I said this the last time i was here and i will say it again its always such a humbling experience coming back to Ghana, i’d like to say home but i’d be deceiving myself. It definitely is home in my heart and i truly identify with the humanity of the people of Ghana.

You walk in the street at night and young people are saying “good evening uncle” made me realise i was getting on in my years, but also gave me a huge reminder of the little things my folks tried to instil in us when we were growing up, things I am very proud to have been taught, things I believe we are losing sight of as the world goes on.

A typical example is this credit crunch that is going on globally. Ghana is historically a very cash run society, you want something you fork out dollars, simple.$600 000 house...cash, $60 000 car...cash, it is how it is. Things are starting to change a bit now though, people have access to mortgages and car loans provided you have a job, but the job part that is a story all together one i will get to maybe later. But the average Ghanaians response to this credit crunch is we don’t have any credit in the first place so how can it be crunched?

I have had a lot of time to reflect, one of the joys (or not) of being here. I have had loads of time because i opted to stay with family and unfortunately there was a bereavement before i arrived so i was left to my own devices. Driving in this town is no child’s play and the traffic, Joburg is easily 3 times the size of Accra, but boss i had a meeting at 10am i had to leave the house around 8am, madness i tell u. Anyway back to having the time on my hands and you get to ponder much about what it is we are all about. The average Ghanaian earns $250 a month, a huge number live off $100 a month, now in my mind thats pretty darn insane, but you will see everyone polite and helpful. Sheesh let me tell u a story about a time that this helpfulness came in so handy...

It is my first day here. I have absolutely no clue as to how to get around. One of my old directors from Std Bank has just moved to Ghana to be the deputy MD. I bumped into him at the Game store in the Accra mall, and I swear i knew i was going to see him at that mall at that specific time, but thats a story for another time, actually no let me tell u all now. I was standing with my uncle who was looking to buy a treadmill. All of a sudden something told me to walk around the corner and a few rows down you will see Karl, so i did and whala just as i turned the corner heading towards where i thought i should be, who comes walking into the store, freaky huh...anyway so i bumped into him and he invited me over to come and watch the Currie Cup semis with him. Which i thought was a great idea. And it wasn’t too far from where i was staying...if you know your way around that is. My uncle has a few cars in the yard that aren’t doing much other than gathering dust...this uncle is not one of the average Ghanaians who earns $250 a month ;-). Anyway so we try and start the car, no luck battery she is acting up. We jump start it and all good, but i am a tad nervous. And to heighten these nerves, on my way to fill up with juice the car cut out, i take out my hankie to wipe my brow, both cos of the constant, humid heat and also because of the concern that is weighing heavily on my little mind.

Out of towner, driving on the wrong side of the road, not sure how things work or where things are, and to top it off a car with an unreliable battery, but ey i said i’d come so come i shall. I bought some juice which my dear friends is at $1.40 to the litre, we don’t have things bad i tell u. So i make it there but as i got to the drive way the car cut out and refused to start, oh well. So i had a nice visit with Karl and his family, mind you i got there late because i had to hang around and speak to this person and that person etc. Cos its my first day back in 5 years. So by the time i got there it was like 5pm, night was about to fall another problem cos there are few street lights but NO street names...slight exaggeration there are a few...but not in the area i live in. Anyway its time for me to head home. Karl gives me directions on how to get home...suprise suprise, I get lost..hmmm, but i knew i was in the area so i pulled over and asked a security guard, all so polite and helpful he sent me on my merry way....ah a road i recognise, just as i take the corner, the car cuts out. No power whatsoever. I am in a slight panic. This area is dark, its the corner of the road, there are just trees and bushes and a few potplants on the side of the road, i have my laptop, my wallet and my cellphone....did i mention it was pitch dark? What to do? What to do? So i jumped out of the car, grabbed my backpack, locked the car and hurtled into the middle of the road to find assistance. I kid you not, the very first car i flagged down pulled over, asked me what the problem was i explained that i needed a jumpstart and had the cable, he was all too happy to turn his car around, filled with occupants, on a blind curve, put them in harms way, but the bra helped me out, no questions. Gotta love that. i cant lie to you being mentally trained here in SA, my first thoughts were guys jumping out of the bush to rob me blind and secondly no one was gonna help me. But ey alls well and ended well
Being here has been an experience, i have no idea how there aren’t more accidents on the roads, because people just drive and i mean just drive! I have had a few meetings and tried my best to look the part, but the heat and humidity is a breaker so i have been winging it with a shirt no tie, bra, guys here break it down, shirt, tie, suit, and no sweating!! I look at this bra and I am like what the??!! I am in my shirt, sleeves rolled up, buttons open as low as respectably allowable but boss i am pushing enough beads to fill a 2 litre bottle in no time ;-).

Its almost like all my aunts and uncles have been taking their cue from my moms back in SA, first question they ask, how is everyone back home? I answer...So why are you here? I answer...So, Yaw, how old are you now oooh? I smile...I answer, next question, Hmmm Yaw?!! Eh when are you going to get married ooooh? Eh? We are waiting for you, i shake my head and smile i thought telling them no one wants me would get them off my case but not them, they are all too quick with bra i have more than a dozen that i think you will like! Don’t tell my folks this but there are one or two lovely ladies floating around here, but my word are they expensive ;-). They roll with guys that cruise in ML’s, X5’s, Range Rovers the works, and then they have other boys who pay for their massages on Sunday afternoons, sh it man, all i can do is buy you the Bee Movie or Dirty Dancing ;-)

I guess i am painting the wrong picture of Ghana, there are some people here with money and you can get whatever you want if you have bucks. I mean they got he iPhone last year, we are only getting it in SA now. But things here are insanely expensive. I went to buy some groceries for my cousin to take to my gran. I nearly fell over and had convulsions. A large tin of powdered milk , Nespray...$60? how do people survive? I quote everything in $ because the new Ghana Cedi has been pegged to the Dollar, so i been catching a fat hiding converting currency but what to do? There are some humungous fancy shmancy houses popping up all over the place, but just like back home the gap between the haves and the have nots is wide and widening even more. The economy is stable but a lot of the fundamentals are very backward. We import basic food like rice. If you looked at the climate and i am no geologist or whatever, but the ground seems very fertile for agriculture. So many things are imported and the things we export we have no control over the pricing like cocoa and gold. Public servants are just as slow and unmotivated as we have back home. There is this mall that has recently been built. It houses, the likes of Shoprite, Game, Mr Price, Barcellos, Rhapsody’s (my ‘office’ in Accra) to name a few. It took 10 years before it was approved, 10 whole years, there’s even a term for that sort of time...decade!! just to approve the damn thing?? Nah man?!!

And you think slavery is dead? Hell no not in these parts boss. Even a person who is ok and not filthy rich will have a house boy. Now this bra just lives to serve. You come home at 5 am you hoot like the world is coming to an end the bra comes running to open the gate, he does the garden, washes the cars every morning he gets sent to go buy this that and the other. He washes the clothes, dishes, mops, he wakes up at the crack of dawn and doesn’t sleep till who knows when. Nah man, its alive!

There is a lot going on here and plenty of potential but I have my reservations that if the government doesn’t get it right and focus on the have nots, we could easily get a case where crime is the order of the day just like back in SA. There are already signs of armed robberies creeping into society but they are not violent, but still!! That being said I was having a conversation with my uncle and the government is putting in place certain things like there is free education till the end of junior school (they want to extend it to the end of high school) which will assist greatly in the unemployment level, or not because if jobs aren’t being created, no matter how educated you are where will you find a job? Finally there is medical aid in Ghana, its still in its infancy and has some teething problems but at least it is available and all it costs is $10 a year, so there is progress. My great concern at the moment though is Ghana is going to the polls on the 7th December 2008, should it happen that the ruling party is deposed, back to square 1 we go...oh AFRICA!!!

Birthdays
15th Simon H
16th Anjita, Kirsten
17th Tshepo M, Yolisa
18th Sylvia

Thats me for another week, stay blessed

Y