I have acquired a new pet with my house. I didn't realize that it was a package deal but oh well. It is a little chicken. Every time I came to the house while the men were working on the pavement, this little brownish red chicken was there. I started to call it "my friend" because it always seemed to come around me. Then when I took over the place, I didn't see it for several days. But the last two days when I have gone to the house with Lee and/or Michelle the chicken comes up to the side of the car after we are parked and waits til we get out. It stays within about 3-4 feet of me and follows as I move toward the gate. Even with 2-3 of us around the gate, it moves in closer and waits until we open it and comes through with us. Little fear at all. So I have decided that I have a pet chicken like it or not. I am thinking of naming her Dixie as was suggested to me the other night. We will see how much she is around when I actually live there.
Today we went into the "downtown" area of Accra to find my stove. It was great. Lee and Michelle went also. Because of the distance and traffic, etc. we took a taxi. The trip in was pretty relaxing. The trip out a little more interesting as our driver seemed to prefer driving down the middle of the road rather than being bothered by staying in one lane. We received several long horn blasts and a few dirty looks but made it home safe and sound. I have decided that a driver here would rather lose his brakes than the horn. The horn is used usually in short little beeps that say "I am here, don't hit me", "I am passing you", "get out of my way", "move over before I hit you" and so on. Very useful. Not like in the states where you usually only lay on the horn hard to tell someone off.
Being downtown was great. Kind of like the market. People everywhere, selling everything. It is a mad house. Again I am amazed that I like it but I did. I hope to go down there again soon. Of course I am with Lee and Michelle so that helps. We bought several things at different stores and then had lunch at a nice little restaurant. It was great to be able to skip past the American type food and go straight for the Ghanaian food. Michelle and I shared a dish called "red red". It is some kind of bean made into a stew and served with fried plantain (or rice). We both really enjoy it. It was HOT though. My mouth was on fire. But still I managed to clean my plate. Lee had something called palaver sauce with rice. It appears to be a type of green with meat in it. I have had it before and it is pretty good. Also very spicy. One dish that I do not enjoy is called "kenkay". It is a thick substance with some kind of gravy or sauce over it. I find it sour. I plan to try some other dishes like "banku", fufu (which we also had in Liberia) and something called "face the wall". I still have not gotten a clear picture on why it is called "face the wall" or what it actually is but I still want to try it.
People told me to take lots of pictures when I first got here b/c what was really different and interesting at the beginning would become commonplace later on. This is so true. The hawkers that line the roads...I mean the lanes of the three lane highway (you are dodging them on both sides) no longer seem strange to me. As a matter of fact I am starting to enjoy being able to buy useful things from the car window. Things like matches, little bags of cold water, newspapers, etc. etc. Today Lee and I got the "pure water" bag. It is just what it says. A plastic bag of filtered (we hope) water. And if you want to appear like you have been here awhile you bite off a corner and drink it about halfway down and then let it hang from your mouth while you suck out the remaining water handsfree. Lee has this down but I am a novice so I need a bit more practice. Next time I get the chance I am going to buy some sugarcane from the hawkers. The sugarcane is cut into small chunks and you chew on it to get the sweet juice out and then spit out the pulp. We had this in Liberia also and I loved it. You do have to be careful though. Once you look twice at a hawker and what they are selling you will get plagued for awhile. But on the other hand if you are really interested and are bartering and traffic starts moving, the hawker will run quite a distance to get the sale. It is amazing what they can do to get that sale. And usually they are running with their product in a huge bowl balanced on their head. Amazing!
As we were bartering a bit over the stove downtown I was looking at, the salesgirl asked me if I was German. We were looking at a German brand so I thought that made sense although I don't sound German at all. Then she asked if I was English, and then if I was Australian. Now I am thinking what about me did not give away immediately that I was American b/c it is usually quite obvious. And I certainly wasn't using an Enlish accent. When I said I was American she was surprised. This is not the first time that this has happened to me. She told me she didn't think I was American b/c I was speaking so clearly and precisely. So I started listening to myself and I do drop into this very enunciated, sing song kind of talk. I don't know where it comes from or how I started it but there it is. I think it is a combination of trying to be very clear, a little bit of Liberian English and a little bit of Ghanaian English. Pretty soon I hope I can throw in a little Twi and then I won't know what I'll sound like:) If I am ever in a situation where it is not advantageous to be American, I hope I can pull out this strange talk.
I have learned a couple of cultural things. The first one is really a reminder that sadly the majority of people here are illiterate. In the taxi today we saw a word that I believed was the Twi word for thank you called "mendaase". I asked the driver if that is how you spelled it and he looked confused. Unfortunately it didn't click with me and I asked again. Then he explained what the word meant but still didn't talk about the spelling. Michelle softly whispered that he probably couldn't read and I finally got it. How dense. It just was so different to me. Where I come from people are educated, usually very educated. Michelle had mentioned a report that said in most of the world you were considered wealthy if you owned a book AND could read it. I hope I don't make this mistake again. The other thing that I did notice and PTL didn't make the mistake was the idea of being indirect. As Americans we tend to be very direct in what we say. And as a matter of fact we get annoyed with people who beat around the bush and can't get to the point. But in other cultures, such as this one, people are not direct but are rather very indirect. I noticed it most significantly the other day when talking with my guard about some points of the employment contract. Part of it may have been a language barrier but most of it was this slowly circling the issue before getting there. I remember a couple of times in my mind thinking "would you please just get to the point!" but I am happy to say that I didn't say it outloud. And I think God helped me to realize what was going on so that I didn't show my irritation on my face. The training at MTI in Colorado was very helpful on this point. Just one idea of a cultural difference that I need to be aware of and try to adjust to.
Ok enough rambling for now.
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