My first week in Ghana

In our group of volunteers we are from Australia (2), Canada (1 or 2), Philippines (7), The Netherlands (2), the UK (including Britain, Wales and Ireland all being represented) everybody else – and 1 Italian.

Sometimes it’s been interesting/tiring/time consuming with the silly sort of questions people ask. For eg when discussing HIV/AIDS issues and education someone asked if women get together and talk about issues in life therefore empowering themselves. Seriously. No… women don’t talk to each other ever unless there is a male present who physically opens and shuts their mouth for them. Women in our own countries get together and discuss children’s schooling and these women do to, so does the person asking the question. It’s called life. It’s not always formalized. I am not being too harsh but also raising the point as to how some people expect the trainers to answer every detail about life in Ghana. However there are 138 different languages/dialects and many, many tribes here of which the trainer is only from 1. How would they know?! If someone asked me about daily life in Burke when I live in Hobart…. How should I know. I can guess but as to exactly … well I’ll have to go there to have those questions answered.
I have spoken to a few other people who, like me, are much more relaxed about where they are going to and are waiting till they arrive at their placement to discover the answers to those more specific questions. After in-country training here in Accra we get more training in our placements with our employers so it’s a full-on learning curve.

We had a training session yesterday by 5 current volunteers who are the regional representatives of the volunteers in their region. We had to go with our 2 Ghana Cedis (seh-dees) and buy the things on our list and ask certain questions in teams of 6. It was great fun and good to be finally out of the compound of the hotel and the local drinking spot up the street. After that we met at the local drinking spot for beer. After an hour or two it started raining quite heavily and so we all moved under the shelter. The music was loud and good and all of a sudden, to the delight and surprise of the waiters we began dancing. They joined in and we were all shaking and stamping. It was Awesome! Why sit there and get soaked when you can do it dancing to hiplife (popular Ghanian music). We were all teaching each other new dance moves. After that we came back for an early dinner and then some of us went to a bar called Champs which is basically a western sports bar. It was quiz night there. We didn’t do very well. But I think it was deliberately rigged towards Americans. There were some peace corps there and other various white folks. A good spot to know but not a place I came to Ghana for to frequent. Plus the beer is twice as expensive and the meals expensive too.
No Vice President as yet. There is a reception tonight at the VSO office with some VSO partners. Then I think a quiet night for me. We’ll see.
………
No it was not a quiet night at all!!! I went out to Champs again and they had Karaoke. Well, I had to sing didn’t I! It was heaps fun. There were only about 7 of us there. Dave and I sang ‘Don’t go breaking my heart’ by Elton John and Kiki Dee. The end of the song is long and so we ended up having a little ‘domestic’ in front of everyone. Just jokes about breaking hearts and stuff. Drunken stuff but hilarious all the same. When we left for the evening we went to the gate of the hotel complex and the security guard got us a taxi and we went back to the hotel. 3 cedis to get home.

I feel like I’ve been here for quite a while now not just 1 week. Have learnt a little more about my placement but have really just been socializing and partying.

Today we had cooking. I had only had about 5 hours sleep. We had to catch 2 tro-tro’s to get there. One to Kwame Nkrumah circle (commonly known as ‘circle’ or just move your finger around like you are stirring something in a circle) and then from there to Labone Circuit. It wasn’t too hard and people were so helpful which is something generally said about Ghanians and believe me it’s true. They are so helpful and don’t try to rip you off like in Kenya. The other day I went by myself to exchange some Aussie dollars and Euros. I went to a exchange bureau. I still haven’t figured out the money thing but to make matters worse Ghana is in the process, from 5 weeks ago, of changing over currencies. So I thought been seriously ripped off and just couldn’t get it. The new Ghana Cedi, as opposed to the Cedi, is just divided by 10,000. What was 10 000 cedis is now 1 Ghana Cedi and what was 2000 cedis is now 20 pesewas. There is 100 pesewas per Ghana cedi. So I went back to the hotel feeling crappy and asked Maria’s boyfriend, Richard, who is a banker, and he said no it was right. I was relieved and amazed because it was a perfect opportunity to rip me off.

So tonight I am in forced exile because I just can’t handle another night out. Also tomorrow is free so we should be going to the coast. That will be a nice change.

I am still working on how to do photos cause this blog only lets me do one by one. I am trying to put them on kodak gallery so will let you know. Got some good ones.