Go Ghana Go!

Man, I'm kicking myself for leaving Ghana just at the absolutely wrong moment. But Go Black Stars! Okay game against the States, but whatever! They're in and good for them! What I'd give to be part of the fever and madness that's going on there right now. I'm sure the party's gonna last until the weekend. But I do what I can to celebrate the joy in a town with few Ghanaians. I think I'm gonna look for a Ghanaian bar around here for the next game.

Back in Vancouver

My trip home was great. I took a week to do it and it was probably some of the worst planning... err non-planning.. that I'd done, but I had a good time and as I always do, met some new and interesting peeps.
My flight to Dubai was great. Hanging out at Duncan's after Ghana played Italy was a great last night there. Thanks to everyone who shared a drink with me. I was tired enough the next day to sleep through most of my flight. And fortuitously enough, I had met a girl at Champs my last weekend in Accra who turned out to be a flight attendant on my flight to Dubai. So during the time I was awake on my flight, the flight attendants let me hang out in the back galley and chow down on some business class dessert :). And when I got to Dubai, my new friend and I went out for coffee and she took me out to a couple of bars my first night. Then we went around her city the next afternoon and on a 4x4 safari tour in the desert that included belly dancing, sandboarding and a bbq dinner. Great fun!
Dubai was a crazy change from Accra. I went from one extreme to the other. From whoa poor people and open sewers to disgusting wealth, and crazy construction everywhere. Some folks told me they found Dubai disgusting and artificial, but I was wow'ed by seeing a city so diverse and modernized with minimal Western influence. I think the thing that shocked my though was the prices. Dubai supposed to be cheap because they don't pay duties, and they peg their currency to the US dollar, but coming from Ghana I was still counting in Cedis, and thought somethings were just too expensive. Dubai was also a really diverse place with the majority of people there being Arab, Indian/Pakistani or Filipino. I was super shocked with how many Filipinos there were . Seemed like every 4th person was Filipino.
And the moment I saw a movie theatre that was showing X-men 3, I made plans to go one of my nights there. Oh how I missed movie theatres when I was in Ghana.
One thing that was the same though was the heat. It was hotter than Ghana with one of the days hitting 49 celsius.
After Dubai, I hit Paris for a couple days. Oh my! If Dubai was expensive, I think in 3 nights in Paris, I spent what I would in a good month in Accra! And in Paris, you can't haggle or bargain with the Metro, or the shopkeepers. Eek! So in Paris I didn't do much other than hang out in a couple museums and walk the streets. I did find myself on a pubcrawl the second night though, where I met someone from Winnipeg who let me crash on their couch on my last night. Good way to save $30 :)
And now I've been back in Vancouver for a couple days. It hasn't been as shocking as I thought it would be. Probably because of my week-long journey home. Nevertheless, i do miss the life in Ghana, especially now with the World Cup going on. I can only imagine what kind of craziness is going on in that country right now!

9 days to go

Yet another one of my sparse blog entries... hopefully I can squeeze one more in before I leave Ghana, cuz dang I only got 9 days left in this country. After being here for 10 months, I've gotten really settled in, and feel more like a fixture here, than just another transient expat that comes and goes through the airport gates. But the reality is that even if I were here longer, if I wasn't the one going, it would be everyone else that I've gotten to know around here, except the locals. I used to think I didn't know too many Ghanaians, but I had my going away party last night, and there was significant local representation among the masses. I was flattered that so many people came out to say 'see ya later'. At first I didn't even want to have a going away party since I don't really believe in goodbyes. But it was also my buddy's bday, and he was leaving too, so we combined the parties together. It was a great way to cap my time here. I can safely say that over the past ten months, my experiences here have been phenomenal. And since I've hardly recorded any of them on this blog, just because I go home, doesn't mean that I don't have any more little stories for people to read. I don't quite have anything planned for when I go home anyway, so adding the the blog record will be a great way to kill my time. Looking forward to see those of you in Vancouver, and anyone who I get a chance to see in London.

Oooo... Rain

To most folks, it’s no surprise that sitting inside an air-conditioned office 9-5 writing away isn’t exactly the way I like to work. (Especially in a place like Ghana, sucks losing my laptop) I like moving around. One part of me’s got to be moving around all the time. If my mind needs to focus, my body’s gotta be moving, and if my body’s gotta stay put, well, my mind tends to wander at the more than occasional interval. Oh the internet… such a curse and a blessing.

Today, I’m glaring out the window.

I think the rainy season’s starting. Wait, the menacing black island of a cloud hovering about 20 feet in the air outside says more than “I think.” I was just waiting for the crack of thunder that would signal the mid-air marriage of water vapour and pressure and bring that cloud pouring onto the ground.

Oh yeah…rain and storms here can be pretty wicked. I now fully understand the thrill some people have of chasing storms, and the romance they attach to them. Watching nature’s spectacles of lightning beats most fireworks I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen so much lighting in one night as I have out here. The best are the nights you catch the lightning without its wet partner. Every flash makes you think there’s been a crack in the night sky. Some bolts are large enough to make you think the sky was tinted glass about to shatter. Through on some classical music, sit on the porch and just watch the show. If only nature could choreograph the show to the Gladiator soundtrack.

Rainy season here looks like it could get pretty wet. I should get an umbrella sometime soon. Then again, I say that every year in wet-winter Vancouver. Then again again, this is pretty wet…

Oooo internet

oooo... for the next couple weeks I'm online! At least from 9-5 Ghana time.

I'm employed for a little while, and the one thing I'm happy about is internet. Have I ever mentioned how much a geek I am? I can tell you I spent more time catching up on internet activity today, than I've actually been working. I'm getting paid on what I produce though, so i don't feel so bad.

Mob Politics

I haven't been involved in too many rallies or demonstrations in my life, but today I got a wiff of what is like minus any sort of education.
This is my fourth time in Tamale, the capital of Ghana's Northern Region, and at least 10 hrs drive from Accra. Though it's a city of at least 500,000 there ain't much doing up here on a Sunday. Watch some TV at the hotel (such a treat!) and then had some lunch with one of the TechnoServe staff up here.
On our way back to our hotel, Theo wanted to check out a rally that was being held to mark the end of a campaign for a by-election on Tuesday. Ghana's former President was supposed to be in town to support his party, the NDC.
As we drove down Tamale's main road, the road quickly went from passable to a sea of people wearing red, green and black, and waving machetes, bats, and other jagged things, and blowing whistles; all in supposed 'jubilation'. These were the NDC's supporters.
We parked the car in a safe spot to watch the crowd. My guess is that there were maybe 20,000 people out on the streets. We'd seen them getting excited all week, but today was insane. Northern Region is big on motorbikes, and there were scores of folks on them zipping up and down the main street pulling off tricks you'd normally see at stunt shows, but they were doing them in mid-traffic, with hundreds of people in theway and most bikes had 2 or 3 people on them. Occasionally a mob of like 50 people would walk past us waving there machetes, clubs and makeshift weaponry to show how tough they were. Flashbacks of Gangs of New York came to mind. Saw one mob waving what looked like a couple old-fashioned pistols around. It wouldn't surprise me if they really were, since folks like Theo consider the North lawless.
I just see the benefits of education. During any election where both of the major parties are involved, Tamale is a hotbed for violence. Heck, apparently any thing to do with politics up north can lead to violence. So many uneducated folks up here are just reeled in by their emotions and nepotic ties to cheer own some face who's likely way to arrogant to ever shake their hands. They don't know what they're voting for. I wonder if they even care. Someone's email signature came to mind: Everone aren't entitled to their own opinion, they're entitled to their own, informed, opinion. (Then again, who's to say I'm informed)
Looking at a bunch of 30-year-olds and kids hooting an' hollering, it looked more like a showdown between gangs.
Luckily this time round there's really only one gang. The other major party pulled out of the by-election because they had little chance of winning the seat and don't need it to maintain their majority. So the city will likely not see any gunfights this time round - apparently it can be expected at elections.
Apparently though, one of the moronic stunt bikers did manage to get himself killed in an accident with one of the NDC's vehicle. Schucks... I missed that part.

Interviews

The first time I interviewed someone in a mud hut, I had a translator helping me and dozens of flies buzzing around my head. I thought to myself "Wowser! I'm in national geographic!"

Seven months later, I still go back to those national geographic moments on occasion, yesterday I took in a new side of it that I'd encountered before but never really noticed. As I was interviewing some women about their nut processing facilities in their village, I looked over at my Ghanaian colleague, Theo and noticed that the expression on his face showed the same sort of confusion that I always go through. The folks in the south don't usually speak the same languages as they do up north, so guys like Theo can find themselves strangers in their own land. I laughed, "Now you know what I'm going through!"

Whenever I'm working through a translator, I'm constantly wondering how the game of telephone is going. Are they asking the same question? Do they even know what question I'm asking? Does the other person understand the question the way I mean? Am I being clear enough?

If you've ever seen "Lost in Translation"... I'm Bill Murray.

Me: "What's your name?"

Translator: Yadda Yadda... Blah bladda blah blad... yemme yo yemme.... Ugga ug nuh..and so forth for acouple minutes."

Interviewee: "!@#$$! @@#$@@@ H# H@J"

Translator: "Yes he has fruits"

Okay... that's a bit extreme, but sometimes that's what I feel like.