Ghana – Chapter 3
Accra, February 5, 2005
"It’s the weekend and I’m at the office"
It’s the weekend and I’m at the office catching up on email and doing other sundry chores.
USAID is really an email culture (since our business contacts are spread all over Europe, the US and West Africa). But even here in the office, where colleagues are only 3 or 4 meters away, email is the medium of choice – over shoe leather. It’s all first names and open shirt collars in USAID – a little more formal at the Embassy (a few miles away).
Gina has asked that I include more recipes, so I’ll try to remember to do that. Should I mark those sections in red so that the squeamish will know when to skip ahead?
Sylvanus and I went out on Friday to find some more plants for my year. He impresses me more and more every day (not just the big scar on his head). Yesterday, he pointed out that my one rose bush has a black fungus and gave me a discourse on disease transmission. I suggested that the fungus might not spread to the bougainvillea next to it since they are different species. He gently pointed out to me the black fungus on the bougainvillea leaves. Anyway, we walked a couple of blocks to a place by the open city sewer where to young guys sells garden plants (it’s called a “nursery”, here). He looked around and picked out some things to go in front of the white “decorative” brick wall that encloses my “nightclub”: A creepy, climbing thing with leaves about the size of your hand with holes in them like Swiss cheese that will climb up the wall, and two bushes with red, green and yellow variegated leaves that will make a moderately colorful hedge. Aren’t you envious Susan? It took about 15 minutes to pick out the plants and about an hour and a half to agree on the price with the two young guys. They started at 200,000 cedis and I eventually bought it all for around 120,000 cedis. (about $13 - more on cedis later). After we had shaken hands on the price, Sylvanus reminded these guys (as in “reminded” them for the first time) that our price included their helping to carry the plants back to my house – about a half mile. The plants were in large cement planters (about 1 ½ feet across). So Sylvanus went home and got his trusty wheelbarrow (as in “Sylvanus, run home and get the wheelbarrow”), and the guys made a couple of trips to deliver the plants. My role in the delivery was to serve cold cokes to everyone when the job was done.
Just after Sylvanus got the transplanted, we discovered that the water had been shut off - a very frequent occurrence here. I have a big black plastic 10,000 liter tank (3.75 liters = 1 gallon, so its 2,667 gallons) in my backyard which is kept full as an emergency reserve. It’s under the mango tree, but the black plastic keeps it nice and warm. So it’s rare to run out of water in the house, but the outside faucets aren’t hooked into it so that it won’t get used up watering the grass.
Actually – there was a purpose in serving the cokes to the guys. Sylvanus wants to start the pepper and eggplant seeds for the garden and each 500 ml plastic coke bottle can be cut in half and make two nice containers to start the seeds in. He was careful to collect all the bottles after they finished. I, of course, had a little Bacardi in mine and used my large plastic cup – which Sylvanus can’t have. Today, at the Koala supermarket I found some pink, yellow and green disposable cups (the kind that no one here would ever think of throwing away) that he can use for the rest of the seed. The colors will help keep the green peppers and hot peppers apart.
Bargaining is an important way of life here and I’m sure you’ll get lots of stories from me on the process in the future because I enjoy it. It’s a real give and take process and takes some humor and creativity. A “take it or leave it” approach won’t get you far.
The Ghanaian currency is the Cedi (pronounced “seedy”. The exchange rate is around 9,100 cedis to $1.00 US. The problem is that the largest bill is 20,000 cedis and lots of people only have 5,000 cedi notes. So today when I changed $200 dollars I got 1,820,000 cedis – a stack of 5,000 cedi notes about the size of a red brick – way to much to try to stick in one pocket. So I’m carrying around a small black plastic bag of loot to pay for things with.
Last night, Frank Fox, my “social sponsor” from the Embassy, took me to a couple of the local watering holes to show me around. The first place was Ryan’s Irish Pub. Ryan’s looks pretty much like it was air-lifted here from a working class town in Ireland – complete to the burly t-shirted, ruddy faced guys hunched over their pints of Guinness at the bar watching a rugby game on TV. The food is pretty Irish too – i.e., not much flavor. The only non-European face (Americans are classed as Europeans for pejorative purposes) in the place were the waiters and one Sikh who had a British accent. Remember the scenes from any of those Irish films, like “The Snapper”? A smoky bar with wooden booths along the wall and tables, and lots of people in vaguely 1960’s looking clothes sitting around pint glasses of beer.
Then we went to Aquarius. This was a little more multicultural (lots of Lebanese and Ghanaians). Aquarius has loud music (Bob Marley and other pretty good stuff) and a half dozen very nice pool tables. We shot 8 Ball until midnight and traded jokes with everyone else in the place. I think they served food there, but no one seemed too interested in that. (Don’t worry Ellen, I’ve been assured that all the beer here is low-carb and approved by Dr. Atkins – That’s Kwame Atkins, MD, PhD and DD).
(Sorry Gina, no recipes so far – except I had coffee, three slices of bacon and 2 hard boiled eggs for breakfast this morning).
I interviewed and hired Rebecca yesterday to be my part-time housekeeper. She’s going to work from 0900 to 1900, three days a week (I’m gone from 0730 to around 1800). She’ll do a lot of my shopping, clean the house, do laundry and ironing, other miscellaneous chores. Rebecca is in her mid-40’s. I asked her if she knows Blessed, but she just gave me a blank stare (you’ll have to ask Ellen for an explanation of that.) I hired her on a one month trials basis. She is already working two days a week for the woman at the Embassy who runs the CLO (Community Liaison Office – the people who help everyone on unofficial issues, like getting installed, having a social life, etc.). Betsy, the CLO lady, is one of these mother Gaia types – long gray hair in a braid, sandals, long earrings, and a loud roaring laugh who knows absolutely everything about Ghana (except anything about anything that’s really Ghanaian – she knows everything that Europeans want to know). She organizes weekend trips, etc. Rebecca is her assistant housekeeper and she gave her high marks, so I’ll give her a try. Just to give you and idea of salaries here, I agreed to start Rebecca at 600,000 cedis per month (three days per week). Plus I’ll pay social security on her – about an additional 20%. That’s also what I agreed as starting pay for Sylvanus per month (5 days a week – “all” day – usually means 0700 - 1800). I’m already tire of ironing shirts (I think I told you about my clothing shortage). But I’m picky, so I’ll have to train her.
Ellen: you would love this automatic distiller I have. For those of you who don’t know, in Africa we used to boil and filter every drop of water we drank. We would boil it on the stove and then filter it through a ceramic filter. It was a tedious process, the water was always kind of warm, and the filter only held about a gallon at a time. This machine I have has about a 5 gallon reservoir on it and is automatic. It’s tied right in to the water line and use electricity to distill the water. There is a ceramic filter before the distiller and then a second one after it’s distilled and before it goes into the reservoir. A large family (or David) might put it to the test, but it’s great to have clean water on demand. For those of you interested in putting on in your cabin – or if you draw your water from an open, stinking sewer ditch like 2/3 of the world – it’s made by Durastill, Inc. in Kansas City, MO. Kitty – I’ll bet they carry these at the Wal-Mart in Greeneville, but you may have to ask for it at the back door. I’m not sure they’re “Revenooer”-approved. If they’re not at Wal-Mart, the gas station behind Hot Lips may be able to assemble you one out of a spare radiator and some rubber garden hose. You can probably get it gas powered in Tennessee (two large cans of beans, a long rubber hose, and – oh well, you can figure it out).
The plan this weekend is to hit the large market to look for a BBQ grill, but it seems like my two colleagues may have chickened out on it. Europeans here don’t like to go out in the heat of the day much (Damn, I didn’t bring a hat! They’re all in my sea freight). If we make it, I’m sure I’ll have some tales for you (or “tails”, if bush meat is in season).
RECIPE WARNING: OK, here’s a recipe for peanut stew: Dust some chicken wings and thighs in flour and brown them – in peanut oil (corn or soybean will do in a pinch, but peanut tastes better). Dissolve a couple of large tablespoons of chunky peanut butter in two cups of chicken bouillon in a big pot (natural peanut butter without sugar in it is better). Toss in two cups of whole or chopped okra (frozen is OK), two or three diced, fresh jalapenos, a large, diced onion, two or three tablespoons of tomato paste concentrate, a can of whole tomatoes with juice, and the chicken; cover it and let it simmer for two to three hours. You can throw in a large handful of fresh spinach during the last hour. Salt to taste. Serve it all on rice (white or brown).
You can probably find a more precise recipe on the web, but this is pretty much what Ellen and I do. It’s a favorite of ours.
Big misses right now are a good radio for the house (I just have a tiny little clock radio – bar of soap size – that works, but I have to carry it around to hear it) and a source of music. Both of those will be solved once my stuff arrives, but I find I miss these most for the present.
Oh, by the way. Sylvanus found marigold seeds at the local agro store and I found and ordered cilantro seeds on line. So cross those off your lists.
Hope my camera gets here soon so I can share some pictures with you guys. I’ll try to can some of the smells and send those, too. Gina sent me a couple of pictures of some guy dressed up to look like Geoff, destroying their house. Get a life, Geoff!! Or come over here to live. Half the houses look destroyed (or all the houses look half-destroyed) when they’re finished!
Love to all,
Greg/Dad/G-1/Elder, etc.
As in “yes, Boss.”
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