Questions you may have about our everyday life in Ghana:
Q1. "Do you live in a hut?"
A. No, sorry to disappoint you, we live in a house! True, it is not built the same as many of the homes on the East coast or in Virginia, but it is a normal looking house. It's made of cinder blocks and concrete walls with plaster ceilings and tile floors throughout. It has a terracotta roof. All the homes around here have a wall built around them with a iron security gate. Some even have electric fencing on top of the walls and gates or razor wiring, ours does not. Only very few homes have paved roads in front, ours is an orange dirt road.
Q2. "Do you avoid eating the fruits and veggies there?"
A. No. We eat pretty much everything. I realize now that people that live in developed countries like in the U.S.A. have a lot of natural fears and misgivings about living in more underdeveloped areas like where we live. We do not use bleach to wash our fruits and veggies, we do like the locals and like my own mother taught me who is from Mexico; you use salt. Good old table salt. You too can do the same thing at home. We put some salt in a basin with clean water and soak our tomatoes for example. Then we rinse and pat dry and voila! Ready to eat.
Q3. "What do you eat?"
A. We cook most of our meals, in fact we cook more over here than we did back at home. There is no such thing as American fast food here. There is "take away" but you still have to show up and wait and wait and wait before you can take it home. The beef here is a lot tougher and requires more cooking time if you want it to be tender. I made a pot roast yesterday for the first times since we've been here and it took about 5+ hours! We make a lot of American meals like french toast, pancakes, omelets, french fries, soups, stews, etc. but we also eat local Ghanaian food. Our housekeeper makes local food in our home to feed the people who come on Thursdays for training and sometimes we eat what she prepares. Last Thursday we ate peanut soup with rice balls. I personally prefer her not to cook any local dishes with fish, the fish Oder and the palm nut oil is very strong and it sticks to the walls. So we work together, between myself, Suleima, and her (Ama) to come up with an agreed upon menu. We miss eating things like celery which is an imported item and can cost up to $12. We also miss fresh milk, the milk that is sold here is powdered and long life shelf milk. If you get fresh milk from a herdsman it is not pasteurized, however, today we found some fresh pasteurized milk in the new Shoprite grocery store and Suleima and I bought one bottle to try it out.
Q.4. "What is there to do for fun?"
A. Not much. Ghana is up and coming, it is developing fast but it is still a 3rd world country. Although we leave near the beach, the beaches are dirty, and full of people trying hard to make a living selling to everyone who steps foot on the beach. Their are cleaner more private beaches about an hour or more away. There are no cinemas here as you know them. Shopping here is no where near what you know it to be, although a new "mall" has opened up with a handful of stores. Very very expensive even the shoe store which sells mostly "used" shoes! We are home most of the time. On Saturdays we try and explore Ghana the best we can. Right now many organizations and Embassies are hosting festivals and Christmas bazaars as fundraisers. So we have enjoyed attending those when we can. Angelo brought back some board games like Monopoly and the game of Life which have played several times and we truly enjoy.
Q5. "How's the weather?"
A. It's sunny most every single day which I absolutely love! Lots and lots of palm and coconut trees and fruit trees everywhere. It's also hot but bearable. When it rains it pours, when it's hot it's hot. If the A/C is working you are very happy! Many many times you are eating or cooking or watching a DVD and the power goes out! No warning...it's out...and you never know for how long. We are so used to it now we don't even flinch, unless we are watching a movie of course. We wait a few minutes before even getting up to look for candles or flashlights. We do not start the generator right away, we just wait first and then judge because we also don't want to spoil all our foods in the fridge and freezer.
Q6. "What about the water?"
A. Several things. First we filter our tap water with a special Swiss made filtering system we purchased before we moved here. We use that water for cooking and drinking. We also boil a couple litres of that, let it cool and store it in water bottles in the freezer. We try to never leave the house without either a frozen bottle which quickly melts or a regular bottled water. You can dehydrate fast here. We are supposed to get city water which empties into our underground cistern, much like the cisterns they had in Biblical times. Our cistern has tiled walls, like bathroom tiles on it. You can peek down into the cistern to check the water level by lifting one of the two heavy concrete lids. When water does not come in we have to buy it like we did last week. What you pay for water in a month we pay for 2 weeks.
Q.7. "Do you take cold showers?"
A. Yes. They are not ice cold and are sometimes refreshing. Only 2 of our bathrooms have hot water. The hot water pressure is horrible to say the least! Ever seen the movie "ELF"? Remember when Will Ferrel who plays the Elf takes a shower and he's trying to get wet? Well...that's how we take showers here!!! It might sound adventurous or cool to some of you, it's not. It gets old real quick. to conserve water, which we all have to do. You never let the water run (like the old "Barney" kids show used to sing..."you never let the water run...oh!") You wet your skin, turn off water, soap and lather up and rinse, and you are done..just like that!
This would be a post I'd like to add more to, feel free to send in your questions.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Driving in Ghana
What is it really like living here in Accra, Ghana? Well, everyday when I'm out and about I say to myself, "I'm really here...I'm in Ghana!" My eyes try to take it all in, so as not to forget anything.
At first I said to my sisters back home I'd never drive here at least not for awhile. The driving is so scary here...that only lasted a very short while as we got our Ghanaian driver's licensce almost immediately after moving here! Now, I enjoy my drives around the area where we live. It still is scary many times but I had an excellent driving instructor growing up...my father! I started learning to drive when I was a pint-sized kid. My dad would be pop me on his lap and he'd help me to drive into the driveway. We were all taught at a very young age to drive confidently like a "New Yorker". My dad LOVES to drive and so do I. Especially now that we have the jeep it's even more adventurous bouncing around the hard dirt roads with pot-holes the size of Texas! They are more like deep craters. But after awhile the "bouncing" around gets OLD fast. You get tired of your head getting knocked into the door or your hips getting jabbed by the seatbelt connectors.
Driving here is like actually being IN a video game like "Frogger", do you remember that one, from the 80's? My favorite driving moments have been when I've picked up my daughters from school and we are on one of the dirt road paths to our home and a whole herd of cattle are sharing the way with us...right in front of the jeep! We see the herdsman often as he brings his cattle through the neighborhood several times a week selling fresh milk.
You break ALL the driving rules here, ALL OF THEM! Your main goal is to not hit anyone or any other cars and to not BE hit. So if you can accomplish that, you've done well! Your second goal is to keep only a few inches of space between you and the car in front of you so that the other cars don't bully their way in! I drove like that a couple of weekends ago with Suleima and a couple other ladies on our way to a missionary women's retreat about 1 1/2 hours away from here. THAT was crazy! Over here...you must be aggressive, it's just the way it is, you snooze you loose. We have seen two victims lying in the middle of the road, dead, from fast driving cars on chaotic motorways. It's a sobering and trajic truth here. Driving on the motorway at night is something you try to avoid at all costs. You stay in a hotel if you have to but don't drive at night, too many pedestrians, either minimal or no lighting and fast undisciplined drivers.
Sometimes it looks like the car coming toward you is going to hit you head on and then suddenly swerves..."what to do?" No worries...because you know they are just swerving around a mass of potholes and they aren't going to hit you. BUT, you can not day dream and drive, no way. You can not relax completely when driving, absolutely not, that's when you can find yourself in trouble. So, driving here keeps me on my toes for sure.
One thing's for sure, I hope I have the chance to drive my own dad around the area! So if any police officers in VA are reading this like Wayne...I hope I can remember all the rules when I get back to the states! :) Ha, just kidding...
At first I said to my sisters back home I'd never drive here at least not for awhile. The driving is so scary here...that only lasted a very short while as we got our Ghanaian driver's licensce almost immediately after moving here! Now, I enjoy my drives around the area where we live. It still is scary many times but I had an excellent driving instructor growing up...my father! I started learning to drive when I was a pint-sized kid. My dad would be pop me on his lap and he'd help me to drive into the driveway. We were all taught at a very young age to drive confidently like a "New Yorker". My dad LOVES to drive and so do I. Especially now that we have the jeep it's even more adventurous bouncing around the hard dirt roads with pot-holes the size of Texas! They are more like deep craters. But after awhile the "bouncing" around gets OLD fast. You get tired of your head getting knocked into the door or your hips getting jabbed by the seatbelt connectors.
Driving here is like actually being IN a video game like "Frogger", do you remember that one, from the 80's? My favorite driving moments have been when I've picked up my daughters from school and we are on one of the dirt road paths to our home and a whole herd of cattle are sharing the way with us...right in front of the jeep! We see the herdsman often as he brings his cattle through the neighborhood several times a week selling fresh milk.
You break ALL the driving rules here, ALL OF THEM! Your main goal is to not hit anyone or any other cars and to not BE hit. So if you can accomplish that, you've done well! Your second goal is to keep only a few inches of space between you and the car in front of you so that the other cars don't bully their way in! I drove like that a couple of weekends ago with Suleima and a couple other ladies on our way to a missionary women's retreat about 1 1/2 hours away from here. THAT was crazy! Over here...you must be aggressive, it's just the way it is, you snooze you loose. We have seen two victims lying in the middle of the road, dead, from fast driving cars on chaotic motorways. It's a sobering and trajic truth here. Driving on the motorway at night is something you try to avoid at all costs. You stay in a hotel if you have to but don't drive at night, too many pedestrians, either minimal or no lighting and fast undisciplined drivers.
Sometimes it looks like the car coming toward you is going to hit you head on and then suddenly swerves..."what to do?" No worries...because you know they are just swerving around a mass of potholes and they aren't going to hit you. BUT, you can not day dream and drive, no way. You can not relax completely when driving, absolutely not, that's when you can find yourself in trouble. So, driving here keeps me on my toes for sure.
One thing's for sure, I hope I have the chance to drive my own dad around the area! So if any police officers in VA are reading this like Wayne...I hope I can remember all the rules when I get back to the states! :) Ha, just kidding...
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