I slept for 12 hours yesterday. Met up with a dude from Montreal and we checked out the Van Gogh museum. Then I had the best pancake ever, a foot long in diameter with fried bananas and the thickest syrup. Walked around a bit more, went for falafel. It’s nice to have a bit more variety than beans and rice. In fact, like a night after hard drinking, “I’m never going to eat rice again”. All lies of course. Did the touristy thing and had a beer down at Dam Square watching pigeons and people. The hostel was full of fratboys, skid youth and hippies, but you can’t argue with a breakfast and the velvet underground as a soundtrack. Few hours left in Holland, going to rent a bike and take some photos.
In Amsterdam on some major sleep dep. We got in at 4am Ghana time. I watched No Country for Old Men and had some decent veg food. 2 bottles of wine. 20 minutes of sleep. Took the train into the city and found some coffee near the Red Light District. Checked into the hostel but have an hour to kill before I can drop my bag off. Need a shower and have to change the shirt. Going from a developing nation to an ultra-modern international city is a trip. Spending this afternoon alone here, probably go check out a museum. Rent a bike tomorrow. Found a few veg cafes that I have to check out in the next 48 hours. The euro is trading as such that I got 80 for my $150 cdn. Have to try to stretch it.
I’ve got about 9 hours then I’ll be en route to Amsterdam. The last few days have been spent writing this paper, taking in as much ocean as possible and searching for food that I might not have the opportunity to eat again for a long time. The other day I came across a vendor of vegan cuisine. Soy cream amongst many other tasty treats were advertised and I became incredibly excited. Oh but to my surprise, it is only open during the september-may months. However, I just picked up this guide to Amsterdam and there’s a whole section on veg cafes. I have about 50 Euros that I plan on spending on food there. Even though I’ve been eating fairly well, I always feel hungry. I don’t know if it’s because I haven’t been getting enough protein or what, but I’m eagerly anticipating some serious veg food. There really isn’t a lot to be found down here. It’s understandable, I guess eating meat is a sign of wealth down here and people aspire to live as glamorously as they do in the West, but the context is different. Instead of driving Hummers, it’s eating meat.
Anyways, last night all the Canadians got together in the hostel to play some cards. A girl had an ipod with a bunch of classic Canadiana/Dad Rock/90’s junk on it and we ended up with a soundtrack including the first two Our Lady Peace albums, a bunch of Tragically Hip and oh god, what else was there? It was pretty ridiculous, I think a Silverchair album made it on as well as Chris de Berge (which was funny because Lady In Red was in my head for days after enduring it cranked in a cab ride).
Was in Osu again the other day and the vendors were trying to get me to buy their crap, as usual. Bracelets with my name on it, hideous necklaces and other super cheesy, touristy junk. There was one dude who was selling sweet shirts for super cheap so I held one up to my face to size it up as a possible gilt. It smelled like it had been sitting next to an open sewer for days. Sick.
“No way, I don’t want this”.
“How much will you pay for this?”.
“Nothing, it smells like a sewer”.
“I’ll give it to you for five cedis”.
“No it’s gross, I don’t want it”.
“Four cedis”.
“Forget it”.
“Three cedis”.
This carried on until I told him I didn’t want the shitty smelling shirt and continued down the block for a few more similar encounters. When I got here, I was totally polite to these guys who are pretty funny and totally mean well. But they have to do business so they can be really pushy. I’ve gone from entertaining them with my name and where I’m from (their intro to make friends with you so you’re less likely to turn them down when they offer you a “gift” in exchange for “a donation from the heart”), to an almost instantaneous response of “no thanks, I don’t want your crap”. These exchanges and haggling have become some of my favorite things to when I need some entertainment.
Well, it’s been a month and I still hate the shower. I had my last one this morning, mouthing it off one last time before and after stepping under it’s freezing cold drizzle. I been using way less water these days though. Everyone has. You know why, I don’t need to go into it. That being said, I also went to a pool with a swim up bar the other day, so it’s not like I’m trying cop some kind of holier than thou attitude. I’ve just curtailed my excessive use of resources.
We said our goodbyes to Richard and Issac, the two Ghanaian students we’ve been working with the past four weeks. They were so awesome and have been invaluable to this whole experience. That being said, our goodbyes were very sad since it’s unlikely we’ll ever see them again. They teach in Apemanim and while they dream about coming to Canada, they make about $150/mo. and a Visa cost them each about $35K.
I just booked a different hostel in Amsterdam after deciding that the person I was originally planning on sharing the room with drives me completely nuts. A nice person, don’t get me wrong. But after spending a month in relatively close quarters, I need to get away. So I’ll be more or less alone in Amsterdam for a couple days, which should be an adventure.
I’ve got about an hour left of time on this computer and I’ve got to finish this paper. Final thought from a sweaty internet cafe in Africa: everyday in this country has completely blown my mind and while the grass is no greener here than in Canada (or any other place I’ve been for that matter), the soil is red. And that’s kind of neat. Also, the new Nick Cave album is really, really great.
I haven’t been up to much in the past couple of days, just mostly class-related work. I’m trying to write a paper about the environmental movement down here which can be described as weak at best. Or so it seems as I begin to write and do the research. None of the presidential candidates have environmental platforms, they’re mostly concerned with bread and butter issues. Makes sense, the country is caught between rural and urban life with most of the people concerned with trying to find a means to buy food and pay rent. Instability doesn’t really lend itself to taking up environmental concerns, especially where resources still appear abundant. It’s shocking from a Canadian perspective. There is next to nothing down here as far as serious recycling programs go. I’ve been buying two liter bottles of water and nearly choke everytime I have to toss one. My other option, I suppose, is buying a bag to ship them back to Canada in. No this is ridiculous, so I’ve been doing my best to at least reuse and modify the bottles to serve as coffee cups in the morning.
I have been burning through the Life of Pi as well. I can’t believe how much reading I get done down here where the go go go life isn’t able to beckon me with computers, band rehearsals, social commitments and other things that keep me “too busy to read”. Anyways, it’s a really enjoyable read, especially for the atheists (and biologisits!) in the house.
I’m also keeping low key because I’m trying to tighten up my spending before my last weekend here. I want to return to the fishing village for another night which requires me to not head down to the strip for a coffee and art shopping. No no, instead it’s reading and 50 cent beans with rice for me.
There’s a funny situation in the hostel right now too. A few people are the type of people that you can only spend so much time with. So last night, a few of us tried to avoid a few others (all in good fun, don’t get me wrong) albeit completely unsuccessfully. In fact, the wine and cheese party was “besieged by nerds” while I went out for dinner, or so the text message claimed. No it was true, the wine and cheese party really was besieged by nerds and the rest of the night was spent playing slightly awkward games of sociables etc.
Today there is 2 for 1 pizza at the Pizza Inn, a place we’ve been infrequently stopping when the jollof rice can no longer be tolerated. The no cheese vegetarian is an excellent source for western culinary reminiscence. The accompanying beer is also a dollar.
In the coming days we’re going to be visiting the Daily Graphic (the state-owned paper) as well as the Kofi Annan Peace Centre. Firday is the last class. Sunday I’m off to Amsterdam at 9pm Ghanaian time, with a 6am arrival. Apparently I have a hostel room booked with one of the nerds. I may have to look into this. I may have to “meet an old friend in Amsterdam”…
Filed under: Travels
After roughing it for a week, we decided that today we had to totally live it up. 6 of us caught a cab to the main drag for coffee with breakfast and afterwards, headed to a beach resort with a pool and hot showers. I spent the day sipping pina coladas by the pool while reading Life of Pi. Had to, this week is going to be grueling. I’ve got classes, have to teach grade 4’s and have a research paper to write.
So about a hundred meters away from us on the beach, there was a political rally happening. Apparently the leader for the New Patriotic Party was going to be making an appearance. There is an election happening here in December and being interested in the Ghanaian politicing, Owen and I decided to go down and check it out (little did we know the NPP were the far right party of Ghana). Immediately upon arrival, we knew what we were in for. A big C conservative is a big C conservative no matter where you go. The party colours are red, white and blue, there is an elephant in the logo and their motto is something to the effect of “change through freedom”. I had an entertaining conversation with this one dude (with a skull as thick as a brick) who insisted that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. You know how these conversations go. It doesn’t matter if you’re in rural Alberta or urban Ghana, they are always the same. Don’t get me wrong, he seemed like a good guy, but there was not much critical thought happening upstairs and the language barrier made our conversation even more frustrating. Anyways, that was fun for about a minute, then it was back to my pina colada.
Today I also learned a valuable lesson. Do not leave food out on the bed during the day or ants will come to take it away. These little tiny red ants were mowing down on some cookies I was saving for my return to the hostel. Had to change the sheets. Speaking of which, I have hella laundry to do tomorrow. I’ve been doing it all by hand with a bar of sunlight for the last few weeks (thanks mom, btw) but tomorrow I think I’m going to splurge the 3 cedis, take my bag of grossness to the laundromat and get it done for real. It’s seriously stinking up my room and I don’t think I’ll be able to get all of the red dirt out of the white shirts I thought would be a great idea to bring down here. But enough with the self deprecations.
I made a playlist for Ghana that I was able to take out for a spin on the long bus ride home yesterday. It went something like this:
Minus the Bear-Hey, Is that a Ninja up there?
Propagandhi-A Speculative Fiction/Rock for Sustainable Capitalism
Fugazi-Appregiator
Iron Maiden-2 Minutes to Midnight
Yeah Yeah Yeahs-Cheated Hearts/Dudley
Ted Leo-Six Months on a Leaky Boat
The Pogues-Dirty Old Town
Greg MacPherson-Slow Stroke/Bankrobber
Shellac-Billiard Player Song
Bad Religion-Skyscraper
Hot Water Music-Radio Free Gainsville/Rooftops
Rocket From the Crypt-Dick on a Dog
Hot Snakes-L.A.X./U.S. Mint
Bad Brains-Attitude/Sailin’ On
So you can see where I stand these days.
Filed under: Travels
Johnson picked me up this morning at 8am. I ate a bowl of instant oatmeal as he shared a bowl of rice with Pele. They’re both Liberian refugees who are attending the University of Ghana on UN scholarships. Johnson is finishing up a B.Sc. in agriculture. Apparently he’s got 1000 hectares lined up back home that he wants to use for rice cultivation. We take a cab to the tro tro station, we take a tro tro downtown Accra. Johnson tells me to watch my bag on the street. Someone hands me a phone number that originated from my pocket somehow. Weird. We get on another tro tro headed to Budaburam, the refugee camp that has been home to Liberian diaspora for 17 years. On the tro tro, the doorman attempts to sell passengers balm for pain, then Vitamin C tablets. Taken from citrus fruits? Then toothpaste. With Chinese herbs that will apparently make all of the problems in my mouth go away.
The ride to the camp is about 2 hours and we see some beautiful country. The soil is very fertile down here and there are a lot of people farming outside of the city. Banana, watermelon, pinapple, plantaine, yams, there is no doubt I have been eating the majority of my food from origins >100km away. We pulled up to the camp and I was a bit surprised with what I saw. Being that my only conceptions of a refugee camp come from Western media, I was not expecting to see the little community before me. Apparently 20,000 people populate the camp which is approximately 15 square city blocks.
The dense population lends itself to packed housing conditions. I hesitated to bring my camera but Johnson insisted so that I can show kids back home what it’s really like. So what’s it really like? People have to pay rent there so a ton of people have little businesses ranging from shoe-making, to artisans to the ladies at the supermarket selling strange little coloured vegetables. I asked for permission to take some photos and the residents gladly let this displaced Canadian snap a few shots of what people do to sustain themselves.
Then we headed to the school. I was surprised with the delapitated classrooms here in Ghana and that was nothing. But the kids show up and are way into their education. In fact, while I was there I met several people who attended university while living at the camp. On blind man was a Sociology graduate, eagerly awaiting to be repatriated next month. Should I mention the frat house next door at home, where young men live 8 months of the year in a drunken stupor pissing away daddy’s hard earned?
Anyways, off to the ghetto. Intensity? You’ve got it. Cesspools, mosquito breeding grounds that are open sewers, children defecating in the alleys. Off to Johnson’s sister’s place where she prepares us a meal of Fufu. I’m not a huge fan of fufu, a rather bland dipping dish, usually prepared with a meat soup. The gesture was kind and I had a few bites. The houses are so small. 10×10′ to house families of 4, 5, 6…
Chickens and dogs roaming freely. I’m greeted several times by the locals who ask for my story. I tell themabout the snow, some say they want to move to Canada to find work. Most are looking forward to going home to Liberia within the coming months. Johnson estimates 30% will probably stay behind because the camp is the only life they know.
Off to the community college, then the wells. The UN has moved out and there are a couple of private companies that sell drinking water in little plastic bags for 5 cents. There is plastic litter everywhere. A trip mto the bathroom costs me 10 cents. The bathroom is 4 outdoor walls with a door. A shower costs 20 cents. You have a bucket of water and a sponge to wash yourself with.
We walk by the Toronto Blues Bar. Some bible school in Toronto made a donation to the school a while ago I guess and the locals give the city props.
You know, I can only really give a brief description of my day and it feels pretty contrived. I took some photos. I will show you when I get back if you’d like to see them. I guess I just wanted to give people a taste of something happening in the global south that isn’t all touristy. I’m down here as a student and I learned a lot today.
Tomorrow I will be at the beach and back to soaking in the sun and swimming, but I have a strange feeling in my mind that I’m going to have to wrestle with tonight. Hopefully this mango will help me hash it out.
Attitudes are up. The group is getting along. I really enjoy their company. We’re all so ridiculously diverse. I still do not like the cold showers however. It’s been two weeks and I still shutter before standing under that stupid cold water faucet. Jeeze, at least I’m fortunate enough to be able to do so. Ok, I’ve got to get off this computer and get to my journal.
Much love.
Friends and family are paramount.
