“Are you Ghanaian?” “I am tonight!”

June 23, 2010

The title of this post is referring to tonight’s adventures. Ghana played Germany in the World Cup. Germany is a really great team, and Ghana lost. Shy and Ueli (my British and Swiss friends, respectively) and I went out to get dinner around 8:00. We were out when the game ended, Germany: 1, Ghana: 0. Suddenly the streets erupted in celebration. People were skipping around, dancing, screaming, blowing vuvuzelas, honking horns, leaning out the windows of tro-tros. As we walked back to get our egg sandwiches, we got increasingly more confused, as the celebration seemed to be happening in places that didn’t serve alcohol. We asked some people but either they didn’t understand the question or Ueli didn’t understand the answer. Finally, we realized that although Ghana had lost, so had another team in their bracket, which means that Ghana advances to the next round. This was the first time in my time here that I felt a teeny bit unsafe. The sidewalks were so packed with people, we had to be really careful not to fall into the 12”-wide gutters. We walked in the streets, but had to be acutely aware of all the cars going down the street at 50 mph. People grabbed at my arm and when I turned around, they asked me if I was happy or if I was Ghanaian. Instead of saying, “no, I’m from the United States, but I’m rooting for Ghana,” I soon switched to, “I am tonight!” which seemed to please people. We lost Shy in the obstacle course of people, loud vuvuzelas, little kids, cars, and sewers. We soon found him, but it felt very weird to be with only one other guy. I’m definitely not comfortable walking around alone at night. (Mom, deep breaths! I’m not irresponsible!)

So anyway, that was our night. Not super eventful, but I was exhausted from carrying two 5-liter containers of water for about 1.5 miles in the 100-degree weather around noon. I probably shouldn’t have done it on an empty stomach or in the middle of the day, but I’m starting to feel really awful about all the waste here. A lot of people buy water packets for 20 pesewas ($.14) off the vendors on the street. They’re basically sealed pouches of water. You rip off the corner with your teeth, drink the water, and then throw the plastic wrapping on the ground. (so it can clog up the sewers.) I’ve heard that sometimes those packets aren’t full of the cleanest water so I haven’t tried one yet. I’m not too anxious to try one since it’s just water…

OK. Now it’s 11:55p and I’m wiped out. Shy and the two girls (Norway and Netherlands) went out to the club for a little while, but I had a really hard time getting up this morning and I have to be at work around 8:30 tomorrow. Hopefully it’s my last Kumasi interview!!! So I will have finished my 26 in Kumasi. All I have left is 3 in Tamale and then 54 in Accra and the surrounding areas. Wow. That seems like a lot. I’m not going to think about it!! Goodnight!!

Ghanaian proverb of the day: Knowledge is like a baobab tree; no one can encompass it with their hands.