November 29, 2009
Great flight from Casablanca to Accra…we got to stretch out in our own rows; ipods, books and puzzles entertaining us until 2am. Excited to see the sign, “CARE NET GHANA”, that our host would be holding up…we hurried to pick up our luggage! But, alas the traveling demon strikes once again… no backpack for Ann!
Patrick, our host at CareNet Ghana, was super friendly and welcoming. With no bag, he drove us to our Guest House on a pot-holed, dusty, dirt road… funny how your mind runs wild with “what if this isn’t Patrick and where are they taking us…the jungle??”. Stupid 1st world thoughts, we know.
We soon became accustomed to the 1:30am nightly trips to the airport to see if the bag had arrived. We always made the trip with someone along in the car (Patrick’s cousin had to come all three times); each trip we were stopped by police at check points, and we never stopping at a red light…keep motoring through, all because of car-jackings!
The Africa Guest House was a walled, razor-wired compound but comfortable, air conditioned against the 35-degree heat and humidity, although the cold water-only shower cooled us down!
So, with only one outfit to wear (thank goodness for fast-dry underwear), we remained holed-up in our compound during the day and set off each night to the airport. Confirming the flight seemed to be futile. We would have to wake the airport staff up – finding them on various benches, chairs, head down on tables and curled up on floors. “Incompetence” was the only word that Patrick used to describe this scene…”My Gad, my peeble, I don’t understand them.”. We eventually gave up after 4 nights and headed to Hohoe, where Patrick lived and CareNet Ghana was located. But not before seeing a bit of the capital, Accra. We drove through a dusty, dirty, jam-packed market area called Pig Farm, shopped for malaria meds at their biggest mall (10 stores, 5 of them cell phone companies), drove the airport road 12 times (a 10 km stretch …work in “non progress” for 4 years – where you literally scaled over crevices and broken pavement, scrapping the bottom of the car). The same road would have been traveled by Barack Obama in September! The locals lined every road trying to make a buck. Vendors on foot, packed shoulder to shoulder along the route, selling everything imaginable! We left 5 hours late …which we soon came to understand as “Ghana time”!
We arrived in Hohoe late Monday night. The drive taking us along dark narrow roads, swerving to avoid the thousands of major pot holes, flashing of headlights and a warning horn honk at every corner, narrowly missing people, sheep and goats at every village. All at a breakneck speed even Ann’s brother Kenny wouldn’t drive!
We stayed in a bedroom at Patrick and his wife, Abigail’s house. Their life style would likely be considered middle to upper middle class but still without the fortunate creature comforts we take for granted in Canada. There is no hot water, it is sparsely furnished, and dimly lit. Ceiling fans are the only relief from the stifling heat. Ants are everywhere, threatening to carry off the whole house. Abigail (“Yabbs”) is originally from Nigeria and she and Patrick have no children. Hens and roosters roaming freely within the walled property that’s a 20-minute walk to downtown.
First impressions … Hohoe is full of gentle, friendly people. We are greeted on the street by most everyone with a smile and a “Woezo”, meaning welcome in their local language Ewe. The kids wave enthusiastically and call out “yevu, yevu” or “obruni!”- their word for anyone that is light-skinned. meaning white person. Just outside our bedroom window is a banana tree, Pau Pau trees and corn stalks and apparently some grasscutters or Great Cane rats…2 feet long, 20 lb creatures considered a delicacy here. You can imagine Tim’s reaction to that!
Abagail was a great cook; chicken, fish, banku (maize mush) fufu (similar mush) and rice!! Always rice!! Cassava, another staple – root plant, heavy and full of carbs. They have to take it to the grinders and then they mix it with plantain and yams to make Fufu. They eat everything in this country…bones and all…and diners fight over the fish head!! We asked about donkeys and why they don’t use them here to work the fields. Patrick, shook his head saying ” I fear my people would eat them!”. Cats, bats and rats are also eaten – locals hunt the fruit bats that live right by the water at Wli Falls.! We crave choice. We have such an embarrassing abundance and variety in Canada and at times we unfairly expect it here “Chop Chop No Friend” bars are their version of fast food, meaning “eat, my brother, no talk”!! And, beer cost 70 cents!!
It wasn’t long before we settled into some tasks and quickly reverted back to our western working attitudes of “OMG, why can’t we change this?” Such lack of communication…people not doing their jobs!” This was fueled by Patrick, who doesn’t understand his “people” either. Lamenting that Ghanaian’s are “are lazy, have a government that is corrupt & unaccountable, but have many resources, but no functional systems”.
We met Saraphim and Promise – they would be responsible for rolling out the Rights of the Children program in 10 communities. Apparently late in starting and with no plan or training, we set out to design an agenda and an evaluation process. Much of the day is sitting around…they don’t set up appointments, no time-lines; someone shows up to speak with Patrick and they might wait 2-3 hours. Often, we would leave the “work room” expecting the work to continue; only to find staff stretched out on the table talking with one another….for hours! One time, while leading the “team” on a project planning session, we George, at the back of the room, sprawled out in his chair with his head hanging limply over the back. That depicts many of the Hohoe residents. The village is a maze of wooden shacks, where people spend the day in the blazing 35-degree sun, trying to sell their wares but come the afternoon things move at a snail’s pace as they flake out on benches or under a rare shady tree to escape the mid-day sun. With the heat comes amazing thunder storms – huge claps of thunder rumble and roll through the surrounding hills. The rain comes down along with the electricity! At our office, you would nicely make some headway on computer work and boom…the power would go out for hours. This would be the equivalent to the “beer clouds” from Ted Woods time out west. The CareNet Ghana staff were given very little direction, materials or resources… if there were supplies, they were locked up and could only be doled out by Patrick. The story goes that this building once had a library until eventually all the books were stolen! The other library in town is for paying customers and ironically the some kids can’t even afford to pay the fees for school!!
Wli falls is the highest water fall in West Africa and were spectacular. The locals believe the falls gains energy and become faster when everyone is yelling and shouting from the pool at the base. In this country, it is all about making a job for somebody when possible. So, we had a “tour guide” who took us up a very well traveled path to the falls, but provided no information other than pointing out “Pineapple baby”. I believe that is the proper botanical name.
Even though this is one of their biggest tourist attractions, it is not overly developed (exploited??). There are no Golden Arches, no Maid of the Mist tours…however, there is much dis-repair with an abundance of broken-down ramps, bridges, benches and no garbage receptacles. Everything, and we mean everything, just gets pitched to the ground! When talking with the class of students, they gasped when told they would be fined for littering in Canada. There were two garbage cans at our work which were conveniently dumped once a week over the fence at the edge of the property! And, don’t even get Ann going on the ‘pee where you are standing” policy. There are 2 gutters lining the main street. Girls would pull open their shorts, underwear, or lift their dress, squat and pee into these gutters. Gutters seemed to be optional for the men.
We have much more we would like to share with you and we’ll post a Ghana II later this month.
Happy Christmas shopping everyone and thank you for all your comments and emails…very much appreciated!!
Peace Out!
