Curio Sellers
Many of you well travelled people reading this blog have interacted with the curio seller before. But for you who haven't they are salespeople who sell their goods beside the road (mostly wooden carvings). How does this vary from a friendly shopping at Paddy's Markets you may ask? Well for starters they don't have shops they call them castles, they are extremely territorial and when walking past you are made to feel immediately obliged to inspect and buy their goods... and you should fell bad if you don't. You will be shouted at, abused, grabbed and possibly thieved from...But this is apparently what builds character. Also it's the best place to find cheap souvenirs for your culturally deprived friends back at home... which will probably be confiscated by customs when you reach your home turf anyway. So far we have found these guys pretty hardcore, they will go in for a handshake but will hold on to you tight and try to say whatever they can to persuade you to buy from them. One time we turned one down and even when we had crossed the street he started shouting across the street GET LOST WHITE PEOPLE!! GET LOST!! Still that is pretty extreme...He was saying it like he had just learnt to swear.
Church
Now this is a much more fun topic to write about.We have only been in Ghana for a couple of weeks but we have done our best to get along to Ghanaian church where we can. The 2 dominant faiths in Ghana are Muslim in the north and Christian in the south. There are Advertising boards everywhere with Christian messages and info on the latest "In" evangelistic preacher. The one I liked best was an ad for the Power Miracle Chapel which had a minister who looked like Mr.T in Camo Gear flexing his muscles. Most of the Tro Tro's and Taxi's have bible verses written on the back of them. Many of the roadside shops have also taken a Christian themed business name such as the "Rapture Barber Shop", "Grace Tailoring" or "Truth Mobile Phones". Traffic in Ghana is at a minimum on Sunday because most people are attending Church. The majority of services go for about 3 hours and start at 8am. We luckily found one that starts at 9:30am. The service we attended last week had a healthy mix of traditional hymns, big African ladies in colourful moo moo's dancing up the front and extended praise drum solo's due to power outages... obviously not power-of-the-gospel-power outages. We are yet to find and attend a bible study. I hope my video below gives you an idea of what to expect :)
House Hunting
This has occupied most of our time since we flew into Ghana and I can confidently say that there is no better way to get to know the local area than by going house hunting. Now I know house hunting is a pain in Sydney...but to make you all feel better here is a list of things which tend to turn us off some of the houses we have been shown.
-Bright pink paint
-No paint at all
-Toilet in the kitchen
-Radio tower in backyards
-Greedy real estate agents (no different from Sydney I know)
-Possible Very...very long commutes by Tro Tro in order to find appropriately priced accommodation
-Roaring airconditioners
-unreliable water or power
I mean really would you really live in there?? Ok maybe some of you would...
These are just a few of the things that have turned us off. However I will say this for real estate in Ghana... What buys you a clean one bedroom apartment in one of the wealthier suburbs of Sydney will buy you a house here with barbed wire fence, a security guard and possibly reliable water and electricity. In short get a job if you want to live here...
Peace out.
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