My last night in Ghana

August 8^th, 2013

So I have made it to my final night here in Ghana. It has been a very quiet week for me.  I did spend the past weekend in the Osu neighbourhood of Accra.  Osu is the nightlife and restaurant centre of Accra, so I had some nice meals and got to experience a bit of Accra’s modern nightlife.  I also got the chance to go to the Canadian embassy for some swimming on Sunday.  Every first Sunday of the month the Canadian embassy in Accra is open to Canadians living here and they allow you to use the pool and have some snacks and drinks for sale around the pool to raise some money for charity.  It was a nice afternoon and helped prepare me for my return to Canada.  Most of the conversations I had revolved around how bad the Blue Jays are or how good the Maple Leafs will be.  It was not very crowded, there were a couple of families and the owner of the four villages inn in Kumasi, who told me about the event when I stayed there a couple of weeks ago. I was on my best behavior as when my brother and I were young our father used to tell us when our manners at the dinner table were not up to par that we would get thrown out of the embassy ball if we did not have good manners.  I did not make it to the embassy ball, but the embassy pool was close enough for me to be on my best behavior, I had my pinky sticking out on every sip of tea just in case. Unfortunately the Canadian embassy is very strict about taking photos and had me turn over my phone and camera at the main gate, they would not even let me take a photo of the entrance or Canada sign on the wall of the compound.

Other than that I have not been up too much, just enjoying watching people come and go from Crystal hostel.  For my last night ‘Auntie’ is preparing a nice home cooked Ghanaian meal.  I am looking forward to it tonight.  She also had a shirt made for me as a thank you.  The shirt may be a little loud for me to wear back in Canada, but I’m sure I will find some appropriate time to wear it.  I am starting my packing today so I can hopefully have a nice relaxing final day before I need to get on the plane.  I still have to go and check out our neighbour’s souvenir shop.  Nana, who runs the shop, has been a great help during my stay here, by giving directions and suggestions about Accra.  Nana is also in a band, he sings for them and gives them a place to practice.  It has been a bit disturbing having a band practice about 10 meters from my room, but it is the least of the sound distractions.  ‘Auntie’s’ kitchen is about 3 meters from my bed and she is up at about 5 every morning cooking, taking on the phone or yelling at her two grandchildren.  On the back of my room is a grade school, they start school at 7 everyday, but thankfully ‘Auntie’ has usually woken me up by then.  The funniest thing about the school is they sing the A-B-C song incorrect, it has the same tune, but they split the alphabet at different letters then when I was taught it.  I have had to sing the correct song to myself a couple of times, because hearing it sung wrong is very confusing to my brain.

The next karate kid

Well I guess I will hopefully see everyone soon back in Canada.

Johnny

One week left

August 2^nd, 2013

Our Ghana project wrapped up early this week and finished on schedule.  It was a very interesting project and it was nice that I got to see the beginning of it and the end, there are not many engineering project that only last three months.  Although it was not a structural project I did learn a lot being able to work with both the engineer and the contractor whose offices were across the hall from each other at the job site.  It was interesting to be able to see the project from both points of view and how they interacted during the project.  The engineer who designed the drainage system did not get involved in how the drainage system was build he left that solely up to the contractor.  Also if the contractor wanted to make any changes to the project he had to fill out some forms to get the permission of the engineer.  It helped that they were friends and would talk over what was going on during construction and the forms then became a formality, but still had to be filled out.  We celebrated the completion of the project with a nice lunch of Ghanaian favorites they had delivered, goat stew with homegrown rice.  I’m told that the best rice you can get in Ghana is homegrown rice.  It is grown in Ghana and is brown rice as opposed to the white rice you get in most places.  The problem with homegrown rice is it is about double the price of rice imported from China and Thailand.  It was a fun afternoon and I had a fun time chatting with all the guys about their lives in Ghana. 

The water being carried away, proof our pipes are working

The head contractor, Dieu, is a very religious man, he likes video games and plays guitar and is trying to start a band.  The engineer, Emmanuel, is kind of the opposite and likes the Ghana night life and rarely gets up on Sunday for church.  The foreman on the job, George, tells me he is a pool shark and can be found on most nights in one of Accra’s pool halls trying to win a little extra pocket money.  Michael the foreman’s assistant has four kids and his wife is a nurse who went to school in Germany and they hope to one day move there, thou they have been trying for quite some time with no luck so far.  The contracting company is a German company and have sent Michael to Germany twice for training and he hopes they will help him land a secure job in Germany one day so he can move there.

A flock of vultures looking for something to eat

Grilled sole for dinner one night

The finished buried pipe running along the edge of the pond

Since my work here is done I've had to find other activities to keep me out of trouble.  I feel like I've done enough traveling around Ghana and have decided to spend my last week hanging out in Accra.  I have spent time going on long walks down various streets in the Darkuman region, there is always something interesting to see.  I've also taken to reading the daily newspaper in the morning to help kill some time.  I got started reading the newspaper here when I saw a headline that read “twelve wee smokers arrested” and I wondered what Ghana had against Scottish midgets smoking.  It turned out the headline was missing a “d” and should have read “twelve weed smokers arrested”.  The newspapers are mostly filled with sports and gossip about people I don’t know maybe sleeping with other people I don’t know.  They also spend a lot of time raking local celebrities on the things they wear and who has the best ass and other such things.

 

From the newspapers I have been able to follow the election scandal court case; it has now been going on for almost three months.  The Supreme Court in Ghana announced they would have a final decision on July 31^st, but in a very Ghanaian twist both parties filed their final petitions late and now the Supreme Court is trying to decide if they should accept the late submissions.  The new date for the final decision is the 8^th of August and I leave on the 9^th so I hope neither of the parties decides to start a revolution if the decision does not go their way.  Both parties have said in the newspapers they will accept the courts decision either way. 

I’m looking forward to getting home and having hot water, decent coffee and customer service again.  I will miss Ghana when I’m back home and can definitely see coming back here one day, thou there are so many other countries I’d like to visit as well.  My biggest worry right now is about how much of a bribe I will need to pay to get out of the country when I leave.  As people leave Crystal hostel to go home everyone takes an interest in finding out how they did getting through passport control.  Of the four who have left so far two got away without paying anything, one paid 12 cedi (6 dollars) as that was all the money he had, and one unfortunate girl had to pay 100 cedi (50 dollars).  Our professor who just went home this week told me that you should stand firm, smile and refuse to pay any bribe or fine since there is really no justification for it.

Johnny