I am really behind on the blogging. Internet is a challenge and finding the time to do it is a challenge...probably a good sign I shouldn't take up blogging permanently, I am not timely enough.
So lots of cool stuff has gone on over the last few weekends and during the work week which I will write more about later. For now, a quicker blog (with no pics which is half the battle on blogging from here) on the things that have surprised me the most/that I wasn't necessarily expecting. They sort of all make sense once you know the context...but anyway....
1. Where does the chicken breast go??
I kept noticing that when one orders chicken, without fail it's always the thigh/leg. Anywhere I asked if they had chicken breast, they didn't have it. So I started to wonder what on earth do they do with the rest of the chicken? After 2 weeks, last weekend I finally found the answer. It turns out there isn't much of an agriculture or farming industry (another surprise) so they important most of the chicken. The breast is obviously more expensive so they tend to import the rest. I was told they only carry chicken breast in certain grocery stores, usually that cater to foreigners. If they do get a chicken locally (ie the whole bird) the breast meat goes for the father. Kids usually get a leg and if you are a more senior kid you get the wing. Even the chicken eating has a hierarchy in Ghana.
2. No credit cards.
In order to host the website for our school, we need to pay a hosting service. We decided to go with one outside Ghana for the reliability and service. The only methods of payment are credit cards or Paypal. So when we ask about credit card payment, the Tematech team says there aren't any. What? Really? They don't have them in Iran either so I have heard of it before, but wasn't expecting it. We came to learn that no personal, no business cards, they simply aren't issued in Ghana. Paypal we found works in places like Swaziland (tiny country next to South Africa) but doesn't work in Ghana (or Nigeria). Speculation on their website being too much credit card fraud.
3. [Name] P.O. Box [XYZ] Church
While working through student data in the eSchool system, Shikha noticed many students had addresses of a church listed as their mailing address. She couldn't imagine all these people live in a church so asked why? It turns out there is no mailbox/address system as we know it so the most reliable way to get mail is have it sent to the church and after services you pick it up. This leads to the next surprise...
4. Church + State, Church + Everything in Ghanaian Life = Not so separated
Each day you realize more and more how ingrained church and leading a "moral, upright" (a phrase I've heard repeated often) Christian life is in the every day life. The weekly school assemblies are mostly worship, they have preaching and it's organized by the chaplaincy of the school. It is nearly all Christian and highly unusual to not belong to a church. Religious sayings are printed everywhere from a piece of paper hanging in someone's office to the back of a bus to any literature you pick up. Their weekends are mostly filled with weddings or funerals and always church services on Sunday.
5. I never knew I liked mango
I don't know what they do here to grow the mangos as sweet as they do but I usually don't eat them in the US, they always taste not so great to me, kind of bland even a little bitter at times, so I always thought I just didn't like mango that much other than as a mixer in a martini. I will miss having mango's for breakfast when we leave!
6. Milk & Cereal
Similar to the above on the manufacturing issue, the same goes for dairy and milk (and many other industries, they import a lot). I found it odd they gave us this weird highly condensed sort of milk in very sparing portions at breakfast for our coffee and even for cereal. A trip to the grocery store in search of some plain yogurt (which I am really missing) revealed how expensive milk is. A container of milk less than a half gallon was twice the price of what I pay for a half gallon of organic milk in NYC (3 times the price of non-organic which this wasn't). Special K was twice the price of a box at home. The yogurt for a smaller container was more than what I pay at home for a larger container too. Wow.
7. Care for some Nespresso? oh sorry make that Nescafe...
Given the amount of coffee that is exported from Africa (including Ghana), I was surprised that there is no brewed coffee to be found in any of the places we are frequenting. There isn't much of a coffee or tea drinking culture that I've noticed at all, but they do like their fruit juices. So it's been Nescafe or Lipton black tea at breakfast. I did bring a stock of tea w/me. The funny thing is I am acquiring a taste for Nescafe (I know shocking) but will gladly give it up in favor of my favorite coffee from Local in NYC.
8. Do you want some food with your spice and your rice?
I was definitely not expecting the food to be so spicey. Especially after being here and knowing how hot it is all the time, the spice seems even more surprising to me. I've never had such spicey food actually. And they eat a lot of stews and soups which I always associate with winter weather but here it's every day food and every day it's like the worst days of humid DC summer in July/August. They also eat a ton of rice. Many days I have it at lunch and dinner, served all sorts of ways. I like the rice dishes a lot but it is interesting how much it is served. I never associated rice as much with African food but more as Asian and middle eastern.
So lots of cool stuff has gone on over the last few weekends and during the work week which I will write more about later. For now, a quicker blog (with no pics which is half the battle on blogging from here) on the things that have surprised me the most/that I wasn't necessarily expecting. They sort of all make sense once you know the context...but anyway....
1. Where does the chicken breast go??
I kept noticing that when one orders chicken, without fail it's always the thigh/leg. Anywhere I asked if they had chicken breast, they didn't have it. So I started to wonder what on earth do they do with the rest of the chicken? After 2 weeks, last weekend I finally found the answer. It turns out there isn't much of an agriculture or farming industry (another surprise) so they important most of the chicken. The breast is obviously more expensive so they tend to import the rest. I was told they only carry chicken breast in certain grocery stores, usually that cater to foreigners. If they do get a chicken locally (ie the whole bird) the breast meat goes for the father. Kids usually get a leg and if you are a more senior kid you get the wing. Even the chicken eating has a hierarchy in Ghana.
2. No credit cards.
In order to host the website for our school, we need to pay a hosting service. We decided to go with one outside Ghana for the reliability and service. The only methods of payment are credit cards or Paypal. So when we ask about credit card payment, the Tematech team says there aren't any. What? Really? They don't have them in Iran either so I have heard of it before, but wasn't expecting it. We came to learn that no personal, no business cards, they simply aren't issued in Ghana. Paypal we found works in places like Swaziland (tiny country next to South Africa) but doesn't work in Ghana (or Nigeria). Speculation on their website being too much credit card fraud.
3. [Name] P.O. Box [XYZ] Church
While working through student data in the eSchool system, Shikha noticed many students had addresses of a church listed as their mailing address. She couldn't imagine all these people live in a church so asked why? It turns out there is no mailbox/address system as we know it so the most reliable way to get mail is have it sent to the church and after services you pick it up. This leads to the next surprise...
4. Church + State, Church + Everything in Ghanaian Life = Not so separated
Each day you realize more and more how ingrained church and leading a "moral, upright" (a phrase I've heard repeated often) Christian life is in the every day life. The weekly school assemblies are mostly worship, they have preaching and it's organized by the chaplaincy of the school. It is nearly all Christian and highly unusual to not belong to a church. Religious sayings are printed everywhere from a piece of paper hanging in someone's office to the back of a bus to any literature you pick up. Their weekends are mostly filled with weddings or funerals and always church services on Sunday.
5. I never knew I liked mango
I don't know what they do here to grow the mangos as sweet as they do but I usually don't eat them in the US, they always taste not so great to me, kind of bland even a little bitter at times, so I always thought I just didn't like mango that much other than as a mixer in a martini. I will miss having mango's for breakfast when we leave!
6. Milk & Cereal
Similar to the above on the manufacturing issue, the same goes for dairy and milk (and many other industries, they import a lot). I found it odd they gave us this weird highly condensed sort of milk in very sparing portions at breakfast for our coffee and even for cereal. A trip to the grocery store in search of some plain yogurt (which I am really missing) revealed how expensive milk is. A container of milk less than a half gallon was twice the price of what I pay for a half gallon of organic milk in NYC (3 times the price of non-organic which this wasn't). Special K was twice the price of a box at home. The yogurt for a smaller container was more than what I pay at home for a larger container too. Wow.
7. Care for some Nespresso? oh sorry make that Nescafe...
Given the amount of coffee that is exported from Africa (including Ghana), I was surprised that there is no brewed coffee to be found in any of the places we are frequenting. There isn't much of a coffee or tea drinking culture that I've noticed at all, but they do like their fruit juices. So it's been Nescafe or Lipton black tea at breakfast. I did bring a stock of tea w/me. The funny thing is I am acquiring a taste for Nescafe (I know shocking) but will gladly give it up in favor of my favorite coffee from Local in NYC.
8. Do you want some food with your spice and your rice?
I was definitely not expecting the food to be so spicey. Especially after being here and knowing how hot it is all the time, the spice seems even more surprising to me. I've never had such spicey food actually. And they eat a lot of stews and soups which I always associate with winter weather but here it's every day food and every day it's like the worst days of humid DC summer in July/August. They also eat a ton of rice. Many days I have it at lunch and dinner, served all sorts of ways. I like the rice dishes a lot but it is interesting how much it is served. I never associated rice as much with African food but more as Asian and middle eastern.
7. I am surprised that you find Ghanaians “do like their fruit juices”, as I have only ever see foreigners drink it in Ghana haha AND have difficulty finding it ...to the point that if I want juice, my husband buys an orange and squeezes the juice into a glass for me!
ReplyDeletehttp://obibinibruni.org/