Some Small Things I've been Noticing

GIRLS.

It seems like everywhere I go I find a group of young girls I want to become best friends with. I feel like kids grow up faster here, and the maturity the girls have is inspiring. A few examples are the Junior High School 1 (equivalent to grade 7) girls whose dedication to school is matched by their enthusiasm to sing and dance, and try to convince me to join in! A second example is a group of Timoskay students who walked with us to soccer practice one day. They answered all my questions I asked them, told me about their school, and then would imitate my walk. I would speed up, slow down, and pretend to run (Too hot to actually run…) and they thought it was hilarious. It really is the small moments that makeup the Ghanaian experience here. Another one is a group of young kids, mostly girls, selling water sachets and plantain chips in Cape Coast. My dad, sister and I bought stuff from them, and they were super enthusiastic, asking us where we’re from, and introducing themselves to us. I’m convinced there’s not a single shy kid is this country!!

FOOD.

I actually love the food. And I’m always hungry. I don’t know why, seeing as I hardly exercise, and at home I’m basically the pickiest eater ever. But my host sister is an excellent cook. The staple here is rice ‘n spice, which at our pink house is usually plain rice with a red tomato-based stew, and a boiled egg. There’s always variation in our dinners; plantains, yam fries, noodles, chicken, goat, fish, and of course rice and stew are the most common things we eat. And I was worried about big portions, but like I said, I just seem to be hungry all the time…

WATER.

Clean drinking water is sold in water sachets, which are 500 ml pastic bags which you bite the corner off to drink the water. It’s genius. I’ve never drank so much water in my life. You can lie down and drink water, and you can have full conversations while still drinking water. I honestly think that when I go back home I’m going to miss these water sachets so much, as I seem to have one permanently attached to my face…

RELIGION.

Religion is everywhere. One of my least favorite conversations is explaining that I’m not relgious (why I don’t lie, I have no idea) because seriously, every single person here is. Nothing is open on Sundays because of church. And it seems like so many little stores, hair salons, restaurants etc. have religious names. It’s amazing that there’s hardly any presence of religion back in Canada, and I never would have noticed it until I came here. It’s difficult to explain that religion just is not a big part of our culture back at home. Also- church is a dance party. On Sundays everyone is beautifully dressed in colourful, patterned African clothes, and you can always hear music and singing coming from the many churches in the area!

VOLUNTEER CULTURE.

I’m convinced that every single white person in Ghana is either a volunteer, working in the oil industry, or a missionary. It’s been very interesting to hear about what others are doing here. I’ve met quite a few nurses, doctors, and people running for, working for, or volunteering for NGO’s such as Free The Children. Honestly, volunteering is part of the culture here in Ghana. If you came here without an organization and wanted to lend a helping hand, you would not have to look far for someone looking for volunteers!

KIDS.

Kids are the same all over the world, no matter what their background is. And I’ve never met more enthusiastic kids anywhere. If I’m ever bored during a school day all I have to do is walk past the crèche, nursery, and kindergarten classes and I’ll either have kids wanting to be cuddled, played with, or someone to dance with! And whenever I leave the school, I can’t go anywhere without kids yelling Obruni and waving at me. One of the neatest experiences of my trip so far was in the evening at Busua Beach with Dad and Emma. We were walking along the main street after dark, and I can only describe it as African. Loud music playing from the spot (bar), people everywhere, women cooking outdoors, and a strong sense of community. What made it special here was that every woman cooking has a kerosene lamp see by, so it looked spectacular looking down the road. As we were walking along a group of about 5 young kids screamed in excitement when they saw us, and run up to us and hugged us. They were so little, so cute, and I’ve definitely never experienced that anywhere else in the world!