Snaps to You

I attended my first photography course here, so I can take suitable photos at work, not my usual cut-off-the-head-but-it-will-do-blurry style. Stepping me up in the photography world, now I can talk aperture, shutter speed, lense and ISO. Yup.

Dday 1 we took some pics of our colleagues, good and bad and critiqued them. Deanna (or Diana, or Dayna or whatever they want to call me), why does this appear to look like a portrait of someone but you can’t see their face? Well, this, it seems is no longer a problem. Thanks to the sun. And there is plenty of that around here. So we did some front, back and side lighting and played around in the grounds of the hotel snapping away. Clever and forward thinking as I ever am, I forgot to charge my camera and the battery died. Rookie Error. Although a step ahead of Mads who forgot her camera all together.

Day 2 we went to a Shea Butter Factory. Sound familiar? Check your moisturisers and beauty products. It’s in there. If you shop at the Body Shop you might be rubbing the stuff all over your body right now. I was there. En masse we converged on the ladies working in the factory and got up close and personal, snapping every move. Told not to use our zooms we were literally in their face all day. They were lovely about it though, and there were plenty of great photos taken throughout the day. I purchased about 500g of the butter for GHc3 – about $1.50. I put it next to my Body Shop body butter that cost over $20 and it was triple the size! But I understand why you mix it with smelly stuff, not an enticing smell. Shea nuts are grown all over Ghana, they use it for everything here – hair, mosquito bites, nappy rash, deep frying, you name it. It was a great insight into the process.

When you are done photographing... play. Pic by the talented Dayna.

Here are my top photos, and here is the website of our fantastic and inspiring teacher. Please check out his pictures, plenty in Ghana as he is based here now, so could give you a good insight into what it looks like – professionally, although my pics will soon catch up throughout the year I’m sure (!).

http://www.nqphotography.com/

Africa Time, Malaria, Football... Ghana in a nutshell

So a little bit more about life in Ghana…

Location and Flag. The essentials

·        Africa time is not a myth here. It does take time for anything. Want to duck into town for lunch? Hope you’re not hungry, because it’ll be about 30 minutes before your order is taken, another 30 to come back and say that your meal is ‘finished’ so you need to order again, another hour for the food to arrive and another 30 for the bill. Being a fond lover of the slow food movement, this doesn’t phase me, however it does cause a stressful meal or two when your dinner dates are punctual, time poor people. Slowly slowly, or Ka-kra Ka-kra in the Twi language…. I like the relaxed nature of life here, however I was yelled at for getting out of a tro-tro (minibus/local transport) slowly, I'm not sure when I can be chilled out and when I need to rush!

·         7 colleagues/and or friends, and who knows who else had malaria last week. Hitting the silimina (white person) the worst. The locals don’t seem to mind their ‘touch of malaria’ and just deal with it. I read on the SAS survival guide that locals need to be careful with what medications they take, because years of built up immunity can be lost with improper medication. So this is something to look forward to, I think more so inevitable.

·         Some international friendly football  (soccer) games have provided some entertainment here. The walks through the maize fields and local villages to get to the tv (we don't have one) are interesting enough. Football is the common language here, know a few names, and you’ve got instant friends. It’s fun to watch with the locals, very different to say, an Australia football game. Where we went to see Ghana vs Swaziland was a dimly lit room with a tiny tv. Some bench seats and plenty of locals. We sat with no ventilation, no food/drink or service, just pure football. The smells got the better of me in the end and I retreated to the kids outside playing handclaps, but it was a fun experience. Ghana vs Brazil took us up a notch and we watched it in a bar, beers and all, on a projector screen. Not as many locals though, so the atmosphere wasn’t as fun.

An Introduction to Ghana

Australia what? It’s been a month and the high that was lunching-a-lot at home has died off and I’m settling into Africa. Thanks everyone for such a great time at home, it really prepared me for the adventure.

Induction/orientation etc: We were orientated by an organisation on culture, language, security and all these things. Africa time is great, we take it slow and settle in. Nothing too strenuous. Plenty of naps. Lots of warnings about safety here, mixed in with chat about how friendly everyone is. A favourite was; “Ghanaians are known for being incredibly friendly” followed by “Don’t smile at anyone here or you will get raped”. So I guess you meet somewhere in the middle and use your worldly judgment.

Some places already visited:

Accra: Ghana’s capital. A busy city with plenty of people and street sellers everywhere. It’s surprisingly clean and the roads are *shock-horror* good and the road rules are generally followed. The cars/taxis are falling apart at best, but get you from A to B, and getting on a Tro Tro (basically a mini-van that acts as a bus) doesn’t necessarily mean there will be a floor.

Kakum: A big National Park 5 hours by road away from Accra with plenty of animals, rainforest and tourists. Lined up like a theme park ride for the canopy walk, you wait your turn while the school children yell out, scaring away any of said wildlife. The walk is a giant suspension bridge, one person wide. I took a small child with me to meet his dad (his mum was too scared to go on the walk) and it was great to see it from a child’s perspective. You’re just so small, everything is overwhelming. The walk is among the rainforest canopy so you look down on the forest below. I saw 2 butterflies… that may have been moths. But it was a great experience.

Cape Coast: This is a seaside fishing town that was once the centre of Ghana (then, the Gold Coast). Where all the trade with other countries and traders happened. Initially trading in gold, the slave trade took over as it was more lucrative and established. The castles were transformed into slave cells awaiting transportation to the Americas. This was particularly haunting as there were scratch marks in the floor and walls in one cell indicating the torture and hardship encountered in this place. The size of the cell holding 300 African men in comparison to the General’s bedroom complete with balconies, views, ensuite and ventilation was shameful. Barack Obama visited the Castle in 2009, the first trip of his Presidency and laid wreathes, the Ghanaians love him – never a day goes by without someone wearing an Obama shirt! There is a door entitled the ‘Door of No Return’ where the men and women passed through to be loaded onto the ships into slavery. It has since seen some descendants return and pass back through, symbolising the end of slavery, now aptly entitled the ‘Door of Return’. This place has so much history, an eerie step into the history of a country I know little about but hope to become much more familiar with.

Saturdays: Funeral Day! and other celebrations or activities. You can spot the black traditional funeral outfits, but more so you can spot the dancing and singing. The people are ‘10% mourning and 90% merry-making’ all day. The way they can move to music is amazing, all happening as one movement rather than awkward jerking movements on an Australian dance floor!

Sundays:  Worship Day. The day for church, which can literally take up all your day if you choose a mix of Christianity and tribal church, with plenty of singing, dancing and socialising. I think 9am – 1pm is normal/modest. It’s so much fun looking at everyone in their Sunday best going to church. The roads are so quiet on Sunday mornings it’s so easy to get around, so it is the best time to actually get anywhere without leaving 5 hours traffic time.

Food: I don’t think I’m going to be committed to Ghanaian cuisine, however it’s not as bad as expected. Loads of rice, fish is in everything, salt, salt and more salt, plenty of beans, and just basically starch. Yam, rice, potato, Fu Fu (pounded cassava), Banku (a dough ball of maize) and Gari, grated cassava. It’s rare to get vegetables, but you do manage every now and then. Plenty of tomato, and they make a delicious tomato sauce that you serve with everything. But plenty more food talk to come I would assume from me.

Tamale: The second largest town in Ghana, it is 12 hours by road away from Accra, and feels like outback Australia, only with lots of people and plenty of market stalls. There is red sand everywhere, and at the moment it is the rainy season so it is quite green. Lots of motor bikes and bike lanes (eat your heart out Newcastle and Brisbane!). and it is now Home.

Decided

In my true nature, it took me a long time to figure out a name, so I thought this one was fitting. Now I have decided, I can start documenting my adventures and observations... My year in Ghana.
Here are some pics to get started.

Streets of Ghana, southern area

Kakum National Park - forest tree top walk

First few days' view of Ghana

Perfectly shows the character of the locals - always fun