So happy to be Ghanaian

As mentioned before, Ghana is very family oriented. A household may include multiple generations and the families of multiple siblings. Even those who move away often don't move far enough to really leave the extended family. But there are those adventuresome few - or those who just believe they may find their fortune elsewhere - who do venture well beyond the nest. There is even a cottage industry of small companies that will help people through the process o f entering the lottery for a Visa to the U.S.

However, I met a family yesterday who was so happy to be Ghanaian they couldn't stop talking about it. They certainly had no desire to go the U.S. and, in fact, thought the whole American way of life was totally barbaric and overdone.

The funny thing is, this family wasn't even really traditional by Ghanaian standards. No aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, or other extended family members around at all. There was just a mom, a dad, and two kids. Actually, sounds pretty American, doesn't it? But is wasn't. It was a 100% Ghanaian, born and bred, yada yada yada.

So, since I like to share those things I discover in Ghana that are either uniquely Ghanaian or that are particularly interesting, I thought you'd like to meet this family that has no interest in America at all and is just as happy to be Ghanaian as they can possibly be. Here they are:

Happy Thanksgiving (aka Turkey Day!)

XO

It's just Boti-ful

This is my first weekend alone since Whit left to be with his family back in Seattle for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Leslie and her friend, Pam, are coming in late December for three weeks, and I am soooo looking forward to that, and there is plenty of research and planning and tour-guide-ish stuff to do. That still leaves a bunch of time - especially on the weekends. No TV, no radio, about 60% finished with the pile of books I brought, and 75% finished with the four books I brought on my iPod - trying to make those last! I even stayed up last night to watch the Apple Cup online, just to feel closer to home.

This morning I washed my underwear. I was down to my last pair and I can't bring myself to take them to the laundry with the rest of my clothes. Especially since they lay everything out on the counter and inventory it when you arrive! After that, I was still at odds, so I decided to do a tourist thing. One of those sites that is so close to where you are staying and working that you may just "forget" to go see it. Anyway, it was worth the trip. The place is called Boti Falls. The falls are touted as 30m high (that's 100 ft. to some of us) and I believe it. Standing at the bottom, I felt tiny, and the sound the water makes hitting the pool from that height is quite a roar.

When I arrived I was the only one there. The air was full of mist and although the falls create a permanent roar it felt very quiet and peaceful along the small secluded pool under a canopy of huge trees. The guidebook says that in the dry season (which started about 6 weeks ago), the falls splits in two and then finally dries up until the rains come again.

This video shows what it looks like split into two falls, but given the amount of foliage visible at the top, it's hard for me to see how it would come together as a single cascade in the rainy season. But, wow, when it does it must be massive - and the pool must be huge. There is a little ledge behind where I am standing when I start the video, so I'm assuming that's where the pool stops when the falls are at full strength. Even like this, though, they are beautiful. I especially like the tight striations of rock. It makes my heart happy.

In the foreground in the video is my little camp stool and pack with my tuna sandwich and 1/4 watermelon (watermelons are about the size of our honeydew - more on fruit in another post) and thermos of water. That was it, just me and my lunch in the sand, in the shade, with a nice breeze and mist from the falls. It was like being in line for a ride at Disneyland with the misters and fans to keep you cool. (Just kidding, it was way better than that).

Here are a couple self-portraits with the falls as the backdrop. Honestly, I'm not bending over to show my cleavage, I just didn't know how much headroom I had left in the shot when I setup the
camera. And, I'm not a total dork. The guidebook said there can be a lot of army ants and you should tuck your pants into your socks. So I did. But I didn't see a single army ant.


After a bit, the sun peeked between some branches in the tall tall trees overhead and made the most beautiful rainbow in the mist at the base of one of the falls. I tried to zoom and capture it, but this is the best I could do.

All in all, it was a lovely picnic for one - and the 250 steps going back up to the parking lot were a nice after lunch stroll. :-P
XO

Blood of the Lamb Batteries, Ltd.

WARNING: Some content may be offensive to some readers. (Dr. SpikeeYamaguchi, this one's for you!)

So, Christian missionaries have been coming to Africa for hundreds of years and here in Ghana, it seems to have taken a strong hold - and is peacefully co-existing alongside Islam and more traditional African religions. According to the 2000 government census, Ghana's religious divisions are as follows: Christian 69%, Muslim 16%, African beliefs 15%. According to wikipedia, the Christianity and Islam practiced in Ghana have many aspects of traditional African religion integrated into them. While wikipedia is not an official source, this is quite believable to me, as co-opting the traditions of existing religions has been a standard approach to conversion for thousands of years. One need look no further for evidence than the date chosen to celebrate Christmas, the Christmas tree itself, gift giving, lights, and yule logs as part of Christmas, and the Easter egg, to name a few.

Thus, the incorporation of some local African traditions into the Christian experience in Africa is completely understandable. And if one of those traditions had to do with the wrath of God, as described in this article about a menengitis outbreak in Ghana last week (mom, don't freak out), who could blame the Ghanaian Christians for doing everything possible to avoid pissing off said God. Another strong tradition is around honor and respect for elders and leaders, which certainly must also include God.

So, how best to honor and respect God while making it perfectly clear that you want to stay on his good side? Why not name your shop after him? What better way to show your love? Hey, we could have been Believe in Him Batteries, Ltd or Blessed Mother Battery Company! But, thankfully, it wasn't necessary. I don't think Whit minds pissing off God now and then.

Here are just a few examples of shop names we see every day.

While the "Christ is the Answer Home of Fashion" ranks right up there, my very most favorite of all - which I drive by twice a week - is:

Bless you all.
XO

Little Drummer Boyz

We've added a new village to the Burro service area. This one is so far off the beaten path, it is down a dirt road off of a dirt road. One part of the road has the Grand Canyon running right down the middle of it. I kid you not, the crevice is about 30" deep and when driving down the road, you have to straddle the canyon - one set of tires on each side. It's the dry season now, but the road must be impassible in the rainy season. That canyon was cut by something after all.

Nevertheless, the village is worth the trip. Very friendly and happy people. Sometimes it seems that as the poverty increases so does the happiness - as long as those without money have access to growing things. Frankly, I'm not sure many of them spend much time outside their villages, so with little to compare to, material wants maybe don't get in the way of the joy and comfort of family and friends.

As an aside and a counterpoint, however, we met a very successful Ghanaian entrepreneur the other evening (CEO of Unique Trust Financial Services - see http://www.utlog.com/ for info on his company and this article for some of his thoughts about doing business in Ghana) who said something to the effect of:

God made a mistake. He put his favorite people at the equator where it's always warm and absolutely anything will grow. You eat a papaya and toss the leftovers into the bushes and six papaya plants start growing. These people have it too easy. If you're hungry, pick a pineapple. If it rains, put a banana leaf over your head.

His point, during our chat with him, was that people in Ghana don't have sufficient incentive to be ambitious. Which is consistent but perhaps another view of my observation that even poor people here seem pretty content. In this particular village, the children are often in just a pair of underwear, but they seem to be energetic, engaged, creative, and yep - pretty happy. There were a couple of boys playing drums on an empty gallon size palm oil jug. They were actually quite good. However, when I went over to get them on my camera, two things happened.

1. They ran away - don't know why. Once they realized I was just after a picture, they came back and were somewhat willing to start playing again.
2. All the other children ran over to join in singing and clapping to some church song (I recognized hallelujah)- pretty much ruining the drummers' creativity and changing their rhythm considerably. Everyone wants to be in pictures!

Anyway, enjoy the show, such as it is. My camera doesn't take very good video, but it was fun.

XO

Country Mouse, City Mouse

We left the countryside and went to Accra to do a little shopping over the weekend. It was nice to be in the city where there are some very western conveniences - like real grocery stores, with air conditioning (don't exist in Koforidua), and restaurants that have real comfort food, not just a Ghanaian attempt at imitation.

This is Whit at an Accra pizza parlor where we had dinner on Saturday night. The pizza is amazing even though the wine list is hand written. The check-marked items on the list are the wines they actually had in stock that evening. Hand written or not, we managed to polish off three bottles (don't panic! - Whit had four guests at dinner besides me).

XO

Death in the family

A shop owner in Nkurakan who we have been working to cultivate as a potential agent rented some batteries a couple weeks ago. He was going to give them to a couple of his steady battery customers and let them try them out, then get back to us to schedule agent training and get started. When more than a week had passed (nearly two) with no word, we finally saw him on one of our trips through his town. He apologized for the long silence and explained that there had been a death in his family and it had taken him away for several days.

This really got me thinking. I've only been here six weeks and it seems like everyone I know here has had a death in the family in that time (probably an exaggeration, but it feels that way). My immediate thought was, "Wow, they sure have a lot more death here than we have back home." After thinking about it, though, I realized I was wrong.

It's not that there is more death here, it's that there is a lot more family.

I mean that not just in the sense that families are larger (4-ish births per woman), but that the definition of family is much more broad. While in the heart of the big cities, the western definition of the nuclear family may be gaining some traction (for good or ill), here in Koforidua and all of rural Ghana, the extended family is alive and well. Cousins or even close family friends may call one another, "my brother" or "my sister", old men call the children of their nieces and nephews, "my grandson" or "my granddaughter". It can be very confusing for a foreigner used to fairly strict (western) usage of these terms.

So, in this extended definition of family, there is simply a greater probability of experiencing a death - and every passing is deeply felt. Ghanaian funerals are a very big deal. Everyone has a black funeral outfit (suit, robe, dress, etc.) and every funeral is an event, often with a band or at least a sound system, drinking, dancing, sometimes even memorial t-shirts, and almost always, wailing. That's right, wailing. It seems in America we value holding our pain on the inside and being "strong" for others in the face of adversity. Not so, in Ghana. Every bit of grief and anguish that is felt on the inside is let out in a profound and audible way. And why not? I know I experienced, at the death of my grandmother, precisely the emotions that I have seen outwardly expressed here in Ghana. You know what I mean?

So, all this thought is not entirely about our potential agent in Nkurakan. I've been thinking a lot about family and death this week because, I'm sorry to say, my sister (back home), Denise (left, with her partner, Sharon), died a week ago. So far, I've been a good American and only wept when I really wanted to wail. I really will try to be a good Ghanaian and sing and dance and drink to celebrate her life - just as soon as I can hurdle my internal culture barrier.
XO

It takes a village...

This is a snapshot of our part of the map of Ghana. Our office is in Koforidua, but most of our customers and prospective customers are outside the city - many of them on the "tracks" or dirt roads that are marked by the dotted lines. When we go into a village we usually take a multi-day approach. The first day, we've mapped out a reconnaissance route and we're just driving through each village. In villages that look interesting, we'll stop and chat with whomever is around to get a feel for the village. Then, we strategize on which village has the right "feel" and a good location to reach a lot of people by foot or bicycle and near enough to a main road that the agent can come out and meet us twice a week to get fresh batteries.

The next time we go to the village, we usually go at a time when we know most people will be back from the farm - so it's often during the hottest part of the day. No matter where we go, someone immediately goes and gets a bench so we'll have someplace to sit - it's part of the basic hospitality. We usually end up in the shade under a tree, which we thereafter call the "battery tree". Tim starts asking people about their battery usage and explaining our offering. Inevitably, a crowd gathers to see what these strangers are up to. We call this the Obroni factor, but I think Tim would draw the same crowd even if he didn't have any caucasians with him. He's a very charismatic guy.

In this village, Sanfo-Ano (on the map it is on the dotted line right at the end of the word Koforidua), which we first drove through two weeks ago, we rented 25 batteries on this second visit. Based on that visit, we determine who to approach about being an agent. Usually there are two or three people who express interest, so that can make it difficult when there are village politics involved. So far, we've always managed to find someone that everyone was happy with - including us. The third visit to the village is usually 2-3 days after the second - and it proves that we really will come back and replace the batteries at no charge when they run down. This is critical because the first renters make a huge leap of faith that they're not just giving their money away. Because our batteries rent for about 3x the price at which you could buy a battery, it is the continuous replacement throughout the month that makes it worthwhile for the customer.

Usually by the fourth visit we have selected an agent. Once the agent comes to the office for training, we give them new rental batteries as well as the fresh replacement cells to support all their customers until the next replenishment. This village (which, yes, I did mention in a post a couple weeks ago) is totally up and running now. The agent is up to 73 batteries rented and he has barely visited the neighboring villages. So far, customers are pretty ecstatic about the offering. They are using their battery operated devices more and paying less. Cool, huh!

As an aside, I went to this village this afternoon just after a rainstorm and it was like skiing on wet clay with four wheel drive.

Oh, and yes, it is quite common for small girls to carry their siblings around on their backs like this. I thought this girl was very sweet with her sister. But, she is by no means the smallest girl I've seen with a baby on her back.

XO