Likes and Dislikes

During our COS conference (which happened a hundred years ago, back in 2016), we were asked what we would and would not miss about our service in Ghana. We even drew pictures to better portray our views. Besides obvious inconveniences (lack of flushing toilets, Mexican food and ice cubes) or things that are usually missed (red-red, people, good times), I put a list of things I will and will not miss.

Eating and drinking with friends is on the top of things to miss.

Then, quite recently I realized that it is not something I will or will not miss but rather something I do and do not like, no matter where I live – be it Ghana, US, or Russia. I think serving in Peace Corps exposes you to more things that you do not like but have to deal with on a daily basis, while a somewhat sheltered life in the US can make you withdraw from places and people that make you feel uncomfortable almost immediately (which is why we are more likely to have friends on Facebook who share our beliefs and values and block the ones that made us feel uncomfortable with their posts).

So, here is what I do not like -----

Religious zeal – Ghana is one of the most religious countries in the world, half-Christian/half-Muslim, and it is wonderful that both groups are friendly towards each other. However, the fact that people would rather go to church in the middle of the day instead of working, or rationalize their hypocritical actions with Bible/Koran quotes, or blindly follow their preachers’ biased and sometimes hateful messages breaks my heart. I am weary of any sort of religiousness, so being in Ghana was challenging in this sense. 

A mural in the old church in Ashanti Region

However, I completely understand people’s need to belong to a church community, for hope after death, for guidance in uncertain times. Here when you take a tro to another town, people pray and give money to their tro preacher because this trip can literally be their last… A newborn baby is not named or baptized until at least several months have passed because she may not survive her first case of malaria or diarrhea. Ghana’s infrastructure is not reliable, and the police, the doctors, or the public officials are not the ones who necessarily help people (as they should). So people put it all under a will of God. The local expressions – “Nyame Boa” -- God willing – is used everywhere, even for something like “I will take some breakfast, God willing.” So in short, I understand it but I will not miss it. I also do not like it expressed in any other cultural setting.

Extra attention/harassment – I am not an attention-seeking individual. True, I can don a tutu for a marathon race, or sing Spice Girls’ Wannabe at karaoke without shame, but I am not someone who actively seeks to be acknowledged, noticed, or gawked at. Well, that is not the case in Ghana – I’m constantly stared at, approached, propositioned and simply harassed. True, it does not take to the point when I’m worried for my life, but, as we were shown in training, if you are slowly but surely get fed up with it all, things can get ugly for everybody. Many extraverts serving in Peace Corps suffer more from it and become withdrawn and bitter. Or, as in my case, they become introverts (or, even better, introverted extraverts).

Extra attention is unavoidable at the market...

This made me think, however, that no matter where I live, I always have this thought in the back of my head – watch where you are going, who you are interacting with and what you are saying, as a woman. Right before my service I was at a fairly nice bar in a posh suburb of Boston and saw how a couple of girls were clearly harassed and bothered by one semi-drunken guy. I politely told him not to do it, and that the girls were clearly uncomfortable. He backed out but then 2 minutes later started yelling profanities at me, right in front of the patrons and bar tenders. I could have kept my mouth shut and left, you would have said --- why defend these girls in the first place, they could have done it themselves if they really wanted to? But in this day and age, I think all of us girls should stick together. This episode provoked lot of anger, but I stood my ground. Later on one guy tapped me on the shoulder and said: “Thank you for doing that, and I’m sorry for what he did.” True, we need to pick our own battles, and if I fought with every person who bothered me in Ghana, it would not have been pretty, so I had other survival techniques. One is simply ignoring and/or pretending not to understand what is going on, and another one is telling a while lie and brush it all off.

It's all good.

And when I leave, what will I miss besides people I worked and drank Club with, fufu and a no-rush-in-life attitude? What is something that I liked in Ghana that I want to recreate wherever I go next?

A tro station in Kumasi

A tro-tro culture: Yes, I will miss those long, dusty and sometimes scary tro-tro rides. A tro-tro is a cheap and (somehow) fast way to get from point A to point B (and later, C,D, E, etc.) anywhere in Ghana. A tro is a little community. Once you’re on the tro, you become a part of a brief but solid family unit. You say hello, help passengers with their bags or hold their babies, and strike an occasional conversation about anything. People can even feed you, if you are hungry (although I prefer not to eat or drink while traveling for obvious reasons). And they are always on a look out for a mate (a driver’s assistant) to give you the correct change. And if you do not greet people, they may actually hold a grunge against you and will not wake you up when your stop comes up.

In terms of likes and dislikes, here I like convenience and efficiency of a tro – just wave your hand and a tro will stop for you. Who wouldn’t like that?

Will miss witty store signs!

Also, I will miss all these witty, strange and sometimes merely bizarre sayings and quotes on the back of tros and taxis (and also, storefronts). My personal favorites are “Some friends are bad,” “Paddle your own canoe,” “Keep your secret,” “Aponkye Break” (which means a car can suddenly break and stop like an aponkye [ah-pohn-chee], a goat) and “I love my wife.” There are also sayings that start with a word “Still…” (which means solid, like a rock) but that can produce hilarious results: “Still Beyonce,” “Still Fast Boy.” These alternatives to bumper stickers are great nuggets of witty truth and cultural identity.

Students with their contraption for an egg drop made from available materials.

Resourcefulness: Face it – Americans are wasteful. We throw away uneaten food and unworn clothes, burn electricity at offices at night and do not gnaw on chicken bones. True, we do recycling, garage sales and thrift shops, and love our fuel-efficient cars. But the resourcefulness and lack of wastefulness I encountered and did in Ghana is incomparable.  I eat everything on my plate. I save plastic bottles for toys and crafts. I can bathe with a half-liter of water (1 water sachet). My Chacos finally fell apart after 2.5 years of constant wear because I did not have any other pair of shoes. I really want to take this back with me and make sure that my minimalism lifestyle continues with lack of waste (although I will not save plastic bottles but recycle them).

Jerry cans serving as buckets at a borehole.

Oh, and as far as other (more important) things are concerned, I will definitely miss fufu, Club (beer) and FanIce (icecream)!

Cheers!