General Thoughts

It's been 2 and a half months since my last post. I can't believe it. I'd like to believe my pause in writing was purposeful - something about needing to Know Ghana Better so that I could write more accurately about it. But, even if it was true, this isn't a great blogging philosophy since I believe it's the initial reactions of a place that are so valuable and wonderful to write about. So I guess I've just been plain lazy.

I've been in Ghana for nearly 5 months. Since my last post, Ghana has drastically changed in my mind. Not from good to bad or anything subjective like that, but in the knowing of it. It's changed from being strange, misunderstood, chaotic and dangerous to being wonderfully predictable and comfortable and homey.

It's the feeling I get when I've mastered the tro-tro system, not only in Accra but in all of Ghana. It's knowing where different parts of the city are, never really getting lost and knowing that if I ever was lost, it would only last as long as it took me to ask anyone where I was. It's knowing the people in my neighbourhood, visiting my breakfast lady from whom I buy fresh porridge every morning on the side of the road. Or the fried rice guy down the street. Or the orange lady just outside the hostel.

Yet, it is still difficult for me to talk about Ghana as a whole. I'm always weary about doing this, but I really feel especially uncomfortable doing it here since I've traveled so little in the country. I mean, I've been all along the coast and to a few towns north of Accra but I have yet to experience the far north of the country. I can confidently say Ghana is a hot country compared to Canada. And that it has many Ghanaians in it. But outside of these statements I start to feel awkward.

One thing that I can say, out of my experience of the place, is that every day, somewhere, somehow, Ghana makes me smile. The more I think about this, the more it's true. Usually the origins of the smile are subtle, but it's very unique to here.

The other day, I was riding in a tro-tro heading home. A football game was about to begin in the stadium in downtown Accra and the usual craziness among the Ghanaians was evident - most people being dressed in national colours, bearing flags, yelling etc. I watched how a taxi driver with a passenger cut off another driver who honked his car horn. The taxi passenger rolled down the window, took out this 2 foot horn (the kind you blow into at a stadium for cheering) and started honking back. The taxi and the passenger then started engaging in a battle of the horns while driving side by side, on the way to the stadium. If Ghanaians do get angry, it can't be for very long.

And if I hear another Shania Twain, Bryan Adams or Celine Dion song on the radio or at Karaoke or at the jazz club I frequent on Thursday evenings, I'm going to lose it all over everything. Seriously. Ghanaians have great music and I'd like to listen to it.