Another slow week.

July 13^th, 2013 10:30am

It has been another quiet week here in Ghana.  I was woken up last night at about 10 o’clock by someone trying to open my door.  I ignored it first time but when they tried to open my door again more forcefully I decided to get up and see what was going on.  I opened my door to see a young lady holding a white wedding dress at my door.  I had an instant of panic at what I may have done one evening after a few too many drinks.  Women here will ask you to marry them now and then as you walk around, I’m sure it is more of a funny joke to them but you never know.  ‘Auntie’ showed up just then and explained that she was a girl from her church who was getting married today and was spending the night with her brides maids at the hostel.  They had gotten a bit confused on which room they were staying in, but ‘Auntie’ straitened them out.  Today ‘Auntie’ left for the wedding with twelve boxes of diapers for the happy couple as a wedding gift.  I don’t know how diapers would go over in Canada as a wedding gift.  Here in Ghana I guess once you are married, kids is the next step, so you might as well get a gift you’ll soon need.

The Accra shopping mall, with a fleet of taxis ready to go

I’m planning on leaving Monday for an adventure to the north of Ghana.  I don’t have a fixed plan. I’m just going to take buses heading in a general northern direction and see where I end up.  I won’t be able to update my blog while I’m on my tour, so everyone will have to wait for all the amusing stories till I get back.

I had the chance to work with the engineer and contractor for a bit on the finances of our little improvement project for the sewage plant.  We are paying each labourer 20 cedi (10 dollars) a day.  The guy who does the pipes and the guy who mixed the concrete we used got 30 cedi (15 dollars) a day.  The bulldozer we used for the berm construction was 800 cedi (400 dollars) for an eight hour day and that included fuel and operator, which was very strictly monitored by the foreman, he kept detailed notes on when the bulldozer was working and when it was not.  The whole sewage treatment plant in Accra cost 22 million dollars to build and was financed by the African development bank, the European development bank and a large German group, that I did not recognize. 

More work being done at the sewage plant

The major problem with the sewage plant right now is that only the university and one high school currently feed their sewage into it.  It is operating at 0.3% of its designed capacity.  Every now and then the topic comes up of who and how communities should be connected and who should pay to construct the connections.  From what I’ve heard there is no plan as of right now for connecting communities to the plant.  It is also a hard sell to try and make homeowners pay for something that they currently get for free, as no one pays to have a pipe that drops their sewage in an open sewer that runs to the ocean.  Some people do pay to have their toilets pumped out every couple of years but that is very cheap.

Cassava roots, a staple in Ghana

Cassava plants

A tasty, but not very orange orange I picked at work one day

A mango tree

I also got called out for using my left hand for the first time, which is surprising as being a lefty I probably use my left hand more than most do.  I was at the market buying some fish and when I went to pay the lady she did not take my money, I thought at first that I’d miss heard the price and did not have enough money out.  She then told me to give her the money from my right hand as it was bad to pass money with the left hand. 

A sign at Zoo Zoo restaurant that very clearly states their position on your car and its contents.

Johnny