"Where you going?"

I’ve been slacking on the blog updates recently. I think this is due to the slight bit of Ghana fatigue I feel. I’ve been here five weeks and have just about four weeks to go; I’ve been here long enough that everything is seeming a little more familiar (or at least the newness has worn away), but still not entirely understandable. Everyday I wander through the day amazed at how much I don’t understand. Here are a few of the many things that puzzle me on a daily basis:

Horn honking I will forever remember my time in Accra with a soundtrack of honking car horns. Drivers in Accra honk their horns at every possible occasion and for all unknowable reasons. When passing a pedestrian, when stuck in traffic, when passing another car, when cutting off another car, when backing up, when signaling that a gate should be opened and, if that isn’t enough, really just whenever you feel like it. Taxis, in particular, honk their horns when searching for a passenger. It is commonly understood by all taxi drivers that obrunis (white people) are ready and willing to shell out an obscene amount of cash for a ride in their luxurious Peugeots. Let the honking begin! I can’t walk down any street in Accra for 30 seconds without a taxi driver insistently honking at me and/or screaming out the window, “Where you going?” Today, I was sitting outside a café when a taxi went by honking, backed up to the café and screamed “Taxi!!” out the window. Whatever my excessive whiteness might have indicated, I was obviously sipping a Coke and not in the market for a taxi. Why don’t the taxi drivers understand that if I wanted a taxi I would be in the street hailing one, not sitting in a café, not walking down the street, not buying something from a stand, and not waiting for a Tro-tro? And…don’t their ears hurt from all that honking?

New Ghana Cedis Last July the Ghanaian government had the brilliant idea to redenominate the national currency so that it matches the US Dollar: one Ghana cedi is equal to one USD…at least officially. It seems as if everyone sort of knows the new value of the currency and occasionally prices are listed in “NEW Ghana Cedis”, but 9 times out of 10 prices are quoted in the old value, which is 10,000 times the new value. Confusion on my part is rampant. For example, one of my first few days here I bought batteries at a roadside stand for 3,000 old cedis. I gave the woman 3 new Ghana cedis, when the batteries only cost 30 pesewas (equivalent of 30 cents). She was nice enough to shake her head, laugh and show me how much I should give her by displaying the coins she had in her hand. By now, I’ve pretty much got the conversion down…but this remains a puzzle because often vendors will quote the old cedis and then the new cedis with the wrong conversion…and then it turns into a very confusing back and forth to actually pay the correct amount—2 new Ghana cedis versus 20, 20 new Ghana cedis versus 200 etc. It’s like the whole country is thinking in one currency and using another.

Egg Rolls Ghana and Accra in particular are positively packed full of Chinese food restaurants. This first caught my eye in the airport upon arrival, but since then I would estimate that 50% of the sit-down restaurants I’ve seen are Chinese restaurants. Moreover, the vast majority of restaurants, even if they are not specifically deemed Chinese restaurants, serve egg rolls, fried rice, and other dishes typically associated with Chinese restaurants. Egg rolls are so common (literally everywhere!) that if you didn’t know better you would assume they were a traditional Ghanaian food. I’ve asked many people why there are so many Chinese food restaurants in Ghana. Everyone has given the same and totally anticipated answer: there are many Chinese immigrants who have set up restaurants in the country. This would be a logical answer to that question in any country…except Ghana. I have not seen a single person (inside or outside these restaurants) who looks even remotely Asian in my five weeks here, much less a huge population of Chinese immigrants operating successful restaurants.

Personal Communication This one is a little hard to pin down, but probably accounts for 99% of my confusion. Personal communication is so different than anything I’ve experienced before. I find Ghanaians to be a rather quiet people; small talk does not exist. Moreover, the flow of conversations in no way mimics conversations in the US. It’s true that Americans can talk a lot while saying little and the amount of personal information Americans spill to perfect strangers even I find shocking, but the majority of conversations here have left me longing for some mindless American chatter. Conversations and meetings in Ghana—in my experience—are defined by very long and awkward silences. I often find myself at various points thinking, “Are we done talking? Have we started talking yet? Should I be saying something?” A lot of this might be due to the language barrier, which is huge. Around the office, mostly everyone speaks the local language, so I am not able to pick up as much info as I would otherwise and am not able to participate in the few conversations that are taking place. Regardless, Ghanaian personal communication remains a BIG mystery to me…one that I probably won’t solve in the next four weeks!