A Typical Ride on the Tro-tro

On Tuesday afternoon after class I went to the Medina market (a market in the town of Medina) in order to buy fabric, which I will hopefully get made into a dress. In order to get to the Medina market, I took a tro-tro. Tro-tros are basically the size of a 15 passenger van. They typically have four benches and then the front seats (also a bench). These vans are designed to fit as many people as possible. The biggest problem is that there’s never enough room for my long legs – my knees are always scrunched against the seat in front of me. 4 people fit across each row. The back bench is a four person bench, but the other benches are three person benches with a seat that folds down to form a fourth seat. These block off access to the back row, so they are used once the row behind is full. This also means that if someone in the back row needs to get out at a stop, all those in these seats must move so that there is an aisle again. A full tro-tro has 17 passengers in it, plus a driver and a mate. Two people sit up front with the driver, and the mate sits in the back by the door since he mans the door. If another passenger wants to get on at this time, sometimes they will squish in and share a seat with the mate. The more people in the vehicle, the more money the driver and mate will make! In my experience, a tro-tro driver and mate generally wait until a tro-tro is full before leaving the stop. Whenever someone gets off, a new rider is generally waiting to get on. Of course, I ride generally in the city and during busy times. I would imagine that at less busy times, in less populated places, or at less popular stops the tro-tros would leave even if they weren’t quite full. I usually get on at the University which is a very popular stop, or at one of the main stations in Accra.

In order to get on the right tro-tro, you have to listen to what the mate is calling. They will call out their final stop, or the general direction in which they are going. You can always ask a mate if your stop will be included. When you are at a large station in Accra you can ask any mate or driver for your stop, and they will point you to where you can find a tro-tro to take you there. There are also hand motions that correlate with the stops, like moving finger in a circle for the Circle stop and pointing downward and forward for Tema Station, the main station I’ve been to in Accra. When I am returning to campus, I have to ask the mate if they are going to Legon. That is where the University is. While we were in Medina yesterday, we were looking for a tro-tro back to Legon. We were just walking down the street and as a tro-tro passed I asked the mate (who was hanging out the window, which is their typical position) “Legon?” He said yes and waved us forward. We had to follow the tro-tro as it turned the corner onto a less busy street where it could pull off and wait for us to board. When the tro-tro is full, the driver will leave. The mate will often bang twice on the side of the van to signal to the driver that he should stop or take off. This is much easier than yelling forward and across the van. Once the tro-tro is on its way the mate will ask for payment. He starts in the front of the tro-tro and everyone passes their coins to him. This transaction is done fairly quietly; sometimes without comment. Most people know how much their ride will cost. We pass forward money and return change without too much difficulty. The ride to Medina, about 15 or 20 minutes, cost 25 peswas (about 25 cents). A ride into Accra is a little longer and costs 30 peswas to get there and 40 peswas to get back. I’m not sure why it costs more to get back, but whatever. I am always impressed by the mate’s ability to remember who gets on and off and who he still needs to collect payment from when the tro-tro lets off passengers and picks up new ones. In fact, Ghanaians have generally impressed me with their memories, especially of names. Even as a large group of 17 students, most people we meet remember a lot of our names after we go around in a circle and say our names once.

The tro-tro vehicles are an experience in and of themselves. The vehicles are often older. During rush hour last Friday we were going along, and as we hit a traffic jam, the mate ran out and bought a bag of water (500 mL of water – an individual sized bag) from a woman selling them (sellers walk in between the cars, like people collecting donations for things in America, and sell things they are carrying on their heads to people through car and tro-tro windows. We have bought water bags, chocolate bars, plantain chips which are like potato chips, and toilet paper from tro-tro windows, but I’ve seen things like clocks and scales near the US Embassy – a richer part of town – and other things such as bags of grapes, sugar cane, and tangerines). Anyway, our mate bought a bag of water and proceeded to pour it under the hood, probably to cool off the engine. That was probably the sketchiest tro-tro I had been on! I think that since it was rush hour, the tro-tro had been running all day and was just getting hot. Friday’s experience during rush hour was also atypical because while I tried to push through the immense crowds of people outside of the tro-tro waiting to get on, my phone was pickpocketed. Luckily it was just one I had bought here for 40 cedis (about 40 dollars). I did buy a new one yesterday, and it was cheaper than my first – it was only 36 cedis! My number is 011 233 24 029 3383. If you have the ability to call or text internationally, you should!

This has gotten longer than I expected, but hopefully this description of public transportation will give you a little bit of a better idea of what my life is like here!

Cultural Awareness at Max Mart

This weekend a few members of our group decided to check out Max Mart, a local shopping center. This was a most interesting experience. Max Mart is a very western shopping center with a coffee shop inside. Though I loved the coffee shop, (because I love coffee, and the hot tea I got made my head cold feel better) I found myself unhappy in Max Mart. I think the reason was that I was confronted with everything I don’t like about western culture. Max Mart is a place of wealth, mass consumerism, and multi-national corporations. Max Mart was filled with every American “necessity” – movies, make-up, fine china, stainless steel pots and pans, even a massive organic foods section. This place was definitely catering to westerners. Everything was at least 3 times the price of what you could get it for on the street, and there were so many familiar name brands. Anything you could ever need or even want, you could probably find in Max Mart. Everything, that is, except my favorite parts of Ghanaian culture so far. Looking out the Max Mart window I saw a busy Ghanaian street scene – vendors selling local goods (even my plastic laundry buckets are made in Ghana, not in China!), community, and the bright colors of a Ghanaian shopping scene. Being in Ghana, I wanted to immerse myself in the Ghanaian culture, and not retreat to the American coffee shop, as easy as that can be to do. I desire to see the similarities between Ghanaian and American culture – to recognize that this country is really not so far removed from my own; but I also want to celebrate the aspects that make Ghanaian culture separate and unique. I want to buy my egg sandwich every morning from Larabe – the two girls who make my egg sandwiches are friends, both named Larabe. They are so trusting and kind- I bought bread with my dinner the other night and I didn’t have the right change, but neither did they. So they just told me to take it and to pay for it in the morning! The way they trust me warms my heart. This culture is full of respect and trust. In fact, respect is so important that I must be careful not to disrespect by using my left hand or my crossing my legs in front others. It was so interesting to see how small our world really is, and the invasion of western culture into Ghana. Although Max Mart offers me the “comforts of home”, I hope that on this trip I will not utilize this option too often and I will prefer to enjoy the Ghanaian culture for what it has to offer.

Laundry Day

I have learned the true value of a washing machine and dryer. Yesterday was laundry day, and I decided that I would not yet cave to paying $1 per kilo of laundry to have it done for me - I wanted to do my own (I sent my sheets, towels, and blanket to the washing machine today though - those are far to big for me to tackle on my first try. My roommate does her own however...) I washed 8 shirts, a pair of shorts, a pillowcase and some undergarments in my first time. It took about 2 hours to wash and hang them all. The process is relatively simple, but it does rub your fingers pretty raw! I started about 8, and though I still have some clothes left, I will finish them tonight or sometime when I have a bit more time. Basically, you fill a bucket with water and detergent and soak your whites for about half and hour with a bleach-like powder as well, then you take a bar of soap and scrub at the garment till you feel its clean, then rinse and hang on the line. You have to be sure to rinse well or else your clothes dry crusty (we'll see how well I did this afternoon when I take them off the line). I was proud of my hand-washing abilities. i got a permanent marker stain out of my shorts that had been there since this spring and the washing machine hadn't been able to get out for me! I think handwashing works really well for stains and I'll probably keep doing it on tough stains when I get back to the States. I have also learned a trick from the Ghanaians here - wash your underwear with you in the shower each night. Not only does it make for less laundry on laundry day, but you won't ever run out of underwear! It's ingenious! Yes, handwashing is a lot of work, but doing it with two friends (Katie Klok and Emily Keller) and listening to great tunes (Sufjan Stevens, Ingrid Michaelson, and Nickel Creek, courtesy of Calvin Broendyk's computer) made the time go very quickly, and I actually look forward to doing it again - which is good, because I still have some to finish! I'm not going 2 weeks without doing laundry again here!

Accra and thoughts

I spent time on Saturday with my roommate Irene, who is from Accra. We went into the city and did some shopping! We took the tro-tro (public transportation) into town and shopped on the streets for a while. The streets are just crowded with people selling EVERYTHING you can ever imagine- scrub brushes and soap to clothes and shoes to African fabrics to jewelry to vegetables and meat. And they are just set up on the roads and sidewalks. I bought two short sweaters that tie in the front (my roommate calls them petticoats), a headscarf like I’ve seen some Ghanaians wearing, a pair of brown sandals (Irene said they looked “African”) and some elastic headbands. She helped me bargain, which was fabulous. Then I came back to the dorm and did homework for the afternoon.

My life in Ghana and my life in America are truly not all that different from each other. I am still me. I sweat more and need to shower more often; I am sad that I don’t get hot water from the tap and that there isn’t toilet paper provided in the bathrooms, but really, I am still me. I think that I thought that my life would be so completely different, and it’s not. I can still get anything I need. I live in a giant city with so many goods – both imported from the west and locally made. Having the Calvin group here means that I have friends here who understand me and where I’m coming from. Although they don’t know my history the way a lot of my friends at school do, they understand me. And we are all similar enough to be able to have meaningful conversations even this early into the trip. So it’s not a struggle to relate to those around me either. I know that as I experience more of what my roommate calls “culture” (the life in the city of Accra she just calls “modern way of life”, not “culture”) I will be challenged and fascinated in different ways. And my life here does make me think about the way American culture works. I think that is most important to me right now. Here I see how a balance needs to be reached between the rich and the poor. I see that there are difficulties in getting basic needs met for all the people (especially the handicapped), and I see that as a basic justice issue. But I also see a lot of the Ghanaian way of life as closer to my values than the American way of life. Ghanaians buy most of their products locally. It is very easy to eat food that was grown close by, and buy all products that were made in Ghana. Imports are available, but actually more expensive. Public transportation is really the best way to get around, it is easily accessed, and it is cheap. Ghanaians have a pride in their daily work and in their country’s heritage and their own ethnic culture that I do not see in a lot of Americans. Finding the balance in life between the economy and the environment is important for me, and seeing such a different balance here than the one in the States still has my mind spinning, and I’m not sure yet where it will land. I know that a lot of the American lifestyle is not for me, but the Ghanaian lifestyle is not perfect either. I see improvements that can be made, but I also feel inadequate to judge the Ghanaian way of life because I have had so little interaction thus far with it. I feel like I can legitimately point out things I want to fix in the American way of life because I have been a part of it for the last 22 years. I’m not really sure where I’m going with this, but suffice to say, my life at this time doesn’t look too much different from my life in the states, and I am comfortable here. Not to the point of complacency, but enough that I feel like this place can truly become my home for the next 3 months.

Class...

Well, classes began yesterday! Things are going well. Our Ghanaian professors are good, our classes will be interesting, and things shouldn't be too difficult. If anything, it will be difficult for me to get into a homework routine again after not doing that for the past 8 months! I don't think we'll have too much though. Today we will have our first African dance class - probably the one I am most afraid of :) We will also have our second Twi language class, which I am excited to begin using. I feel as though I am ripped off in the markets here sometimes, and I am told if I speak Twi to the vendors they like it and will give you a better deal! Not that being ripped off is losing me much money - everything is much cheaper here than in the states!
I am putting links to other blogs of our group members on the side as I get them. Check out those blogs if you're interested in more details about things we do here. There is so much I want to write but feel that I can't. It's hard to give you all a full view of what life is like here. All I can give are snapshots, which will have to do, even though they can never be a full picture.

Akropong

This weekend (Sunday through Tuesday actually) our group went to the Akrofi-Christaller Institute in Akropong, Ghana (it's in the Eastern region up in the mountains, about an hour from where we are in Accra). There we had our first "excursion" and some orientation about culture, customs, and religion in Ghana. We heard lectures on Muslim-Christian relations in Ghana (which are remarkably peaceable), Christianity's relationship with the African Traditional Religion (which explains a lot of the culture we see), and Culture and Customs, like doing everything with your right hand (including waving) and using family titles to address people based on what age group they are to you (mammy, auntie, sister, brother, etc.) Hopefully that will help us learn how to address the vendors in the Night Market, the place where we buy our cheapest meals because it's right by our hostel and you can get a meal for under 1 cedi (basically the same as 1 dollar).
I want to tell you a bit more about African Traditional Religion. The Traditional Religion holds to the belief that the spirit world affects every aspect of the physical world. An accident, an illness, anything that happens has a spiritual explaination too. Thus, the spirit world is very important to the physical world. All of the shops here are called "God's Time Resturaut" or "Jesus Saves Hair Salon" or something similar. It is not a matter of taking the Lord's name in vain, but a matter of truly believing that God is in all and through all, a matter of believing that God has complete control over all aspects of our life. In truth, it's quite Calvinistic!
The final thing we did as a part of our Akropong trip was to visit the Cedi Bead Industry and the Akosombo dam which provides electricity for 70% of Ghana, as well as parts of Burkina Faso, Togo, and Benin. It created Lake Volta, one of the largest man-made lakes in the world. It also displaced a lot of people to do it... our guide said they were resettled along the banks of the river and a lot of them have jobs fishing, but seeing how controversial the displacement that is occuring in China for Three Gorges is, I can't imagine that it was smooth or desired by the residents that were displaced from their homes. How difficult it is to deal with some of those dilemmas- the dam provided electricity for so many, yet displaced so many people.
The Cedi Bead Industry was very cool to see. It was very sustainable bead-making, and they made some really neat stuff! They used a ton of recycled glass bottles to make their beads, everything is done open-air so there is no heating/cooling costs, and most things are done by hand so there is very little pollution from machinery. I was impressed by the output and the quality of these beads. It really was a neat place.

Markets

I can't believe its only been three days since I got here. It feels like so much longer! I am much more comfortable here. Yesterday we went to the Medina market and today we headed into the capital city of Accra for the day. I was reminded by going out how "sheltered" the University campus is compared to the outside world. When we go out into the markets we are called "obruni, obruni" (which is twi for white person) and asked if we want to buy things. They assume we have a lot of money because we are foreigners. We are able to purchase anything we want in the markets here. There are all kinds of foods, fruits and vegetables (both familiar and not), meat (including pig legs...kinda gross) and tons of fresh fish (smelly). There are all kinds of fabrics and even second-hand clothes (American clothes) for sale. You can buy any necessity - soaps, towels, buckets, all kinds of silverware, knives and other cooking utensils, really anything!
Today we went to the cultural market in Accra and visited a drum shop. The guys there were great - they said because we were students we were, of course broke, and we should receive free drum lessons from them. So we did :) They played us some welcome music and then let us try. We did not have much time because we had to go to lunch, but they invited us to come back soon! My funny moment of the day: one guy asked me if I was a model. I said no, but he said I should be because I have a "sexy body". HA! (that laugh's for you Beth). It was hilarious :) Well, I will update further later. Thanks for reading!

Arrived!

We did arrive, safe and sound, all luggage intact! We got to Accra around 7 p.m. Wednesday night, and back to our dorm around 9 or 10. We had a reception first with some people from Grand Rapid's "sister city" in the Ga District of Ghana. We were all exhausted.
We started orientation, registration for classes this morning, etc. We are tired, but doing well. The trip was long - 7 hours from Detroit to Frankfurt, 6 hours in the airport in Germany, and 6 more hours through Lagos, Nigeria (where we stayed on the plane as it refueled) to Accra, Ghana. The weather is very humid, but not overly hot today, which is nice.
I currently feel a little shell-shocked - it's day 1 here and a bit confusing not to know exactly where I am and where I'm going. It's been really nice that we're spending most of the day with our professor and being guided around campus. There is no need for me to make my own decisions quite yet. I'm sure when it is I will be ready, but for now it is nice.
I am looking forward to meeting all kinds of new people. My roommate, Irene, is a high school friend of Amma at Calvin, for those of you who may know her. She's been really friendly and nice, very open and shares what she can with me! It's been great.
Hope you're all doing well!