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.