Tuesday the 13th

So what has happened since Sunday? Not a lot. Nothing too exciting.

Monday I got up early and went in to campus to meet my project director. As is not uncommon in Ghana and developing countries in general this involved a 2 hour wait after our appointed meeting time. You see, he popped into the bank just before we were due to meet. The queue was so long that he didn't exit for 2 hours. I used that time to write some postcards to find a post office and to mail them. Let's home they arrive safely.

Once we finally met we had to make a detour before our meeting to his uncle's place. He lived in the nicest apartment I've seen in Ghana. Nice glossy tiles. Fresh paint on the walls. Nice curtains and couches. A good TV. It almost felt like the west. It turns out that he works for the department of immigration and is doing his masters in Law at the same time. We had a discussion about legal education and training. Ho hum. But he had a Mercedes and gave me his card so he'll help me out with my visa issues (I need an extension).

After that we went back to my project manager's hostel (his name is Julian btw). I met some of his friends and we had a chat. 4 hours after our meeting was due to start. It actually started. Welcome to Africa.

Essentially my job is to raise 17,000 Ghanaian Cedis over the next month. This money will be used to run training programs for young entrepreneurs and then to help fund the best business plans. In order to raise this money I have to find the contact details of Ghana's largest companies and try to arrange a meeting with them. There I set out the project and talk about corporate responsibility etc etc and then they give me money. Easy right. Not. I have no idea which companies are successful in Ghana or how to contact them or how to convince them to give me money. Also with limited internet access this is even more challenging. Anyways, the meeting itself took about an hour.

I took a tro tro to teck junction and bought a papaya and a pineapple and then another tro tro home.

The house was locked.

After some scrounging around I found the key hidden under a rock in the garden. I was the only one at home. So I cut up my fruit for dinner and watched Tsotsi. Not a great movie. Like, kind of cute but it wasn't shocking enough to really be about the 3rd world, not like City of God. Also way too many plot holes or unexplained characters and events. The boys still weren't home. With no internet or cooking facilities and no street lights so I can't go wandering around at night I stayed at home and watched another movie. Sideways. Also not great. Irritating characters, not very funny generally and who really cares that much about wine? Seriously.

Around the end of the movie there were noises from the front yard. Presumably one of the boys was home and looking for the key (I had locked the front door, it's usually unlocked when people are home). I went into the front room and asked who it is. The answer was 'your husband.' And then a laugh, I recognised the laugh but I couldn't really tell to which of the boys it belonged to. I got closer to the door (I'd left the glass door open and had only locked the screen door). I asked how his day was and he answered through the screen. I definitely recognised the voice but couldn't place a name to it. I unlocked it and he stepped forward. I still couldn't see his face without the lights on. I said "I'm sorry but I still can't see you." He said "that's because it's dark and I'm black." He then stepped into the light and it was Serge. We had a giant laugh and a hug.

Over dinner (his, I'd already eaten a lot of fruit) we planned our marriage. We are going to have a traditional marriage here in Ghana and then I'll go back to Australia. He has time off from work in June so then he'll join me and we'll have our giant Jewish wedding. I'll have one kid and then we'll return to Ghana so that he can take multiple wives who will have the rest of his children since I'm not so keen on kids, babies, parasites etc. It was fun but also sad since we both know that he's never going to get married. I asked him about why he lives in this house. He explained that he used to be involved with AIESEC while he was a student on and off for many years. It took him around 10 years to finish his studies and he started university late so he knows the members very well. He moved out of home for studying so he's not going to live at home now that he's working. He doesn't want to live by himself. So he lives in this share house of university students. Even though he's 36. But what happens when they all finish their degrees and move on? What happens when he's 50?

We also had a chat about the non-democratic era in Ghana. About how the government still makes laws and that all the govt institutions are maintained by each military coup. We spoke about the court system and how there's a gender discrimination court and a human rights court as sections of the high court. Awesome right? Good job Ghana.

I went to bed early, still most of the boys weren't home. It was the first night that was cool enough for me to use my sleeping bag. Exciting.

I got up this morning and was told that I have a meeting some time today with the Cultural Centre of Kumasi for a funding arrangement for another project by AIESEC. Okay. I continued getting ready for the day and asked one of the boys who I should contact about this meeting. They said they'd find me the number. So I continued getting ready. As I was just pouring myself a tea my phone rang. The voice on the other end asked if I was at teck junction. I said no, what time would you like to meet there? He said we are already waiting for you for the meeting. Where are you? I told him I'd be there in 15 mins. I abandoned my tea and jumped onto a tro tro. The boys ( yes, more boys - where are the women?!?) easily identified me as the only white woman at the junction. We had a quick roadside pre-meeting hustle. Essentially the meeting was to present the memorandum of understanding between AIESEC and the cultural centre for funding and sponsorship. The plan was to discuss it and to return later this week to sign it and finish it up. I'd say the meeting itself wasn't great. The manager didn't seem to keen on the funding arrangement and instead of agreeing to meet again on Friday to sign he said that we could do that after the next board meeting at the beginning of January. That's a long time away. Sounds to me like it's not going to happen. Goodbye money.

After that I took a tro tro home. I had some beans and boiled plantain from Sammy's house for lunch. I had a chat with Steven while I ate. He wants to start up an NGO to arrange to have foreign volunteers come to rural schools in Ghana to teach English since there's a shortage of teachers. We had a long discussion about setting up a board and a constitution and registering it under the corporations act (thank you law degree!). We also spoke about funding and applying for grants. It doesn't seem impossible for him to arrange while he's studying. But certainly difficult. My gosh the boys in this house are inspiring.

I then arranged to use one of the boy's USB modem and I set about researching the companies and their contact details so I can start getting some monies from them. It was tough work. A lot of the companies don't have websites and those that do took forever to load since the internet is super terrible. But I got some names and numbers. Tomorrow I'll start cold calling. Ew. Also tomorrow I'll go into campus and use the internet there, one of the boys gave me his login details. Yay!

I then gave up with the internet (it gets unusable at night when too many people are trying to use it) and so I watched Amelie. I'd seen it in high school but that was long enough ago for it to seem like a new movie.

Right now it's 7pm. I have nothing to do. There's no street lights except for on the freeway nearby so I can't go for a walk without a torch. I don't have a torch. There's no Tv at home and no internet. There's no stove or oven so I can't cook. Even if I wanted to cook there's limited access to vegetables. Most of the foods available are starchy heavy carbohydrates. Empty calories. Not much flavour. On the plus side I bought some powered milk (both because they don't sell fresh milk here and even if they did I don't have a fridge) so I can have that with my tea. Also, protein and calcium and nutrients. The closest place I can bye fruits and vegetables is a 15 minute tro tro ride away. There I can buy yams, plantain, peanuts, papaya, watermelons and pineapples. If I'm lucky there'll be tomatoes and red chillies. I haven't seen a green vegetable since I arrived. My gosh I miss going to Coles and buying baby spinach and broccoli and brussel sprouts. And being able to eat uncooked food. Or even cold food. Gosh I miss having a fridge. I also miss roads. It's constantly dusty here because all the streets are simply red earth. Also it's terribly smoggy because everybody burns their rubbish. There's no garbage collection or land fill so the only way to get rid of your rubbish is to burn it.

But you know what? It's just for a short while. So for the next 2 months I can handle it. At least I get to home at the end of this. For my housemates this is home.

p.s. Just as a finished that last sentence the boys came to my room to take me out for dinner and for a walk around the very dark neighbourhood with their torch. It was fun. I got fried plantain and peanuts. I had a chat with the boys about Ghana and whether if they could leave would they. All but one (who has an Australian girlfriend) answered no. They would prefer to live in Ghana than go to the west.