Use Your Head!

I'm back in Seattle for three months at home. Nevertheless, I still have a bunch of photos on my camera just begging to be shared. So, I have a few more Ghana posts. Then, I may have some reverse-culture shock to ramble on about. We'll see.

But, for today, here is an array of photos showing the way Ghanaians use their heads. This had been a constant source of amazement to me, also making me wonder why the practice of carrying things on our heads is not common in my native part of the world. I've tried it and, frankly, I'm a walking hazard, so for awhile, I was convinced it was because my hair was too slippery. I mean, when I get some nice silicone based shine product in there it's like a sliding across the foul line on a well oiled bowling lane. But, then I learned head-carrying was also common in Inda, among Native Americans in times past, and in other parts of the world where hair is straight, smooth, and probably, as slippery as mine. They just roll up a towel, curl it into a circle, and put it on top of the head for cushion, essentially creating a human golf tee, ready for anything. I can do it! I just have to practice.


But in the meantime, I also have to acknowledge that we are not using our heads to their full potential. In Ghana, I've seen so many things on people's heads, it would be easier to list the things not carried that way.

I've seen:

• Water, in 10 liter jugs (22 lbs),20 liter buckets (44 lbs), or sachets for individual consumption
• Plantains, on the stem or in bowls
• Bananas, with ground nuts (peanuts)
• Mobile lunch (roach coach equivalent), including soup in a pot, rice, condiments, and dishes
  
  
  
  
  

• Wood, bundles of sticks or a single large trunk, up to 12" in diameter and up to 10 ft. long
• Bamboo, bundles of small stalks or a single large pole, up to 6" in diameter and up to 25 ft. long
• Palm fronds for basket weaving, in large bundles than hang down on both ends, making the bearer look like a walking shrubbery (cue Monty Python)
  
  

• Wood framed glass boxes containing foods for sale - meat pies, corn meal buns (like large jalepeno hush puppies)
• Large bowls of snack fruit for sale, including pineapple, paw paw (papaya), and oranges
  
  
  
  
  

• Laundry baskets full of celophane bags containing snack-size quantities of plantain chips
• A single machete
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• A single casava yam (up to 8" in diameter and 3 ft. long)
• A book bag or backpack, with the strap slung over the top of the head rather than the shoulders
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Almost anything for sale - sachets of water, toothpaste, stacked in Jenga-like pyramids for optimal display, single serving baggies of pudding/yogurt, flip flops, fabric
• Mattresses and bedding
• The day's shopping
  
  
  
  

So, next time your arms are full, your shoulders ache, and your fingers are cramped in a perma-grip, consider using your head. You, too, can daze and amaze your friends - and gather quite a crowd at the market.

XO

Clothes Make the Student

School uniforms - I totally get it. There was a time when I didn't, but now I do. They really are a great leveler to hide some of the lines between "have nothing" and "have a little more". Because, let's face it, the "have a lots" don't attend the same schools. But the kids in our neighborhood wear the same 3-4 outfits week after week, all purchased from street hawkers of used apparel from the U.S. and U.K.

Much of the clothing donated to charities in the U.S., for instance, is not sold at the local thrift shop, but bundled up and sold by weight to wholesalers - like a grab bag. The proceeds are used for the charity to which the clothing was donated, but the clothes continue on their journey. Many of those clothes end up in woven plastic gunny sacks baled into tight cubes and packed into ocean containers. When these bales of clothes finally arrive at a market, like the one here in Koforidua, it can be a free-for-all to rummage through the grab bag and find the best stuff, bargaining for a price on each item.

Once purchased, these clothes are worn until they fall apart. In the villages, they gradually transition from dress-up to casual to filthy to only-for-the-farm. If there is anything left, they might end up as rags. Here in the city, the kids in our neighborhood are generally dressed in whatever was clean (maybe) regardless of condition. We regularly see holey t-shirts, often several sizes too big and hanging off one shoulder, knit sleepwear worn as dresses, flip flops with holes in the bottoms or no shoes at all, no shirts and stained shirts. In the villages, it may be nothing but underwear for most of the kids, including girls, most of time. But it all works. They don't care and no one else does either.

But, you know how kids can be. At school, these things can get in the way. Hence, the uniforms.

However, the trouble in Ghana, and one of the main reasons many children do not attend schools, is that the parents can't afford the fees, uniforms, and many of the books whose cost is passed along to the parents. To outfit a child for school, even public school, can cost 10 Ghana cedis or more - before books - but including shoes which are required for no other reason in this eternal summer. Ten cedis (about $8.00) may seem small to many readers, but for most Ghanaian families, it is a lot of money. Many children have to wait for one of the religious schools to provide a scholarship - and accept the religious education that comes with it.

So, the new government, elected in December has announced that 1.6 million needy children will be provided school uniforms. Further, the exercise books (workbooks) required for public school will be provided for all children in attendance. In a country with a population of 22 million people, 1.6 million is what? 7% of the total population - and probably 15% of the school-aged children. Not too shabby - and I don't mean the clothes!
XO