Jessica verliert den Kampf gegen den Taxifahrer

Oops, I think I kind of neglected my little blog since the last post is already one month ago (considering that I indeed wrote a note one month ago but didn’t manage to post it until today...but that makes you the lucky reader of two posts at the same time...if that is not something!!).

So, what exactly made me sitting down just now, writing another post when there were so many other occasions, indeed so much more interesting and beautiful incidents, I could have written about? To be honest, it is my ego. My ego which had to give in due to the fact that I lost a fight (yes, it is true, after losing against the kiddies in almost all kinds of sports, now it is a taxidriver who deserves a spot on my list). It all started very nicely. I had a beautiful day at work...

...here we can do a short excurse to my research which is getting along quite well, slowly but well. I finally managed to formally interview some children. While the first view interviews went not that great (which I mainly blame on myself and my inexperience), the second batch was much more cooperative and talkative making it easier and nicer to get some good information. As with everything, learning by doing is the best thing to do...and I am quite confident that things will go more smooth with every time I talk to another child...

...but back to my ego which needs to express itself. I finished my day having dinner with two friends. Afterwards we all shared a cab, dropped one friend in Osu and continued our way home with two girls left. You need to know that in Ghana you tell a taxidriver where you wanna go, followed by a discussion about the price which is then agreed on. We told the taxidriver our destination, agreed on a price and started the ride. However, towards the end of the ride the driver started complaining that we would go much further than we originally agreed on, which is, and here you have to believe me, not true. So, arrived at our house, we paid, but unfortunately didn’t have the exact amount, thus being in need of change. The driver however refused to give out the exact change. So, making this long story a short one...it ended with me getting back in the car starting an unsuccessful sit-in, a few offences on both sides, an angry me getting back out of the car, now sitting in front of the computer trying to not be very very mad anymore.

However this incident doesn’t deserve to spoil all the other things I have experienced during the last days. I have met more and more beautiful and nice people who I enjoy spending my time with. I love the fact that wherever I am I can be more than assured that there will always be plenty of people willing to help me and show me my way. I love to go to my current workplace every single working- (we don’t wanna overact) day, learning from the people who work there but even more from the children themselves who amaze me every day again. I love to walk through Accra observing people (as much as this is possible given the fact that I am probably observed much more) in their daily routine, especially my new heroes, which are the trotro maids and who I just love to watch in their working routine.

As you can see, my ego is mostly back to normal...leaving me with nothing else to do than joining my bed and hopefully dreaming of something else than cockroaches as it was the case last night :)

PS: A big thank you to my two favourite shouters for keeping up the conversation!!

Togo gewinnt 1:0

(composed 29 March 2009)
As we all know (or at least know by now), we are currently in the qualification phase for some nice fußball festivities taking place next year. In order to say ‘ich war dabei’ or just to have some fun I joined a few thousand mainly Ghanaian Fußball crazies watching 22 people (sometimes one of the cool golf-cars came on the field reducing the number to 21) fighting for a ball. So, yeah, what can I say, it was definitely lots of fun, I can’t believe how cheap it was to get in, the few thousand fußball crazies stayed peaceful, letting me survive my very first live game.

Inspired by this amazing event and motivated by the kids surrounding me I decided to get active myself and yes...played some ‘Tischfußball’...yippie!! While with other sport activities I always carefully chose my contrahent according to his or her age and figure which had to be less and weaker than my own (e.g. when doing a bit of the ‘Armdrücken’) in order to experience some happy moments of winning and to gain the respect of the hard street life ;-) ... I somehow missed that when choosing my ‘Tischfußball’ contrahent. Yeah, what can I say, I lost most (sometimes I did find some tiny kids who couldn’t barely reach the table) of the games and probably the hardly earned respect of the tough street life.

So, yeah, as you can see, my research is getting along...when you are reading the stuff above, please don’t forget that my first step consists of observations. During the last three days I got in contact with some children, got to know them a bit and am still working on building some kind of a relationship. I hope that by next week I can start some interviews and more important get some more detailed insights in the children’s daily life.

So, for now, that’s it...I am still enjoying the African sun, finally getting some kind of a tan (totally uneven, but a tan) and will move to a beautiful house with some beautiful girls on Friday.

Nachtrag

wohoooo...i guess someone was really excited about writing a post...but i was told that is is ok to write a bit more the first time...i promise, the next ones will be kind of more compact... :)

Es war einmal ...

Wow...so here we are...somewhere under the African sun, West Africa, Ghana, Accra, North Kaneshie to put it accurately. To be honest, I’m not quite sure what I’m more excited about right now... being in Ghana or having my first very own blog and being able to annoy people all around the world with my stories :)

For those who I didn’t tell my plans for the next two and a half month (unfortunately during my last days in Amsterdam I realized that I indeed missed to tell a few people about my fieldtrip resulting in some perplexed as well as disappointed faces...I’m still very sorry about that!!), here we go:

As part of my Master’s thesis I decided to go on a field trip to Accra in order to collect data for my study. I will research street children here in Accra, hopefully finding out a lot about their life and experiences. In a nutshell, my research will be about the social competences and skills street children hold and how these assets can be used in order to improve the children’s situation. Since I am interested in the children’s very own opinion on this matter I hope that I will indeed get to talk to a few. I guess, we will see...

I arrived in Accra one and a half weeks ago...a comment which I actually only make to say the following (insider) and which can be skipped by everyone who doesn’t have pink walls: I think I found a perfect advertising as well as possible-member-scouting strategy. On my flight with this beautiful German airline, after being about one hour up in the air (consequently having another seven hours ahead), the stewardesses started pushing their drink devices through the aisles asking what we would like to have. Out of common sense (and personal preference) I asked for water. Soooo, that nice woman gave me my water and asked if I would also like to have a cocktail which I (out of common sense) negated. However she continued offering me cocktails while I continued saying friendly ‘no’. It ended with her walking away, however not without looking at me like I said something mean to her and mumbling something like ‘ohoo ohoo, so she doesn’t want any alcohol, he’ (please imagine it with an intonation and face expression indicating that she felt offended). So, yeah, I think when we train the stewardesses a bit more persuasiveness, then we definitely get the people out of their closets into our club.

The last ten days I mainly used to discover the city and find my way through these labyrinths of roads, circles, trotros, taxis, markets and people. I enjoyed the local food (yeah, fried plantain (red red) is really my favourite)and still can’t believe that this time I don’t have to eat portions that are actually meant for ten people. I learned that when a driver tells you that he is going to North Kaneshie that doesn’t necessarily mean that he is actually going there but that he is going kind of in this direction and that you have to take a couple of other trotros to finally arrive. I learned that a ride in a trotro at night can result in more than 30 mosquito bites on one single foot, letting your foot look like he got one kind of very bad disease. I also learned that it is a bit more relaxing to walk through Accra than Kumasi with getting less comments and touches. However that also means that I only got one proposal of marriage so far which is a quite low record compared to my last stay in Ghana.

Yet, the most important lesson so far is that I not really honestly enjoy going to church here. Beside the fact that I enjoy churches more for their beauty than their purpose anyway, it is quite challenging to survive a three hour mess which exceeds it program by at least an hour. The beginning was very enjoyable seeing the people sing and dance (the songs were quite good), especially when you sit in the back of the church surrounded by some little kiddies who you can laugh and joke around with and for which, since you are an adult, you won’t get yelled at. However, the second part (the children left, either because they fell asleep or because they were seated somewhere else where they aren’t under the influence of a bad adult) was boring as well as scary. First, I had to come up to the front and was introduced and had to say something to the people for which I was totally not prepared and because of which they now definitely think that obrunis are weird. Then, for one hour, we had the honour to enjoy a guest reverend who literally screamed his words in the microphone telling us ‘we shall be’. His screamy speech concluded with a singing prayer of everyone. After a few minutes one woman fainted. I, totally innocent of what is going on, thought that the heat had been too much for her and felt really sorry. However suddenly more women fainted, one after the other, obviously due to the praying.

The weekend I spent in Bushua, a beautiful beach destination about five hours from Accra. I went with some friends, among others two girls from my home university for which I can’t believe that I had to go to Ghana first in order to actually get to know them...I am happy that I have them here :) and we had a lot of fun on our trip, though we had some time management problems (if you ever thought that I am slow and never on time go to Ghana and you will love me for my punctuality...but I have to say, out of political correctness as well as fairness, that this OF COURSE does not apply to all Ghanaians) and spent a considerable time inside of trotros...being squashed in a group of perfectly sweating people, feeling ‘as comfortable as in mama’s belly’ :) (hehe, am I allowed to quote my own intelligent comments??). However the beach and even more the FOOD compensated us more than enough. If you should ever be around Bushua looking for some nice yummy food...go to the ‘Black Star’!!, which is a eating place next to a surfer shop. Here you have to wait for about half an hour to get the most delicious and of course freshly prepared food I had so far in Ghana. We ended up having our meals there a couple of times which is no problem since they serve a huge variety of food...which however doesn’t mean that I ordered the exactly same thing twice (I know I am boring but it was just sooo yummy, and it wasn’t merely my fault). Talking about good-looking cool surfer guys, though I hoped for it I didn’t get to see any...maybe because the waves were huge from my perspective but no one other’s. I also didn’t see any Germans sitting on the beach in self-made sand holes. I recently learned that this is what Dutch people say about Germans being on the beach...they dig a big hole in order to sit in it all day long. I can’t believe it, how mean is that...and to all the German comrades: do we really do that? I thought it is enough that we run around in slippers with white tennis socks pulled up to the edge of our shorts.

So, concluding, I would say that my first days in Ghana weren’t nearly as exciting as for example some adventures in El Salvador. However, first of all, I of course left out all the embarrassing incidents (falling into holes (resulting in wounds which I of course label as surfing accidents), bad little monsters being able to watch through bathroom windows, the movability of curtains serving as bathroom doors, etc.) which I may tell to some exquisitely selected friends after a couple of drinks and second, Accra is just too save to tell some scary stories. Even the cockroaches have left me quite alone so far.