Ghana Day 2 Accra - 031412

Ghana Day 2 - Tuesday Accra 031412

Had a refreshing sleep.  One down side that we hadn't anticipated is that there are only two dorm rooms at the Volunteer center, boys and girls, each containing 8 bunk beds, so Penny and I went off in our own sleep directions.  Luck of the draw, the bed that I chose to sleep in had a broken bed slat and decided to fail around 2:30 am, putting me in some kind of wave shape like an adjusta-bed.Anyway, changed beds and slept through the night.  I made two discoveries.  First, those weren't just chickens walking around outside on the street, there was at least one rooster with its body clock set to wake at about 4am.  Second, I discovered that that beautiful building a few doors down was a mosque, and the first PA broadcast for the morning call to worship was around 5:30am, more or less aimed at my window.  These are good things to know if you are planning on sleeping in a bit.  Now I know.
We had a delicious breakfast of french toast and coffee, and accepted the invitation to explore Accra.  We wanted to get a SIM card for a cell phone for local use, visit a few museums and immerse ourselves at the local market.  Evans was our personal guide and docent for the day, and Penny, our new Australian student friend, Hannah and I took a quick cab ride to the Ghana Museum in Accra. 

Have I mentioned that nearly everything in Accra is either under construction, being renovated, demolished or for some other reason covered with dust.  There is a fine sandy dust and a not-so-fine other-orange dust that covers everything.  It adds both local color to everything outdoors and wipes off your face at the end of the day like a spray tan. 
The Accra Museum was small, but delightful, filled with cultural artifacts from Ghana that gave a glimpse into the utensils, tools, artwork, jewelry, music and dance of this nation.  The Ghanaian people are filled with energy and welcome human interaction and friendship.  This is evident in their laughter, singing and generally sunny, smiling disposition.  This museum captured this vital energy in their culture.

From here, we visited a President's Museum, which included a beautiful park with fountains and many shade trees, welcome in the hot equatorial sun.  The trees were gifts to this nation, planted by visiting dignitaries over the years.  It also included a tomb of President Nkrumah, who was politically active in an effort to unify Africa as a United States.  Apparently, the idea was opposed, as he was removed twenty five years ago in a military coup, but his legacy was to position Ghana as a global leader of Africa.

We next took a quick spin towards the marketplace in the capital city of Accra.  Penny was interested in purchasing a handmade djembe drum, as well as some hand woven kente cloth, a signature item of Ghana.  It was difficult to imagine any more of a marketplace than the general hustle of commerce on every road, and from the street vendors stopped at traffic intersections, but the marketplace put these all to shame.  It was a tightly packed, dimly lit, noisy and frenzied market of stalls, with an entrance, but no clear exit except to push further into the labyrinth.  We were escorted by our host, Evans, but were constantly losing Hannah, our college coed volunteer friend, whose sunny disposition, short shorts and long legs proved to be magnetic to hawking shopkeepers.  She and we have gradually built up a force field to vendors who stop to sniff out Western money at any opportunity.  The marketplace was our training ground.  Hannah bargained on a 125 Cedi (each equal to about 60 cents) leather handbag, down to 50, then we turned things over to our host who landed it for 15.  He introduced us to his friend who makes drums, and we received a short concert with 5 musicians, a 20 minute lesson in drumming, as well as details of the drum making process.  It was fascinating and magical. We hope to stop back and purchase from them right before departing back to the States.

I also made a second "spending faux pas" in settling for a leather handbag for 80 Cedis (about $48) that was offered at 200.  Our volunteer program escort, looking out for our backs in the big city, felt strongly that we had overpaid, and proceeded to verbally strike with deadly force at the vendor who had over charged.  A colorful exchange ensued as more and more people lent their passion to the argument in the native Twi language.  Take home message, most "asking prices" as inflated 400-600%.  Now I know.

We returned back to the volunteer center, had a quick dinner, and had an orientation session for about 90 minutes related to our volunteer assignment.  Most of this we heard about in the program materials, but a few cultural differences were covered where Americans consistently appear to behave poorly in front of Ghanaians.
I found these differences both interesting and frustrating, because actions that were offensive were not ill intentioned, and because they are so ingrained in our own behavior, they are incredibly difficult to be conscious of and change. 

Ghanaians value human contact above all else, and it is considered rude not to formally acknowledge someone, even if you are passing by.  It would be a particularly egregious affront if one didn't say hello to another and later made a request of them. (A minute ago you acted like you didn't know me and now you want something??).  An extension of this is that nothing in Ghana is "on time" as we might define it in the States.  You will probably meet and stop to greet a half dozen people on your way from somewhere to anywhere, and you will be running late, but so will the person that you are meeting.  It all works out.  Buses, which are actually overloaded vans, run on a fixed route from town to town, but they don't depart until they are full.  And I mean full.  Excluding 2 additional paid seats, we had 21 passengers in a 10 year old Nissan minivan, working its way through Accra.  I was always wondering what the contestants on survivor smelled like after 16 days in the tropical jungle.  Question answered.
A second point, Ghanaians consider the left hand dirty, and using it for just about any reason is quite offensive.  In the US, I realized that we are fairly ambidextrous, using both hands equally.  We encourage our children to cultivate use of their dominant hand, whichever one it might be.  There are left handed scissors and lefty bass guitars (think Paul McCartney).  No one in Ghana is left handed.  Even handing something to another with your left hand is the social equivalent of spitting at them.  If there is a group, things are passed to your right in a counter-clockwise direction.  It is always difficult when a formerly unconscious task reappears at the conscious level with new rules.  As much as I logically understand the process,  it is so easy to "lapse" back and inadvertently offend. 
We met five volunteers who were returning from their placements, and  we listened to stories for hours about the reality of working at various orphanages in the country.  This program is in its 6th year and has over 400 volunteers each year.  The volunteer center is the central common place of passage in and out of these programs as most people spend their first and last nights there.  Kind of a revolving door of volunteers. We learned of days filled with cooking, bathing and cleaning children, but mostly full of hugs and caring contact that seems to the the core stuff that binds all humans together, blind to age, race and gender.  This seems like the perfect place to accomplish that since the country is without material distractions and the culture richly favors respect and human interaction above all.