Surprise Nature Hike!

May 31^st, 2013 11:40am

I showed up for work today and no one else did.  So I decided to take a walk through the botanical gardens that are on the eastern boarder of the sewage treatment plant.  The gardens have fallen on some hard times.  There were only a few people walking around the grounds and all the structures are falling down.  I did take some nice pictures and that is the main point of this post, plus it gives me something to do as I wait for lunchtime.

 

A giant termite mound

A couple of cowboys watching over their herd

The lagoon at the center of the botanical gardens

Flowers

Botanical gardens

Johnny

Power, Internet and GMT

             I know some people are interested in the food here, but I’m saving that for when I have a more complete understanding of the food in Ghana.  I also had a bit of a set back after my illness, as I jumped right into Ghanaian food when I got here, got sick and have been a bit ‘gun shy’ of Ghanaian food since.  Thou I am starting to get back into enjoying the local food here.

We have had about a week of the power being out more often than it is on at work and home.  It is not too bad during the day, but sleeping at night without a fan is awful.  We have also lost the internet, and not just at Crystal Hostel but the whole of the Darkuman region have run out of internet this past week.  The internet cafes have become very boring places.  When there is internet the internet cafes are lined up out the door.  Internet cafes here are very different from back home, they are definitely an adult experience as you have no clue what your neighbor may be up to. 

I have also learned the meaning of GMT.  GMT stands for Greenwich Mean Time, but in Ghana which is on GMT they call it Ghana Maybe Time.  It has been quite a frustrating adjustment to a society without schedules, promptness or preparedness.  I have always been on time, and here it simply does not matter.  We are working with professional people in a large company and they will not show up for stuff or show up an hour or two late with no call or excuse.  It is enough to drive a person to drink.  I’m trying very hard to just go with the flow and accept that it is how things work here, but it has been a challenge.

A fruit stand down the road from Crystal hostel

Some political science students from the University of Ghana who came to visit the sewage plant, a heated discussion followed their tour.

Lapaz market

Darkuman Road

Johnny

The Dogs

May 25^th, 2013 2:23 pm

The two dogs that protect us from the rats are called Saski (the light one) and Chico (the dark one).  They spend the night hunting for rats, and the rats here are quite large at least a foot of body plus another foot of tail.  In the middle of the night you can hear them howling as a signal they killed a rat and the morning if you get up before anyone has had a chance to clean it up you’ll find a large dead rat laying on the ground.  I’m told that some people eat rat in Ghana, but I’m pretty sure the rats Saski and Chico kill go in the garbage.  The dogs also work as guard dogs, most people in Ghana are very leery around dogs and try to avoid them.

Johnny

Crystal Hostel

May 23^rd, 2013 6:36 pm

We have decided to stay at the Crystal Hostel in Accra for the rest of our trip.  It is a nice place with about ten rooms, three of which are large dormitory style rooms that can sleep four people.  There is a communal area with a ping pong table that we eat most of our meals at and a roof top patio where we can look out over the rest of the Darkuman region.  Crystal Hostel has a small kitchen with a single gas burner and a couple of old aluminum pots.  The occasional guest has tried to cook a meal in the kitchen with some pretty poor results, I’m pretty sure it is best to only use the kitchen for making tea, coffee or maybe some plain rice.    The nice lady who runs the Crystal Hostel prepares three meals a day and if you like you can have a plate, she also keeps a supply of cold water, soda and beer on hand.  The hostel is on the western side of Accra in the Muslim section of town.  There are a lot of mosques and you can hear the call to prayer at various times through the day and night.  The Darkuman area is very lively and is constantly bustling with traffic and various hawkers trying to sell all types of goods.  Thou It is very hard to find western goods here in Darkuman.  They don’t get many white people in the Darkuman area.  If we want to purchase western goods we can either go to Koala market which is very similar to any small Canadian supermarket, or the Kanishi market which is a huge market that has just about everything you could ask, though you many have to search around for whatever it is you are looking for.

The Patio

The Kitchen

Our rat catching dogs

Today I had a day off, so I traveled to Usher Fort in Usher town.  Usher Fort was a Dutch slave trading post and later became a British prison.  It was used as a prison up until the 90’s and was where the first president was imprisoned when he became president.  It was quite fascinating, after the fort I went to Accra’s lighthouse and climbed to the top and took a series of photos of the ocean and Accra.  It was a very nice and relaxing day off topped off with a nice piece of grilled chicken and chips with a cold beer.

Accra's Lighthouse

Usher Fort

Johnny

Transport

Tuesday may 21^st 2013

So how do I get around Accra?  There are three methods of transportation available to me here, walking, taxi and trotro.  I have had to do a lot of walking here as it is often simply the best way to get where you want to go.  It is also gives you an opportunity to see and interact with the people of Accra.  It can be dangerous, there are very few sidewalks and many open sewers you must watch out for.  When there are sidewalks they are more than likely filled with hawkers and small food stalls.  It is nice to see all the people as you walk around, the children always yell out ‘embroni’ which means white person and they always wave and ask in very proper English how you are doing.  The people are nice and there are very few beggars or situations where you don’t feel safe, even in some of the poorer areas.

 

The second option is to take a taxi.  Taxis are very different here, the drivers likely don’t know where you are going and will have to stop periodically to ask direction.  The drivers try hard and are working for a predetermined price, but it can be very frustrating, especially when your destination turns out to be a major landmark.  This happened to me yesterday as I was trying to get to a place called Atomic Junction.  The taxi driver said he knew where it was, but after the third of fourth stop to get directions, including one where he stopped on the highway in a lane and not on the shoulder, I was pretty sure he did not know where it was.  We did eventually find it and it turned out to me a major hub for trotros on the north side of the city. 

The third and most adventurous way to get around is trotro.  My guide book says they are a great way to get around if you don’t care about how long you live.  Trotro are vans with around 15 seats that race around the city with a guy hanging out the window shouting where they are going too, there is also a set of hand signals they use to indicate if they are going straight down the road, turning off it or heading to a roundabout which serve as hubs for trotros. They are very cheap, but also hot and sweaty and depending on the driver you may spend your trip listening to the latest techno dance hit or his favorite sermon.  

Trotro

 

Yesterday we did actual work, we went to Accra’s new sewage treatment plant where they are having a problem with water seeping through one of the embankments on one of the retention ponds.  They are going to be installing an underground drainage system to keep the water from disturbing the embankment.  We got to mark out line for the proposed drainage system using our survey skills and a very old theodolite.  It was good to do some work and feel a bit productive, it has been hard getting used to how slow things move here, and the fact that no one minds.  For example we ordered some aggregate for the base of the drainage system and asked when it would be derived, the owner of the materials company said ‘8 o’clock tomorrow’.  And the first thing the chief engineer asked back was ‘which 8 o’clock’. 

Dan and Jordan marking out the proposed drainage system

Water seeping up through the road around the retention pond

The University of Ghana on the hill overlooking the treatment plant

Johnny

Sunday May 19^th, 2013 8:30am

Wednesday I finally got to see out job site for the next month at least.  It is the new building at the Pentecostal University College (PUC) in Accra.  It is a seven storey building that will be used for teaching.  It is being built in collaboration with a Chinese firm who are supplying all the steel construction knowledge for the main structure.  Steel construction is not typically used in Ghana, as they rely mainly on concrete and cinder block construction methods.  The head engineer told us of the difficulties in trying to convince the owners that steel construction was a viable alternative to the more traditional Ghanaian options.  The owner took a lot of convincing to be persuaded to accept steel for their building.

Thursday I came down with my first and hopefully last African sickness.  All day Thursday and Friday I could not keep any food or water down, I was very sore and could not sleep.  The intense heat did not help matter much.  Lucky for me we did not have any work as our boss was away at another of his projects, building a sewerage plant outside of Accra.

 

                Saturday I felt a hundred percent better after my illness.  I decided to have my first tourist day in Accra.  I started by visiting Osu Castle, it is the presidential residence, so no pictures are allowed.  It was very interesting to see and learn of the battles the past governments of Ghana have had over where the president should live.  They also have a large building called Flagstaff house that some governments of Ghana have used, but it was also formerly used by the British when they controlled Ghana as a colony.  So not only do they fight over control of the government but also over where the government should be located. 

After visiting the castle I took a piece of advice from Don Sawyer’s Avuncular Travel Tips as seen in Verge Magazine (January-August 2008)

34.  The WATO bar in downtown Accra may be the most interesting place on earth to spend an afternoon drinking beer.

The first challenge was finding the WATO bar, one person told me it had closed and a few didn’t know where it was.  I finally found one gentleman who knew of it and pointed it out to me.  It was visible from about 10 feet away from where everyone was sitting so I don’t know they didn’t know about it.  I have to agree that the WATO bar is a very interesting place.  It overlooks a rare six street intersection with no discernible sense of order. Red lights are totally ignored and if enough people walking get together they just start crossing stopping all traffic regardless of the color of the street lights.  It is also a very loud intersection with hundreds of people going about their business and just as many children running and playing.  On top of it all for all the commotion there are an equal number of people sleeping and resting on the side of the road. 

After checking out the WATO bar I went to Nkrumah Memorial park and mausoleum and looked around the nice park and monuments there. 

  After that I met up with the rest of the travelers I have met and we all went to Krokrobite beach for their nightly reggae show.  It was not quite what I expected.  It was much simpler that I was expecting, just a small band and a couple of performers doing some basis circus tricks.  We had a nice pizza dinner and a couple of drink on the beach which was very nice.  Krokrobite is a tourist beach and was populated by almost exclusively Europeans on holiday. 

Johnny

First Promotion

Wednesday May 15^th, 2013 8:40am

I have moved up from “a white guy at Jospong with no idea what’s going” on to “a white guy at Jospong with no idea what’s going on with a desk”.  My first promotion, give me a month and maybe I’ll be running this company.  The chief engineer of our project is on his way to take us to the job site for the first time and I can’t wait to see it.  I've had request for photos, so now that I have a desk with internet I can post them more frequently. 

Also I have yet to mention the weather.  It is not a big topic of conversation here as there is only one type of weather and it is hot. It is always hot, even when it rains it is still hot.  Speaking of topics of conversation the big topic around the water coolers here is the lack of power outages this week.  It is a major event to get through a week in Accra without the power going out; Ghana does not produce enough power for their growing needs.

Johnny

Tuesday May 14^th 2013. 10:15am

Monday was our first day of work and we got introduced to what felt everyone who works for Jospong.  We also got a chance to see a few of their projects and learn more about what we will be doing.  We are going to working on a seven story composite steel/concrete structure, called the PUC building.  I have already noticed that things here move at a very different pace, and schedules just don’t exist.  I have also noticed that the cell phone is king here in Ghana.  People will stop a conversation for their phone and I even noticed people stepping out of church service on Sunday morning to take calls.  Today we showed up for an 8:00 am meeting only to find out it has been cancelled, but it gave us a change to find an ex-pat coffee shop with free Wi-Fi.  As a major exporter of coffee, it is very hard to get a decent cup of coffee; maybe the heat is just too much to be drinking a hot beverage.  Also the only people who smoke here are ex-pats, smoking is akin to hard drugs in Ghanaian society and no one smokes in public.   Sorry this post is so disjointed, but those are some of my first observations of life in Ghana.  Hopefully I will be able to find a regular stable source of internet in the near future.

Happy Late Mother’s Day!

Johnny

Saturday, May 11^th 5:00pm

Internet has been less then reliable so I’m keeping my entries in a word file until I have a chance to upload them.  I’m trying to be disciplined and write everyday about Ghana.  Last night Joseph, our contact in Ghana, met up with us and as an apology for missing us at the airport took us out for a very nice seafood dinner.  Today I picked up a cell for the next three months only 25 dollars.  Bell and Telus would go bankrupt at those prices.  We also moved to a nice hostel, with its very own lookout tower.  There is also a nice older lady named ‘Auntie’ here who is making sure we don’t get into too much trouble.  It does seem that every older Ghanaian woman goes by the name ‘Auntie’.  ‘Auntie’ runs the hostel with her husband, daughter and two little grand kids that are 1 and almost 3. Also we have met up with a few other foreigners here at the hostel, an English woman and two guys, one from the Netherlands and one from Australia.  ‘Auntie’ also has a few dogs, and a neighbor who raises chickens that like to run around in her yard.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Johnny

First Night in Ghana

I've had to wait to post, due to trouble getting on the 'net.  So I have been writing and dating my posts and am posting them when I get to a secure 'net connection.

Friday, May 10^th 5:45pm

Well I've made it to Accra with minimal trouble.  We may have been scammed a bit on an airport taxi ride, but no one was there to meet us so we had to do our best.  We have checked into a nice hotel for the first night, we are pretty tired.   It has been a long trip.  Everyone we have run into so far has been really friendly and I feel we are quickly getting our bearings.  We also found the Jospong group of companies despite Google earth giving us the wrong location, but in their defense there are no street signs or addresses posted.  Now we are getting ready to go find some dinner and maybe a beer or two.

Go Leafs!

Johnny

Finally ready to leave for Ghana

This is my last night in Canada and I’m all packed and hopping that I have not forgotten anything.  Tomorrow Dan, Jordan and I leave for our adventure in Ghana, working for Jospong Engineering.  I’m hoping we have a good trip and don’t run into too many unexpected surprises.  I've had a lot of request for photos from Ghana, so everyone will be happy to know I've got a new camera that is simple to use so I should be able to get some nice photos to post here and to Facebook, provided I can get on the net.

Hopefully my next post will be soon and from Ghana.

John

This is my award winning Lighthouse photo from the 2012 Bayfield fair.  I needed to test to see if I could up load a photo.