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.
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