Fancy Dress

Oh!  

Yesterday, I forgot to mention the great dresses we've had made.  

We bought some of the terrific cloth you find all over here.  Its usually batik made by wax stampings.  The outcome is beautiful.  The Ghanaian cloth is quite nice, but so is the cloth from Togo.  Togolese cloth is distinct because the pattern often have a layer of gold stamping.  This cloth, I believe is from Ghana, no gold.  But I have bought, and have also been itching to buy some cloth with the gold in it.  I may wait until our trip to Lome in a few weeks.

So, we took the cloth to our friend Florence, who is a tailor.  She's an absolute artist when it comes to fabric!

Labour in Ghana is relatively inexpensive while materials themselves are quite pricey.  Still, these dresses are fairly inexpensive.  I think we're planning to get some more things done while we're here.

-zeh ever stylish and funky spotted Jessicat

Firstly....a quick apology for being so pokey at posting....this entire last week, the internet in all of Ho has been either painfully slow or out completely.

Secondly, some news about the library!

We have bought all the supplies we need (apparently with the exception of one lock) and the wide assortment of local carpenters, electricians, masons and steelbenders are all hard at work to complete the project.

This past week, the carpenters finished all of the tables and shelves. This took them two days of work. (The carpenters work by communal labour...they donate their time for free but can only do so when they can all give up a day from their jobs. Ghanaians like to work by consensus so everyone has to help out.) To the carpenters reading this, two days to build all this furniture may not seem like an overly impressive feat...but people should know that they have no electric tools....or air compressors...or anything else that would speed things along. The boards are not even cut to the appropriate size, only the width. They must be sawed down the entire length of them, measuring all the while. They also have to be made smooth, they were all ruff. This is done mostly with some kind of hand blade that makes shaving over the board and makes it smooth....this works the same way one shaves their legs. They also go over everything with sandpaper after that, to get whatever the shaver-sliverer thing didn't. Its incredibly slow and tedious and amazing to watch them create something so beautiful out of such rough materials.

Its not like Canadian carpenters like my dad have it easy....but the shape that even your basic materials come in and access to certain tools definitely make the job easier.

The masons and the steelbenders have a short job, unlike the ongoing work of the carpenters. They are needed to cement the iron bars into the windows. After that is finished, the carpenters will install the glass slates....they are like gigantic glass venetian blinds. This is a popular way for windows to work here.

The electrician is also working this week. He and his apprentices are coming from the neighbouring village so their work isn't being done communally. This is a lot more costly, but he has a good reputation in Nyive and does all the work for the Nyive Development Association. This will give us the lights, the fans and the electrical sockets that we need to use the library (especially for the computers). Computers are a vital part of the library since no one in the village can really afford one. Also, the high schools make it mandatory that students need to know how to use a computer in order to go to highschool and its even becoming part of the curriculum. If there are no computers, there will be no highschool education.

Speaking of computers, we have our donated laptop all up and running properly now. I'm typing this post from it in fact. I want into the computer store across from my hotel room which I had been eyeballing a few weeks ago. I went in and found a lovely man named Martin who took the computer, fixed everything that could possibly have been awry with it (the drivers were all screwed up when it was bought) and then installed about $200 worth of software on it (including Office 2007, Adobe, a program to teach typing, burning software and antivirus software. All of it awesome!!!!), pretty much for free. Because I badgered him into giving me a price, it cost us a toal of 20 cedis (about 15$) for the work. I came back an hour later, the computer was runing magnificently, and I got away without giving my number to his colleagues who wanted to take us drinking and dancing (the most forward proposal we've received yet...) We also bought some software based on the Ghana Education Service science syllabus. Computer wise, it was an awesome day.

Oh yeah...I should mention....we're in Accra again. We randomly decided to come and try once more to gt things done this week....and then last night, randomly bumped it up again. We got up at 5:30 this morning so that we could be in Accra nice and early. Its been a good days work. Its also been relaxing to be able to do something and to have it go our way...in an easy matter....without the dustiness of crowded Nyive trotro twice a day.

On our way out to dinner, we also managed to find a place we'd missed in our last visit-Gladys'. Gladys' is like the Body Shop, but actually all natural and also Fair Trade. It was small but full of some wonderful things. Even the prices were more reasonable than the Body Shop....Fair Trade is a lot cheaper without having to pay shipping and customs. Among other things, I bought a large tub of 100% shea butter. Its difficult to find 100% in Canada...and when it is there, its expensive. What might have easily cost 60-100$ in Canada, cost me a lot less. I think because I bought in bulk.

Dinner was supposed to be an Indonesian restaurant called Banana Leafz (we were foiled at this in our last trip to Accra) only to be foiled AGAIN! By a change of owners! Who are not selling Indonesian food...and don't actually open until tomorrow. Then we tried for Vietnamese up the street...also strangely closed. We went for the most delicious lebanese food (with the exception of Joe's shwarma, which I miss with a tahini based passion!).

There is no other food on earth that is more unlike Ghanaian food than Lebanese food. Every true Ghanaian meal consists of a boiled-and-pounded-no-need-to-chew-steaming-mass-of-carbohydrates, which is used to scoop up a tomato based stew (or if you're /un/lucky, okra), that has something dead in it. Not the meat of a dead thing....A hunk of bone with lots of gristle and a touch of stringey flesh....or intestines with the consistency of , I kid you not, Eric's/Kira's hedgehog. I wondered about the meat for a few weeks...until I got questioned as to why I wasn't ever eating my bones. This food is, especially the tomato stew, is delicious on every possible level! But Lebanese foof seems just so entirely different....the meat has no bones, even the skewer is gone. The eat it with pita, which if you didn't know, is not boiled and the tomatoes are entirely optional. I have also never seen okra shwarma.

I could describe more....but really, experience is better. Outside our hotel was akid selling his art on the street. I think he was the brother of the artist I met last visit to Accra. I recognised some of his paintings from her stand. I caved and bought a second painting. They are really beautiful.

For the rest of our trip to Accra, we plan to be buying books, both from the University of Legon (to those faithful readers, you will remember that our last attempts were soundly foiled by some misplaced and unwanted weekend) and the rest of the week will be spent in Cape Coast...also buying books.

Anyhow....I'm going to get on with some neverending computer/internet related busyness now.

Hope all is well with everyone!

-The Jessicat

Penguins won! And other important library related activity...

First and foremost....THE PENGUINS WON! 2-1...I was awakened from my deep slumber by cries of elation and ecstasy as Conor pounced on my bed, with a big clinging hug to announce VICTORY! QABLA'!!! (Klingon for victory I think).

We spent the weekend in Accra, and believe it or not, there was a Stanley Cup game to be watched...and we did watch it. We spent the rest of our time in Accra doing productive things, or trying to do productive things, like buy books for the library. Friday is a blur, and we only got there later in the day...so no books. Saturday we had to change hotels, and then went for books, only to discover that they closed at noon on Saturday (we were trying to get to the University bookstore in particular...most other book shops actually only sell stationary). Sunday, nothing was open. Anywhere. Nothing but hawkers pushing us to buy things. And Monday we had to check out early and leave for home, which took for ever. So no University bookstore.

However.

On Saturday, right near our hotel, was a sign for a book shop that we decided to try for. Not only was it open, but it was a REAL book shop! FULL OF AWESOME BOOKS!!! I had no idea how much I missed actual bookshops until we got there...my heart did a brief weeping before we swept the shelves in utter ecstasy. Lots of books! Canadian books even! Lots of books! Anyone who knows me, knows my fetish and love for books...but an actual bookstore, in the middle of our trip...I know that thats what we've been looking for all along, but it was so cool to finally do it. Any of the North American/European books were fairly expensive, but there was a whole collection of African writers (novels, poetry etc), and best of all, African children's books.

We'd been a little worried about finding appropriate children's books. Books are a hot and rare commodity....and there isn't always much available, or at least well known for Children....and not written about African children or buy Africans or talking about anything kids here might care about. A lot of them were even advertised as being gender/girl friendly/positive, which is getting to be a big deal here. Wish it were that easy in Canada some days.

I've started a catalogue for the books we've bought already, and I've spent the time since we've been back, registering all of them. This means I get to take a realy good look at many of them. We got books for all ages and reading levels...but let me tell you...the things that are in these books are crucially relevant and important....and a lot less fluffy than our books. A lot of them seemed to focus on AIDS, gender equality and children's rights and the importance of education. Because there is a lot of stigma in parts of Africa about AIDS, there seems to be a lot of books aiming to break the silence, show the dangers of silence, and demonstrate more useful approaches to to the whole thing. I'm REALLY happy about the books we got! I wish I were better at expressing how cool they are. Some of them are happy, some of them are sad...they're...I dunno...children's books.

Also, for any women reading this, I have some helpful information that the patriarchal guide book neglected to mention. Apparently moving to the equator can greatly alter your menstrual cycle, give or take two weeks. So whether you're planning ahead for a honeymoon, or trying to figure out whether you need to cart along that extra package of tampons (or any other scenario where an idea of whether or not you're ovulating can be useful)....its useful to know that the traditional counting method is apparently a little less useful in at least the first month (for anyone who cares, I'm sure I can keep you updated). This is probably caused from drastic changes in diet, time zone, sleep schedule, physical activity, travel medication, etc. Either way...a little unanticipated, but I thought it might be useful to anyone else planning to travel.

Anyhow....we miss Canada....but Ghana totally kicks ass! Its so beautiful and warm....and there are some really cool things to see (if you didn't get that from my last few blogs, you lead a life far more interesting than mine). The best part about it is that I only have time to mention about an eighth of the things that we see and do here. So just imagine!

Oh yeah! Aside from seeing the hockey game, we scoured the country and found something that one can only get in one area of the country. It will tide us over until we return to the land of beavers and coffee and snow....Nutella!!! We're trying to restrain ourselves from bathing in it. I like nutella, but I never felt like I would really miss it...I never really eat it at home after all....but Africa makes it taste so much awesomer!

Anyhow, Ciao for now,

The Spotted Jessicat

The Centauri Ambassador to Earth Uses Radio to Break Local's Nose

So immediately after my last post, yesterday, we rushed off for an appointment with Volta Star Radio. Conor, with Vero's help, had arranged to meet with them on behalf of an NGO she worked with called Farm Radio. Farm Radio supports educational programming on the radio for rural farmers in developing countries and Volta Star is one of the stations that has been providing these projects. They also work trying to promote something called NEw RICe for Africa (NERICA). This is a blend of rice that is drought resistant (like african rice) but has a high yield (like asian rice)...Africa currently imports a lot of rice, and I guess the idea is that they want to turn Africa into a major rice exporter instead. Anyway, we chatted with the director of the station and three other staff members who work on the farm radio programming. They said a lot of interesting things about their programs. When we were finished, they wanted to give us a quick tour of the station....and quick tour of the station is apparently code for sitting us down and interviewing us for ten minutes ON LIVE RADIO! Really! Live Radio. (I should mention that Volta Star is pretty much the only station so EVERYBODY heard us...people mentioned it when we got back to Nyive last night.)

Conor had about 10 seconds warning and I had maybe 2. They introduced Conor, Vero and I in Ewe and in English, asked Conor some questions about development and Canadian involvement. Then he started to talk to me and asked me about, I kid you not, forest fires in Canada. This is apparently a real problem in Ghana during the rainy season for a couple reasons, chiefly because they have no real fire departments let alone equipment designed to fight forest fires. I had to, with no preparation I might add, give a talk on the radio about fighting forest fires. Because I couldn't say "Well, you need some special planes and a lot of water and money this money that..." I tried to say something a little more beneficial...I said the best way to fight fires was to try and prevent them in the first place. I went on for multiple minutes about the benefits of fire education and fire safety and fire prevention and awareness in schools for young children. I would like to add that while I think this is reasonable, I feel vastly unqualified to discuss the best fire fighting techniques for forest fires of all things in a third world country.

Strange but amusing thing, I may have gotten a Ghanaian name. A guy called Bright, who's a terrific guy who we see every morning, decided to put forward a suggestion. He suggested Fafaa, which supposedly means "calm, serene, peaceful"....I'm sure some of you who know me may already be giggling, but it gets funnier.

This name was suggested immediately after another man came to our house and tried to be more friendly than I appreciated. He tried to hit my arm in a frinendly way, which I frowned at, then proceeded to pinch my cheek (like the way an elderly aunt does in every cartoon that ever was). I took his hand away, told him to stop and explained he wasn't allowed to just touch me like that.....and I /politely/ threatened to break his nose if he ever did and explained that if I hadn't known him, it would already be askew and that I would not ahve stopped to inquire whether he was touching me in a joking way. He may be the first Ghanaian man who believed I would hit him. Anyway, immediately after this guy left, Bright who had been there the whole time, changed the topic and quite seriously put forward the suggestion of Fafaa.

Last item on my list of things to mention, we're headed to Accra this weekend. This is partially a mad attempt on Conor's part to watch the last game of the Stanley cup and partially an excursion to buy books for the library. I preparation for this, we tried to pluck our eyebrows this morning. Its not that I even care much about my eyebrows...but what most people don't know is that high humidity which does strange things and makes your hair all foofy can apparently do the same thing to your eyebrows. Unlike the last three weeks, I no longer look like the Centauri Ambassador to Earth (for zeh non geeky friends, please see Babylon 5 for reference....just google Londo Mollari) or Londo Mollari's third cousin. We are psyched for Accra and hoping to meet some Expats and PeaceCorp-y types....apparently there is also a Canadian owned sports bar that may be showing the game. Go PENGUINS!

Today's sign: This one uses religion...but is mixes two different ones (rare)! Its a hair salon called "His Grace Rasta Palace".

Monkey Pictures!!!

These are some of the footage and photos

that we've been meaning to share...but which

 required a little more creativity than initially realised.

This first is a video of the Roach Genocide.  Feel free to watch that and reread the report of the violence and calamity on the parts of us....and our crazy velociraptor allies.

This is Edem, Vero's nephew, who was terrified of the monkeys at Tafi.  His reaction to the monkeys was to scream, become a monkey himself and attempt to get to higher ground (my head) stick a banana in my ear and then proceed to lob it angrily at the confused but very pleased monkeys.

This is me feeding the monkeys.  They be SOFT!!!

I've also decided to input a new element to my blogs.  All the businesses are named very strange things...usually to do with something absurdly biblical.  Some are very strange....others are terribly ironic in some ways.  Some of the funny signs aren't even for businesses.

Today's funny sign has to do with the many polite reminders you see on walls all over Ho...usually not to piss on their business...literally.  Today's sign said "ONLY FOOLS URINATE HERE!"

Not much has happened in the last few days because either the power has been out or I've ben miserably sick and unable to leave the house.  Thankfully, both of these have come to an end.

The power was out all night last night (not so abnormal) due to a TERRIFIC African thunderstorm, with lightning and buckets and buckets of rain.....It was amazing!

Ciao for now!

-The Jessicat

Night (and Morning) of the Flamboyant Soft Rock Country Rapper

Apparently the last two weeks, the man who lives next to us (consider our house like a duplex) has been travelling. We didn't know that. Now he has returned and we are very much aware of his presence...we will never mistake it.

Part of the problem, I think, stems from the wall between us. While it is solid, and there are no doors between us, the roof is tin and apparently 10 ft up, there is a gap about 6 inches big between the roof and the wall. His activities throughout his apartment are very well known to us.

Now, its not as though we hear him having sex everynight or that he chews his bubble gum loudly...rather, we share the complex with the only man in 50 kms who has his own set of speakers with bass. I should also add that everyone in Ghana, since electricity is pricey, rises and ends the night according to the patterns of the sun. Everyone in Ghana is up and busy by 7 am, and we have to be also because not only do people wake us up at 7 for the purpose of getting our asses out of bed, but it is socially acceptable to go visiting after 6:30 am. Before that is probably frowned upon...but we have yet to put it to the test. Please keep in mind that the socially accepted norm in Canada for an impromptu visit is generally after 10 am.

So, not only do people rise early, get ready early and everyting else early....Our neighbour likes to play his music very loudly at 7:05 sharp every morning. We awake to a rap at our front door, followed by a completely independent blast of sound coming from the opposite direction. I answer the door, bleary eyed, trying to keep my sarong on and as I greet whoever happens to have been knocking, I notice our neighbour brushing his teeth to what appears to be American rap music. By the time I make it back to the room, the rap has changed to country, then soft rock and then a whole half hour of Michael Bolton.

This music is obscenely loud even if it didn't clash so profoundly with my own likes.

Eventually he goes to work and everything is quiet. It is now 8 am and we're expected to be getting on with the day by now.

Unfortunately, this is not the end of Michael Bolton. This whole process, from rap to country to soft rock to Michael Boloten occurs again, but not until we're back in the house from our bucket bath and brushing our teeth before bed.

This morning however, there was an interesting variation. It must have been his day off because he opened the day with what I could only identify as a Vin Diesel movie. I don't know which one...I'm only certain I recognised Vin Diesel's voice. Whatever it was, sounded interesting despite not being able to see the screen. Who needs a screen when you have surround sound?

In other news, I have long hair again. That's right. Miracle growth.

Conor and I bought some lengths of hair that matched our own colours and the hairdressers and hair dressing students went at us wih vigour. With at least 6 people working on us at anyone time, doing various jobs, it still took us each 4 hours. Now we have beautiful long braids (which are very heavy after having such short hair) and you know how much they wanted for it? In Canadian currency, a little over 3 dollars!!! 6 people working for 4 hours, and they wanted 3 bucks?!!!! Conor and I both decided it wasn't enough, but it gives a pretty good idea of what things cost here....and what people value....and what women's work is valued at. (For comparison sake, I understand that the equivalent hairstyle in Canada would easily cost 70 dollars...which is why I can't afford it at home).

But enough with the Marxist feminist analysis...the origin of the story was that not only do Conor and I have cool hair styles, but for a little while anyway, I have long hair too!

Finally, so that people know, we've been trying to post pictures but have discovered that we need to compress them a touch...the connections here are very slow.

Anyhow...Many Happy Meanderings!
-The Jessicat

Of Marriage and Monkeys

So....Conor and I are getting fairly tired of marriage proposals....

It can be startling or funny the first time, but after a two weeks (and someone asks to marry us at least once every two days) its down right frustrating. Whether its an attempt to get under our sarongs or they believe it will get them a visa, or any other reason, it is terribly annoying.

This annoys us for a variety of reasons...starting with not wanting to marry any of our proposed suitors in the first place (these are often random people off the street that we have never met before or were just introduced to), the being unable to find a good response to it (rudeness is a big no no in Ghana and we haven't been able to get a clear answer as to what someone's intentions might be so we don't know where the overkill line is) and ending with absolute inauthenticity of it all....and so many other reasons. Right now, our only for sure overkill line is any type of pressure or an attempt to touch us, which has never happened, but would end with a solid bop in the nose (Conor informs me that if I ever were to hit a man, because I am a woman, they would be so utterly flabbergasted and shocked).

We have attempted, rejected, planned and debated various responses to these proposals, but they all come off in a uber polite Canadian way, or they are switched to politer versions. Some of these include:

-laughing uproariously (tried this)
-smiling and politely rejecting (tried this)
-joking back that I would make a terrible wife (tried this)
-claiming to be engaged and/or married (tried this)
-changing the subject (tried this)
-explaining that it is rude
-correcting them and explaining that they don't love me, they just met me (tried this)
-exclaiming that they just met me (tried this)
-yelling that they just met me and to leave immediately (Conor did this on her last trip when a man was harassing her in her hospital room)
-explaining that I can't pound fufu (a kind of food that requires many muscles in the torso to make) (tried this)
-explaining that I castrate men
-explaining that I can't pound fufu AND castrate men
-explaining that a Canadian tradition is to tie a string to the husband's penis and for me to hold the other end of the string while I am in labour
-saying no (tried this)
-rolling our eyes
-saying I want to be a Catholic sister
-pointing to another man and joke that he is already my husband (tried this)
-get really excited and attempt to drag them off to a chapel then and there
-buying a shirt that says "I castrate men" across the chest
-suggesting that one of the many goats that wander around loose everywhere might be a better time than I

Most of these responses are too rude for us to use at the moment....but its gotten to a point where we're more frustrated and deciphering that this might not even be polite by their standards. we asked a Ghanaian woman about and she explained that women don't like it, but its never good to be rude and therefore the best method is distraction or avoiding the subject. As much this idea bothers me on many levels, we mostly do that....but enough is slowly but surely becoming enough. The one about the Canadian labour tradition and the penis will be my next one. I will let you know how it goes.

In other better and more happier news (!!!), the carpenters met and started yesterday, they worked all day long and didn't leave until dark. The reparations and the finishing of the roof is already done! Its amazing! I also have pictures but I need to find away to get them on the internet soon. Its so beautiful and really makes a big difference. Everyone is thrilled with the progress! Conor and I are now on the hunt for books around the local area.

Also other news, Conor and I left the village for the weekend and visited Peki and Taffi Atome. Peki is another beautiful town where we visited Vero's family but Taffi Atome has a monkey sanctuary! The monkey sanctuary was started as an ecotourism project that a) saved an endangered species, b) increased the local economy and c) stimulated some terrific development in Taffi's town. Taffi is a small town and the jungle of the preserve circles all the way behind it. The monkeys are quite tame and friendly. They ate out of our hands and scared the boogers out of a small child that was with us. The response of the child was to shimmy up me in terror, sit on my head and lobbed his banana at the monkeys (who snatched it up happily, fought over it and gobbled it up quickly).

As week two ends, Conor and I also find ourselves dreaming of luxuries we had sorely taken for granted, including steak spice, non lipton tea, non Ghanaian bread, milk, cheese and Original Series Star Trek DVDs....

I may wait for another day to explain our food situation, although Conor gets into part of it (and more library details) on her blog...make sure to check it out! I think I added the link a few posts before. While I will add that the food here is very dlicious, it is mostly all the same, and the things that they consider Western are nothing like what I know at home. It will suffice for now to explain that every good Ghanaian style meal consists of three parts, a) boiled (and occasionally fermented) yam or corn meal, used to scrap up a b) tomato based sauce of some kind (which is quite delicious) with some kiind of c) meat cooked into it (gristly, bony parts of chicken, goat or fish) of which apparently Ghanaians eat to the entirety (bones and gristle included...I didn't realise this until someone asked why I kept leaving the bones). The food is really good, but almost every true blue meal has consisted of this yummy substance...and I never knew my stomach could be opposed to this. Its wonderful, but Conor and I are still working on the whole adaptation process.

In the meantime, we are now back in the village, with hoards of friends and lovely people who don't usually ask us to marry them (this not a problem in the village 8 times out of 10). We are making friends quickly, learning lots of Ewe and the library is speeding along in construction.

I hope all is well with all of you!

-The Jessicat