Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Christmas is less than 2 months away

Today I've heard the first carol on the radio.
This year I'll be at the beach for Christmas. :)

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Bye Twick!





Today we said goodbye to Patrick – my coworker, housemate and friend. His traineeship is over so he went back home to Holland. Sad thing, goodbyes, but they’re part of life.
Patrick, also known as Twick was the one to give me my first pointers in Ghana and showed me around the block. We had some fun times, both at work and going out. So good luck with all your plans, Twick and see you soon in Romania or Holland.

Prampram








This weekend we went in my first AIESEC reunion since I'm in Ghana - it was actually a day at the beach - having fun, playing games, getting to know each other. We went to Prampram beach - less than an hour drive from Legon area - where the University of Ghana is. Prampram was a beautiful place, though not quite appropriate for swimming beacuse of the rocks and not so clean wather. I had a lot of fun with the lovely people from AIESEC, played voleyball and as usual - took lots and lots of photos.

Some more things about life in Accra

Ohhh, this is a whole lot better blog about life in Ghana (and some other adventures) than my own! Actually, if I think better, my own didn’t really have that aim, but the one to show a glimpse – like the name says – to make people curious and give them an idea about things. I still am amazed, though by the accurate description of life in Accra and kinda ashamed by my own lack of patience and constant laziness. Oh well :)

Anywayz, I have the tendency to only post about my weekends. I guess I’m at that stage where everything has become familiar (more than 2 months already in Ghana), but the truth is every day life is fascinating here since is so different than home.
That’s why I’m sure most of the people reading this blog (if there are any:) will find the simple details of every-day-life at least interesting. So I'm going to make up for my laziness and mention some more things about life in Accra, things that Leanne’s blog reminded me of. For example -

the currency – 20.000 cedis is the biggest nominal of paper money - you start counting at 100 cedis, continue with 200, 500,1000, 2000, 5000, 10.000, 20.000 and you’re done. 20.000 is about 2 USD – and it’s so funny when I get my salary in a biiig pile of 5000 bills. To make the measurement system easyer for some – 25.000 is how much a beer costs in a club. :) I have to confess that I hate the paper money – they are always soooo dirty. Well, not to be ungrateful or anything – it’s good thing I have them, yey? :)

“the after mefloquine (the anti-malaria pill) dreams” – so real and at times frightening – especially few weeks ago when I heard gun shots outside our house and found out later it was a robber’s chase – police killed 2 and one escaped or something like that – yeah, my area is known to have people that use guns to get money. Was even written in the newspaper about it. Fun, huh? To include another major cultural shock while I’m at this story, the armed robbers must make sure they’re never seen by anyone while “using their magic” because the mob (big crowd of people) will chase them, hit them with whatever heavy object they can find till they bleed to death. Haven’t been as “lucky” as some of my fellow trainees to see that one event live. Yet.

the leaking rooftops when there’s a heavy rain – it’s good thing the rainy season is over if you wanna consider this reason. Yep, the rooftops are leaking – in the office, in my room – not a big deal, actually - as long as I have a rooftop over my head, I’m cool. :)

men urinating on the side of the road is apparently an unwritten rule here - sooo funny and such a shame I didn’t have my camera with me when we saw a man who was urinating on a wall that said with biiig red letters “DO NOT URINATE HERE!”. We (me and my house mates – Tobi and Patrick) started laughing and he did too – almost a bonding moment there :)

getting directions in Ghana – from “it’s far”, “not that far” and “close” classification; the streets with no names or numbers to the confident hand pointing in the sometimes right direction and the taxi drivers that ask you mid-way where to turn cause they don’t know the way they’ve themselves taken.

knowing which tro-tro to take – which is quite simple cause there’s a man shouting the name of the destination and making signs out of the window, if available - like Circle – which, by the way, is the biggest, most crowded and polluted junction around the city.

having another winner for “the weirdest thing carried son the head” – which is……trrrrrram - liiiiiiiiive chicken – yep, like 7 of them in a basket on a head, just laying there not knowing of the cruel faith that awaits them. Thanks Dalia for pointing them to me :).

the traffic - with some few simple rules like the one Leanne’s mentioning - “And never forget your horn. It's called "hooting" or "popping" here. Your horn is your #1 car accessory.” Using their hands to signal directions or ask permission is also common. Another funny observation is when two cars are not seriously bumping into each other and they just continue driving like nothing happened. These are the remarks of a pedestrian.

Let’s call it a post for now – just to make it length friendly. Hopefully this un-laziness is not going to be a “one hit wonder”. :)

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

hippo


This is so funny. Old, but funny :)
Haven't yet seen the hippos here in Africa, but I sure hope are as cute as this one. :P
One must be careful though because "hippos kill more people each year than lions, elephants, leopards, buffaloes and rhinos combined."

Monday, October 23, 2006

Aburi Botanical Gardens






Long weekend - 3 days of fun in the sun. :)

Monday was also a free day - since it was the end of Rammadan - there are about 16% percent of muslim people in Ghana.

A rather quiet weekend which also qualifies as nice mainly beacuse we went in a small trip to Aburi Botanical Gardens. I was happy i could see some more of Ghana - Ghana is indeed nicer than Accra :) - they should really make some parks in Accra for people to hang out and enjoy - it is so ironic - Ghana is this green, full of wonderful landscapes country, but Accra doesn't really reflect that.

Anyways, Sunday we went to Aburi Botanical Gardens which is an hour or more of tro-tro ride with a transfer in Medina - North Accra. It was funny trying to find the right tro-tros to go from one place to another - we went someplace, we were told to go further, we went there, sat in the tro, been told to get down and sit in another one and so on. But we did make it to the gardens and had a nice day just walking around the beautiful nature, taking pictures and simply relaxing. The fresh air was quite a treat comparing to the dust and car polution in most of Accra. I cannot really complain that much since we do have a nice garden at our place. :P

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Watching nature



Today we had no electricity - from 6am- 6pm. If I haven't mentioned, this happens for already 6 weeks, I believe. Apparently there is not enough water to produce enough energy for everyone. But this is another discussion. So they came up with this rotation system - every 3 days the lights are off for 12 hours - one day is from 6am-6pm and after 3 days it's from 6pm-6m and so on. Sometimes we get bonus blackouts - they are the real fun, not those announced ones. Phhhhhh :-)

Anyways, I wanted to say that today, while waiting for the lights to be back on, I spent some time watching the birds and bats from the summer hut out in the garden . I realized I like watching this intense life going on around me. It's a life only available if you pay attention and are probably not used to it already.

There are many different kinds of birds, some are more colorful then others, some are more noisy and some are eagles :-) - today I saw a big brown one flying above the garden. The butterflies are bigger and of many colors. The lizards are always doing their usual rounds on the walls and in the bushes. And in the evening the bats start flying from one tree to another - big ones, small ones, brown ones, black ones.
It is fascinating. At least for me.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

The past weekend (7-8 October)








Another awesome weekend! I was very lucky to also travel this past weekend. We went to Kakum National Park and to Anomabo - a dream beach as the pictures will show.

Here is some general information about Kakum and its attraction - canopy walkway:

"Located in Kakum National Park in the West African country of Ghana, Africa's only canopy walkway is suspended 100 feet above the ground, offering you what is truly a bird's eye view of the rainforest. At this height, you don't have to be an expert to identify the colorful patterns of tropical birds as they glide through the forest below you.

You don't even have to climb to get onto the walkway. It starts at ground level, and as you walk along, the land below you slopes into a valley, and you find yourself twelve stories up in the forest canopy. The horseshoe-like pattern of bridges — made of steel cable, netting, and narrow wooden planks — are connected by tree platforms that serve as observation points for viewing the rainforest. You circle back to complete your tour on level ground.

Among other species, more than 300 kinds of birds and about 550 types of butterflies make their home in the forest canopy, and many of the canopy's inhabitants have never set foot on the forest floor. You can hear the distant rustling of leaves as a troop of monkeys travel through the canopy, but don't expect to see them. Kakum's mammals are known to be extremely elusive.

Kakum National Park is an island of tropical rainforest in a sea of agricultural lands — an isolated fragment of what was once a continuous belt of rainforest extending from Guinea through Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Cote d'Ivoire to Ghana. Degraded by mining, farming, and settlement, and combed by hunters and timber extractors, Kakum now covers less than 140 square miles, but it provides one of the last remaining habitats for six globally-endangered species, including Diana monkeys, bongos, yellow-backed duikers, and forest elephants. "

Yes, Di, Diana monkeys :-P
I have to admit the walk was a bit intimidating and i was a bit scared, but it was a rush of adrenaline and we all made it safe and sound.

We spent the night at Hans Cottage Hotel - very nice place, with pool and crocodiles - no, not in the pool, but in the lake around the hotel. I took hundreds of pictures of the crocodiles – it was like I was under some kind of spell – the Japanese one probably. :-) At first I saw this big crocodile resting, but I actually thought it is a statue - they do have statues of crocodiles so that's where I got the idea. It was only when I realised it was actually a real one that the photosession started. And lasted a while. :-)

On Sunday we went to the beach. I was so excited since it was my first time at the Ocean and first time at the beach since I have been in Ghana. The beach was incredible – the colors of the Atlantic, the palm trees, the sand, the sun – they all amazed me. Got a tan as well :-)

The weekend ended with what I can call – my first real tro-tro experience. That’s what we took to come back to Accra. If I haven’t mentioned it before – tro-tro’s are like maxi-taxis back home, just that they look like they are going to fall apart any minute. They are used for common transportation in Accra and also to connect cities. The road was not the best and the distance was not the shortest, but we’ve made it and it was kinda fun and adrenaline rising. :-)

Food related observations

On Friday we had staff meeting. It was a very interesting and motivational gathering that ended with a big lunch for everyone.
My story is related to what happened over that lunch. That is when I've noticed some major cultural differences. For example - there were some pots on the table and I leaned towards one of them to smell it. Many voices around me: "Oh, don't smell the food",”No, no, no don't do that" etc. I was like: "Why?”. Was later explained that "Only dogs smell the food. We don't smell it. If you smell it, the others might not eat it". I didn't really get the real reason for this custom, but apparently they don't do it in Netherlands either. So, mental note - "Do not smell food".

Next I wanted to try one of the local dishes which I haven't tried before, but was available at this lunch - banku. My boss, Fred heard me and since I was saying I don't want a big portion and I just want to try it, he offered to let me try from his plate. I have to remind you food is eaten with the hand here - especially traditional one like banku. So my reaction was: "You put your hand all over it, I can not try it from your plate". But then he told me it is like a bonding thing and friends do eat from each others plates. He showed me by trying the food from Ruth's plate (she is the receptionist, she’s cute and nice and also sewed my African wear – Oh, Fridays here are "African wear day”) – and then she tryed food from Fred's plate. Hands were used for the entire process. :-) I was like: "Oooook, if it's a bonding thing" :-)....but used a fork.
By the way banku was good. Better than fu-fu in my opinion. There are pics of fu-fu on one of the previous posts - banku looks similar, but tastes different.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Desmond


This is my colleague Desmond. He's a fun, driven and ambitious guy. He likes girls, Dutch music, delivering trainings and handling the paper cutter. If interested in developing further collaborations, leave your number in a comment and he'll get back to you. Boys, ignore that last sentence :-)

Thursday, October 05, 2006

My little friends





I was mentioning small lizards on the walls of my room in a previous post. Here they are - my constant, true friends. They're cute and harmless. Or so I think. Hmmm. :-)
Actually I believe they eat spiders and bugs and stuff.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Goats





They are cute, they are many and they are tasty.