Under African Skies

So, this is the first blog I'm writing from Ghana, and definitely a more interesting one than my ramble from Heathrow.

The trip over was long, exhausting and unique. Nine hour layovers in Heathrow suck, particularly if you didn't sleep a minute on the way over. I spent most of it talking (in french!) to this Belgian guy. Reminded me how horrible I am at being "bilingual". I flew Emirates (major airline from Dubai) from London to Dubai, and then Dubai to Accra. Emirates is no doubt the nicest airline I've ever flown, but beating out Air Canada, Westjet and the defunct Canjet isn't a great accomplishment. But anyways, it was fancy, clean, very new, best food, hundreds of movies and TV shows and everything.

The Dubai airport was as fancy and swanky and new looking as the Emirates airplane. I had four hours there, through the night, with literally thousands of people sleeping on the floor at the airport. Looked like a billion dollar refugee camp. The flight to Accra was kind of strange. The flight attendants actually walked up and down the aisles spraying deodorant/cologne because it smelt so bad.

I got into Accra around noon on Sunday. They'd cleaned the airport up a lot, it wasn't as wild and crazy as I'd been warned. Somebody from the office met me there (Kingham say hi back Zach...and on Kingham, he just got diagnosed with the mumps...so he's out of commission). I got to my hotel, bought some crappy food and slept on and off for the next 24 hours or so. I took the next day off, just going in to the office for a few minutes and then to register at the High Commission. The first 24 hours were nothing short of horrible.

My first day of work was extremely busy. I did work all morning, then ended up at a conference for this book launch at the Kofi Annan Centre for Peacekeeping Training, or something like that. I wasn't alone though, thankfully. The trip was the best part, taking a tro-tro (ask Zach, or google or something to figure out what they are) up the oceanfront to get there. There I also met an intern that worked there, and just to prove it's a small world, found out he lives at Sunnyside and Bronson. So it took 48 hours in Africa to meet somebody that lives in my neighbourhood in Ottawa.

Tuesday, the same day, I moved in with a Canadian diplomatic family. It's a different life, but still thought-provoking if nothing else. They're extremely nice, with their own links to home and life at home that I'll explain another time. I'm not sure how long I'll be staying there, if it's more than a few more days I'll pay rent, but I won't move out until I find another place.

Note for Stabs: There's a girl in the office from NYU who has been here three weeks and knows Anne, although they've never met. She's living at obruni house, jam packed in a two-bedroom with two others (so 3 in 2) and paying $250 a month. She sounded extremely pessimistic, but I'll still go talk to Auntie C anyways.

In any event, I'm happy at least I have somewhere else to stay other than the hotel. What I like about it is not so much the luxuries of living in a nice diplomatic house, it's just having a place to stay where I'm comfortable. I'm pretty sure I could be comfortable without the luxuries, so we'll see.

Anyways, work has been kinda busy since then. There are at least fifteen (15!) interns here, maybe more. So many that some have to work in the internet cafe every day. They almost all come from this TPA program (something Projects Abroad). They pay their way, live with Ghanaian families (so no help for accomodation), it's all set up for them but they pay. They come and go all the time.

Some interns are nicer and friendlier than others, but it's cool having so many people. I don't really work with them though, right now I work with Edmund (a Ghanaian staffer whose sweet) and Florence (a Ugandan staffer who gives me most of my work, also really nice). Then there's Nina, she's on the other end of the spectrum. They've had me doing, among other things, answering the office phone (and sometimes Nana, the boss' cell phone). That's horrible! I can't understand any Ghanaians on the phone, and sometimes they call and talk in a different language, or get mad at me. Nothing could be worse.

Ghana's a pretty interesting country, or at least Accra is. It's kind of cool just to walk around and take things in. If there are 1 million cars in this city, at least 3/4 of them are taxis. Honestly, they're everywhere. It's unreal, and another 3/4 of them honk at you. Apparently if you're an obruni (white person/foreigner), and you're outside, they don't think you'd ever walk anywhere. Every five minutes I walk on a main street outside, I wave off at least 20 of them. Today I waved off five straight, they were one behind the other, and I waved them ALL off. And they will pull over if you just ignore them. They NEED an answer even if I don't look at them once. Rediculously tedious, but harmless too.

I've been ripped off a bit, but for the most part, at least with taxis, I just err on the side of generosity. It wasn't until this morning that I had any dispute from a driver (who was just chancing it with me). I don't feel overly unsafe or hassled, though I haven't been in a market or out at night really yet. My biggest problem is just simply understanding the accent.

Also, as a side note, I love the food. I can live off of rice and chicken variations, and that's huge here. For lunch, the interns all go to this "Gina's Fast food" place, where you some combination of a few kinds of rice, fried chicken, macaroni, plantain and a few other options. It either comes in a bowl or a bag if you take it out. Honestly, it costs you 7000 to 10,000 cedis. That's about 70 cents to a dollar. Not bad.

Alright, this has been long enough. Work gets out soon. I demand e-mails from a few of you.

Sean.