Four walls and a keyboard: Some reflecting

Four walls and a keyboard

'I love talking about nothing. It's the only thing I know anything about.' ~ Oscar Wilde

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Some reflecting

On Friday night I had dinner with Jeanine and another Canadian, Christy, that works with Engineers Without Borders. Christy was talking about a conversation she had recently with a friend that was still in Canada, about Ghana, and about how his view of the country was so far from reality, that she had to write a rebuttal about what she finds rewarding about being here. It made me think that perhaps my updates on everyday life aren't giving a good reflection on how I see my time here, so here goes.

When I was still in Canada I had a certain image of Kpandai in my mind. I thought it would be this small dusty town, with no trees or greenery. I also thought that people would be living in the poorest of conditions, apathetic, and closed off and suspicious of my presence. I also thought that it would be so hard to contact anyone in Canada that it would be restricted to only every few weeks. I figured that I would be pretty lonely and bored, especially in the evenings, so I tried to plan in advance by bringing tons of movies to watch, and e-books to read. Pretty pessimistic viewpoint isn't it?

It couldn't be farther from reality! Kpandai is a very bustling town! There's shops every few feet, selling everything from tomato paste to shampoo, tons of seamstresses, mechanics, hair salons, and carpenters. There's palm and mango trees all around, and lots of other vegetation (which is getting a little brown right now in the dry season, but still existent). And the people are so friendly, generous and welcoming! It doesn't matter what you are doing, but if someone is eating, you'll be automatically invited to share their meal. And the day I arrived in town I was immediately given a Ghanaian name, and was greeted with 'you are welcome' and had my hand shook by every person I came across. It's certainly not the greeting I would have gotten in a Canadian town of the same size!

The communication outside of town, especially on my mobile, is pretty awesome, at least when the network is working at full capacity. I've called home to Canada and had it sound like I was still at home.

I've never felt unsafe in Kpandai, even when walking into town at 3 in the morning, with the lights out, to catch the bus into Tamale. And everyone is willing to lend a helping hand if they feel you need it, or even when it's apparent you don't. When I was walking into town with my bags for the latest trip to Salaga, a boy, who was on his way to school, parked his bike by the side of the road and carried my heavier bag to the office. When I came back from Salaga, Gladys and Fosty felt bad that I was sick with a cold, and did my laundry for me while I rested. Coming from a society that places a sense of accomplishment on doing things independently, graciously accepting help from others was one of the biggest things that I had to adjust to here.

I am not trying to paint a glowing picture of the town, because there are some less than glowing aspects about living conditions here. You can tell that most people in the town are struggling to make ends meet, and its evident that some of the children are suffering from conditions that would be unheard of in Canada. But even with the hard conditions, people are happy and have a sense of humour, trying to make things better for themselves, and that's cause for optimism.

I've had many good experiences here so far, but some of the most rewarding moments are the ones that really stick out in my mind. Like the time when I got gifted not once, but twice, with bananas, because the girl wanted to be my friend. Or seeing everyone in the crowd at the World AIDS day celebrations, listening with such concentration to Ricky and Fuswena as they shared their experiences with HIV. Or even having everyone near my house help me get to the bottom of who took my camera from my room.

It is also rewarding, or perhaps refreshing would be a proper word, to be in a place where things are called for what they are. In Canada, no one would even think of calling me fat to my face, unless they were trying to be deliberately cruel. Here, fat is fat, and skinny is skinny, and there's no insult implied behind being called that. It's like passing comment on the fact that someone has black hair, or blue eyes.

There are times that stick out in my head where I think to myself, 'Dang, I wish I had my camera right now!', even though a picture never quite captures everything that made the moment special. Like the morning I travelled into the Governor General's luncheon and saw the sun rise through the trees and the long grasses. Or sitting with Rosemary by the side of the road and watching the women walk into the market with their goods balanced on their heads. Or driving back to Kpandai at night and seeing the biggest bushfire in my life, silhouetting a traditional village with thatch roofed houses.

So far I haven't experienced culture shock (I don't think), but it's interesting to take note of the things that rankle my introverted sensibilities. Sometimes I will hide in my room on the weekends, simply because I don't want to greet all the people I see as I go into town, because neglecting to greet someone is taken to mean that you are upset with the person. Sometimes I just don't want to talk! Or the other thing that bothers me is getting the back of my outfit adjusted if even just a little part of my upper back is showing between my pants and my shirt. It really wierded me out when I first felt hands grabbing at my outfit when I was at church. Or it is still a little strange to people ask me how my diharrea is, if I didn't tell them about it, or have every Catholic in town ask me why I wasn't in church on Sunday, when all I wanted to do was some wash.

There are some things that I really really miss about home, especially at this time of year, like:

Hanging out at home with my family
Chatting on the phone with people whenever I want (I do it to some extent here, but there's always the time factor and the network quality)
Going to the bar or for coffee with my friends
Cooler weather (I am seriously cracking a bead right now!)
Snow (I never thought I would say it, but it doesn't feel like Christmas without it)
Chocolate (Even though Ghana is the largest exporter of cocoa, there's little chocolate to be had in the north)
Whoppers
Vodka Specials
Granny Smith Apples
Lettuce Salads
Sandwich meat, actually, just meat in general, especially pork chops

Anyway, I'll close down this little look into my head. I don't think I'll be able to update my blog until I get to Accra for Christmas (if I actually make it down there). So I hope that everybody has a very happy holiday with friends and family!

posted by angelina @ 7:01 AM

1 Comments:

At 8:43 AM, Anonymous said…

you must be having the time of your life ang! i will send you some high end pork chops!

-dwreck