Like the lyrics from a David Gray song, this is indeed what it feels like to live in Ghana. I feel like I spent my last couple of weeks in Canada rushing to get everything packed and settled and when I arrived here, things went from a hare's pace to a snail's pace. I was briefed that in Ghana and most African cultures things work on a different time. What people from the Caribbean call "island time". Where in Canada we would say, "don't leave for tomorrow, what could be done today", Ghanaians would say, "there is nothing that can be done today that can't wait until tomorrow". In light of this, I ended my first week of work without any real evidence that I spent a week at work. I'll be working with another Canadian intern, my housemate, Jody and a Ghanaian who is employed under the national youth employment program, Francisca. We spent half the week learning and reading up on Help Age Ghana and the other half sitting and waiting. On a more productive note, we did visit the day centre in Osu, close to the office and two other day centres in Accra, where we were able to interact with the elderly and hear about some of the challenges they are facing at home and in society, because of a lack of policies to support older persons.
Life at home has not been any different. My roomies, Caitlin and Jody, and I spend many hours talking on our terrace, drinking tea and reading. We joked last night how much we appear as a group of old women. I am slowly get used to the fact that I have to boil water to wash my dishes, instead of loading up the dishwasher; and that have to wash my clothes by hand, scrubbing and rinsing each garment and hanging them out to dry (an event that took the better half of a morning). We are also mastering the power rotation and one night this week when we had no power, we managed to still cook up an excellent stir fry and eat it by candlelight. There is something soothing about this pace, something that makes you sit back and let things happen. I think in this state of mind I'll be able to see things that my mind might have blocked out before because of the hectic pace it was used to processing things at. And on that note, I think it is time for me to saunter on home for a nap.
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1 comment:
That slower pace you speak of definitely isn't part of the Jo'burg culture. But whenever we set up a meeting or something with Mozambicans, we always remind them that we won't be making allowances for "Mozambican time."
My friend Alison Lang will be in Accra with JHR in about three weeks. I can send you her contact if you'd like to meet her. E-mail me whenever you have a moment between naps.
BK
ps - Have you read 28 yet? I'm going to the South African launch next week.
pps - Do you know your blog doesn't allow anonymous comments?
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