Ghana 2 - delayed post

The water village:

The boat ride to the village was amazing. It was almost an hour long and we went through narrow and wide water areas. The depth of the water increases from 1 feet, to 2 to 7 to 9 to 13 to 26 feet and beyond that as well. The scenary was amazing, it was water and greenery. We were lucky that we had gone in the rainy season, so we got to go in the canoe the entire distance. In the summer, alot of the river area dries up and one has to drive alot to get to near the village and only the last leg is done on the canoe. We went through 2 forests that were supposed to have monkeys but the villages had caught them and eaten them up. We also saw fences at the water front, which serves at gates to the village. The tour guide/rower commented that people would be thrown overboard if they were uninvited guests.

The scene leading up to the village was amazing. Greenery and houses on stilts. In the distance, we saw a woman rowing a canoe with her kid to the village. She was rowing it by herself. Here we were, with a guide and struggling to row the canoe, and she was doing it completely by herself, while looking after her kid as well. It seriously put us to shame. Beyond that, the fact that she was by herself, without any male companion or such was really heartwarming. In Ghana, the societies are matriarchal, meaning that inheritance s passed to women down generations. Also, each tribe and colony has something called “Queen Mothers” who resolve problems and conflicts taking place. So, instead of going to the judisciary, one could come to the Queen Mothers for help. Plus, the Mothers do alot for the society. They work in professions that contribute to societies, like teaching and nursing and one is even a radio DJ!! Megan met them and was telling me all the stories. Also, many of the high government positions in Ghana like secretary of state and some justice positions are being held by women. It was great to see women being empowered so much in Ghana. Coming staight from a place like Morocco, where it’s not safe to be walking alone to a place, within the same continent, where women are respected and treated so well was interesting. Also, its hard to see developing nations accrue rights and liberties to women and this was interesting. There aren’t that many matriarchal socities out there anyway!!

So, we finally got to the village and it was an amazing site. The village was split into rows and columns. Each column belonged to one large family. We got to see the oldest house in the village and the other houses. The houses had a small common room, with TV and such, and maybe one other room. I didn’t really see a toilet or a kitchen, so I’m guessing its alot of communal living there. The guide did say, that the toilet was shared. As we walked down, the kids would come up to us and ask us to take photos of them, wile they would pose in weird positions. Then, they would be so excited to see the photo on the digital frame, and they’ll point to show where they were, show it off to all their friends. It was amazing to see the kids playing and getting so excited over us taking photographs of them. There were kids everywhere along the “main street”. Some were selling food while other were playing or taking care of their siblings while helping in household chores. We walked passed their school, which was a very modest looking little hut, with long wooden benches, the kind you see when you watch Indian movies set in villages. They had a blackboard with some random drawing. We saw their elementary school. For middle school, they had to row across the river to their village on land (where the chief of the village spent most of his time) and attend school. For high school, they had to go back to the village outside theirs. It involved rowing out for about an hour (the distance we had done), and then walking a bit to get to school. Its no surprise why many of them do not go to school then.

We walked passed the church of the village, which was the best building. It was bigger than all the houses and well-maintained. It somehow disguts me how they would put in this much effort to have a good place of worship but less effort into something more practical like schools!! They also had a little wooden hut like this, about a meter away from the village. That wooden enclosure (for the lack of a better phrase) contained their tribal spirit. For reasons of protecting the people, it had to be kept a distance away. We passed a big plot of water at a shallow end, which would become a soccer field during the dry season. At an area, there were some villagers gathered giving feedback or talking to a group of officials as well. Ultimately after our tour, we sat near the guest house and relaxed for a while. During that period, they came up to us, registered us for our ticket and asked us to make a donation to the village for its development, which we did. Ultimately, we started to leave.

Throughout our little tour, kids would come up to us and ask us for pens or pencils or a couple of cedis. We had be told by our guide not to give the kids the any Cedi but to give it to them instead (which I thought was a clever way of saying, just tip us!). So as we were leaving, the kids kept coming to us and asking us for pens and pencils. I only had one, so I took it out, and one of them snatched it out of my hand. I felt really bad for the others who wanted it. I had a bunch of pencils I had brought to give away sometime, but it just didn’t strike me to bring them along with me! But as any of us took out anything, alot of kids would just surround us. Finally, drew took out a bunch of pencils to give away and the kids just swarmed him, pulling and trying to snatch the pencils from his hand. It was really a devastating sight. He randomly distributed what he had, and when he was done, they wouldn’t let him leave. The tour guide had to come back to break up the group and help Drew. Honestly at that point, I felt so terrible. The kids were creaving basic things like writing materials and seeing them swarm us broke my heart! It was pencils, just pencils!!

Anyway, after getting away, we got into our canoe, this time Kevin, Me and Jason with the tour guide and made our way out. At that point I asked roughly how many tourists the village gets per year and the tour guide told me that it was more than 1200 and some years it has been about 12000. That is alot of tourists, each paying at least 10 cedis.  So even if we assume that the village gets 5 cedi for every tourist, that makes it 6000 cedis!! And some make donations at the village itself. That is alot of money! Yet, the village is in the condition it is in! I wondered if it was corruptions among people and the cheifs and the money trail never reached the people. Or could it be, that the charm of the village was that it was on stilts and underdeveloped and if they were to change anything, the number of tourists to the destination would fall. My current thesis is the latter. For the sake of keeping the number of tourists high, they have kept the image of an underdeveloped society present. I don’t know if I should be admiring the ploy of the village or sad that commerce drives everything. I wonder if the people have all their needs met with the money and everything is a show for us?

Last day:

The last day in Ghana was great. We had breakfast, with a still drunk Lorelei and Daniel, Candice and I left to meet the 2 local guys they had hung out with the day before. We were just going to hang around the city and stuff with them. We met them (Frank and Daniel) at the driving school and they took us to the bus depot. From there, we took a bus for about an hour and got down near a village. The village was where Frank lives. As we entered the village we were greeted by everyone coming out of the village to look at us and crowd around us. The kids were so excited to see us. This was the first time they had seen foreigners. They would touch the while people’s hand and faces. Some of them would come and ask me if I was from Africa because I was brown. When I told them India (it is alot easier for people than singapore), they would “oooooo” and “aaaaahhhh” but still be puzzled why I was brown. They would often compared their skin tone with mine and comment. It was really interesting to see how kids reacted to new people and things. They would all be so excited to take pictures.

A lady then called us into her house, offered us something to drink, which we politely declined and requested us to take a picture of her, which we did obviously. We played with the kids, I allowed some of them to take pictures with my camera. Then the lady who invited me to see her house, handed me her baby. He’s be around 7-8 months. I carried him and played with him for a while. I was talking to the the lady and her husband about me and my travels as the rest were hanging out and walking around for a bit. She’s a housewife while her husband owns a shop at a little town nearby with his brother or something. I told them about my travels and all and the man dissappears for a bit and reappeard with a bangle which he gives me. He says he doesn’t know if I believe in God, but they do and they believe that the God will protect me as I travel and the bangle is supposed to mean that God will protect you. He told it was his way of blessing me. I had nothing much to offer in return but a hug and that God will bless them too. It was by far the most touching thing a stranger could ever have done for me. Who would have ever imagined that. Even in the poorest of settings, these people are willing to offer whatever little they have for you, like food. But the biggest thing is that, they are genuinely nice people.

We toured the village and visited Frank’s house which was really small and dark. They don’t really have electricity inside the village there. He sat us down and we watched some Ghanaian TV thing which was very sensual music videos. The ass is considered more sensual here than boobs. Just FYI. Hahaha.

So as we toured the village, the kids kept following us all around and running excitedly behind us. Frank said they were excited to see new faces, especially those of white people because they had never seen foreigners. He said the Ghanians loved the white (anyone not African) because they felt the white had everything. They were a source of admiration. They felt that the whites were developed, had more money and were happier. I told him that we weren’t a happier society and that in fact the Ghanians were a better and happier society. In our quest for development and success, we work like crazy, forgetting things like family, community, society and relaxation. We lead such stressful lives. We have no camaraderie among people in our society or community because we have no time to mix around or be social. In developing, we have forgotten our roots and culture. The Ghanians still have that. They like happily in a community. They have celebrations - they even celebrate death! There’s drumming, and dancing and having fun. They are indeed the happier society. This leads me to reflecting, why we want to develop so much. Why do we keep chasing the higher GDP per capita figures? Do we not realize what that leads to - greater income inequality and overall increased unhappiness! Is there a way or a point that we could stop at and just cherish what we have?

So after being around in the village for a bit, we took a tro-tro (a little public van service) to some place, got down and transferred into a taxi to a manganese plant. We saw the outside of the plant and it would have been great to be able to enter the plant but it was not possible, so we left. We then went to a gold plant, we couldn’t seen the actual plant because it was closed and permission was needed. But we could see an old shaft and an underground mine that is no longer in function. So, that was amazing. And while we were there it started to pour and we were enjoying the rain, while enjoying the view. We hung around the mines for a bit more before going to another nearby town called Twadi or something along those lines. Its smaller town, on the outskirts of Takoradi. We walked around and ended up in a market. As we tried walking through the market, it started to pour.

Just a couple of seconds later, one of the ladies selling vegetables made room for us in her little shop and invited us in for shelter. She was so elated to have us in her little shop. Her neighbors and friends were so excited as well that she had us in her shop. They were making jokes and laughing and enjoying. When the rain got worse, she made more room for us so we could move in and be safer. Soon, it was time for us to leave, even though the rain hadn’t subsided. The moment we walked out, one of the ladies took a huge umbrella and said she’ll walk us out. She ushered the girls into the umbrella and tried to hustle us to the bus station. She expected nothing in return and just waved us goodye. I was amazed at the level of humanity and niceness of the people. They were so ready to help us and just volunteered without expecting anything in return. I experienced quite a bit of this when I was in India as well, but at least then I was an Indian, and spoke their language. Here we were truly strangers with nothing in common. It was heartening to see that people someone in the world care for strangers. Back home certainly these things probably won’t happen. When we progress economically, we seem to regress socially.

We took a tro-tro back to Takoradi and on the way we stopped to pick up some bananas which were amazing. They were roasted or something. We stopped at the market, went in for a bit and walked to a local grocery store. The store was packed with people, basic goods, less variety of products. The most interesting thing was that we could not get chocolate anywhere. Ghana is a huge cocoa producer. It does export alot of cocoa to Britain and other places but we would expect some amount for local production. When we asked at the grocery store, they told us that the chocolate factory, the sole one in the whole of Ghana, was undergoing renovation and therefore there was no Ghanian chocolate anywhere in Ghana. We would get some Cadbury, very expensive, at some big place. Not at the market we were at anyway. It was shocking to see that. Firstly economically, I saw the primary resource/ secondary resource markets. By exporting just cocoa, they would be getting less money but would be able to get alot more if they exported chocolate instead. But then again, corruption, investment and government policy made it hard for companies to set up and get a chocolate production plant going. When speaking to some locals, they told me that many of the cocoa producers sneak their cocoa and sell it in Ivory Coast because the Ghanian government gives the farmers a very low price on their cocoa. Secondly, people don’t get to enjoy produces of their own land, something I found really sad.

So ultimately, we walked back to the ship and on our way, we saw a small group of children. They came up to us almost immediately. Some of them immediately grabbed my hand and started talking to me while holding my hand and walking with me. They asked me about life on the ship, where we were going next. I tried asking them about school and they just giggled. Some said they went at times, others just giggled. So when one of them saw my ring, they asked me if I could have one. Then they would say, “give me something to remember you by. I want to remember you” and when you told them you did not have anything they would ask for one cedi. They hung around us for a while and took some water from us. Ultimately, Lorelei took out a 25cent coin and they all rushed towards her for it. She decided to throw it up in the air to play a game and all of them immediate tried to grab that coin from her. They rolled on the ground for the single coin. I was so pissed off at her at that point. You NEVER throw money at kids and let them roll around for it. It’s disgusting and demeaning. When I told her that, she said her granddad played that game with them when they were kids. But that was a different issue, with money you are less likely to fight over 25 cents. These kids will. I was really annoyed with her. Never ever demean someone for your entertainment. But after that, the kids did not walk with us anymore.

We came to the port and asked if Frank and Daniel could come in with us to see the ship. The official did allow and they were amazed to see the ship. They had never seen a cruise ship. We tried to explain what the different decks contained to them and talked to them for a while. Then finishing our last cedis at the market, we got back to the ship and headed for dinner. After dinner, we hung around the deck to see the ship leave. The Ghanians below started drumming, singing and dancing celebrating our departure. They had all the rights to be happy. They had just conned several American tourists and made hefty profits. :D It was great though.

On the whole, Ghana was amazing. It taught me alot of different things. I got to experience the humanity and niceness of the people, who were filled with joy and exuberance. They were always enthusiastic and bubbling with energy. These people celebrated everything, including death. They lived in poverty, but found ways to make themselves happy. Ultimately, happiness is not liked to money or material goods or anything superficial. It is a state of mind, controlled by you. And that’s what Ghana reminded me of. It put everything in perspective - development, community and humanity. At the same time, being at the slave castles made me question humanity and how people, no matter the time, could be so cruel to each other. How do we even let slavery in some part continue to happen. Ghana has given me alot to soul search. I honestly loved Ghana - its my favorite country thus far.


My top 10 things of Ghana:

1. People - they are the most friendly people around. Random strangers waving, saying hello, asking how you’re doing with no hidden agenda at all!!
2. A renewed sense of gratitude. Seeing people happy at the village, with so little makes you feel soo grateful for everything you have in your life.
3. The simplicity of their life - they didn’t have chocolate in the country because a plant went down. They didn’t have restaurants!
4. Humanity. All around, there was a camaraderie among the locals. A lady walked us in the pouring rain to the bus stop!!
5. The visits to the slave castles. It was the most powerful and overwhelming experience ever.
6. The drums and dances. The drumming and dancing of the locals we saw as the ship pulled away was amazing. Their drums are made so well as well.
7. The little market they had. So different from anything I had ever seen!
8. The handicrafts!! Shopping in Ghana is amazing. The beads, bowls, drums, masks, paintings, bags, and I could just go on. I had to stop myself from overspending.
9. Red Ray! Its a banana dish. I love the way they cook their bananas. And the roasted road side one!!
10. The kids. Kids are kids anywhere, but I loved the way they came up and posed for picture. They grabbed you, held your hand and hung onto you!!