Life in Sunyani, Ghana

Our life in Sunyani is one that is occupied by three main factors – going to the market and preparing food, working on the project, and swimming at the Eusbett Hotel! The Eusbett is also home to one of the better internet cafes and perhaps the best “western” restaurant around.

Work on the project happens in three teams – Environmental team (mine), Eco-Tourism team, and the Health team. Our students are divided between each of the groups and Trevor Campbell (first year forestry) is the VIU student working with me. I’m also working with Aaron (doing his national service), Vincent (forestry student who will be visiting VIU in Sept), Aminu (S-Poly Agricultural student), Vivian (S-Poly student), and five faculty and staff (Afrifa and Emmanuel from FFRT and George/Lord, Michael, and Angie at S-Poly).

Our team is working on plastic waste management and bushfire management; however, our activities this trip will be more focused on raising awareness about the project, evaluating what has been done in the past, doing a feasibility study of for the development of a “green belt” to help protect a community from bushfire, and the development of a curriculum for transferring knowledge about environmental sanitation with a focus on plastic waste and communicable disease.

Our living arrangements are quite plush – particularly in relation to previous years. The faculty are currently sharing a guest house with 5 rooms. We had it to ourselves for the first two week but are now sharing it with a doctoral student from Sussex. Early on we had a battle over the kitchen as the guest house is typically run as a business similar to a B&B but that seems to have settled down and life is moving forward with a certain amount of consistency.

The meals that we make tend to be Ghanaian versions of Canadian food! There are huge avocados in season and mangos to spare. The pineapple is the sweetest that I’ve ever tasted and I’ve had more than one meal that consisted of only pineapple!! There are two breads readily available here – butter bread and sugar bread. Both are made from white flour and the sugar bread is incredibly sweet…it makes great French toast though. J The other veggies that we regularly eat are onions (red), green peppers, cucumber, potatoes, and cabbage. There are also carrots, egg plant, and green beans available. We can have also get apples and pears but they cost about $0.80 each so we aren’t doing that.

The students are living in the FFRT (Forestry University) student residence. They are sharing a kitchen that Amanda has set up for her purposes here and have two units of rooms with each set of units including two rooms and a shared bathroom. The set up is good as it allows for quite a bit of security as any visitors need to go through two locks to get into either of the bedrooms. This year they have enjoyed having running water for the majority of the trip…something that we are currently do not have! The only real issue over at the hostel (about two blocks away) is the unpredictable noise – well not completely unpredictable! They know that if there is a football (soccer) game (particularly if Chelsea, who has a Ghanaian on the team, is playing), a religious event (which seem to occur often and not just on Sundays), or the end of exams (just occurred) that life is going to get loud! At other times there will simply be random screaming and yelling! There are also the random games that are playing in the basketball/football court that fills the middle of the square shaped block of rooms.

Transportation is quite simple as there are “line taxis” that run constantly along the same path. The cost of a trip to the Eusbett which is about one kilometer away is $0.25 per person. It generally costs about $0.50 to get from our place to downtown. The downtown core of Sunyani can only be called Chaos! It looks like a permanent sidewalk sale that is backed by businesses that are completely separate from the kiosks on the sidewalk! Every second step there is someone who is willing and able to sell you minutes for your cell phone and if you don’t have one every third stall has someone selling phones too! Many of the other stalls are filled with people who are selling food – cooked and uncooked. I haven’t had the courage to try any of the roadside vendors yet but I did try some food that one of the students bought. It was kind of like a donut without all the added sugar…pretty good overall.

Now onto the weird and wonderful of Ghana!! My first real trip into the market to get food was with Sabrina and I felt like I was on an episode of the amazing race. We had a short list of items to buy but ended up going to a different stall for each, which was good in the end as it allowed us to see all of the things that were offered for sale. The stalls that I didn’t particularly like were those that sold dried fish…think dock perch (only fresh water) that are dried with head and skin on. Some of them appear to have their tails tucked through their gills before they were dried. Worse than the look on their dried up faces though is the general smell and the fly population that accompanies them!

Other than the fish it is a typical farmers market with tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, hot peppers, and wheelbarrows filled with sheep (6 or so) that while covered with tarps did have their heads (and slit throats) hanging over the edge. I now know why my father hunted…it was to prepare me for the site of dead animals!! Seriously though, the markets are chaotic and amazing. I’m hoping to get back there with just my camera and no intention/need to buy anything.

Another aspect of Ghana that is fantastic is the clothing and how cheap it is to get outfits made. I paid $18 GHC (1 CDN = 1.35 GHC) for six yards of locally made batik fabric and it cost $6 GHC to have a dress, skirt, and bag made out of that fabric! What was more amazing is that the patterns that I choose from were all pictures of women who were my size!!! In Ghana it is a sign of wealth to be “big”!!! I’m hoping to get more clothing made but in all likelihood I won’t have time – I will buy some more fabric though and may force my mother to pick up sewing again when I return! The outfit I picked was fairly western in design as the Ghanaian outfits are skin tight (regardless of size) and are designed to accentuate you but rather than allowing you to move with ease!

Life in Ghana seems to revolve around the mobile phone. I’ve mentioned in other posts that everyone seems to have one but I cannot believe how integrated and habitual their use is in all aspects of daily life. In fact this seems to be the primary means of communication – think email in Canada as it equals texting here! The use of phones had also been the one major source of cultural conflict (although not a major conflict) on this trip as us nature lovin’ Canadians were a little be shocked (and/or dismayed) that some of our Ghanaian counterparts felt that it was necessary to not only bring their cell phones to Mole National park but to also speak on them and/or listen to music with them while on the wildlife safari! It became a bigger issue when it became clear that those who had “quiet” groups (thankfully mine was great for that) saw a lot of wildlife and those who were in the louder groups saw much fewer animals.

The people of Ghana are extremely friendly and cheerful. They seem to appreciate our attempts at speaking the local dialect and always seem to take the opportunity to correct us and teach us new phrases. The two times that I’ve asked for directions while in town I’ve had people stop what they were doing and lead me to where I needed to go! Shop keepers are always willing to hail you a cab if you are carrying a large load and for the most part people help with only the expectation of a smile and thanks in return.

I think that is a pretty good up-date on our day to day life. The actual activities of any given day seem to immerge as we move forward but things are really starting to heat up as this is the primary activity week. More details about our work and the great folks I’m working with will surely follow.