This wouldn’t even tro-tro : A relic from the past in Gbimsi.

One tro-tro came and passed without stopping – it was full. Then I got a van which was going to the nearby town of Walewale. Thinking it would be easier to get a means to go to Tamale from there, I left the village. By the time I arrived in Walewale, it was already dark and I couldn’t see any mini-vans or tro-tros going to Tamale. After waiting the for another 20 mins or so, a tro-tro came along. I rushed to the door as soon as it stopped, I didn’t want to spend another night in Walewale, only to travel to Tamale early next morning. I breathed a sigh of relief after finding a fairly comfortable seat in the middle row. Within 5 mins, the tro-tro started moving. But the sound of the engine was telling me it couldn’t travel faster than 60 kmph max. So I calculated that I’d reach Tamale by 9pm accounting for the numerous stops it was bound to make along the way to drop off and pick local passengers.

Making use of the “government”

I wasn’t much surprised when on the way our tro-tro stopped to tow another broken-down tro-tro, for helping each-other is how you deal with accidental breakdowns here – a place with no AA to call or any other service for that matter. Luckily the broken-down tro-tro needed only a short pull before it started so we were soon on our way on the normal speed again. By 9pm I arrived at the junction to my house and after a 10 minutes’ walk, I was home

The happiness of arriving home after 5 days away didn’t last long however. The house was in complete darkness – and I thought my friend forgot to switch on the lights before travelling. I got in and turned on the switches but still no light, while every single house in the vicinity had lights! I had no idea what was going on. I called my friend up, but he didn’t know what was going on either. After the day’s ordeal, I was just too tired to care about the lights – I just wanted to take shower, get something to eat and sleep. I decided to check if there was running water in the house, and there wasn’t! That was it, it was the point when I decided I cannot spend the night there – no lights, no water and warm night with mosquitoes buzzing all around!

I quickly got on the phone and rang the hotel where I come to use internet and arranged a room for the night, then got on my bicycle carrying my laptop and a pair of clean clothes I headed to the hotel. By 10pm I was in the hotel watching CNN and feeling cold in the ACed room, I would have preferred fan but they didn’t have a fan – it was either AC or nothing! Of course I didn’t mind – I had more luxury than I was hoping for when travelling back from Walewale on that tro-tro, and I probably had the best sleep in many days. I was just too tired!

Saturday morning started with an “English Breakfast” (consisted of a sausage, omelette, and some baked beans – with toast of course!), and more CNN and wireless internet. Enjoyed being able to type on proper keyboard as opposed to my struggle with mobile phone keys all week. Spent most of the day at the hotel to stay “connected”, but had to leave before I would have liked due to power cut. When I got back home, the power was back on, and the taps were whistling with air – signalling that the water was soon about to flow again! What a relief that was.

On this hot Sunday, I’m back at the hotel for lunch and to use the internet. Everything is working so far, and hope it continues till the evening! Will be heading back to the village early tomorrow morning, but will try to come back in the evening as I don’t have much work left for myself now that I’ve completed most of the interviews (one left for Monday), and all of the focus group discussions! I now have just over a month left in Ghana for this year’s trip. Thinking I should plan for a week or so’s sightseeing (being tourist I mean ) around the country before I head back to belayat.

So while I struggle to get back to sleep, let me narrate (oh one of the spiders just climbed on to my bed – I just gave it the shock of its life…it should stay away from my bed now, if its not dead already!) what has happened since the last entry more than a month ago.

Well, there were lots of tales to tell (if I had wanted to that is), but as most of those tales were work-related (or rather of work-related troubles), I thought they were best kept untold. Plus they would make rather boring entries, I’m sure. I haven’t yet started my own surveys this year, so the interesting bits from my fieldwork are yet to come. So for now it’s a waiting-game, for me and to those few readers who still frequent this blog

In terms of “pleasure-reading”, I finished a book on the Congo (Blood River: A Journey to Africa’s Broken Heart by Tim Butcher) – in fact within a couple of days after finishing The Enchantress of Florence. Have been meaning to write a short entry on the book but that probably won’t happen anytime soon (may be another night of sleeplessness might inspire me to complete that entry too (yea I had started the entry right after I completed the book!) ). Now I’m reading Felipe Fernández-Armesto‘s Civilisations (recommended by a friend in York), which isn’t a small book – 600+ pages (including notes) – so might take me well into August or September as I’m only reading few pages a day (bedtime reading mostly!).

Life this year is a bit different than last year (well, its stating the obvious). The excitement of “new place” is not there this year (well, at least it was there during the first few months of my stay last year!), which means most daily-life activities are as mundane as they would be anywhere, although the ever-present uncertainty (or chaos) surrounding (almost) everything here makes it a bit less monotonous – than life in York for example.

Let me end this entry on a funny (well at least to me it is!) note. Last years struggle (and my patience) to open a bank account seems to have provided me with “double dividend” (well not exactly dividend but still!) as I came back this year to find bank statements for two different bank accounts – both in my name! Strangely one is at my local branch in Tamale, while the other one seems to be at a branch in a town called Tarkwa, which I didn’t know existed before I saw the bank statement! Stranger still is the fact that the account in Tarkwa seems to have been opened within a couple of weeks of my application, while I was struggling to get the same in Tamale for almost three months! I haven’t decided which account to close so I’m staying put for the moment.

If that wasn’t “funny” note, this picture sure is:

But that’s only half the story! Beginning at the university in York, trying to sort administrative nightmares, ending at the university in Tamale, trying to sort administrative nightmares, the week that was, the week has been one of immense frustration. Beginning at the airport in London, ending at the airport in Tamale – getting away with heavy baggage in London, having to pay extra for “excess baggage” in Accra, the week that was, the week has been one of partial travel woes. Reading The Enchantress of Florence – beginning on the last night in York, continuing during a night in Accra, then during the laziness of the daytime Tamale, the week that was, the week has been one of a fascinating read.

Lets talk about the “struggle to work” now, or rather the culture of work/work ethic. Arriving in Ghana, one thing you pretty quickly realise is that West (or North more appropriately) makes you too impatient. Things here take time to get done, they always take time. If you have an appointment with your local colleague at nine in the morning and s/he doesn’t turn up until 11:30, you shouldn’t be surprised that much. As long as s/he turns up before noon, s/he will feel proud at the fact that s/he made it to the meeting in the “morning”, which was what was agreed after all – to meet in the morning. It doesn’t matter what time in the morning, as long as its in the morning, the person hasn’t missed the appointment! You would think being a Nepali, I shouldn’t be too impatient as Ghana-time is more like Nepali-time when it comes to appointments, but being that Nepali who is now more and more living in a limbo between various cultures, its often difficult to decide how to react. At the end you don’t really have much option than to go with the flow and have things done the Ghanaian way, or rather let things happen than trying too hard to make things happen knowing all well that all your efforts could be better spent in other ways!

If somebody tells you a certain thing will get done that week then it usually means things will be ready before the office starts on Monday the next week. Don’t discount the weekends though – if things need to be done at all cost that week, weekend could be used as well. But don’t expect the job to be done by Friday though, two days of weekend are very important, albeit being public holidays.

However, there is one trick that I have realised works fairly well in these situations, be it in Nepal or Ghana – take the lead yourself, get your hands dirty, show by example, and embarrass those delaying the work. They would then have no option but to follow your lead.

The Enchantress of Florence
I’m waiting in domestic terminal at the airport in Accra for my flight – in fact for the ticket initially – reading the book that I started in York. My last year’s ordeal on this very day comes to my mind occasionally, but unlike last year, it isn’t raining on this day this year so I remain optimistic. The man asks me which book I was reading. Instead of telling him the name, I turn the front cover for him to see. Seeing “Salman Rushdie” in big bold block capitals, he asks if I thought it was a good idea to read a book by the author who is the epicentre of hatred in most of the Muslim world, now that I was heading to the north of Ghana, a predominantly Muslim region. The truth was that he was playing a devil’s advocate more than being a nice man warning me of potential dangers, for he knew as well as I did having lived in northern Ghana for a fairly long time that it is a peaceful region when it comes to religion (I haven’t heard of any conflicts in the name of religion during my time here) despite being a Muslim-dominated area with a fast growing Christian population driven by the missionaries of all types and sizes – not to mention of those people following traditional religion – or a mixture of traditional and abrahamic religions. Besides, I wonder how many people know of Rushdie in the north, especially in the villages where I work!?! At this point I remember my debate with some villagers last year about religion and faith – and my argument with them (wasn’t a good idea this, nearly derailed my survey!) that “god was created by man and not the other way round”. When I told them what I believed (or rather did not believe) in, Muslims probably thought of me as a kafir; I don’t know what the equivalent word is in christianity.

Anyway, coming back to my flight, I made full use of an hour or so long flight to read the book, not to mention a couple of hours of wait at the airport. As I write these lines, I’ve finished the book. Although sometimes too many plots/sub-plots, story-telling, flashbacks makes it a bit difficult to follow (unless you remind yourself where you are in the plot), its certainly a good read, especially if you are interested in historical fictions, or in the case of this book, historical fantasy rather.

Heat without humidity, “rainy season” without the rain
I came to Tamale hoping it would be rainy and cooler, but expecting hot and dry days, like this time last year. It was the landing in Tamale under the thick, dark clouds that strengthened my hope, but expectation was just too stronger/accurate as within an hour all the clouds were gone and the day was hot and dry. The truth is I don’t mind the heat anymore as long as its not humid, as I found out during my recent trip to Uganda how difficult it could get under hot humid condition. I had never experienced sunburns as I did during those two weeks in Uganda. It finally rained this morning – occasional bouts of downpour but not continuous for any considerable time to call it a proper rain really. Now its getting hotter again, despite the overcast – or should I say because of the overcast with no rain. It feels as if I’m living inside a green house – well, that’s probably an exaggeration – but you get my point. So long.

In my dream, I saw friends reunited, friends separated, work accomplished, work needed to be done, happy times, sad times, the whole strata of my life in general really. When I finally woke up, the last piece spoon of the khichadi seemed to be a paper that I was supposed to be revising and sending out to my co-authors. In halfway between dream and reality, I decided I should work on that paper, now that I’m awake and knowing that I won’t be able to sleep for at least a couple of hours. May be trying to work on that paper will put me to sleep! I come to my desk, locate the last version of the paper on my computer and start going through it. I find reading/editing long papers on computer very tedious, so I decide to print the paper with all the track changes and mark-ups. As I start to go through the printed version of the paper, I realise I’m not in the right frame of mind to work on the paper at this time of the night. I put aside the paper and start typing these things up on ecto. I have my earphones stuck in my ears with some Greek music playing on my iPod.

I’m seeking solace in music, and my iPod is playing Haris Alexiou‘s To the End of Your Heaven (thanks Dr Frantzi for sharing this album – it has been my lullaby album for the past couple of months!). Its a fantastic Greek album, and I don’t understand a single word of what the singer sings, but love listening to this album regardless. Somehow it keeps me in good frame of mind (when I have difficulty getting sleep or when I need to fall asleep, as a lullaby album as mentioned!) – definitely a good example of music being a universal language as well as having power to “heal”! (okay up to here, typed at night, and not surprisingly I fell asleep while listening to Haris Alexiou!)

–x–

Now, I’m in northern Ghana for my field research (part of my PhD, which I am still not entirely sure why I decided to pursue – will certainly write the reasons why if/when I get them myself!). Life here, as I have mentioned previously, is not unlike that in Nepal (only in terms of the food, culture & way of life (both good and bad) and infrastructure though – when it comes to the political situation, Ghana is much better than conflict-ridden Nepal) , which obviously made it a lot easier for me to come here and “feel at home”. But “feeling at home” doesn’t really help when you have to get things done, and especially when you expect (and are expected) to get things done at the pace that you have become accustomed to. Now, similar experiences (Nepal and Ghana) does make it easier to get over the frustrations, but getting over the frustrations isn’t really the solution/alternative to getting things done (if lucky, without any frustrations). Somehow I have managed to survive the past six months without major issues, either with those who seem to enjoy creating obstacles at every step, with the authority (who enjoy doing the same) or with people who I have to work with on a daily basis. So this is no minor success…

As a side note, let me narrate a simple story of how to make shopping complex…Why do people shop? To meet their needs…but when you are talking about shopping in a supermarket, people shop more than they need, more often than not. They probably shop to feel good or something like that. Or as I saw during Ramadan, they probably shop to forget that they are fasting – the store I am talking about was crowded everyday during that month! Now, stores usually encourage people to shop, and shop more, and shop for things they don’t really need. They do so by making shopping easy, offering promotional prices and the like. But this shop I am talking about does the exact opposite. Here is how you shop at this store:

1. You go and find the aisle where the things that you are looking for are displayed.

2. When you find the thing you want, you find an attendant for that aisle and show that person the item you want and tell them the quantity you want.

3. The attendant will give you a small piece of paper (scrap paper) with the item code, quantity and unit price scribbled on it. You repeat this process for every item you want, roaming around the aisles and finding the items you need and finding the respective attendants for the item.

4. When you have everything you need (on scraps of paper that is, not physically), you take those scrap papers to the payment counter and give it to the cashier there.

5. The cashier will then enter those item codes and quantities on the computer and take the payment from you, giving you the receipt. Remember that you have now paid for all the items you want and have the receipt (which says in the bold letters that items once purchased are not returnable!).

6. Now you take that receipt and go around all those aisles once again, finding all those attendants who will check the receipt and give you the items that you purchased! Now, there is no space between the aisles in this store for the trolleys (and not surprisingly there aren’t any shopping trollies in the store anyway!), so when the attendants start giving you the things that you purchased, you’ll be in a nightmare scenario if you didn’t think beforehand on how you’re going to collect these items after the purchase. Most people thus take their house-boys or go in family groups!

7. Now that you have in your hands the items you purchased, you would think its all over. But wait, it ain’t over yet.

8. You go through another set of attendants just before the main exit, who will check the items that you are carrying against the receipt you have. Only when they are satisfied, they’ll stamp your receipt, put the items you bought in plastic carriers for you and let you go!!!

Imagine what a relief you must feel after this shopping “ordeal”!! There is no denying that this store makes shopping the most tedious experience, and still I see people flocking to this store…I simply fail to understand why!?! I have myself gone through this experience a couple of times to be able to narrate this here, but I then refused to enter this store anymore, unless there is no alternative (i.e., unless I cannot find the item I am looking anywhere else). By the way, the store is called “Melcom” with the tagline “where Ghana shops”…If I had any influence on Ghanaians shopping habits, I would ask them to boycott this store until it makes shopping easier!!!

But despite all this mixed-up-like-khichadi life in a country far away from where I was born, and not too near from where I reside, I am eternally depressingly optimistic about almost everything, and thats what surprises (and probably pisses) those who know me and see me “seemingly” enjoying my stay here. And to be honest, I am enjoying my stay in Ghana (but now after more than six months, can’t wait to go back to my small and largely trouble-free world of being a student in York), and already looking forward to coming back next year (and I haven’t completed this year’s work yet!) to complete remainder of my field work…

How depressingly optimistic I have become!?!

I think I’m having “bloggers block” (if this phrase has any similar meaning like “writers block”) for the past couple of months. Although I start to write a new entry with so many things in mind that I think I should write about, after a paragraph or so, I just haven’t been able to continue. This means, I now have more unfinished “drafts” on my ecto’s post list than those that are actually published on my blog! Hopefully, I would be able to get over this BB and complete some of those drafts before I leave Ghana at the end of next month.

Okay, I must mention how happy I was to be able to use IMAP on Gmail this week! In fact, I use my own domain email on Google Apps more than my original Gmail email thesedays. So being able to use IMAP on my poudyal.net email on Google Apps was absolutely fantastic. This also means that the first ever online petition that I had signed a year or so ago (for Gmail IMAP) has come to fruition…effort that I put to type my name and press send didn’t go to waste…hurray!

As I mentioned, I’ve been playing around with facebook a bit this week, and was surprised to find one of two friends who I haven’t been in touch for nearly two years or so on facebook! I had just decided to let facebook’s “friend finder” scan my Gmail contact list, and there they were – some of my out-of-contact contacts – on facebook…Great stuff!

Finally, this has been the first year since I left Nepal that I didn’t know/realise when Tihar was. I was in the village with no electricity, no internet (GPRS was working on my mobile but to save the battery, the only functionality I was using on my mobile was the SMS!) and didn’t even take my permanently-BBCWorldService-tuned radio to the field, so I had no idea what was going on in the world outside. In some ways, it was great to be doing the work I was there to do and be completely isolated in that village – eat local food, and live a simple village life. I only realised Tihar had already past when I saw a few Tihar-greetings on my inbox when I got back to Tamale earlier this week. Oh well, when you have no way of celebrating, its not too bad missing the festival altogether! I hope all my readers (those who celebrated Tihar) had a great time during the festival!

Well, this is all I’m going to write on this post…It has been a typical “random jottings…” entry, and hopefully this will help me get over my BB…I have been thinking of writing a couple of entries in Nepali, which hopefully I will be able to complete and post by the end of this week. Need to go to local Immigration Bureau to extend my stay permit tomorrow, which should be an interesting trip judging by my experience last time around (which unfortunately I didn’t write about here…may be I’ll write a combined entry covering my both visits!). I leave with a link to an interesting news piece from BBC…I hope these two people start talking to each other soon, at least for the sake of their language!

Anyway, coming back to the “heavy price” of this uncertain supply (or more appropriately, the uncertain cut-off) of electricity, I found out what happens to a laptop battery when you have all sorts of power-hungry devices (mostly the USB plug-and-play devices such as external hard drives) are plugged in and the mains power is suddenly cut off – my laptop battery just went dead! It actually happened a couple of weeks ago. I was burning some pictures from my external HD that requires mains power to a CD on my laptop, and suddenly the mains power was off. As soon as the external HD shut off, my computer went dead. Nothing I did to make it come back worked. The power indicator on the battery showed that it was fully charged, but none was getting through to the computer. I thought my laptop HD was gone, which meant a disaster, for I hadn’t backed-up my system (which I do at least once every couple of months normally) since I came to Ghana. I do update the copy of “Documents” on external HD every week or so, so I wasn’t too worried about losing much of my recent work.

I think I was more worried because I didn’t know exactly what was wrong with my computer – other than that something was seriously wrong. The battery seemed to be fully charged (as I could check the charge-level indicator) yet I couldn’t start up my computer. After thinking all sorts of scenarios in my head, I started to work out the next plan of action. It seemed that all roads were leading me to Accra or Kumasi – for there are only a few computer service centres here in Tamale but unsurprisingly not a single one specialising in Apple computers. In fact I haven’t seen another person using a Mac since I came to Tamale! I was pacing back and forth in my living room wondering what to do next when it came to my mind that I actually have a spare battery, which had come in very handy previously when I was travelling and didn’t have regular access to mains power. I decided to give one last try – change the battery and see what happens.

My laptop came to life as soon as I replaced the battery and pushed the power button! I can’t express how relieved I was. Nothing was lost, but the blank CD that was in the drive when the computer shut off wouldn’t come out – the burning program was still seeking the source (the external hard drive) to copy the materials from, and with no lights the HD was off. I “force quit” the CD burning program after some struggle to find it in the running processes list (I was using the built in burner, which doesn’t have a GUI!). The CD was ruined but it got ejected at last.

Now was the turn to check the battery which had just died. And it wasn’t too hard to know what had happened. The burning smell that was coming from the section of the battery which connects to the laptop to supply the power was telling me everything I needed to know. It was the same familiar smell that you get from a blown-up fuse or other blow-up of electronic devices. One of my laptop batteries was unusable now, and it hit home how careful I have to be while using my gadgets here in Ghana! Anyway, the relief at seeing my computer back to life more than compensated the loss of a spare battery. And I am much more careful now when using these external devices. I try to put as little strain on my laptop power, and don’t try to copy or move things directly from one external device to another, and I don’t use external devices during weekends (when they tend to cut-off power here without any notice!) – the lesson you learn the hard way!

Well it has been two weeks since my last post, and I have just blurted out the story of my dead battery, which actually happened even before my last post. Hopefully my next post wouldn’t be as mundane as this one though…hopefully…

But then I have to tell you this. I was in the kitchen, preparing dinner earlier this week when Habiba, the lady who does my laundry and house-cleaning, came around with a younger girl – all stressed. She then started telling me the reason. The younger girl’s niece – a 3-year old girl – had got lost earlier that morning, and a good Samaritan apparently took her to a local radio station. They only found out where she was after hearing an announcement on the radio about the missing girl. Now they had to go and get her back from the station. She then told me that the radio station charged 25000 cedis (just over US$ 2.50) to release the girl “because they spent their airtime on the announcement”. And the radio station is government owned!! I just couldn’t believe it. I mean the government is already taking money off the people from tax and what not and this station wanted to charge this poor family to take their girl back just because they had to use half a minute of their “airtime” announcing about the girl!?!

Good news is that the girl is now safely back home – and apparently doesn’t leave home unaccompanied!

Another of the Habiba’s nephew, Mohammad, asked me last week if I would let him iron my clothes. He told me he can do the ironing and folding clothes quite well. I told him I don’t have an iron and haven’t ironed my clothes for years now (mainly because most of the clothes that I have are jeans and t-shirts!). Anyway, I do have a few shirts and had just been to a local tailor to have him make some custom clothes for me. I bought an iron after all (the place I have rented came with an ironing board!) so that Mohammad could iron my clothes. I decided to buy him his junior secondary school text books in return, which made him, and moreover Habiba, happy.

On a different note, I thought I wouldn’t be able to follow the EPL football here, especially my club Arsenal. I have to admit it is harder to follow Arsenal’s game here, for most Ghanaians seem to be Chelsea fan (Michael Essien connection) or Man Utd fan (I don’t see any Ghanaian connection here!), so the game they show on TV mostly involves those two teams…not that I am complaining as I don’t even have a telly here. Strangely, I came back from a village yesterday and turned on my radio to listen to the news…instead I heard live commentary of Arsenal vs Man City game on BBC world service…very cool! It seemed the game was going to end in a goal-less draw when van Persie missed that penalty but then Fabregas scored and I was so relieved…because I would have been in a bad mood all week had they not won a home game against Man City, and I have lots to do here this coming week than think about Arsenal’s good-football-bad-result…at times like these, ignorance really is bliss! Spurs vs Man Utd game today (heard on BBC world service that they will do a live commentary)…but I have absolutely no interest in following the game…I only hope its a draw so that they both stay on the same part of the league table – on the bottom half!!

Well, that’s all the news I have on this Sunday. I see nicely dressed girls and boys walking towards the church nearby…Apparently Sunday “service” is the best place to get to know those of opposite sex and find a potential date…so there is more to the “service” than pleasing the god! Ciao.