A Whirlwind Tour of Kwahu

This weekend was a complete whirlwind.

Katie and I got up on Friday morning and packed our bags to go to the area of Kwahu in the Eastern Region with my host mother. She brought Nana (our two year old host brother) along with her, probably because he’s such a mama’s boy, he would have cried the whole two days while she was away if she hadn't.

We caught a trotro from Zongo Junction, which is not too far from our house, and is right by Madina Market. The tro ride was about four and a half hours, and it was bumpy and crowded and the traffic was bad. I know, I’m making it sound like so much fun, but it wasn't actually too bad. I was kind of half-asleep most of the way. From the station in Akoko, at the base of the mountains in the Eastern Region we took a cab to a place to have lunch, and it was really good. I had jollof with chicken: a pretty standard Ghanaian dish.

I also had my first experience with the fabled Ghanaian “female urinal.” I’m not a fan. It’s fairly similar to the non-western style toilets of East Africa and Asia, which can be very clean and nice, but are essentially holes in the floor. Still, they were much easier to use than the Ghanaian versions. It’s basically a room with a drain… so it was pretty awkward. It kind of felt like peeing in a shower. Still, it was clean, and could have been a lot worse.

The weather was pleasantly cool, because of the mountains, and as it turns out, we escaped a little heat wave back in Accra that kept Sarah and Holly up all night. The power was out pretty much all weekend in Accra, so their fan was ineffective. I felt bad for them, but I enjoyed the break.

Anyway, after lunch my host mother’s older brother, Daniel who still lives in her home town came and picked us up. He teaches phys. Ed. at a boys’ senior high school in the area, as well as being the Honourable District Assembly member for the area.

Ghanaian politics are kind of complicated. There is a parliament made up of MPs kind of like in Canada, but the President is independently elected, kind of like in the U.S. In addition to this, the chieftaincy structure still exists, and is recognized by the constitution, and there are chiefs on the village, district, and paramount levels, as well as the House of Chiefs, kind of like a House of Lords or Senate in the central government itself. The chieftaincy structure is monarchical, and varies a bit from the North to the South of Ghana, but does not follow the law of primogeniture. Instead, a chief is selected either by the chief’s council (in the South) or by the Paramount Chief (in the North) from the eligible candidates at the time of a vacancy. Furthermore, there are government bodies called District Assemblies (as each of the ten regions is divided into a number of districts) with elected representatives from various areas within the districts, that have a certain level of autonomy.

In our classes, we’ve been learning a bit about how these structures work, and how the political system is kind of neo-patrimonial, and that elected officials retain their power by maintaining patron-client relationships with their voters: for example by paying school fees or hospital bills, or by making donations to community centers or NGOs. In a lot of ways, this is problematic, because it makes politics here even less about the issues, but at the same time, with all the blue-collar corruption (ex. Policeman catches a speeder, the fine is GHC 400, but instead of writing him up, accepts a bribe of GHC 200, and both the policeman and the speeder are happy) it’s a good way of ensuring that some of the “lost” money returns to the people. It’s a tricky issue.

But we definitely saw a lot of those patron-client relationships when we were there. Most of our time being shown the area involved us being introduced to MPs and assembly members as well as teachers, nurses, the leaders of health clinics, and other important community members as the Honourable Mr. Daniel went around meeting them. I definitely felt like I was on the campaign tour. I wasn't sure if we obrunis were some kind of political statement, or if we just happened to be going along with him as he made his campaign, but either way it was a strange mix of fun and uncomfortable.

We met a lot of very interesting people. I had some fun conversations with teachers about politics and development, as well as about earrings with a group of girls that looked to be around 17. I got proposed to in French, and for the first time, I had a married man ask me to be his second wife. This man, in fact, brought his wife over to talk to me, to make sure she approved. It was nine shades of awkward, and my host family did not come to my rescue this time. I told them I was married, and that I had to go find my mother. The latter part of that sentence was true, as everyone seemed to have disappeared in that moment, but they were actually just around the corner.

We ate dinner at Mr. Daniel’s house, where there was a big bag of clothes and toys in the living room. I didn't ask about it, but he must have noticed me looking, because he explained that people from Korea sent these things to him, and he gives them to widows and orphans. This was actually after he showed us three different newspaper articles documenting his charitable donations to widows groups and orphanages in the area. It seemed a little underhanded to me to be using charity proceeds from abroad and taking political credit for the donations, but it wasn't really any of my business. I didn't ask how he got the stuff from the Koreans, and he didn't say. I just kind of smiled and nodded at that point. I had assumed we’d be staying with the family, but in fact he got us a room at a guest house that I assume is affiliated with the school (as it’s practically on campus) that was very nice. He also got a room for my host mother and Nana so that they could stay close to us in case we needed anything, even though I'm certain that they typically stay at the family's house. The room wasn't elaborate by Western standards, but it had two single beds, and it was clean, and there was a TV and a fan and a bathroom with running water and a real shower. The water pressure was pretty weak, but it worked, though I had been anticipating a bucket shower or none at all, so I didn't bring shampoo and conditioner to be able to take full advantage of it. Still, it’s amazing how running water feels like a luxury these days.

Saturday was very busy. We got up at six and went for breakfast at Mr. Dan’s house, following which we drove to a field somewhere and took a quick hike through the field, then through some rainforest until we got to an amazingly beautiful and picturesque waterfall. 

 The waterfall.

Me, My host mother (with Nana in that cloth on her back) our guide, and Mr. Daniel

From there we drove to a little fishing village, though we didn't stay long. It was the hometown of some of our extended family, and they wanted us to see the river, but we didn't really do much there except take pictures. We went to a funeral, but only for a moment, before we went to a wedding, but nothing was happening yet, and the music was too loud, so we went home to eat. Then we went and visited the medical center in the area, and went back to the wedding, where stuff was actually starting to happen. I'm not sure entirely what was going on, because it was all in Twi, but there was a lot of praying and a lot of yelling and a lot of music. There was one point where a character that I can only describe as the MC was talking (very fast) over the music that was playing, and the groom was standing in the middle of the courtyard (it was set up a lot like the funeral from a few weeks ago) and people kept leaving their seats to come up to the groom and stick money to his forehead. I'm pretty sure it stayed on because he was sweaty, which was kind of gross, but they would stick it to him, or rub it on his face and neck. Then either it would stick/fall and be collected by a young woman with a bowl, or else people would deposit their money in the bowl themselves after rubbing it on the groom. I'm not sure exactly what the significance of this was, though I assume it was a way of contributing to the cost of the wedding. Regardless, it was fun to watch. 

After that, we met some more nurses because Katie had to use the restroom, so we stopped into the house of one of Daniel's friends (which is totally casual here) to chat for a while and use the facilities before he drove us back to the trotro station.

Though I think I neglected to mention the most enjoyable part of the weekend, which was Nana crying the entire time. Nana is two, so like all two year olds, he cries. But he was really being a brat, and crying at absolutely everything. Now, to some extent, this is understandable, because it was a long journey and a long day, with lots of moving and people, and that's tiring. Still, along with us for our whole journey was Mr. Daniel's son Joshua who was the same age, and so much better behaved, despite not having his mother with him, and Mr. Daniel not really paying him too much attention. There was one instance where Joshua was sleeping, but had been woken up, because we got back to the house, and as Katie and I got settled on the couch, he walked into the living room making noises like he was about to cry. It was so cute and so sad, I just automatically held my arms out to him, and he walked into them for me to pick him up. He looked at me for about four seconds, and I thought he was going to cry, but then he just closed his eyes, put his head on my chest, and promptly fell asleep. It was so precious. He stayed there for about half an hour, waking up occasionally to look around, before sleeping again, and when he got up to go play with Nana at the end of the half hour, he was fresh and happy and just like new. Conversely, there was another instance in the car, where my host mother handed Nana to me so that she could climb in, and the minute he left his mothers arms, he just screamed and pitched a fit like you wouldn't believe. I think the difference here was probably because Nana is the youngest of his siblings, by quite a wide margin (Felix, then next youngest, is 11), whereas Joshua, who's about two, has a younger brother who's about one, so he's had to learn to share toys and play nice sometimes, and generally be a little bit less of a brat. But really, who knows? It could also be that Nana just happened to be having a bad day when Joshua was having a good one. 

The trotro ride home was pretty uneventful, just long. There were people around me arguing. One of them asked me if I was a Christian (I never know how to respond to that here. They don't understand the concept of being "nominally" or "a little bit" Christian), and I said "Kind of," which I guess he assumed meant yes, because he asked me what church I went to. His friend piped up that they were having an argument about Christianity, so I promptly put on my huge pink headphones and stared out the window. The last thing I wanted to do was get in the middle of a religious debate on a trotro at 8:00 at night in Ghana. Apparently Katie sidestepped the whole discussion by telling them she was a Buddhist. They took that a lot better than when we've tried to tell people we're atheists, so I think I might use that one next time. 

Next up will be the exciting story of Sunday Brunch at the Movenpick with Carmencita and Alberta! Stay tuned, and I'll keep you posted.