The night I arrived at school, ISEP gave us boxed
dinners. After unpacking my things, I
sat down to eat. That first night was an
introduction to many of the next week’s dinners: rice, a few vegetables,
chicken, and fish. It was pretty good,
and I hungry, so I didn’t complain.
Initially, I only registered that there was meat. While eating the piece of chicken and rice, I
kept tasting/smelling this smoky flavor, but couldn’t figure out where it was
coming from. I finally turned to the
other piece of “chicken.” And then my brain went, “More chicken. Just kidding!
Fish head!” Complete with teeth and eyes.
Welcome to Ghana. It was pretty
good and I have gotten tilapia, the fish of choice raised here, on several
occasions since. But this difference
threw me. Fish is always served whole,
usually with the guts cleaned out. It’s
kind of like a game. How quickly can you pull the meat out with as few bones
as possible? You either get jollof
[spicy] rice or fried rice. Vegetables
don’t seem to be as important to, or at least not as much of a staple in, the
diet. Rice is the main staple and is at
every meal like bread in the U.S.
I’ve been told that there’s an American grocery store with
American brands, products, and such. I
might have to at least stop in later in the semester. All Needs on campus, Maxi Mart, and other
grocery stores have some things that are similar like candy and soda, among other things, but they
taste different. I’m pretty sure they
flavor foods with sugar cane rather than the high fructose corn syrup we use. Dining dollars aren't a thing. Rather you pay for your food whether from one
of the restaurants on campus, central caf, the night market close to the ISH,
street vendors, or some place in town.
Students usually cook their own food.
Sound bad? Eating locally/as a Ghanaian does, rather than buying
American snacks [darn], is ridiculously cheap. The conversion rate is about US$1=GH¢2. (¢, cedi, pronounced the same as a music c.d.)
I can easily eat a meal for under GH¢4. cuh-razy.
So much learning…the thing is you begin to realize that
every part of your day has to be done differently, or at least initially thought
through and processed. You must take your
own toilet paper to the bathroom and throw it away in the trash can because the
plumbing has potential to get backed up.
The water isn’t potable, so you must always have bottled water with
you. Now that it’s been a few weeks, and
we’ve started adjusting to the food/environment, we can drink sachets, plastic
bags that hold about 500ml. of water. You
can either do laundry by hand or pay someone to do it. To do it by hand requires a bucket, laundry
soap, a bar of soap for trouble spots, and time. Having someone else do it is about ¢2-¢5. Eating means making sure you have ingredients,
or are thinking on the way home from so you can stop and buy in advance, and starting
to cook before you’re starving because preparation and waiting for the hot
plate to heat up takes time (you’ve no idea how well I’ve experienced this this
past week). A simple “hello” can turn
into a minute long greeting that frequently ends in asking for your contact
information and running away as quickly as possible. Getting to class on time means leaving the ISH
30 minutes in advance because it takes 20 minutes to get to main campus. And those of you who know me know that I’m
habitually late. Wooo. Maybe I’m
just meant to be on Africa time? :P
One of the reasons I chose to study abroad through ISEP in Ghana
was for their Global Exchange Program (GEP).
The program helps set up volunteer opportunities between participants
and local non-profits. Monday, we’re
going out to visit Beacon House, a children’s home. We’re also going out to Mawuvio’s (sp?)
Outreach Program, in addition to about 4 others, next week. School is supposed to be free and compulsory
for grades 1-6(?), but there are also small fees in the better schools and
uniform fees for all. Frequently,
parents keep children at home because they’re needed to work and help bring in
money. MOP is one of many programs that
provides schooling to kids who can’t afford the basic school and uniform fees
and provides a meal each day. Kelly, a
girl from my school who came to UG 3 semesters ago, worked at MOP and got me
excited about the opportunity to work with others! She has been great in answering my questions
and mentioning some of the things many others didn’t know about until they got
here (the strike for instance).