General Ghana Observations
1. Ghanaians are generally very religious, but they don’t shove religion down my throat. I have attended 2 Catholic masses and really enjoyed them. Church services here are much longer – about 2-3 hours. Further, they love naming stores with religious, but unrelated, titles. My favorites have been:
• God is One Benz Fitting Shop
• Precious Jesus Construction
• Lord of Light Bakery
• And… (drum roll) – God is King Razor Wire Fencing
2. Nearly every other building is a salon/barbershop. Almost every barbershop uses a picture of Ludacris on their sign. If he only knew….
3. Phone call etiquette is extremely different than in the U.S. People answer their cell phones in the middle of presentations (including if they are giving the presentation), doctors answer calls while seeing patients…it’s definitely different. People also just call each other to see how their friends are doing.
4. The language “issue” in Ghana is interesting. English is the official language, but relatively few people speak English well. Even the very educated people, like those I work with at the clinic, don’t really have that great of English. There are hundreds of local languages, but Twi is probably the most popular, especially in Kumasi. Ghanaians also have really fun English phrases that they love to use. Some examples are:
• “I am coming.” – meaning: Just a minute.
• “You are invited” (used while eating) – meaning: please take some of my food
What I’ve learned so far in Ghana
1. By far the most important thing I’ve discovered thus far is how important people are in making experiences worthwhile and enjoyable. One huge thing I was hoping to learn from volunteering with Unite For Sight is more about whether I wanted to pursue further education in optometry or engineering. In actually I wanted to learn if I should take a more clinical route or a research-based path? Although the work with Unite For Sight was based around eye care, it wasn’t the type of work I was doing that has helped steer me more toward optometry, but rather just how much I have discovered I love working with people.
2. Ghanaians are so helpful. They will drop everything to help out a friend. The best examples I have of this are:
• I was walking through Accra with a small group of other volunteers and we were looking for this specific Indian restaurant. We passed a store and asked where to find the restaurant. The cashier got up, as he was handing the customer his change, and walked us a block toward the restaurant, with the customer’s change in hand, before returning to his store to complete the transaction.
• A young boy found a man who was nearly blind about 5 miles from an outreach. He walked the whole distance to the outreach with the man, then paid for the man’s cab fare back to where they met.
3. Ghana is in good shape. People are generally getting some form of health care, food and water are pretty available, and the country is politically stable and safe. I’m impressed.
Goals and Expectations for the next 2 months
1. Ghana is in good shape….relatively. There’s obviously a ton of work that needs to be done here, primarily infrastructural. Nevertheless, I want to stop using Ghana seeming to be doing pretty well as an excuse for how I sometimes approach interactions. For example, the other day I bought buckets to use for laundry and got charged 6 cedi each (about $3.50). I felt like the guy was ripping me off and I argued with him about the price for a short time, trying to get the price down to 4 each. He stayed fast at 6, and I walked away angry with two buckets. Who was this guy, trying to charge me 6 cedi? Hadn’t he made enough money that day? I later reminded myself that I was arguing with him about the difference of about $2. Was that $2 really that big of a deal to me? Probably not. Was that extra 4 cedi a big deal to him? It’s likely…that 4 cedi could probably buy dinner for his whole family.
From now on, I want to remember that nearly everyone I meet here is not living comfortably in an air-conditioned room with wi-fi. They may be happy, but they are still working hard to earn a living and they deserve my understanding and respect.
2. The initial excitement of Ghana has definitely worn off and life has become somewhat routine. Although I am okay with consistency and uniformity, I don’t want to get so into a routine that I lose the appreciation of the opportunity I have to learn and work here.
3. I will only allow myself to use the hotel’s Internet for 1 hour per night, with the exception of needing it for work or for Skyping.
4. On a similar note, I will not become a hermit in my hotel room every night. At the very least, I will walk around and discover new places and meet new people.
5. I will leave a positive impression on everyone with whom I interact. I want everyone I meet to think to themselves after talking to me, “I valued that interaction and I have a deepened respect for the institutions, organizations, and country that Adam represents.” I owe this much to those who I am representing.
No comments:
Post a Comment