Back from Accra-Ghana

Posted by Gina Mathew on April 14th, 2009

GINA MATHEW- Accra, Ghana Jan 09-Mar 09.
It is exactly one month ago to the day that I boarded the plane in Accra to return to Toronto. It seems like a lifetime ago and a world away, the tan is fading, the relaxed feeling I had a month ago has been encroached upon by the impending end of school term rush of assignments and exams, but there are two key lessons I learned there remain with me. Before I explain the lessons, I have to say the first thing I noticed that gave me the biggest jolt was the availability of running water-hot running water!!! That I discovered on the KLM flight back already. So the two lessons which stick with me are about excess and taking it slower.

Before leaving I was a devout –exerciser and one cup of flavoured brewed coffee a day. I even said in my first blog I worry about not exercising and missing coffee. Well, while there, I gave up on the exercising in the 30c and got hooked on Nescafe instant coffee instead. It’s the only coffee you can get there unless you go to a tourist/fancy restaurant or buy it from the speciality grocery shops that are importing goods for foreign visitors.
The excess refers to how much and how many choices we have here. For example, the coffee: not only do I have a choice of 4 major chains (Tim Horton’s, Starbucks, Second Cup and Timothy’s) and a host of independents shops but I can also go into the store and buy instant or beans, decaf to espresso, flavoured or not. I can grind my own beans at home, brew various styles of coffee from those little boil on the stove-Turkish style coffees to a pot of Arabica –picked from the highest mountains, grown in the shade organic coffee; or I can make an individual cup of instant-flavoured-decaf coffee. I can put it in a thermos flask or take it to go in my individual stainless steel thermal travel cup from Starbucks. That’s a lot of options compared to Accra: if you want coffee, here’s Nescafe. The likes of Starbucks and Tim Horton’s have not infiltrated that piece of the world yet. Thankfully: we can’t have everything the same. I hadn’t really realized how many and how much choice I have here. I am aware of that now.

The other lesson is about going slower. Although Accra is a city of 2 million I found it still moves along much slower. People take the time to introduce themselves and to ask you how you are, how your health, the health of your family is. At first I found this took a bit of getting used to. When I’m in Toronto, I don’t usually take the time to enquire about these things – I just launch into what I need from the other person. But in so doing, there was a connection made with the other person and you wanted to take your take to help the other person, not just rush through the phone call and onto the next one. Work got done, it was just slowed down a bit and really, does that extra minute of two make that much of a difference? In fact I think it increases productivity. I hope to keep this piece of Accra with me- to slow down and appreciate the immediate moment and not want to rush to the end so much.

The work experience was tremendous. It has its bumpy moments but I learned a lot about the social –cultural aspects of the country and how this plays on the issue of HIV/AIDS. It affects both the reason why HIV infection is on the rise, and how to address that problem. This is different that what is happening in Toronto. This SWB experience was beyond wonderful and I’m thankful to all who helped me get onto the trip and to those I met while there.

Posted in Ghana, Just Returned