Escaping to Fortress Europe
Tonight I'm heading off for a very brief break to the UK and Holland and regather some of the sanity that I feel has surely left me since I've been down here in Ghana.
I'm really looking forward to this brief escape, despite how good a life we live down this way. Although the beach on the weekend has a certain appeal, I'm missing something different. Grabbing a coffee in the morning on a weekend over the Sunday paper, proper toast with butter and honey for breakfast, running the dog through the park around the lake with a ball or feeling sporadic on Friday afternoon and booking a flight away for the weekend....these are some of the things I'm missing. And these are the things that mean I won't stay here for ever, that the way I've grown up will always remain with me.
Speaking of lakes, last weekend a few of us headed East for a relaxed Sunday in Akosombo, an area near Volta Lake and the Hydro Dam which was just fantastic. As I always say, you get of of Accra and you reacquaint yourself with Ghana.
The whole process of getting a flight organised and heading off to the UK is so incredibly simple for me luckily. I purchase the ticket, make sure my passport has a valid visa for the flight back to Ghana and that my vaccination certificate is in order. A short pre flight online registration with British Airways and I'm set.
This is in stark contrast to the troubles that people from this continent must endure to even get to the northern border of Africa, let alone hop on a plane. I read a book before I came here about human trafficking which went in to detail the lengths people from this continent go to reach Europe, crossing deserts, evading capture from military and police, leaving their livelihoods, families behind in search of a better life. The conditions that would motivate an individual to cross the Saharan desert on foot in search of a way out give you some idea of how people are living here and which people like myself are completely blind to when I turn up to the airport tonight with the biggest concern being whether or not my bag is overweight. A scarily large proportion of the population on this continent live in such a way however. Europe is aware of this and has set up sophisticated and highly resourced methods on the border of Northern Africa to keep people at bay, to stop them from making the crossing. The Spanish have outposts in Algeria, the Italians in Libya to name a few. I can understand the need to secure borders from an influx of asylum seekers and refugees, but it's worth appreciating when jumping on a plane to Europe for a week just how sharp the contrasts are here and how fortunate we are. It was definitely a thought provoking read, the name of which I completely forget.
Back to petty concerns for a moment though, I hope UK Customs don't seize all the souvenirs I'm taking back to the UK with me at the airport. Coming from New Zealand I know how strict MAF is on the importation of any plant or animal matter, it's basically not allowed at all. But for some reason I have a suspicion the UK is a lot more lenient on this. Whatever happens, I'm not going to lose anything of great value but it's nice to take something back and assist with Ghana's export efforts!
Goodbye theatrics….hello boredom?
After all the flag waving, face painting, chanting, vuvuzelaing, abusing, crying, national anthem singing, eating, drinking and celebrating.....the Soccer World Cup 2010 has come to a close. Sadly, the team I wanted to win in the final did not. Holland were simply awful in parts, did not dive and flail when they needed to (ahem Robben with Puyol!) and the Spanish were better theatrically. As were most teams that spoke Portugese, Spanish or Italian! Looking back on my earlier blog post though I actually mentioned wanting Spain to secretly win before the tournament started....and you can never defeat Paul the Octopus.
Personally, I'd like to see a lot more of the Kung Fu action like that from De Jong in the final in future World Cups, that was just awesome. During the games though Super Sport would show flashes of Rubgy previews, and the excitement that elicited from me proved that Rugby is still my winter game of choice (especially after the AB's humiliated the Boks at Eden Park last weekend). Bring on the tri-nations.
But admittedly it is sad that the whole thing is over. It was a good excuse to be out every night of the week and I really got an appreciation of how passionate people are about their own countries again, a bit of patriotism now and then is definitely a good thing.
It now begs the question though, what on earth are we going to do during the week (and what were we doing before the World Cup started?!), I'm lost for idea. Movies? Reading? Board games?
27 days till Europe, can't wait to get out of here for even just a week and breathe some fresh air, eat something other than chicken and rice and run across an open grass field. Oh and drive on the PROPER side of the road (the left), if I'm allowed to that is. I took a reality check when booking flights back to Accra though in August. I could fly back to NZ for the same price! It's absolutely ludicrous for a 7 hour flight when NZ takes more than 20! Guess the iPhone 4 or HTC Evo will have to wait for a bit.
New Zealand makes World Cup history
Just spent an extended lunchtime watching the All Whites up against Slovakia in their first round of the World Cup.
Although they did at times look woeful, full credit to the boys for picking up a late goal and equalising what could only be described as an offside from Slovakia who were lucky to score theirs as as result. Stunning header from Winston Reid after a good cross from Smeltz. If you're a Kiwi and you didn't watch it you should be ashamed.
Brazil tonight, Ghana on Saturday will be the next big games for me, and of course New Zealand v Italy. Although Ghana play Australia, there is no question in my mind about who I'm supporting, given the massive Ghanaian flag I'm in possession of.
A great day and hoping for an amazing performance from Brazil to shock those North Koreans into submission. I don't know how the world can continue to work during World Cup month, I'm totally caught up in it now.
Productivity Hit and Extending the Timeline
I'm expecting global productivity to reach an all time low over the coming four weeks if my interest in the World Cup is any indication. Already the TV is on and the first game is being watched by a band of admin workers here in the office....and it's only South Africa v Mexico!
Although not a soccer fan as such, I can't help but get wrapped up in the emotion of it all, especially given New Zealand is featuring. I'm hopeful that we'll pull off some surprise results, despite what the bookies are speculating with regard to New Zealand's chances! At least we're rated higher than North Korea (btw how did they qualify again?!)
If anyone can come up with something witty and ridiculous, it's theonion.com, and particular mention must go to this feature which I thought was hilarious.
Regarding my hopes for the World Cup:
- New Zealand
- Ghana
- England
I'm not a glory supporter, otherwise my picks would have been Italy, Spain, Brazil etc, which either makes me an idiot or a more genuine supporter. But I secretly hope Spain wins, as this would cause much grief for certain people I know which would make life more bearable for all.....one can only imagine the bragging rights winning the Soccer World Cup brings.
On a side note, thanks to Pete Ellis there is this cool site for finding all things World Cup related.
In other news, I've taken on a new contract to stay in Ghana till December. Pretty excited about that. With a couple of return flights back to UK and hopefully NZ mid next year, I think I can satisfy my appetite for all things western on the odd occasion. There's just too much happening here in the build up to oil pumping in October to leave now!
Which now puts me in a much better position for visitors. COME.
Circ circ circle….
There's been a lot of fuss over the recent weeks regarding 'Circ Circ Circle' and the associated event which was initially a cunning marketing ploy to sell t-shirts and turned in to a fully fledged party complete with music till 4am.
Circle (short for Nkrumah Circle named after the national hero who freed Ghana from the colonialism) is a roundabout on Ring Road in Accra, known as a central point in the city through which all the tro-tro's usually pass and where people seem to congregate. It's not the safest place late at night, but during the day it's a bustling area full of people selling anything and everything from toothpaste to rat poison.
Given its popularity, a few creative people thought it a good idea to make some t-shirts named after this well known Accra icon, and attempt to sell them. The only problem with this little plan was most of those people left Accra before the t-shirts were printed, so it was left to five dedicated obruni's to sell, three of which you can see in the photo below!
It sounded like a good idea at the time, and in theory it was going to work really well, what appeal! Obruni's selling t-shirts, not something most people see often in Accra, surely the 6-10 cedi price tag (depending on how effective our bargaining was) would be favourable with the locals.
In practice, it didn't quite work like that. Along with being mobbed by people wanting 'free' t-shirts and just basically standing around staring at us, we were also approached by someone official asking us if we had a license to sell in the tro-tro station.
After being practically forced out of the area and with not a sale to our name, we moved to Osu (a more affluent area with many foreigners) and sales picked up dramatically. With margins close to 60% it was a good snap decision and effective sales strategy which I'd like to take all but a little of the credit for.
With a few t-shirts left and another in depth sales strategy conversation over beer towers, it was decided late on Friday night to hold a party the next night and theme it.
Ultimate success. The party went well, plenty of people came considering how last minute the plan was and all the t-shirts were sold. I'd put more photos up but they're awful (at least the ones of me) so I'll put up a random one of some people who were there.
It taught me a few things about selling in Ghana though. It's not easy, the market is not flushed with enough money for most people to pay much more than 3 or 4 cedi for a t-shirt, despite the best marketing we had access to. And people will talk to you endlessly about buying a t-shirt, only to inform you they want it free to 'promote' after 10 minutes of discussion.
Overall, a fun weekend was had by all but most of the work was limited to a select few. Special mention goes out to Ruben and Matthew for being involved in the planning but failing completely to be there for the main event!
Travels, farewells and fever
Wow, I've really got to be a bit more regular on these updates. At least this time I've got some photos.
The last few weeks have involved a few farewells of people who I used to spend a lot of time in Ghana with which is always sad, but it really is the nature of this place. People come and go far too often, I'm not sure how you would cope with it if you lived here longer term, you'd have a very transitory social circle!
I was down in Cape Coast recently for work and managed to quickly catch the Cape Coast Castle. It's the capital of Central Region of Ghana, which is a little misleading as it's not so much central, as in the middle along the coastline.
As we all know, Africa has had a rather chequered history, none moreso than in colonial times with the slave trade, and the slave history is a big feature of the small town of Cape Coast. The castle which lies on the coastline was first built in the 17th century and tells a fascinating but horrible story of the treatment of the people at the time by colonial powers and slave traders. The castles built all along the coastline of West Africa are testament to that era, and many (if not all) are listed as World Heritage sights by UNESCO.
The conditions people survived (or didn't) during this time were deplorable, and those that were healthy enough were shipped off overseas to places like the US, where they were responsible for large amounts of the early development in those parts of the world.
On a lighter note, while there a work colleague (who was originally from the region) and I went to a 'spot' bar (a place to drink compared with a 'chop' bar where you eat) and we had a good outlook over the sea. It still strikes me every time how far away from home I am when I see the West African coastline. I was becoming overrun by fever unfortunately at the time so didn't enjoy it as much as I ordinarily would, but it made for an interesting look at the contrasts in Ghana and how life goes about here at the weekend.
There were a lot of kids on the beach playing soccer, as you can see, and others were sitting all over the rocks watching the game take place as well.
Ghana never fails to amuse however, and while watching the soccer game, I noticed in the midst of it all, a pig feeding on rubbish in the rocks. As amusing as this as and seemingly out of place, it's also one of the sad realities of this part of the world. If only they would address some of these issues, areas like this would be paradise.
Other than that it's been life as usual lately. People coming and going, relentless heat (I checked the other night and it was 30 degrees at midnight), intermittent power which makes your life hell if you're trying to sleep in the heat and eating crocodile at the restaurant owned by the only New Zealander I know that is here permanently.
On that note, EVERY time I leave, I get B52 shots which is the best thing ever. I've never had that treatment from other Kiwi's all over the world, but then I guess it's not quite as big of the thrill as running in to a 'New Zillander' in this part of the world.
Almost forgot to attach this photo of the kids who begged me to take their picture on the coast.....this is very commonplace here. The amount of pictures I see from other obruni here of random people staring blankly at the camera is hilarious. These kids were selling plantain chips (like banana) and generally just chilling out on a Saturday afternoon. Being the only obruni in the group (everyone else of the 40 or so people touring the castle were Ghanaian I think) I was a soft target.
Ok time to go and do get some dinner.
Pass It On
People that know me, know I'm pretty passionate about New Zealand (some would ask then why I'm not in the country currently but that's another story).
New Zealand needs all the help it can get from its own people given we're so small, which is why I was quite impressed by www.passiton.co.nz from Kea New Zealand. Getting New Zealanders to spread the word is a much more effective mechanism, and I've been impressed with other companies in NZ such as our national airline and how they've gone about it (if only Tourism New Zealand could also sort itself out and come up with something better, or at least work in conjunction with the private sector a bit more). New Zealanders themselves, as with people from any country, are the best ambassadors.
Seeing this sort of passion, and encouragement for Kiwi's to help the country spread the word I think is great, and says a lot about our country. We may not have the budgets or resources that other countries do, but sometimes you've just got to find a way. After spending some time in the UK I've realised not everyone is passionate about their country but someone's got to do it so there we go.
Of course, it's far from perfect, which I realised last week after viewing this website from NZ Institute, but I also think it's quite a positive thing to measure a country using a balanced scorecard style approach. This was measured by a New Zealand based institute with potential bias, but I'd be interested to see the same measures applied to other similar performing countries for comparison. This might be a better politically.....come voting time you could check in on the current governments performance rather than wading through the mess of misinformation politicians usually throw at us in the lead up to elections.
Edit: In hindsight, this had nothing to do with Africa whatsoever, perhaps I need to change my blog name.....
Unsatisfactory footwear
Easter involved a catchup with an old schoolmate in an area of Ghana they call 'Small London'. I still didn't quite manage to find out why this is. Despite allusions to the climate, I think there may be other reasons but I'll stick with that for now. It was noticeably cooler than Accra, and you were not plagued by mosquitoes while sitting outside. It almost felt like a balmy evening in Christchurch after a Norwester!
More than 500,000 people descended (or more correctly ascended) on Mpraeso in the hills for the easter celebration. Although we didn't spend a huge amount of time at the festival on account of our preference for a strenuous hike to caves on the side of the hills (I was absolutely destroyed by this!), we managed to see an open air concert from the roof of a truck which afforded us the best vantage point of any of the throngs of people that were there. It also resulted in fibreglass ridden pants for the rest of the weekend, although I got off lightly compared to everyone else it seems!
Of all the places to run in to someone I hadn't seen in 5 years, I hadn't expected it to be Ghana. It doesn't feel that isolated down here, but in reality, it kinda is. Despite being only 7 hours from Europe (I'm from New Zealand and that doesn't seem that significant compared to how far we have to travel to get to Asia or the US!) Ghana is in fact quite isolated. Firstly, the cost of flights are prohibitive from most places. Then there is the lengthy visa process, which admittedly isn't that difficult but is just costly. Throw in the vaccinations that are required to come here, and you've got an expensive and off-putting combination of factors to keep people away from Ghana. The final straw on the camel's back is a lack of tourist infrastructure compared to many other countries in Africa. Pity.
Was strangely refreshing to hang out with some Kiwis, Aussies and Brits for a weekend as well and talk about things we all had in common. It's not until you spend a decent amount of time away from your own country that you realise how different communication is with other people, despite the fact they may speak perfect English. Which makes perfect sense of course, but it just struck me again here.
I'd like to be able to say I went paragliding over the weekend, but alas due to unsatisfactory footwear it wasn't able to happen. Which is ridiculous as it would have been 50cedi (approx US$35) so that was a real missed opportunity. That didn't stop me hiking for 2 hours, but was enough to stop me taking to the skies.
Too much spice!
Whoa, just had chicken soup for lunch with WAY too much spice to handle, and to make matters worse it's getting even hotter here in lead up to rainy season, 34 degrees outside today. Melting.......
Australian Film Festival last night was great, not a huge attendance though, and it was amusing how the Ghanaians laughed at opposite times from everyone else in the cinema.
Car is fixed after scaffolding fell on it and smashed the back windscreen. I don't think there is much protection/liability for people that don't secure building sites in this country but hopefully it'll be ok, the contractor sounded like a decent guy, plus my witness is a New Zealand dude who owns the restaurant where I was parking! Nice!
Oil, Australians and Internet
I spent the last few days at an Oil and Gas conference at the convention centre here in Accra and learnt A LOT (one random fact: a company that was there sent a guy to a depth of 710 metres for 18 minutes and it took him 46 days to come back to the surface due to decompression - WHOA)
I met some interesting people (predominantly from America, sniffing around of course for opportunities to pump the black gold) and realised I was momentarily at the center of the oil industry. There were people from all across the world (usually this conference is held in Angola or Nigeria but due to resource and safety concerns they've moved it here) including government officials, executives from oil companies in Nigeria especially amongst others. All the big global players were represented, and I think at some stage I managed to talk to most of them which was really good. How successful that was remains to be seen.
Having looked at all this influence and importance that was surrounding me though for the past two days me I felt a little disgusted. It's a scramble as with anywhere oil turns up....and companies come out in force ready to please in order to secure the rights to pump money. Funny how quickly everyone is interested in this part of the world now that they can see the profits. It's like a kid at school when you're young getting a flash new toy and everyone suddenly wants to be their friend! Anyway, it was something new and fascinating to get a snapshot into the industry briefly (admittedly some of the forum discussions were kinda heavy!)
After a pretty lengthy power cut last night and sitting at home talking in the dark for a few hours, the power came back on and back to back Champions League games were watched. First night at home I can remember for a long long time!
Tonight I'm selling my soul and heading to an Australian Film Festival (apparently with about a thousand others) so I hope it's better than 'Australia'. Will be good to be surrounded by some familiar accents for a while I guess? Smart way of promoting your country as a tourist destination though, a lot of the embassies run similar things here. Now if only there was New Zealand representation closer than the 4,000+ km to get to the nearest embassy in Egypt....
Oh one final thing (and this is kinda geeky) I also read about this awesome project in NZ to build high capacity cable from NZ to US and Australia. This will be a huge boost and some of the biggest players in the industry are behind it so I'm hopeful it comes to fruition.