Day 84

Today I went back to work after Boxing Day and Christmas Day holidays.

Early in the morning (about 10.30am), an Emergency meeting was called at the education office. A case of child abuse? No. A roof come off a school? No. Bad exam results? No. No emergency meeting was called when any of these things happened last year; the emergency meeting was to discuss when the Christmas holidays should be and when the end of year get together. Baring in mind that this meeting was held on the 28^th of December…?

Eventually, we agreed that next week would be holiday – so we get new year week off – great – though would have been good to know before now, and perhaps have a few days off between Christmas and new year.

Then the end of year get together. The last two years we’ve had a get together at a restaurant but brought our own food in – people from the office buy and prepare chicken and veg and we buy two bottles of drink from the venue. It has cost Ghc10 and then Ghc12 (about £4-5).

We discussed what we should do this year – various discussions came up such as having half a chicken or a whole chicken would be better, whether we should have rice or not, and where it should be. The directorate told us that they were donating Ghc700 to the event (goodness knows where this money is coming from/should be being spent) and we also discussed collecting money for someone who has retired. The director asked about why some people hadn’t come to the get together; it was mentioned in passing that some people found it quite expensive, but that was brushed aside saying it wasn’t that much, people could afford it. The director suggested half a chicken per person but no-one seemed to want to commit to this.

Present at the meeting were education officers. No cleaners, only one driver, no labourers, no watchmen. I don’t know exactly how much these people earn, but certainly some watchmen would only get Ghc50-60 a month. Again, I don’t know how much the Assistant Directors etc earn, but I would imagine in the region of Ghc700-Ghc1000 a month – at the very least.

The people working at the GES are not stupid – but either are not thinking properly or are choosing not think things through fully. The people who would complain incessantly if watchmen or cleaners were going out to spots to drink and not paying their children’s school fees are the same people who say “ah, they can pay Ghc10” (with very little notice) to join a staff gathering. I didn’t speak up. I wish I had. When people get to an elevated status, they seem to (often) think that they deserve what good has come to them, not thinking about how they got to this place in the first place. The “professional staff” at the GES were probably never cleaners, labourers or watchmen themselves, but their parents or grandparents may well have been.

Now some money has been donated for the cleaners, labourers and watchmen… I just hope they get it and it doesn’t get “chopped” by someone else…

Day 85

Today I went to visit Donald, a colleague who works in the general office. He fed me VERY well – rice, stew (tomato based sauce), smoked salmon (not the type we have but also tasty!) and sausage and chicken.

It was nice sitting with Donald and this type of thing is one thing I’ll miss most about Ghana. Ghanaians are very hospitable and generous and normally easy to be around. Silences aren’t a social problem the way they are at home – people are happy to sit and be. So it was a very easy day – eating, then watching a bit of a Ghanaian film and then Nigerian films (parts 1 and 2 of goodness knows how many!)

Films in West Africa can be quite explicit and ratings don’t really happen here. The Ghanaian film was about a group of 6 armed robbers, men and women in their 20s who seemed to be blackmailing a family. The Nigerian films were about trafficking women into Europe for prostitution… I didn’t quite follow as I kept dozing off after the feast, but it seemed to be one of the better Nigerian films I’ve seen. I’ve seen more films than I’d like to have seen, Nigerian films being a staple on most bus journeys to the south. The bus journey to Accra takes 14-18 hours if you do it in one (which we’re not allowed to anymore.) For some reason bus drivers seem to like to put them on after you’ve already been in the bus for about 8 hours and have just decided to have a wee sleep…

Day 86

Boxing Day.

Hannah and I were looking forward to a trip to Navrongo to visit Mary, a former volunteer from Ireland, and eat TURKEY! However, my tummy wasn’t in agreement, so we had a quiet day in the house watching Christmas films then drinking pito.

Pito is a local beer made from red maize. It is drunk from a calabash. It is normally a bit warm and has sediment in it, but is quite tasty. I’m not sure all of my education office colleagues would agree with drinking it as it’s a bit of a working man’s drink, but I indulge from time to time. 20 pesewas for a wee calabash (about 8 pence).

Day 87

Stuffing the chicken

Merry Christmas!!

It was a busy Christmas day! It started with an evening service at the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, we didn’t realise that the 9.30pm service was in Gurune. However, it was still nice to go and listen to a couple of carols in English, some drumming and a sermon in Gurune. The church – which isn’t small – was packed and had as many people outside as in, wrapped up in blankets from the cold (maybe about 18 degrees). We sat on a wall beside all the motorbikes. I wish I’d taken my camera but decided to not cart around things I didn’t need, not knowing how busy Bolga would be and how easy it’d be to get home afterwards.

After a night sleeping on the roof, we had breakfast and went to Mama Laadi’s. However, the children were at church, so we gave Mama Laadi some celebrations, had a nice cup of tea and went back to my house to start cooking – not nearly so stressful as I’d imagined… in fact I was on several occasions worried that we’d forgotten something vital. We had a little stress when we realised the power’d been off for a good 25 mins and we’d not noticed, then settled to eat.

Christmas dinner was: roast chicken, roast guinea fowl, carrots, green beans, bread sauce, stuffings (basil, parsley, thyme and onion (R and H); apricot, apple, sausage and groundnut (D)), roast potatoes, sweet potato chips, sausage, papaya chutney, D’s mum’s gravy, roast onions. We also made Christmas cookies, Damien made a pineapple dessert, and we had prawn crackers… multicoloured prawn crackers. After dinner, we watched “It’s a Wonderful Life”, sang carols and watched “Yes Minister” and spoke to family.

A pretty good Christmas J.

Day 88

Happy Christmas Eve!

This evening as I was trying to finish making preparations for Christmas and decide which service to go to, the power went out – or “lights out” as we say here. It didn’t last long – though I wasn’t sure how long it would last – and it reminds me how we take fore granted how lucky we are to have constant power in the UK, day in day out. The power here’s pretty good, but every so often you’ll get a few weeks when it’s out all day for several days.

Day 89

Today I went to see a neighbour in what had been described as a “cultural performance” or competition between different junior high schools.

On arrival at 10am when it was meant to start, the place was almost deserted. After an hour away and returning, nothing happening. Finally, after 12.30, they started.

The event was hosted by JHS teachers; the two in charge looked like they were in charge of some MTV awards or something; the lady was wearing a very figure hugging white dress and very high shoes and the man in black trousers, white and red t shirt and red accessories.

So, first up was the dancing. Lots and lots and lots and lots of girls and some boys coming up and dancing alone. The dancing was quite provocative and the male teachers seemed to be enjoying it more than they should. After that, there was what can only be described as some kind of Miss Ghana competition – girls walking up and down in high heels, then singing or dancing.

At this point it was about 3.30pm, and they were about to start on the singing. A teacher came over to see if we were enjoying it, and we asked when the drama was coming on. They, thankfully, switched things over so I saw the drama and then left about 4.15pm to do everything else I was planning on doing on that day. The drama performances were more educational than the other things – covering issues such as teen pregnancy, inappropriate relationships with teachers and going to earn money away from home and ending up in prostitution.

I’m not convinced that some of the items on the programme were really appropriate for children at JHS (12-16 year olds), certainly some of the dancing. But it was an interesting day and nice to see Emmanuel in his role as father in his school’s performance.

Day 90

With Hannah, Marc Anthony, Josephine, their baby Jordan, and another lady.

Josephine’s wedding.

In Ghana, getting married is not as simple as it is in the UK. It’s not simply a case of being married or not, it’s much more complicated than that. In Ghana, you can have a traditional marriage, a court marriage or a church marriage. The only one recognised by the law is the court marriage (or so I’ve been told.)

A traditional marriage involves your husband buying several different things for your father – fowls, cows, alcohol – it seems to vary a bit. After that has happened, then you are married. This is, as I said, the traditional way, and so men can have more than one wife in this manner.

A court marriage is like a registry office ceremony in the UK, but is in front of a judge.

A church marriage is made in a church. However, according to a colleague, this is not legally recognised by the law, so you’d need to also have a court certificate.

So, I went to Josephine and Marc Anthony’s wedding. They’re already traditionally married but wanted to be legally married too.

I turned up at the allotted time – 8.45am. The bridal party started to come around 9.15, with the bride and groom arriving closer to 10am. While this went on, I watched several cases in front of the judge. Most involved them deferring the judgement to a later date and then spending a lot of time discussing which date this would be, with the judge saying things like “ah, but they (defendants/accused) might be travelling then, so that date might not be good.”

Finally the time came for the wedding. The couple were told about what being married meant, then did their vows. Then the judge :

“Having a court marriage means that you are legally married. You can only be married to one person. The lady can only marry one person and the man too can only marry one person. So [to Josephine], you can’t take another husband. And you [to Marc Anthony], can’t take another wife. The only way to dissolve your marriage is by getting a divorce. You have to come to the court and get a divorce. Even if you are a chief – oh, or an MP – oh, you still can only take one wife. And the only way to end the marriage is to get a divorce. You need to come to the court and get a divorce. You can’t burn your marriage papers, you are still married under the law. We have copies. So if you lose your papers, you can come here, we’ll copy them and you can have another copy. The only way to end your marriage is to come here, pay the money and get a divorce.”

After this, we went back to Josephine and Tony’s house and had some food – presented in the way it always is at marriages, funerals and workshops – in a takeaway box.