Before a long weekend

No blackouts for few days. But no water either. Nothing is perfect, eh? :-)

Oh, today is Friday!!!! Yupeeee! Tomorrow is a holiday - because it's Romania's National Day and since they love me so much, they gave us all a free day at work!!! :-))) Sure, I even don't believe that - the truth is 1st of December is Farmer's Day - National Holiday- a special day in which the government awards the best farmers. That's all I know. People don't seem to care that much, except for the fact that is free. So I'll probably be heading to the jungle in the weekend! Tell you all about it next week!

Triple b-day party

Saturday was a fun day - Thanks to Farah and Hisham we got a triple b-day party - for her, me and Stevan. Different days, different ages - 24, 25, 26, same fun party.

We had awesome food I missed a lot. "There are good chiken in Ghana!", we've all discovered - I mean with more meat than bones. There was even b-day cake - Thanks Ramona for that. ;-) All yummy!!!

Playin with the dogs, with Melina - Farah's and Hisham's 3 years cute daughter, eating and laughing, was a great way to spend the Saturday. It all continued with alcoholic drinks at the other trainees' house, more fun and funny faces, me discovering I can play golf (when tipsy) and a true singing performance from Lars - the lost Backstreet Boy! :-P

5 more things to tell Ghana apart

1. When I take I cab, I always have to negotiate the price first.
They don't have meters - it's too expensive. But I think this activity has helped me with my negotiation skills - especially getting over that moment when he really doesn't want to lower the price, but you know he's asking more than it's worth. So you hold tight to you offering and say "fufurobeba" - "another one will come" if all your arguments haven't convinced him. By the way, negotiation is a very creative process - for those of you who haven't figured that out by now. ;-)

2. Looks like I'm not the only child anymore - I have hundreds of brothers and sisters -"Hey sister!!" it's something I hear a lot. :-)

3. ... and all my brothers are all called Charlie. Yeah, Charlie’s a pretty famous guy, although nobody has met him so far. "Charlie how!" - That's a way to greet people and Charlie is the equivalent of friend.

4. Every management meeting starts with a prayer. Found it very strange at first - I'm not religious - used to it now, but it's still strange. I'm always amazed by the great faith everybody has in God.

5. When I go out at night, instead of perfume I use mosquito spray. Keeps men away also ;-D

Cricri, we're not in Romania anymore!

Yesterday it was my 3 months in Ghana anniversary and tomorrow is my 3 months to go in Ghana anniversary. :-)
I feel like I should write something meaningful at this mid-way. I will just write something and don’t worry bout meaningfulness.

One thing I do want to mention - so I don’t forget and also to maybe help people who feel the same in the beginning of a new experience - is how uncomfortable (despite the fact that everyone was nice) and homesick I felt in my first month, how slow the time passed, but as day went by I started to enjoy it more and more. I was truly saying “I so love this!” to myself after like 2 months.

I think what I was (and still am) enjoying the most was the fact that I have the chance to emerge in a new culture so I can see there are other ways of living and also that I have the ability to adapt to them. I really enjoy the relaxed way things are done here, less pressure, less expectations, people don’t seem to get mad that often or to hold grudge. And maybe that is way most of Europeans say Ghana is a free place. Dunno.

7 ways I know I’m not in Romania:

1. I keep bumping in a palm tree leaf that's outside my door when I go to the shower in the morning.
2. The water coming out (if any) is cold, but I don’t really mind – I actually enjoy it a lot.
3. I’m welcomed every morning with “Etesey” (that’s “How are you”) and a big “Yoooooo” (That’s their way of acknowledging I’m fine after I answer “Eieeeee” (which is “Fine”)).
4. Although from my home to the office is only 1 minute walk (I live on the company's premises), I get to work all sweaty.
5. When I go out for a meeting in the middle of the day, I can see people sleeping in the trees, under the trees, on benches or fences, in the stores or outside the stores. I guess is the heat ;-)
6. When we stop at a traffic light I can shop for all week since there are people selling everything from, fruits and vegetables to toilet paper, shoes and even maps to hang on your wall.
7. Sometimes when I go to buy stuff at the stores near my house I get compliments from men - not in the form of whistles, but just a simple and not intruding "Uhu ye fe" which is "You're beautiful" in twi, therfore it's not annoying, it's just nice. Yeah, I'm a sucker for compliments, but who isn't? :P

Another post bout food and eating

I've been meaning to post these pictures for a long time, but always something else came up.

These are pictures of my boss eating fu-fu with groundnut soup when we visited his village, a while ago.

I don't find them attractive, but he always seems to really enjoy his food - regardless of the mess. :) I tried it, but couldn’t really get used with this style of eating food or the food, for that matter. They always find it strange when I use both of my hands to eat fried chicken. The food here is only eaten with the right hand. Left is not used because it is said you wipe your ass with that one. I think they've invented toilet paper, water and soap since that custom appeared, but you know the thing about traditions - they're followed - even if not logical (which is usually the case) - because they give a sense of belonging to a culture. So I think.

The weekend

After a German Party on Friday and a shopping day on Saturday, came beach (Kokorobite BEach to be more precise) and eating lobsters on Sunday. I've documented the preparing lobsters process - long one, but with extremely tasty results. Too much work for too little reward, though. I'm not complaining cause Farah (one of our new friends we've met on Friday's party) did most of the work. Thx Farah! :)

PS: Someone told me they're shrimps. Weeeeeell, I like calling them lobsters, whatever they are. :-P

Dacia Logan has arrived in Ghana

If you have read some of my Ghana posts you would probably know that here in Accra - the capital of Ghana - most of the cars on the streets are old (I don’t think I’ve seen a taxi which has a functional speedometer - and I do ride taxis quite often), made from parts, very polluting of course and look like they'd break into pieces at the next bump.

But fear not! Logan is coming! After the success of TICO (you can see a lot of them on the streets of Accra - grabbing aTico cab negotiates you a very good price/ride), from Romania here comes another box-office hit - Daaaaaaacia Logan at only 2.745.000 cedis/ month!!!
It is so strange to see this billboard promoting Dacia Logan near my house - hehehe - feels like home.

It makes sense though - the market here is an appropriate one for selling Logan - the new car you can afford - targeting probably high income Ghanaians. I would say the core target is male 28-35, in a management position or entrepreneur, newly married or married with small kids, believer in family values, but also that he is the head of the family and has to provide a good income which he makes by working long hours and weekends, proud to show off his new acquisition and happy to provide with technical details and the great deal that he made, as a rising successful business man that he is. Well, just flexing my advertising muscle a bit. So that's what I think on a late evening about Logan's target in Ghana. Any comments on this one? I would love to hear them.

Pictures of the billboard coming soon!

PS: I believe Tico was also produced in Poland and Turkmenistan or something like that - don't remember where I've seen that, but I did and I couldn't find it now.
PPS: Since Africans like bright colors - the color of the car in the ad is red. I don't remember seeing it red on our billboards when it first launched. I might be color blind or it's just that Romanians like grays a lot more than vivid colors. Hm.

Only for girls :-)

Went wild last night

- slept without a mosquito net. It's too too hot. :-)

Summary of last weekend (4-5 nov)

After a house party that might as well been in Bucharest or anywhere else in the world followed a ride with a bus at 4 am on a bumpy road while trying to sleep; a funeral of a mother's friend; a paradise beach - Axim beach; slaves' history while in an old castle; walking through the water to a light house island where slaves got through an underground tunel only to be sold; then another paradise beach - Ankobra and ride back to Accra with "the beautiful" tro-tro - the more expensive, faster, confortable and cooler one - worth the money - and so did the weekend.

My fairy shoes :)

I bought these shoes in Accra somewhere near Kaneshie market for 100.000 cedis which is about $10. I call them Cinderella shoes, my colleague Desmond calls them "the silent shoes" and my colleague Khalid named them fairy shoes. I kinda like that last one. So my fairy shoes made the big snail appear - Adacabraka ;-P

Late post of an early Halloween

Last Thursday in Champs.
OK few explanations - Champs= sports bar, obruni place (place where a lot of white people hang out), thematic nights: Thursday-quiz night, Friday - karaoke night, nice atmosphere, great food, many nationalities.

My first Ghanaian joke :-P

A man dies and goes to hell. There he finds that there is a different hell for each country.
He decides he'll pick the least painful to spend his eternity.

He goes to Germany Hell and asks, "What do they do here?"He is told "first they put you in an electric chair for an hour. They lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the German devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day". The man does not like the sound of that at all so he moves on.

He checks out the USA Hell as well as the Russia Hell and many more. He discovers that they are all similar to the German hell.

Then he comes to the Ghanaian Hell and finds that there is a long line of people waiting to get in. Amazed, he asks, "What do they do here?"
He is told "first they put you in an electric chair for an hour.Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour.The Ghanaian devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day."

But that is exactly the same as all the other hells why are there so many people waiting to get in? "asks the man.
"Yeah, but because there is never any electricity, the electric chair does not work. The nails were paid for but never supplied, so the bed is comfortable to sleep on. And, on top of it, the Ghanaian devil used to be a Civil Servant, so he comes in, signs his time sheet and goes back home for private business."