aripeskoe
(living in ghana)
28 January 2007
A Day at the Beach...
A lot can happen during a day at the beach.
It's easy to guess why some people on the beach in Ghana are there. It's usually easy to spot the volunteers and to guess where they're from (usually somewhere in Europe). Vacationing European families stand out because they are dressed somehow like tourists and they are often multi-generational. Ghanaians are either local from the village or wealthy and from Accra. And there is usually someone in the middle of doing something crazy.
This day I met someone who started in Romania and had made his way by bus and hitchhiking to Ghana (although he took a boat to Morocco from Gibraltar). Last time I met two people who were driving around the world – starting in Europe, going down Africa and back up, through Asia, up to Russia, across the Bering Strait, down to Chile and then by boat to Australia. One of them was writing a book about it and the other was along for the 5-year ride.
On this day there were also no less than three large truck/bus things that were on their way to Cape Town from Morocco and then were heading back up on the east side of the continent. Each bus had 25 people who had paid about $10k each to be part of the group tour. Lame. Hopping on a tour bus and letting someone else figure everything out for you may be fine for senior citizens in Europe or non-New Yorkers in New York, but traveling down Africa is serious business. And if you're going to go from Morocco to Cape Town to Cairo, do it yourself or don't do it at all.
The village with the beach is a fishing village. There are always boats in the water, nets being pulled in, women selling fish off of their heads, etc. On this day, a shouting match broke out on the beach and spilled over into the hotel area. It continued for some time between two large groups of people until an old woman came over and broke it up. Justice is generally a locally enforced thing. But then the police came and it never escalated to violence.
Turns out they were fighting about sea turtles. These creatures, which measure several feet in diameter, can fetch $15, but catching them is illegal. During this time of the year, fishermen are more likely to catch one in their nets or even see them on the beach because it's egg-laying season. So some fisherman caught a turtle and someone else told him to throw it back. People started taking sides, some intense yelling and intimidation followed, and it was the most exciting fight about turtles I have ever seen.
I was hanging out with a Ghanaian friend and he could not find his case of CDs. He accused one of the "hotel" (I use that word liberally here…surely no American would consider this a hotel) workers of stealing it. The worker claimed that he did not steal it and to prove his innocence he poured some local alcohol on the ground, cracked an egg over it, and then swore on his ancestors. That's apparently how you do it when you really mean something.
Turns out, however, that he was lying. Later that night, we heard one of the CDs playing at the bar. Apparently, the hotel worker had taken the CDs and given them along with 20,000 cedis to a prostitute in exchange for her services.
Ahhhh…the beach...
Addendum #1: Kofi Annan returned to Ghana the other day. This was a really big day here (well, at least in the media). He is now Busumuru Kofi Annan. Busumuru is the highest title ever given to anyone by the chief of the Ashanti, Ghana's most powerful tribe/group. Previously, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, considered the father of Ghana and the country's first president, held the highest title. ¶ 3:23 PM
It's easy to guess why some people on the beach in Ghana are there. It's usually easy to spot the volunteers and to guess where they're from (usually somewhere in Europe). Vacationing European families stand out because they are dressed somehow like tourists and they are often multi-generational. Ghanaians are either local from the village or wealthy and from Accra. And there is usually someone in the middle of doing something crazy.
This day I met someone who started in Romania and had made his way by bus and hitchhiking to Ghana (although he took a boat to Morocco from Gibraltar). Last time I met two people who were driving around the world – starting in Europe, going down Africa and back up, through Asia, up to Russia, across the Bering Strait, down to Chile and then by boat to Australia. One of them was writing a book about it and the other was along for the 5-year ride.
On this day there were also no less than three large truck/bus things that were on their way to Cape Town from Morocco and then were heading back up on the east side of the continent. Each bus had 25 people who had paid about $10k each to be part of the group tour. Lame. Hopping on a tour bus and letting someone else figure everything out for you may be fine for senior citizens in Europe or non-New Yorkers in New York, but traveling down Africa is serious business. And if you're going to go from Morocco to Cape Town to Cairo, do it yourself or don't do it at all.
The village with the beach is a fishing village. There are always boats in the water, nets being pulled in, women selling fish off of their heads, etc. On this day, a shouting match broke out on the beach and spilled over into the hotel area. It continued for some time between two large groups of people until an old woman came over and broke it up. Justice is generally a locally enforced thing. But then the police came and it never escalated to violence.
Turns out they were fighting about sea turtles. These creatures, which measure several feet in diameter, can fetch $15, but catching them is illegal. During this time of the year, fishermen are more likely to catch one in their nets or even see them on the beach because it's egg-laying season. So some fisherman caught a turtle and someone else told him to throw it back. People started taking sides, some intense yelling and intimidation followed, and it was the most exciting fight about turtles I have ever seen.
I was hanging out with a Ghanaian friend and he could not find his case of CDs. He accused one of the "hotel" (I use that word liberally here…surely no American would consider this a hotel) workers of stealing it. The worker claimed that he did not steal it and to prove his innocence he poured some local alcohol on the ground, cracked an egg over it, and then swore on his ancestors. That's apparently how you do it when you really mean something.
Turns out, however, that he was lying. Later that night, we heard one of the CDs playing at the bar. Apparently, the hotel worker had taken the CDs and given them along with 20,000 cedis to a prostitute in exchange for her services.
Ahhhh…the beach...
Addendum #1: Kofi Annan returned to Ghana the other day. This was a really big day here (well, at least in the media). He is now Busumuru Kofi Annan. Busumuru is the highest title ever given to anyone by the chief of the Ashanti, Ghana's most powerful tribe/group. Previously, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, considered the father of Ghana and the country's first president, held the highest title. ¶ 3:23 PM