Category Archives: Ghana

My daily life in Kumasi continues. It’s been lots of work during the past week and not much spare time, but last Sunday (29 Oct) I went to a hotel here in Kumasi called Rexmar hotel together with Sadat and his girlfriend Elizabeth. We spent most of the day there swimming in the pool and having lunch. It was nice to do something different, and get away from the daily life routines. My work since the last post has included all various assignments; I’ve been visiting different schools including Nuriya Islamic School, I’ve been working in the office writing various records (activities, expenditures, incomes, donations etc.), I’ve also written a portfolio of SYDD as well as designing ID cards. I’ve interviewed a 22 year old boy who is now working as a teacher with SYDD non formal education (evening classes). The evening classes are really fun and I’ve been teaching basic English to illiterate women together with Issah (Mr Abu’s brother) and Paul. Most of the women are Muslims and the lessons are every weekday evening between 7:30-9:30 pm in Aboabo. There are no lights in the classrooms, so we have bought big rechargeable lights which we use. The work this past week has also included things like running errands in Adum (downtown Kumasi), visiting a parents meeting at a Presbyterian school (I was attacked by 40-50 children here asking me different questions and begging for money), attending an HIV meeting discussing the situation in Ghana. Like I’ve said before, I really appreciate that there are different kinds of assignments all the time.

Begging for money is quite common here in Ghana, but it’s mostly children who say it right out “give me money” and when I stop for a minute and start telling them that they should keep on going to school and try to get a job, then the majority of them listen and agree by nodding.

It rained a lot this past Wednesday (1 Nov), so the evening classrooms down in Aboabo were flooded with water. As we couldn’t teach that evening, I suggested Paul that we should go to Rose’s Guesthouse and watch some Champions League football since we usually teach every weekday evening and don’t have any time for anything else. I enjoyed watching FC Copenhagen-Manchester United, and it was fun to watch a Swede score (Allbäck). We also played some pool at the place.

One thing I haven’t told about before is that I walk a lot here (Viktor, I miss our morning/evening walks in windy/snowy weather, hehe). If the taxis take too long time or if they are a bit too expensive, then we just walk instead. Most of the times it’s ok, but when the sun is strong like yesterday and it’s above 30 degrees Celsius it sure is pressuring your body.

My daily life continues!

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I have left Accra for now, with great memories in mind. I met lots of people there and I have several people to call the next time I come back to the city. Now on to my life in Kumasi! (20 Oct) I left Accra for Kumasi at around 04:30 am on a 5 hour ride on an STC bus which included laughter, bumpy roads, a not so great Ghanaian movie (“Woman On Top”), a German girl laying next to me taking half of my seat with her rear part of her body (I’m trying to write in a proper way). Six volunteers including me were picked up at the STC bus station in Kumasi and introduced to each volunteer project, and afterwards a British guy called Paul (working for the same NGO as me) met me and took me to our host family. Paul is a real nice guy with a motivation to work for the people and really trying to make things happen, just like me, so I’m pushing him all the time. I’m sharing a room with him in the Dote area in Kumasi, which is a city with more than 1 million inhabitants. Our host family is great, and the people from the family living next to my and Paul’s room is; Sadat (man, 22), Suweba (17, woman) and Madame (around 60, woman). Then we have Sala (24, woman) whose siblings Sadat and Suweba live with their mother Madame. Sala is living with Mr Abu (36) and their son Mumin (who will turn 3 on Christmas day) in Adukrom (another area in Kumasi). Mumin is an amazing kid, funny as hell and I have never seen a kid eat like he does (he eats more than what I and Paul can eat together). I gave Mumin a Pippi Long-stocking doll as a gift and whenever he sees me he shouts: “Mr Erik, Pipi, Pipi!”. People call me “Mr Erik”, because pronouncing “Per” is too difficult in general for the Ghanaians. I gave Sadat some sports clothing and my Reebok shoes I bought in March in Stockholm (do you remember David?), and he was very grateful. I didn’t think of giving away my Reebok shoes now, but I have another pair with me and when Sadat told me he’s a runner then I thought he could have them instead. The next morning he had cleaned them and they looked brand new. The first night in Dote was really warm, and since it stays around 21 degrees Celsius and above all night long then it gets warm in our room when you don’t have a fan. I’m also already used to a cock outside who makes noise sporadically early in the mornings and the neighbours playing reggae music before 06:00 am. The reggae music is really nice though waking up to and lots of the songs are either Ghanaian or Nigerian. I have also bought my first Ghanaian CD album with an artist called Obrafour, he’s one of the biggest right now and he performed before Jay-Z played in Accra a couple of weeks ago. Some of the songs on the new album are really great. I currently use one of Obrafour’s songs “Ako” as a ring tone on my cell phone.

The second day I was in Kumasi I met Mr Abu, he’s the head co-ordinator of the NGO I’m working for, called SYDD (Solidarity for Youth and Disabled Development). It’s an organisation working in different fields, but it’s working mainly with an orphanage and street children, currently there are 71 orphans; most of them have lost either one or both parents. SYDD also works with some ladies from the street working with sewing machines and SYDD also run evening lessons for elders trying to learn basic English and maths. I met most of the orphans, both girls and boys in the beginning of the week when it was a public holiday. We gave them drinks and biscuits and they are lovely kids, you feel very appreciative when they want to talk to you all the time and keep asking: “When will you be back Mr Erik? When will you play football with us?” I have told Mr Abu that I have definitely come to the right forum and NGO, because I like that there are different problems and things to work with all the time. E.g. this week I have played football with the boys from Nuriya Islamic school, I have handed out TB (tuberculosis) reports to health centers and clinics; I have worked in the office with the computer, paid a visit to a juvenile center (Akodabone) with children who has committed various crimes, we’ve had a meeting with OICI Ghana (who is funded by USAID) about a food delivery etc. I make sure there are things to do everyday.

Some of you are probably wondering how the food is, and I can honestly say that I enjoy almost every meal I have (but it’s always too much on the plate). I have never finished eating everything on the plate, because here in Ghana if you do eat everything then it’s a sign of something bad, it means that you are still hungry. In general the Ghanaian food is quite spicy, they eat a lot of rice, chicken, pasta and lots of other fried dishes. I drink mainly water all the time and since my host family and most of the people around me are Muslims, there’s no alcohol at any time. Sala (24, woman) is the one that cooks all the meals and she is a really good cook, she also serves fresh oranges or bananas every evening after dinner which is great. I love the oranges. Speaking of the oranges, one evening Mumin put an orange in his mouth and looked at me and kept it in his mouth for about 20-30 seconds without holding it. That’s the one time I have laughed the most since I arrived in Ghana. My host family also won’t let me do my own laundry, so I give them my laundry and they will do it for me (clothes, sandals etc). As you can understand they really treat you well when you live with them.

Another thing worth mentioning is the shower situation in my house in Dote. Sometimes the water is running in the shower, but I haven’t experienced it yet, instead I’m using a bucket of water and poor the water on myself with the help of a kalabash shell. I’m already used to it.

The weather in Kumasi so far varies a lot, everything from sunshine to rain, but one nice thing I truly appreciate is that it’s between 21-31 degrees Celsius all the time, no matter what time of the day it is. For instance when I, Paul, Sadat and Sadat’s girlfriend Elizabeth were at Lake Bosumtwi last weekend, then it was sunny and very warm at first and then we had some heavy rain showers when we travelled back to Kumasi.

Let me tell you about the traffic; the taxis, cars, tro-tro’s (minibuses) and so on. All I can say is that the traffic here is a well-organized chaos, with everybody honking the horns all the time, trying to get customers or just telling you that someone is standing in their way. I have been in several taxis and tro-tro’s so far and most of them are in a very bad shape and it feels like you are lucky when you have arrived to your final destination. When you get into a taxi that is quite nice, then it feels strange, because they are in minority.

Another thing which I’m already used to is the phenomenon that they cut the power here. No matter where you live the power is on for 48 hours and then the power is off for 12 hours in your area, and so it goes on all the time. Either the power is off between 06:00-18:00 or 18:00-06:00, so you have to remember to charge your cell phone, computer etc when the power is on. Speaking of time, for those who don’t know, Ghana uses GMT (Ghana Maybe Time).

I have got a membership at the British Council for 6 months, so that I can go and surf the Internet whenever I want to and also read British newspapers and magazines, borrow DVDs or books if I feel like it. I will probably only use the internet service, but I like the idea of just showing your membership card every time. The membership cost about 30 USD for 6 months (around 210 SEK I guess), which is not so bad.

One of the most special things that have happened during the past week was when I was with Sadat and Mohammed Ramadan (Mr Abu’s brother) down in Aboabo when the Alahbar celebration took place. It was incredible to experience so much people in one street celebrating and I was definitely the only white person there, it was a special feeling for sure. I really enjoyed it and both Sadat and Mohammed Ramadan were very protective of me, they are very kind and nice people. I also got to meet part of Mr Abu’s family that day, his father and mother and some of the brothers. I love meeting new people all the time. I’m in a totally different environment now with lots of Muslims and it’s great because I learn so much everyday. E.g. I have met the highest Islamic leaders in the Ashanti region (Kumasi belongs to Ashanti region) while walking around with Mr Abu in his home area called Aboabo.

To sum it all up; I feel very welcomed in my new environment and with the host family that I have around me, people are so nice to me and wherever I go the children and grownups shout “Mr Erik” or “Oboruni” (white person, European) and come up to me, shake hands etc. I have said to Paul; “I really feel like this is my home” and Mr Abu have already told me “you should come back in 2008 when Ghana is hosting the Africa Nations Cup because you feel like family” and I feel the exact same way.

My cell phone number in Ghana: +233-24-6830917

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So far it’s been an introduction week in Accra containing information about the different projects, taking care of formal things like visa extensions, contact with embassies etc. We have also had some time for sightseeing, hours at the beach, clubbing and so on. The tropical heat is around you all the time and it has rained one time since I got here, today. There are two things that have happened so far which I would like to tell you more about!

How should I start? I know my brother has told me so many times: “I dislike the kind of people who starts to talk to other people on the bus, on the train, on the airplane or where ever”. I’m that guy and I’m glad I know how to socialize, because in such a short time I have already met so many interesting people. I met two Ghanaian men on the flight between Frankfurt-Accra, met an American guy in my hostel working for MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières) in Liberia. Now to the part which I find funny:

On Sunday (15 Oct) things were happening slow, I was sitting outside the hostel I’m staying in during the introduction week, reading my guidebook about Ghana, then a man comes up to me and says hello and starts talking. We talk for awhile and it turns out that he’s a politician from Freetown, Sierra Leone working with external affairs for the political party APC and at the same time he owns a gold and diamond company. He told me about his $10 million dollar project with time shares on a beach twenty minutes outside of Freetown, the elections which will be held in Sierra Leone next year in June (where his party will try to take the power) etc. He gave me his contact information and invited me to come and visit him in Sierra Leone. I’ll definitely try to get there when the time comes. He was having a meeting with some other people at my hostel and they all came up to me and started talking about business and politics in West-African countries. A little while later one of the men from the meeting came to me and we started talking and he turned out to be the Liberian ambassador in Italy who’s also doing business with several West-African countries. Me and him talked for 2 hours, he was telling me about the war in Liberia, how people fled the country, how he was saved back in 1990 when other ministers throats were cut during the war and we discussed West-Africa in general. You can imagine how surprised I was when they came to me and started talking, and the Liberian ambassador told me later that night: “The Sierra Leonean man asked me about, who’s the young guy sitting with the book behind us, do you think it’s ok for me to go and talk to him?” I got their business cards etc. Did you like the story? Hehe!

Monday evening at 19:30 (16 Oct); I had dinner by myself talking to a German volunteer, Sara. While I was eating she told me that she would like to walk around here in Accra when it’s dark. So we started walking trying to find a place where we could listen to some live music; we walked to a hotel called Paloma, got there and started talking to the security guards asking them for suggestions where to hear live music, but they told us that there’s not much live music in Accra on a Monday. So we started leaving the Paloma hotel when one of the guards’ younger brother, 18 years old, told me and Sara that he’ll walk with us. This walk together with the 18 year old Ghanaian boy turned out to be an amazing experience. He was very kind and confident and he showed us around all different places where you’ll never go as a white person during the evening. He showed us chaotic bus stations with maybe 100 buses and all these people walking around, he showed us alleys, real crummy places, a river called “the gutter” where the locals just through trash, take a piss in and so on. We really got to feel the night pulse of Accra and how a lot of the people really live; we also met his brother’s (the guard) wife and their two children. They lived in a real crummy little box and it was steaming hot inside this 3×3 meters big room. I loved the tour he did for us and we told him that we couldn’t offer him any money, because we weren’t carrying any. Just imagine, an 18 year old Ghanaian boy you have never met or seen before, you meet him in the street and he shows us people lying in the streets, shops, market places, black market with illegal business, city lights, he took us to a bridge where we weren’t allowed to walk, we crossed bridges and so on. I have never ever before got this close to the local people in a city before, being a “tourist”. I didn’t bring any camera that night out of respect for the people, but it would have been great to have this tour documented in photos. Last night I met the boy again and gave him a Supersci cd I burned and a Supersci tank-top, he loved it!

Tomorrow I leave for Kumasi, where I’m going to work until April 2007.

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