New Year celebrations with fishermen in Porto Novo

It was the first weekend in the New Year and we went walking towards the sea in Porto Novo. We walked towards the place where we heard music and saw people dancing under a huge canopy.

As soon as we got there we were offered seats and asked to join in the fun. There were men dancing in the centre and women dancing at the edges. Michael asked permission to take photos and they agreed but in exchange they asked him to join in with the dancing.

Well, I was very surprised when he did join in. There were smiles all around and high fives everywhere. Michael danced the local dance and that got a lot of laughs for two reasons, one that he joined in and for his energy but the second because he had such difficulty getting the movement.

In the course of this dancing we found out that it is one family of fishermen who are celebrating the New Year. We were introduced to the elders and leaders in the family and offered trips around the lagoon, of course at a cost. It was good to be able to join in the fun with this huge family although it was just for a short while.

Michael complained about aching legs for days after that, a reminder of the muscles he did not know he had!

Experiences on the way to a Yaka Shrine in Dassa Zoume, Benin

Guest appearance in a religious video!

On our way to the shrine on a hill in the centre of Dassa Zoume, we came across a group of people with videoing equipment and men and women dressed in traditional clothes. We stopped to gawp at them and although they had finished filming their sequence, we were asked to join in. At first I thought it was only the dancers but then another woman also joined us and we found out that they were making a religious video. The group was called “Princess Toyissa” and we both joined in the dancing. The body movement which they do so well is alien to both of us so everybody patiently showed us what to do but nobody told us we were rubbish at it! Regardless of this, we were both filmed dancing with the group and singing with Princess Toyissa. So somewhere there will be people watching a religious video and suddenly these two foreigners will appear making fools of themselves.

Preparations for Arachid sauce:

On our way back down from visiting the Yaka shrine (Michael will tell you more bout the shrine in another blog entry soon), we had to go through a small community. There I was invited by a woman who was grinding pea-nuts on a rock which had a natural shape to allow women to use another smaller stone to grind whatever they need to prepare food. What was really good was that this was a communal grinding place for the community so women would take turns in grinding spices or pea-nuts for lunch or dinner. I was thanked for my help and asked if I liked Arachid sauce (spicy peanut sauce) and my response was I love it but my difficulty was not being able to eat it as usually people put fish or meat in the sauce.

Another interesting thing about the woman was that she was carrying a doll stuck in the waist band of her skirt. Twins are revered in many countries in West Africa and are said to have special powers. Twins never die their souls always stay within the families. The reason why this woman was carrying a doll was because her twin had passed away but she would dress the doll in the same clothes as herself every morning and get the twin to taste food before she took any and generally treat the twin as if s/he was still alive. Failure to take care of the twin would bring bad spirits into the family.

So not only was the shrine interesting but getting there and back was a great experience and we found out more about the beliefs of the community.

Rita and Osmond get married

We have never met the couple and yet in a typical Ghanain way we were invited to Rita and Osmond’s wedding. The wedding,which also included an engagement ceremony, took place at Grace and Perry’s house as Rita has "adopted" Perry as her father, although her father was there at the wedding as well.

Grace said the wedding would start at 11.00 so we got there an hour late to find we were one of the first guests. So we got ready to sit and wait. One would think by now we have got used to this, but no, all I could think about was what I could have been doing in this time! The only consolations were sitting under a mango tree so we were cool and a little girl adopting Michael as she suddenly appeared and climbed into Michael’s lap and then just looked at him. Make note of Michael's shiner! He got it trying to fight the bouganvilla in the garden but of course he does not say that to everyone.

Grace and daughter Selase were busy hosting the event so we chatted to Perry and his friend Richard. After nearly two hour’s wait, the engagement ceremony started. The groom’s side and the bride’s side were sitting facing each other and the groom was already in his seat. Rita’s sisters were sent to fetch her from inside the house. One of the sister’s made a big thing about how far it was and that it would cost the groom’s side some money for her to fetch her sister. So the best man gave her some money and then she repeated this trick twice and got more money. Rita was then brought by her sisters and sat down facing Osmond. Then there was a debate about whether Rita is the bride Osmond was looking for so there was some checking out to do. Rita’s brother got up at this stage to say that as he is going to loose the woman who does his cooking the groom has to compensate him before e can check his sister out. There seemed to be a deadlock as Osmond or his family could not agree on what Rita’s brother should get so the Pastor intervened. He speeded up the process by getting Rita’s brother to negotiate with Osmond later. So then Osmond checks Rita out and agrees yes that is the woman he wants to marry and invited her to join him. Some family members from both sides were then sent back in to check the presents and see whether this matched the list that had been already made. In the meantime we had a DJ playing popular songs.

Yes the gifts matched the list so then rings were exchanged and the engagement ceremony was over. We were informed that now Rita and Osmond would go to church and get their marriage registered. So more waiting. What neither of us realised was that Rita had gone back inside the house to change. She came out half an hour later with this amazing dress and a pink hat and was driven to church. More entertainment by the DJ and refreshments for the guests, many of them started dancing. Perry danced with his two dogs (Perry said they hated the noise as they are used to a quiet life). We were to go hungry some more as snacks were not suitable for vegetarians.

On the return from church, Rita and Osmond sat at the head table and a chairman gave a short speech followed by prayers from the pastor, and more music and dancing. As the only yevu guests, we had to be introduced to the guests, which was most embarrassing and we waved self-consciously when our names and what we do in Ho were announced. Nobody went to talk to Rita and Osmond and they did not talk much to each other either. Michael said Rita looked bored just like Indian brides at their weddings! The wedding ceremony ended after closing prayers and then food was served. Grace had cooked for us as she knew the caterers would not have prepared anything vegetarian.

Farmer's Day

Last Friday was Farmer’s day in Ghana, a day when the work the farmers do is celebrated. We were invited to join Grace and her mother who is a farmer to go to a nearby village where the celebrations were taking place for Ho Municipality.

So Michael, Aidan (A new VSO volunteer who is based in Kofuridua) and I followed Grace and her mother in their posh 4x4 in our little Kofi. Kofi had got its road safety worthiness the day before and had been spruced up for the test. Walla a very helpful mechanic had helped Michael get that sorted (this of course involved some dash – backhanders) and for the first time it did not break down when we travelled away from Ho. Walla is a bit of a magician with the car (as well as a nice guy) – healing hands and is fascinating to watch as he tinkers, teaching the young men he employs on the job – a perfect example of the master tradesman – apprentice model.

Grace knew the organisers so we left when she had a call from them that the Minister was on his way. It was meant to start at 9:00 a.m. and we left at 10:45. On reaching the village not much was happening but a lot of people had already gathered for the event. There were goats on sale and produce for sale including lovely chillies (hot ones I was informed), other vegetables, huge yams and plantains, ground nuts still with the roots (or is it stems) attached – never knew they grew in clusters like that and many other interesting things – even locally grown potatoes. When we return from our holiday we will definitely be going back to the village to buy fresh produce.

A little while later the dignitaries arrived and went round the whole place greeting everyone (got to shake the head honchos’ hands) and then the endless speeches started. 3 hours later and after occasional musical interludes – lots of bobo (drumming) and waving of handkerchiefs and dancing – and some comic relief provided by a woman with painted face and huge backside (a pillow stuffed up her wrap) messing about with her skinny sidekick (far more interesting to the locals than the boring big man words) - the prizes were given out and surprise surprise, Grace’s mother got the best farmer in Ho prize and (of course) we were asked to join her at the podium to receive her prizes (motorbike, microwave, insecticide sprayer, willies and lots of other small items). Many people got bicycles (nice, big chunky Chinese ones), machetes, sprayers etc. One person also got a television! We wondered how you get to win but then some questions are best left unasked.

The local chiefs then started to leave – the usual bling, under an umbrella and fanned throughout – a young man assigned to carry the royal throne. Next the VIPs – sirens – a police motorcade and the Captain (retired), our local mp was driven off followed by the Municipal Chief Executive, the Coordinating Director, Agric and a whole retinue of lesser mortals, all of them wearing matching shirts and dresses made from special farmers day cloth. Cute! We headed off out to meet Dick at a spot in Ho before he disappears off to Mali for a week and I managed to lose my camera on the way.

So major panic when I discovered the loss at the spot – manic rooting about in bags – disbelief and that apprehension and gloom/doom, hoping against all odds but deep down knowing that it had gone. We quickly retraced our steps to discover that a woman had seen someone pick it up outside the shop where we had stopped to drop off some empty bottles where I must have dropped it. It turned out that a security guard at a nearby office had it and sure enough I found him with his mate fiddling about with the camera. He was about to contact Volta Star radio to announce the lost camera – I was a happy person indeed and another good example of the fine upright citizenry here in Ghana. Yo! So back to the spot and finally an ice cold beer and a chance to chill.

Photo opportunity for the two of us to show we were in the midst of the award ceremony as the token "yevus".

Fathaaaaaaaaa.......Michael

Both Michael and I have got used to being called Obroni (white man in Twi) while in Accra and other parts of Ghana and Yevu (white man in Ewe) in the Volta Region. You will remember that Michael had mentioned in one of the previous blogs that even I get called Yevu or Obroni!

Recently, on our trip to Northern Volta Region, on our way from Nkwanta to Dambai, we kept hearing the word Fathaaaa..... called out by young children when we passed villages. It took a while to realise that they were calling Michael Fathaaa... as probably their only exposure to white men were men to do with church.

On these trips there were 7 Ghanaians, Michael and myself in the car. The children would spot Michael, ignore the rest of us and with big smiles call out Fathaaaaa.... Of course Michael made the most of the attention, he would wave at them at every opportunity and bless them. All of us got a lot of enjoyment out of this and would wait for the children in villages to spot him. On one trip we counted the number of times the children had spotted him and shouted after us. In all the villages the way they called out was in the same tune as if they had all been coached by one person. So we would be leaving villages with the ring of Fathaaaa... Michael started thinking of how he could be more entertaining and was thinking of getting a sceptre to wave the next time we go on that road.

Ghana turns “red”!

Last year Vodaphone took over Ghana Telecom. We had seen the headlines in newspapers about this takeover and local people were clearly hoping that this would mean that an improved service.
Over the months we have not seen any improvement in the service – both telephone and internet services continue to be the same - sporadically good but most of the time appalling. The only big difference noticed so far is that Ghana is turning “red”! This is not Ghana turning “red” politically and if you read on you will understand what I mean.
The takeover happened on a Friday and the next day when we went walking into town, and by the main Ghana Telecom building saw a few red umbrellas with Vodaphone logo on it. I said to Michael that although it is early days there is no sign of improvement in service but the umbrellas are here to show that the big multinational Vodaphone is here.
Within a few months we saw not only more red umbrellas appearing everywhere in Ghana but also buildings being painted red. Previously, there were numerous buildings painted yellow – MTN colours. Now this was being taken over by this bright offensive red buildings. What I could not understand was that even old colonial buildings were being painted red. One person said that it is getting your shop or house painted without any cost to you so you go for it. So for the locals it is a pragmatic approach with no thought being given to them advertising for the multinationals for free.
Another big surprise was seeing Vodaphone t-shirts and hats at funerals. One of my blog entries last year was about the importance of funerals in Ghana and that people wear red, shirts, scarves and headdress, for funerals. The pragmatic Ghanaian has again seen the freebees as benefiting them. So now instead of seeing traditional red dresses and scarves and headdresses, we see Vodaphone red everywhere on Fridays, the funeral procession day.Now, we get welcomed into towns and villages not only by Tigo (another telecom company) but also by Vodaphone within a few meters of each other

Adventures with Kofi (rust bucket really!!)

We became the proud owners of Kofi, a 20 year old Chevrolet Geotracker (known in USA as a beach buggy), a few weeks ago. We bought Kofi from an expat couple, Birgit and Raj, living in Accra who were returning home. We felt that we could rely on their word that Kofi had served them well and that it would do the same for us, so we paid a lot more than we should have.

On our way from Accra to Ho, we first of all had to find petrol as there had been no petrol for a couple of days. We were told that we should be able to buy petrol late afternoon as Obama was visiting the next day and Ghana government would not want him to witness the long queues at all the petrol stations.

I was really anxious about getting some petrol as Raj had said that as it is such an old car, we should not let the petrol tank run too low otherwise dirt might get into the engine. Michael and I decided that we should try and get petrol in Tema as we had been informed that one petrol station did have it. Luckily for us it did and we both had a sigh of relief.

Now the road to Ho has many “sleeping policemen” or rumble strips. A huge number of these are made by local people as the cars speed through communities and are a cause of lots of accidents. A huge number of people involved in accidents end up having disabilities and nobody to pay the hospital bills that they cannot afford. So I can understand why they put these up. But Kofi does not like them at all – surprise surprise because I don’t think Kofi has had any suspension for years.

By the time we got to Ho and at the penultimate rumble strip, the car started making a dreadful noise. The exhaust pipe had come undone! So our first visit was to a mechanic before we could use Kofi again. Getting Kofi in our garage was the next challenge as the door is hardly ever used and we have to use brute force to open the locks and I am useless. However, what this does provide is entertainment to the children in the neighbourhood. We usually have a crowd of boys watching and sometimes helping and looking at wonderment at Kofi. I am so tempted to take them for a ride but worry if something was to happen. They usually get to sit and pretend to drive while I wait for the garage door to be opened.

Our next long trip was to Cape Coast when Ananda was here. It got us there with no problems except I was caught by the police for speeding!! I was going to have to go to Court, on hearing this Michael got angry with the policeman and I used all my charm to get us out of the situation. It worked!

The 3 of us plus Gloria and Dave decided to go to Kakum National park and about 5 miles away from Kakum the car just stopped. The accelerator had no impact. Dave and Michael stayed with the car while the rest of us walked to the Monkey Sanctuary run by a Dutch couple, Denis and Annetta. They have been there for 6 years and the local people bring them rescued animals usually babies whose mothers have been killed for bush meat. They have had so many problems from the Chief in the village, lives have been threatened but they continue to stay there. They have to travel to a village further away to collect their water due to the problems. Denis knows a lot about cars and even though he was unwell with a bad bout of malaria, he spent a few hours trying to work out what was wrong. He could not fix it and so Michael went back to Cape Coast to look for the parts Denis needed and we looked around the place and met all the animals. The spare parts did not solve the problem so we ended up parking the car and Denis promising to ask his friend to come and take the car the mend it. In the meantime we got to know all the horror stories the couple have had to face and all of us kept thinking we would not have lasted this long. They seem so isolated.

Next day we were to return to Accra for a meeting so it was lucky that Denis’ friend did manage to fix it – something to do with fuel injection. Otherwise we would have had to return to Cape Coast to collect the car at another time.

Our next long trip was to visit the west Coast and the exhaust pipe decided to pack up again. We had to stop at Cape Coast so that Dave’s friend could fix it for us. Dave had kindly arranged it and when we finally managed to find the place it was to be told that he had travelled to Accra! One of his other colleagues did a holding job saying we would need a new one soon. Lo and behold the next day we had to stop over at a mechanics place and he managed to sort it out and we were able to return to Ho without any further problems.

So although we may make extensive plans about our trip, it is Kofi that dictates whether we make it or not. The journeys are made more interesting as we get to know more about Kofi and what a bad shape it is in. We also get to know the people who work on him. Through a Ghanain friend we have met a local mechanic, Wala, and we have decided to let him sort all the problems.

One would think from the photo I knew what was wrong!!