- Pidgin: I have been exposed to two types. Ghanaian and Nigerian. Ghanaian pidgin is a combination of Twi and broken English, while Nigerian pidgin is more of just a really broken form of English. I really like listening into it and seeing what I can pick up. "How far?" is Nigerian pidgin for "What's up" or "How's it going." And to say I'm coming in Ghanaian pidgin its "I dey come." You can also say "I dey hung" for I'm hungry, or "I dey mad" is your crazy. The guys use it on the sidelines and on the field during football matches so that's when I get the most exposure to it. Mostly it is like a guessing game trying to understand, and I typically only get about 40% of what is going on.
- Goats, chickens, dogs, and sometimes cats just hanging out in the streets is a pretty typical sight. Anywhere from campus to the market you see animals roaming around doing their own thing. Dogs and defintiley not cats, are not typically house pets.Groundnut paste instead of peanutbutter is something I had to get used to. It has a basically similar taste, its just a different type of nut, and its always natural. I actually quite like it.
- Alot of the sore food, like biscuits and soy milk, and candy, and many other things are produced in the Middle East and so he majority of the wrting on the packets are in Arabic.
- No coffee. They have instant coffee that you mix in with boiled water, and if you want cream you usually have to use powdered milk. I already plan on getting the largest cup of coffee I can find when I arrive in the airport.
- Open gutters. Mostly all of Ghana has a system of open gutters, or sewers, in the streets. Sometimes they are filled with raunchy lokking/smelling excriments but sometimes they just collect rain water, garbage, and leaves. On campus they are generlaly clean, but around certain parts of Accra you can smell them from the windows of your trotro as you drive by. Around the markets people dump old buckets of water and other waste in them so they are usually filled. Those are the more crowded areas.
- There is a special handshake that is done when you greet someone here. Its sort of a grab of the hand and the a slide down into a finger snap. Its done pretty subtly though. I was pretty terrible at it at first but now its pretty standard procedure to me.
- Trotros and taxis are the most common modes of transportation. Trotros cost anywhere form 30 to 80 peswas unless you are traveling a longdistance in which case you catch one fom the main trotro station in a number of locations and pay between 2 to 9 cedi. Taxis pay by the distance, notby time or per person, so that is pretty good, but they can still be pricy when you use them all the time, so I prefer to take trotro. There is also a sahred taxi system that is you are luck enough to get one its onle 50 peswas to one cedi per person. But they are not as common around Accra.
- Water supplies in ISH are pretty good despite there being no hot water (although in this hot water it is never too much of a problem), but there are occasinal spurts where we loose water and can't shower or flush toilet or wash dishes. We had one span of time for just under a week where water was completely. The only way to do anything was to get water from the polytanks of water on the ground floor that you have to put in a bucket and carry to where you need it. So for that week showering was not very easy and the toilets just sat, so needless to say things got sort of dirty that week, but in general its no more than a day or so that it goes out for.
- We also have ot occasinally deal with electricity going out, but the only real problem with that is you loose the fan which is our only relief form the heat of our rooms sometimes. And my handy head lamp sure comes in handy when the power goes out at night :)
- Bargaining. Now I am not a pushy person, so adjusting to the system of bartering in the markets made me a little uncomfortable at first, but once I worked through it I grew to actually like it. In fact I welcome the interaction. It creates a personal relation between the buyer in seller, and alhtough it may appear to be a negative one, almost always I have walked away laughing or smiling. I have learned how to handle unwanted attention from hawkers and how to get the price I want. I feel accomplished afterwards.
- Laundry is done by hand. You can pay to have someone do it over at ISH 2 but I have held strong and continue to do all my laundry by hand. I'm not great at is which means some clothes are not going to be brought home after their wear and tear, but I get the job done.
- Traffic. There is no other itme I realize I am living in a city than when I am sitting in two hours of traffic. Not only that but there are virtually no traffic laws. Cars rarely ever use turn signals or stay in their lanes properly. Its much like partaking in a virtual video game of car racing at times. Speed limits don't really exist exccept is certain localized areas. Cars often drive up the soulder of a road to cut a line of cars and honking is practically expected. Drivers (Drivahs) here use their horns to let people crossing the road ahead know they are speeing up close to them or to let a car know they are about to speed up and cut them off, or for other such curteous reasons. It seems unsafe, but I actually rarely notice accidents and there seems to be some sort of order behind all te chaos.
- Most places do not accept large bills. Even a 5 cedi not is hard to break someitmes, especially early in the mornings. Having anything larger than that can be tricky. You can't buy anything because they will straight up tell you they don't have change and then you are out of luck.
- Customer service here is very bad. Not to say that the people are bad or the facilities, but it is not valued like it is in the U.S. The theory of "the customer is always right" defintiely is not apllied in Ghana. Sometimes you feel like you are doing somehting wrong or making the person angry, but more often than not its just their attitude for being at work. They do not vaule forced friendliness. However, if you met the person on the streets chances are they will be the friendliest person. Perhaps they got it right? We should be more friendly to people on a daily basis, and perhaps we should not force friendliness so much in business institutions? Sometimes when I go into the store in ISH I barely get a motion of recognition from the women who works there, but if I were to ask someone on the street where I can get a trotro to somewhere they would take me by the hand and lead me there even if they do not know themselves. Another quick example of 'customer service' in Ghana is when my friend Katherine and I were ordering food at a restaurant in Kokrobite and the waiter, very nice, came over and the first thing he says to us is "let me start with what we don't have." Later that same day we ordered lunch and the waiter told us we could order so long as it was something quick. It wasn't mean in any way, it was just blunt and honest. What else can you ask for I guess?
- AZONTO!! This is a type of dance that is common to see anywhere from the streets to the clubs. It is ver individual to each person and usually you can communicate some sort of story of message through a series of hand movements and facial expressions. Its really fun and I prefer it to much of the club style dancing you find at home. I advise everyone to youtube it. Azono by Fuse ODG feat. Tiffany is a good video if you want to get a good idea of how it is done.
I think I have described quite a few things, but there are many more I could talk about. I might put together another blog at a different time about some more interesting things I have come to call normal here in Ghana. But for now I shall leave it at that!
Peace.
Katie
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