Settled in

I cannot believe that I have only been here for 10 days – so much has happened since my arrival. I am settling in nicely – I’m adjusting to the heat and the food. Yesterday I had kelle welle for lunch which is fried plantain with ginger and spices = yum. The mangoes are also divine – 3 times the size of the ones you find in Canada ata quarter of the price. I thought I would have to eat meat or at least fish but so far it’s been easy staying veggie. Diet-wise, I note that it is a lot easier for a Canadian to come to Ghana than vice versa. If I really wanted to I could eat exactly the same things as I do back home but the reverse would be more difficult to achieve.

I did end up finding the gym in the end after a few wrong turns. There are no street signs or addresses on the buildings here which makes finding a particular location rather challenging. You just have to ask people for directions and hope that the person directing you actually knows what you are talking about. My co-intern Sandrina said that she felt at ease and comforted once we had begun our research at CEPIL. I felt exactly the same way as soon as I began my workout haha. Not quite the Atwater Club – the machines are circa 1980 and there is no air conditioning – but I love it anyway. They play amazing music and they have an aerobics room where I can do (hot) yoga when there are no classes on. It is mostly frequented by Ghanaians which is great and I already made a gym buddy who has promised to help me achieve my chin-up goal (of completing at least one before August 18^th 2010)

It has been much easier to find and hang out with Ghanaians than I had expected. I was worried that I would be caught in the foreigner bubble. Ghanaians are so friendly and eager to exchange their views. We already have a group of drum-maker friends who taught us a few rhythms and said they’ll show us around the North of Ghana (their home) when we make our trip up there; we’ve been out to dinners and lunches with lawyers, mingled with Supreme Court judges and law students at the closing cocktail party of the Ghana Law School and we chilled on the beach with a bunch of guys who were very kind. We were looking for somewhere to eat after a play this week (people here eat very early by MTL standards – most restaurants stop serving food at 9:30pm!) so I approached two women for a recommendation. One of them owned a bar nearby so we all hopped in a cab and had a fabulous evening chatting together. We’ve since met up with them twice – it’s nice having some women to hang out with as well.

Our ranks have doubled since I arrived: Jess from UBC law school (who I met working at lululemon in Vancouver 5 years ago) is doing a law internship in Takoradi (4 hours away) and Alayna is from DAL and she has been placed in Ho (3 hours away). They are doing their training in Accra before going in their respective directions so it has been fun discovering the city together in the meantime.

Taxis here honk CONSTANTLY. At first we assumed it was because they saw us as potential customers and were trying to get our attention. But then we noticed they honked when they already had passengers so we deduced it was because we were in their way. (There are no sidewalks here so you always have to walk on the side of the road). BUT then we were in a taxi driving down a completely deserted road and the driver was still honking! So I had to ask why. He replied: “because it is fun for me.”

I expected life to be more laid-back here (which I am really enjoying) but it’s interesting the way that philosophy manifests itself sometimes. For example, during the plays that we’ve been to, people come and go whenever they want and not only are people’s cell phones not on silent, when they ring, they answer the call even if they are sitting in the front row!!! One aspect I really enjoyed, however, was how involved the audience was in the play. People were heckling the characters when they disapproved of their actions, yelling out answers to rhetorical questions, and cheering when they agreed.

We have had many interesting cultural discussions so far on subjects ranging from homosexuality, to abortion and marital rape. For the women it seems the focus is still very much on getting married young and having children (it is unimaginable here that a couple would marry without having children). One woman I met was my age and had 5 kids already!! Although things are changing… at the law graduation cocktail women were in the majority. We’ve heard diverging views on homosexuality – one man thought it was the most outrageous idea ever (and was floored when we said that two people of the same sex could not only get married in Canada but have kids too) but we’ve heard from others that there is a huge underground gay culture here which I wasn’t surprised to hear.

Random observation: at the beach there was a DJ and a huge dance floor but the only people dancing were young men. The scene would be quite the opposite in Canada! My friend Jess and I wanted to join in but we were afraid to get mobbed haha… we found a few local girls to accompany us and then we felt less under the spotlight.

Everyday life is much less expensive here but that has not altered my conservative spending tendencies. I am the designated haggler amongst my friends because I will not settle until I hear a fair price. The taxi driver at the airport was trying to charge us 10 cedis for a 20-minute ride home (approx 8$) but I bargained him down to 4. Hell yeah!

Arrival

Somehow I managed to avoid both the ash cloud and the British Airways strike to arrive in Accra as scheduled at 8pm Tuesday night. I was so grateful that Sandrina (my co-intern) and Sule (a CEPIL employee) were there to greet me. They brought me back to where Sandrina is living, in downtown Osu. Luckily there was a room free in one of the housing compounds so I am living on the third floor of a quasi-apartment building with three Spaniards, a German and an Italian who have been here almost a year. Three of them are working for the UN so it has been fascinating hearing about their experiences thus far. My room is small but cute and I’ll be thrilled when I get some curtains and a working fan.

The next morning Sandrina and I took the tro-tro (a 15-passenger van that somehow fits 20) to work. The Center for Public Interest Law is located in a lovely house-type building in East Legon, about an hour away from Osu. There about 10 staff members employed in various capacities; accountants, lawyers and a few local law students interning here as well. We already have our first assignment: to assist in the creation of an oil and gas human rights manual. Ghana just discovered some offshore petrol last year and the Director of CEPIL, Dr. Ayine, would like ensure that all protocols are respected when the drilling begins.

I am normally concerned when I do not have a specific deadline to work towards but I have decided to take things slowly and really enjoy the learning process. (Something I don’t always have the luxury of doing during the school term). So yesterday I spent the entire day soaking up the Ghanaian Constitution. It’s very different than ours – much more specific and more easily amended. Sections that we would find in our criminal code and citizen and immigration laws are contained in their constitution instead.

I’m slowly easing myself into Ghanaian cuisine – yesterday I had my first pineapple = divine. They are much smaller here and more white inside than yellow. Today I’m looking forward to sampling some plantains.

I’m looking for a soccer team to join but in the meanwhile I will hit up the gym at the Aviation social center. I hope I can find my way there and back! We shall see…