Like every place, there are some good things and some bad things. Here is my comprehensive list so far.
THE GOOD
- The people here are very friendly, always willing to share with you what they have
- The ocean breeze in Prampram...even when it is hot, there is almost always a consistent breeze blowing
- Our generator. When ECG (Electric Company of Ghana) is off, the generator is great for the night time. What a blessing!
- The fruit. It's so juicy and sweet! (But be careful, fruit can wreak havoic on your stomach until you are adjusted...which I'm not yet)
- The ability to bargain about prices!
- So many beautiful handmade crafts - beads, jewelry, baskets, rugs etc
- Batik fabric
- Interesting food
- The slow pace
- Geckos!
- Matching school uniforms for the kids - they always look so sharp!
- The beautiful fabrics in the markets
- The ability to buy plantain chips from the car window for 1 Ghana cedi!
THE BAD
- Traffic. It's pretty scary when hardly anyone follows the "traffic laws."
- ECG is frequently off. Without warning. Even though they sometimes plan the outages and are supposed to tell you.
- Things like shampoo, laundry detergent, and other things are EXTREMELY expensive. For example, a box of detergent was 90 Ghana cedis...which equals to be about 55 American dollars!
- When you buy vegetables, washing them takes a long time in order for them to be edible
- Seeing young children who aren't in school uniform - this usually means they are too poor to foord schooling
- Seeing young children having to beg in the streets with an elderly relative
- The inability to care for the elderly and disabled. There are very few nursing homes, let alone policies to protect and provide for the disabled.
- Being white. Somehow, prices go up when you are white. I just can't figure it out...
- Gecko poo on the walls, window sills, etc. If you let them, they will take over!
- So you want to learn to speak their language? Ok. Be ready to hear the same word pronounced 5 different ways, depending on who is teaching you! There are so many dialects around here, it makes it difficult to learn!
THE UGLY
- There's really only 1 thing I've reserved for this part...the TOILET PAPER! Imagine tissue paper mixed with old newspaper.....something like that.
So, these are a few things I've come up with - even though there are some inconveniences here, I am so thankful for the conveniences we DO have! And about the toilet paper...I'm thankful that we at least have it. Otherwise, that would be a major adjustment.
Have a great day!
