"50 peswa jollof, please?"

I made peanut butter cookies for everyone in the office and gave one to our house keeper and Renae’s personal assistant, Sam, who had never had a cookie before. He said it was too sweet. It is hard to imagine that people don’t eat things like that, but here they don’t. Cakes, cookies, pies and other bakery items aren’t popular here, neither are desserts. Only in western shops do you see these items. Even prepackaged cookies here aren’t sweet like the ones we have. The only real desserts here are kelewele, rock buns and fan ice. For being a major produced of the cocoa bean, Ghana’s people don’t use chocolate much. When they do it is the cheap very poor quality Kingsbite-which has a very artificial flavor to it and an odd after taste. I went to a birthday party with my friend Gifty, surprisingly they had cake, but even that wasn’t really sweet. Most of the good quality cocoa beans are exported.

I miss fresh food the most, the closest I come to fresh food is a salad from the local salad lady, but even that is loaded down with mayonnaise. The food here is good, not superb but good. Staples in almost every dish are palm oil, tomato paste and peppe-the local name for cayenne pepper. Starches consist of fufu-pounded plantain and cassava until it resembles a ball of dough, banku-a combination of cassava and fermented corn dough, kenkey-which is similar to banku, rice, jollof-a spicy mixture of rice, palm oil and tomato paste, and boiled/fried yam or plantain. These starches are eaten by hand with stews and soups. Fufu and rice eaten with soups: light soup, groundnut soup (peanut) and palm soup. Boiled or fried yams and plantains are often eaten with stews, okra stew, palava sauce (made with spinach leaves) and seafood stew. Red red is a favorite dish here, it is a sauce made with black-eyed beans, palm oil, tomato paste and many spices and served with fried plantains.


When ordering food at the local chop bar, you say how much you want to pay and then they give you an amount equal to the price. So 50 pesewa rice would be approximately 1 ½ cup cooked rice. Even in the market place you say how much you want to pay, 1 cedi bananas would be about 6 bananas. When buying food in the market place, vendors will always dash you a little extra of what ever you are buying. Buying a cup of beans in Ghana is completely different than buying a cup of beans in the states. Here a cup means a 14 oz tin can, piled high. I made the mistake of asking for 5 cups of flour, when I was really thinking 5 actual measuring cups of flour. Needless to say that flour lasted us quite awhile!

The market is a bustling place of vendors hawking merchandise from make shift stalls, tables, their heads or even their arms. Sounds of bartering and calling of items being sold by head sellers float through the market, along with the constant beeping of taxi horns. Girls walk down the isles with containers balanced on their heads, announcing, “Pure Water”. When you hand her a 5 pesewa coin she will give you a plastic sachet, which holds about 2 cups of water. My favorite place in the market is when you get deep inside the crowded halls and stalls. There you will find no obrunis and no curios or trinkets. Strong scents of what is commonly called stinking fish, fill your senses. The people selling these items are so friendly, the women call out to you “Obruni! Et te sain?” White person! How are you? I respond with “Eya” I am fine and a smile. She asks my name and I tell her Aba, Thursday born. We chat for a little while, “Where are you from?” “Oh Washington DC!” “Obama!” Are all common responses I hear when I tell them about myself.

Walking through the fabric isles I see beautiful arrays of bright and colorful materials. I walk up to a stall with a fabric I like and warmly greet the vendor. She tells me to step into her shop, which is about 3 ft by 5 ft. I ask her how much for the fabric, she tells me 18 cedis for 6 yrs. I tell her that is too much I only want 4 yrs. She thinks it over awhile and tries to explain to me why I need 6 yrs. (Here fabric is sold in 6 yr increments, enough for the traditional dress-cover and slip, which is a full length skirt and top) I end up walking away with 4 yrs and 14 cedis lighter. What I will do with all the extra fabric I don’t know.

Walking out of the market I am constantly stopped by “Obruni, How are you?” If I am lost, everyone is polite and very helpful, some will even take me to the place I need to go. When I was in Makola Market (Accra’s largest open market) with Cora, we were stopped by a gentleman who told us we should see the lighthouse in Jamestown and explained to us how to get there, even though we didn’t ask. (Jamestown is a tourist spot in Accra)
A day in the market is exhausting, even if it is only for 3 hrs. However, it isn’t exhausting like going to the malls in the US during Christmas time. I don’t have a headache after shopping here. Besides shopping here is excited, you never know what you will find. From cow carcases to fetish items to chalk (which is something pregnant women apparently love-it tasted like dirt). I don’t think I could ever be bored in the market!

Travelocity and Analyze-ity

At a "coffee stand" on the way back from the North.
It's kinda hard to see but there is an elephant in the background!
Elmina slave castle.
At the village on stilts.


The two weeks have been a whirl wind of adventures. From tro tro rides, to elephants to lovely beaches to birthday celebrations. I traveled up north with 4 friends, the trip took 10 hrs to the large city and then another 5 hours to the Mole National Park. After much trekking through brush-and falling in a couple muddy holes-we finally saw an elephant! It could not have been more than 40 ft. away! And it was huge! Heading back to Cape Coast, was a blur of trees and children screaming “Obruni! Obruni!”.
Tuesday I began work with Eli, the chef for the volunteers in Cape Coast. We spent the week making recipes that would go into the cookbook. Cooking here is much more of an ordeal than back home. Although Eli has a blender she prefers to use the traditional blender, which consists of 2 smooth stones. Even though we both speak English, I realize that culture plays a significant role in communication. In America a measuring cup is completely different from a measuring cup in Ghana, which is a tin can and pilling it as much as possible.
Last weekend a couple friends and I decided to spend to weekend at a beach hotel in the western region. We visited a village built on stilts, the only way to get to this village is to take an hour long canoe ride there.
Back in Cape Coast I visited one of the slave castles, built in the 14th century. It was very intense, in the female dungeon you could still smell the strong scent of the inhuman conditions the Africans were forced to endure. It was difficult seeing the place, but I can’t imagine what it would be like if it had been part of my family ancestry.
I finally returned to Accra on Monday night. The next morning we went on the Market and Spice Tour, which I had designed with Gifty. It went so well! It was so exciting seeing the project in its final stages, especially since I had started with a simple idea!
Although transportation is long and tiring, it does give me time to analyze my time here, and what I think of my work in Ghana. On my last tro tro ride, I analyzed what I have learned.
• I have learned to accept that my clothes, hair and body will never be truly clean here.
• I have learned to accept that there is no means of comfortable transportation here.
• I have learned to respect the differences in Ghanaian culture and mine.
• I have learned patience.
• I have learned that “I am coming” could mean anything from 20 minutes to 2 hours.
• I have learned that an internet connection is never going to be as fast as in the US.
• I have learned that a Ghanaian dish includes cayenne pepper, a starch and at least 2 cups of oil.
• I have learned that while a capitalistic approach has its advantages it also has its drawbacks.
• I have learned that family is much more important in this culture.
• I have learned that people are generally good and trustworthy.
• I have learned although one minute a strange, in Ghana, the next minute you could be a brother or sister.
• I have learned to expect the unexpected.