Woke up this morning to no power – I must be used to it now, it just made me smile. But I did initially wonder why it was so hot, until I realised from the haze of my mosquito net that the ceiling fan wasn’t turning. No need to worry about not having a hot shower, the water’s only slightly warm about one in every 3 showers anyway! It ‘s funny how quickly you can become accustomed to accepting things that we’d be horrified about at home, but that’s just how it is here so you shrug your shoulders and get on with it.
For the last 2 days I’ve been working at The Divine Education Centre doing a project about reducing waste and rubbish – particularly plastic bag waste. It’s a major problem here, filling the gutters, killing goats who eat it and get it wrapped round their stomachs and littering the streets. The problem is that there’s nowhere to throw it, so until the infrastructure improves it won’t change. But maybe starting at school level will produce future leaders who do something about it.
In one of the sessions today the regular teacher stayed in the class (they don’t always) and I had to witness her continually telling a boy off for raising his left hand, instead of his right, to answer a question. Imagine how hard that was for me – biting my tongue is not something I’m known for!
The name of the school is no accident. This is a land of billboards, signs and slogans, and most of them link in some way to God or the church.
Churches and Redemption
Adverts for churches and prayer conventions are everywhere, on every street corner (I’m using the word ‘street’ loosely here, it’s mostly sand and rubble) and every junction. They range in size from big to gigantic. I’m not sure how many different brands of Christianity exist, but there are hundreds and the Pentecostal church is the largest. There are also mosques as 20% of the population are Muslim. These are just a few examples of the many church billboards I’ve seen so far.
As well as direct calls to pray, or to be saved, or enlightened, there are the obituaries – also on huge billboards – which announce deaths and funeral arrangements. It felt a bit disrespectful to be photographing them, they are also everywhere, and I was getting some funny looks pointing my phone at billboards! But these are some examples of what they’re like. Ghanaians are very direct, and this is reflected in the language they use. As well as phrases like ‘gone too soon’, I saw one the other day that had ‘Painful End’ as its headline!
Cars often have religious slogans in their back windows too. Here’s one I managed to capture, and I’ve also seen slogans like “All shall pass”, “Let them say”, and “Jesus never fails”, to name but a few. Unusually, this car is in quite good condition, taken on the trip back from our weekend away. Mostly the local cars are falling apart and are just driven until they just can’t go any further.
Taxis, which are very cheap, and would probably fail their MOT before they even got inside the garage at home, drive up and down the main road into the village. They hoot at you to see if you want a ride and you just get in and share with whoever else happens to be in there already!
Shopping
Shop and company names are also often linked to God or the church in some way. As well as the ones in these photos I’ve also seen a clothes shop called “My Redeemer Lives”, “Courage Curtains” and “God’s Gift Mart!”
And adverts for shops and products are direct, fanciful and definitely not PC – at home trading standards would be having a field day! Billboard ads for companies have slogans like “We are the Best”, or “We are the Centre of the World”, but I think the best one I’ve seen is this shoe-shine business for “lazy men”!
Politics
Elections are coming up here in December, so the billboards are having a field day advertising both local and national candidates. Apparently there are about 14 presidential candidates. I know nothing about the political system here currently, except that I got a knowing look and a silent smile when I asked one of the local people who work at base whether elections were fair and democratic!
And finally….
After the morning’s sessions we bought a local drink called Asaana from this lady’s ‘shop’. It’s a corn drink made from fermented corn and caramelized sugar. She serves it in a plastic bag and pops a straw in the bag, so you can drink it as you walk along. It was delicious – tasted a bit yoghurty, probably due to the fermentation.
I had some free time this afternoon so took a walk back down through the village, had a drink while I watched the sun start to go down over the sea and then walked back along the beach to base in time for dinner. Off to bed now, very different work planned for tomorrow, but I’ll save that for the next post.
Kɛyashi wɔ (until tomorrow).
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2 Comments
Vee
09/10/2024 at 07:15Morning M – loving your posts. Bunch of us met a Sycamore last Sunday and several people said they are following you. Bob was particularly interested. Looks as though you are having an interesting visit but do take care. Look forward to next post.
Bi4now. Vxx 🙂
Marilyn
09/10/2024 at 07:44👍👍