While I didn't set expectations of what Ghana would be like, I definitely had thought a bit about the kind of lifestyle I would have the next two months. I can say that after spending my first week in Ghana, most of my assumptions were wrong, but the one thing that shocked me was how similar life is here as it is to home. It’s really only the details that separate our two cultures. The basic ideas are the same really, when you are young you go to school, once you become an adult you work. You wake up early, eat breakfast, take a car to get to work, work for 8 hours or so, go home, have dinner, go to bed.. That’s a normal day here just like a normal day at home. If you get bored here you watch TV, call friends, or go to the bar. The details are different of course, here they get up early around 4:30 or 5 am and they go to bed early too. They don’t drive to work, they share a taxi. The food is kind of different, although a lot of the foods I eat in Miami are direct descendants of African recipes.
So what are my other first impressions? Well, as a developing country, the government of Ghana seems to have very little say in day to day life of the people. It seems that life in Ghana is very laissez-faire. Its actually quite interesting. As Americans we pride ourselves on our freedoms yet it is clear to me now how much of our life is regulated. I am not saying regulation is bad, its just interesting to see how much of a role it plays in our life. One of the upsides is an extremely free market. For example, the market for cell phone service is much more competitive here than at home. You can by a sim card for any carrier here at just about every street vendor for about 50 cents. Likewise, you buy prepaid credits from any street vendor and they range from 50 cents to 50 dollars worth of credit. Since it is prepaid you don’t sign a contract and the cost of switching carriers is literally 50 cents. If you are unhappy with your service, you pay 50 cents and you are now on a different network, you can even keep your number. As a result, cell phone plans here are very cheap, offer credit bonus, and all kinds of extras. The result is that I can call the United States for 3 cents a minute on my current plan as opposed to calling Ghana from the US which costs 90 cents a minute.
That’s really all I have time for right now but my Week 2 post will be coming soon so check that out when it goes up.
Ian, this is very interesting--thanks for sharing! It makes me realize I have actually never been to a place that had a radical difference in daily structure to the one you describe (i.e. one that is not structured around either going to school or work, depending upon one's age). Maybe in rural places in Ghana or even rural/agricultural regions in the States, it would be more structured around the sun and growth cycles...so still structured around work, but a very different concept of work, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteI just hope you're not disappointed that things are more alike than different (smiles)! I am excited to read your future blog entries and to see what other insights you find. Cheers!