at the bar while our room was finishing being cleaned. I wanted a beverage with fruit juices in it since the bar bills itself as the “first juice bar in Ghana”. They only had orange juice, so I had something else. We took a walk on the beach before dinner, took photos of more fishing boats (similar to the ones I have already posted). I am routinely amazed by them – usually no sails, no engines, no oars, etc. They use ropes and simple manpower to pull them in and out of the sea.

Anyway, back to the Halloween story. Thursday and Friday we witnessed several almost-fistfights. Friday we ran out of water in our bungalow in the middle of the afternoon (I think I am the cause of the water problem, somehow. We have not had water on campus for a week). Friday morning Leslie was offered marijuana when she walked out onto the beach (big Rasta community at Kokrobite). Friday afternoon a dead body washed up on the beach. It took the police nine (that’s right: 9) hours to come to collect it. Friday evening, our dinner table was visited by a black cat, and the promised entertainment was a no show.

So I got to see my first non-funeral dead body. Part of me wonders why I went to look. Did I doubt that what people were saying was true? Was it some form of morbid curiosity, like the way people rubber neck near accidents on the highway? I don’t know. I did not get close at all, but the smell was pungent. Thankfully, our table near the bar at Big Milly’s had a great breeze, sufficient shade to appease my general skin-cancer phobia, and was close to beverages should the need have arrived. Big Milly’s also features a small book swap or borrowing library, which is where the two fluffy romance novels I read came from.

I definitely plan to return to Big Milly’s during my year here. I have family visiting in December, if they are not scared off by my experience, maybe they will join me.


The outside of where we stayed, the Sahara Suite.

Leslie and Linda at "our table" at Big Milly's

Last word on water for a while (I promise). I dreamt last night of a bath. I wondered if the Embassy has showers in the weight room I have heard about. I thought about using sachets of water for a bath since I did not have sufficient reserves for anything other than washing a couple of plates and flushing the toilet. [Sachets of water are square plastic bags of purified water that everyone here drinks – no one drinks the tap water. They are sold on the street for 5 pesewas each, approximately 5 cents. They are sold in large bags of 30 sachets each for home consumption.] I have a stash of several bags-of-bagged-water and was planning on using that except the water came on for half an hour this morning before I went to class! Well, it might have been on longer, but I had to go teach, and it was not running again when I returned. I must say, I have not been that excited in quite a while. I was able to fill one and a third of my two reserve cans so I will have water for a couple of days now.

This is also Africa

This is also Africa. This is the view out the door of one of my classrooms. Isn't it beautiful? One day I will catch a person framed inside the doorway carrying something on their head. Everyone - men, women, and children - does that here. The day I discovered this view, I watched a woman carrying a load of tree branches on her head past the doorway. Lots of people carry water around campus; I always imagine the sloshing around makes it really hard to do. One of my first days here, I was taking a walk and had been following a young woman with a bucket of water on her head. Fifteen minutes into her journey from the well, she stumbled in a gutter and dropped the bucket. I felt terrible for her. That is the only time though I have seen anyone drop anything. I also really admire the woman who carries the several dozen raw eggs on her head.

Our water has been off for three days and things are getting dire. I have two large plastic trash containers in my house with reserves of water that are just about empty. Coincidentally, I was teaching last week about Maslow's hierarchy of needs. At the base of Maslow's pyramid are Physiological Needs, including food, water, and shelter. Maslow theorized that once needs are met, they are forgotten, and until they are met they are all that occupy your time and thoughts. I have to agree with his first supposition. At home, I know that when I turn on a tap, water will come out - and it will be hot when I want hot water. Here, I am worried about when the water will go out next, restocking my reserves when the water is running, what I will do when I run out of reserves (never mind laundry and bathing - how will I flush the toilet?). It is something I took for granted in the States, as Maslow theorized, because the need was met, I never thought about it. Here I do manage to think of other things, but every time I open the reserve container and scrape bottom getting some water to wash my hands, I worry.

Stealing from movies...

I got up the other morning, and was immediately aware of a smell to which I am becoming more accustomed. I thought to myself, "I love the smell of burning garbage in the morning." Yes, the method of disposing of most unwanted material here is to burn it. Paper, plastic, paint containers, brush, etc. There seem to be predetermined burning locations, and no one watches the fires. Maybe it is because they are so good at setting them that they know that they will not rage out of control. Did I mention that these fires often take place in areas where there is a lot of brush, both cut down and still growing? I sometimes imagine that I will find my home surrounded by a blaze a la a California wildfire.

Additionally, I watched "Blood Diamond" the other night. Leonardo DiCaprio's character, who identifies himself as Rhodesian, has a phrase he uses in the movie several times: TIA which stands for This Is Africa. In other words, stuff happens that cannot be changed, or explained, or potentially understood. I have repeated this in my head several times since I saw the movie. But then I got to wondering - does acceptance of a problem lead to its continuation? If no one complains, is there no incentive for problems to be fixed? For example, my power was off most of the day this past Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. And my water has been off almost continuously since Saturday (today is Friday, and the water was running when I left home). If I were in the States, I would have called my landlord on Saturday to report this dual outage. And continued to call the appropriate parties if it had continued - the power company, the water/sewer company, etc. Here, I do nothing. I do nothing except hope the power comes on before it gets dark out, hope that the water comes back on before my two reserve barrels are empty, postpone laundry until the water comes back on...I call no one, I complain to no one in authority. Neither do the people here. One housemistress (in charge of a dorm on campus) had a bore hole (well) dug on the grounds of the house she oversees to ensure that they have water even when it is not running. People take available plastic containers and head to a polytank (large black plastic holding tank that collects rainwater) or a bore hole to fetch water for cooking, bathing, laundry, etc.

I asked one of my students about this the other day. She said one area of Ghana had no running water for a year, even though they had the pipes for it, and it had run previously. There were riots, which were broken up by police and nothing changed. If you complain, the government might send someone to beat you up, she said. So people don't complain, they just deal. TIA.

Things I did not know I liked and Prep

I did not know that I liked the following things until recently:
- the sound of sheets snapping in the wind while they dry on the clothesline (I should say 'whilst' since I am in a former British colony)
- the sound of the breeze wafting through the tall grasses on campus (even with students given weeding as punishment, they cannot keep up with all the acres of fast-growing weeds)
- ironing (this is bizarre to me, I can only assume it appeals to my anal-retentive tendencies. Those who know me know that I have never owned an iron in my life, and never ironed anything before coming to Ghana. I would not be ironing now except for fear of certain bugs that lay eggs in wet clothing, the eggs then hatch when the clothes are worn, and the bugs burrow themselves under your skin - everyone together: eewwwww! I was recently told that I do not need to worry about this in Accra, but I figure, for now anyway, better safe than sorry. This same source said she knew someone that this happened to - she had laid her clothes to dry on a rock all day in the northern part of the country; when she went to the doctor to have it addressed, he made a cut into her skin near each lump, and the bugs flew out - again: ewwwwww! So for now, I continue to iron while watching videos on my laptop or listening to BBC World on the radio.)

I keep meaning to post pictures of my home, but it is currently cluttered. I am hoping to acquire a bookshelf for all the supplies I mailed to myself. Until I manage to do this, they are piled on my desk, and end up on my coffee table and sofa as well. So, until I tidy up enough to take photos to post, you will all have to wait for this information.

Prep is like study hall. The students have Prep from 7 to 9 pm Monday through Friday evenings, Saturday from 9 to 11 am, and sometimes Saturday evening as well. The Saturday evening Preps are held in their houses (dorms), but the other Preps are in their classrooms, with several exceptions. All of the classrooms do not have working lights, so those students have to disperse to other rooms where they can study. Additionally, students who live on the west campus have Prep on that side, so they do not have to walk a long way in the dark. Students are supposed to study or work together quietly. My main job (I had Prep duty last week) was chastising students who arrived late, and punishing those who arrived late on Saturday morning (my first application of physical labor as punishment) and waking up those students who were sleeping. Lots of students fell into each category. The system is very different here than at home. The day is very structured: breakfast, followed by Chapel (7 to 7:30 ish), five forty minute periods before Snack Break (10:50 to 11:20), and have no passing time between then. The students have a classroom that they are in all day, with the exception of labs and when they report to larger locations like the lecture theatre or chapel. It is generally the teachers who rotate (so we do not have passing time if we have back-to-back classes). The periods are clumped together in varying numbers depending on how often the teacher sees that group of students each week. For example, I see my Government students for five periods a week, so I see one group for three consecutive periods on Monday and two consecutive periods on Wednesday, the other group I see for two back-to-back periods also on Monday (immediately after the first class), and three back-to-back-to-back periods on Thursday. My Social Studies classes, which will likely begin next week, will each meet three times a week for two periods at a time. After Snack Break, there are three more 40 minute periods, followed by two 30 minute periods, with classes ending at 2:20 pm. The students have lunch from 2:30 to 3 pm, siesta/quiet time in their houses from 3 to 4 pm, free or chore time from 4 pm until dinner, which is at 5:30 or 6 pm, Prep from 7 to 9 pm, then back to their houses, and in bed by 9:30 or 10 depending upon the day of the week. I am not surprised by the number of students I see just walking around campus at any given time when they are supposed to be in class - they spend so much time in their classrooms, I too would want to escape for a little while! However, since I have recently learned that more than 43 percent of Ghanaians have never had any formal education, it makes me a little sad that the students who have the opportunity to attend Senior High School (which is rare) do not appreciate it enough. Then I remind myself that they are teenagers, and most teenagers do not appreciate the things they have, especially education. The same can also be said for lots of adults!

Weekend at the Beach!

Four of us (Fulbrighters all) went to Busua (pronounced Boo-sia) this past weekend. We took a STC bus (like Greyhound) from Accra at 5:30 in the morning to Takoradi, where we caught a trotro to Agona, where we got a cab to the African Rainbow Hotel. All very smooth. The hotel was wonderful - the first photo below is a view from our balcony (every room has one that overlooks the beach). I will be taking requests to visit on a first come-first served basis :)

We spent the first afternoon at the beach - and were almost the only people on the entire beach.

Saturday evening we had dinner on the roof of the hotel - really good pizza. I tried a ginger pineapple juice that was just too ginger-y to actually consume; you could smell the ginger across the table. The evening was beautiful - trying to find constellations proved a challenge, though - they are in different places than at home and the additional visible stars threw off our ability to find ones we were familiar with.

Sunday morning, back to the beach. Three of us hired a boat (paddled by local fisherman) out to the island in the bay. Below is a photo of one of several vultures who spent time with us on the beach on Sunday. There are also several on my campus, but I have not been able to get a photo of one yet (the morning one was sitting in my driveway, I was too stunned to think of getting my camera). A little boy ran at the small flock of vultures several times, causing them to fly away temporarily. I was reminded of my sister who liked to do the same to seagulls, particularly near the New England Aquarium in Boston. Seagulls, vultures, same difference...


Since I am me, of course I got a sunburn. Amusingly, it was also odd. The sunscreen we used was aerosol, but apparently combined with the waves, sweat, etc. dripped down my back making this interesting pattern.

The hotel was also a wonderful place to sleep - sounds of the waves, open windows for sea breeze, and the weaver birds chirping in the backyard of the hotel. I don't think sound comes along with the video clips I can load on here, so I just posted a photo of the weaver birds below. When I first saw the trees, I thought they had yellow flowers. Turns out, they are birds. Birds who build spherical nests.