This morning i woke up around 5 am ... feeling quite gung-ho! ... so i thought i would go running ... got all my gear on, went out, ... creaked open the gate to go out into the lane and ... wow! it is dark! pitch black... no way i can run in that ... nonchalantly saunter back into the house (felt a tiny bit sheepish) ... yoga on my mat! That works...
Well if i couldn't run i would walk... to the Office (the bike had defeated me!) ... and as a back up Christianne could pick me up as she went by... that way i could get exercise without turning into a puddle.
Excellent idea... it was quite cool still.. and sauntering along really beat puffing up hill...
It was a wonderful way to see things as well. And it turned out it was quite a manageable distance.. i beat everyone there... Shoko on the bike, and the guys in the car!
In the morning i chose the batik for my order.. that i am hoping Brigitte, of Pure Art will like ... Then i worked on the batik design for funky frog .. it is now drawn onto the foam and Shoko will cut it out!! I have picked out the colours and Luki says she will make a beautiful batik for me!!
I went over to pick up the stamps i was having made, they weren't ready but i took the opportunity to take photos of the silk screen workshop... i will include them in the blog ... These are for Iris.. who has a wonderful silk screening atelier in Montreal!!
Also, I did a bit of mentoring.. and i thought of Andrea, my son Etienne's beautiful girlfriend! She is a psycho-educator and in her last job helped young people to reintegrate into the work force. This was a different kind of mentoring but still i think she would get it :) ...
Apparently, the Bead Ladies had asked for a fan a long time ago. Christianne told them that if they wanted something they needed to make it happen.. They had a tendency to simply wait for things to be done for them.. So i showed them how to take charge because i could see it was something very foreign to them... I got Rita to go and say to the person with the Purse: 'it was agreed that we needed a fan, i will go and buy it. It will be 50 cedis. May i have the money for this?'
It was very interesting to see a whole different society at work. Here in Ghana the hierarchy is still incredibly strong. And it took a lot for Rita to believe me... but she went... I saw how she was treated and was glad that i was there...... we sorted it out and off we went to buy the fan!I I could see Rita did not believe me when i said that just because a person is in charge of the money does not make it Her money.... this organization was as much Rita's as anybody! i insisted. She listened... it will take a lot for things to change here... and the change will definitely not all be for the good.. the other side of this society is how polite and considerate people are.. In our society where everyone is equal, manners and considerateness have gone by the wayside.
We went to lunch... arrived home to Kafui, our amazing cook, beating the hell out of the fufu... She has been handling fufu for a long time, you could tell with every economic gesture! I was excited about eating this as fufu is truly loved here... a staple.
Oh my!! i did not like it... something about the gelatinous mushiness of it but my Stomach said No! ... and i had to pay attention to her... she rarely revolts! I loved the red sauce that went with it but had to leave the goo... i brought my dish in, head down and confessed, 'I do not like fu fu but i love banku!!' They laughed at me ... their feelings not hurt at all. Indeed, Felix assured me that it was an acquired taste and i must try it again because next time i would like it!! i nodded gamely (but thought 'No, bloody way! - oooh! that's the influence of the Empire again!!)
....that afternoon i enjoyed the breeze from the fan as much as the ladies... it was really hot today.
One of the aspects that i love about 'here' as opposed to 'there'.. is how babies are handled. A baby in Ghana is everyone's preoccupation. The whole group looks after each and every baby. There are six of them at the office at the moment. Belinda is in charge of them ... She is often jiggling a couple of babies ... one wrapped on her back (usually doing the jiggling croon with her!) and one or two in her arms... you just can't help but jiggle with her!! But everyone partakes in their wellbeing... during the day each and every person working at the Office comes to croon at the babies, poke them to make them chortle, smile goofily at them hoping for an answering smile ... all day long these babies are getting attention with a capitol A!! And they are all amazingly well adjusted... they get cranky late in the afternoon but then i do, too!!
And this crankiness escalated when we arrived home.. after a delicious supper of Pizza... yes! yum! .. we had a black out so i retreated to my room to do some of my blog ... but i was totally smoked out!!
Dennis, who looks after the grounds had chopped up everything drooping in the garden.. cut down the lower leaves of the banana tree, ripped out anything that looked slightly green and had made a pile in the morning... and now, had lit the pile to burn it!!
This is a nation of pyromaniacs, i am convinced. It was green stuff that could have been piled up to compost and the world would have been a better place... Nope, burn it. And of course everything burns really quickly here so you are left with this smoldering pile that gushes smoke... my room was instantly filled with it! This is Something that is really driving me crazy! Who started this horrible trend? Where are all the eco warriors when you need them? Sorry but this is, as somebody once described my rantings, a real rawhide! We can be as ecco as we like but Ghana is busily negating every step.. you are bringing bags to the grocery store? Black plastic bags litter every square inch here... No one smokes here but our lungs are constantly feeling heavy from all the smoke from garbage being burnt (90% of which are plastic bags). Wake up Ghana!
They say the malaria pill makes you irritable after awhile... maybe it is just that but ...
You know where i am blogging?
Cathy is a football nut (not soccer, that is so American) ... and her team, Stokes City, is playing Manchester United tonight. So we drove all over town looking for a bar with a tv we could highjack... because of course, most bars have the African games on!! She is over there in seventh heaven (???) and i am blogging... Christianne and Shoko are into the game... for her? i don't get it but they seem to be enjoying it.. I know my dad would totally approve and understand!
Oooops! Manchester United just got a score with a penalty shot!! Cathy is not happy!! ...i am trying to drum up some enthusiasm. After all she went bead hunting with me...
Talking of which, i am quite psyched and ready for the Market on Thursday. I will be at the tro tro station at 7 am and Dela and i will be off! Rita has chickened out... i am not sure if Shoko will come ... it is a very daunting drive out but i can't wait!!
Well, there is a good side to everything... the beer is delicious and cold!!
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Monday
I really needed to wash my hair this morning!!!..... no water... for the second day in a row...
Then no gas .. so no coffee...
ooh! Monday, Monday... 'at least we have electricity!' says Christianne. Yes, it is good to get things into perspective... and i am having a bit of cornflakes with my heavenly mango!! Life is good.
Shoko and i are riding our bikes in... i know what i am in for... a slight uphill allll the waaay... and a wonky wheel ..i keep telling myself people carry weights to make their exercise harder, i have a wonky wheel, be grateful... it makes it harder...
But the scenery is great... i need one of those James Bond cameras where i blink my eye and the tiny camera implanted in my sunglasses takes a picture...
... but since i don't have one, i will just have to remember them in my head. One image that was way cool: 5 women swaying in single file down the road with these gigantic silver pots on their head filled with something liquid i am sure... i was coming up behind them and it was beautiful to see... hips synchronized, pots totally steady. The other image was: suddenly up popped this soapy head from behind a wall with hands vigorously scrubbing... it was an outdoor shower!!! ... and, of course, the flocks of schoolgirls all smartly dressed in their uniforms their hair cropped short which only emphasizes their beauty...
... and there was me...pufff! puff! aahh! there is the office just UP there... not far to go...
.. getting off the bike I promise myself i won't be such an idiot and do that again...
... needless to say i dripped and melted for quite awhile. But i got distracted quite quickly as it was a very busy day!
i filled my phone... wow! first time i have done that... and quite easy... so my phone is again full of gas and ready to go!
i got out some money to put in the Micro-financing Project .. i am very excited about that. We will write out a contract saying i can withdraw my money when i need it... better than putting it in the bank these days! And meanwhile the money will help some really worthwhile people.
Also, just before Christmas i was telling my hairdresser (wonderful Mark at Au Premier in NDG... the best!!) that i was going to volunteer in Ghana working with woman doing Batik and Beading. He told me about a store he had heard a client had started that was Fair Trade and sounded really good..
So i went to check it out.... Pure Art has a store at 5128 Sherbrooke St West (near Grey) .. This is the second store Brigitte McKinnon has opened, the first one being in her town, Hudson. The story of their beginning can be found on their website http://www.pureart.ca . It is very inspiring!!
I loved the store ... it was beautifully laid out and the products are really beautiful... i found a lot of wonderful Christmas presents here. The young ladies looking after the store were delightful and i got to talking to them .... and told them my story and they immediately said i should contact the owner if the crafts nice.. (how refreshing!)
So when i arrived in Ho and saw the crafts the women were making i knew instantly that i would be proud to bring them back to Canada... so i contacted Brigitte.
She wrote me an enthusiastic email back ... so we are going to connect when i get back... and today i had a lot of fun putting in an order to Lady Volta .... so perhaps you will be able to buy these crafts at Pure Art in Montreal .... keep tuned in here!!!
And i got a start on working on an original design for a funkyFrog batik which is quite ixciting.. I hope to follow the making of this batik from start to finish... and hopefully to get some bags made so when i sell the African beads they will be shipped off in real African batik bags!! ... i am starting to feel like the Bead Lady... planning and plotting!
I had a short visit with Dela and we planned our next sortie to the bead market this Thursday... Hopefully this will be Dday or ... i should say Bday ... when i really do some wheeling and dealing!
I have been swotting (that's the influence of my fellow volunteer from the Empire...) up on beads on the internet ... amazing what you can learn there!! Also i have made myself a more detailed exchange list for switching ghana cedis to american dollars ... i am determined to look like i know what i am doing... after all that is half the battle won, right?
And the last thing i did was participate in the first staff meeting of Beads and Batik for this year. Everything is presented to the staff... how much they made last year, how much this is up from the year before, what they would like to see this year... It was very interesting. It seems to be an organization that is moving from struggling just to survive to being quite viable and actually making a little profit...
Then it was back on the bike and sailing home... in this direction it is almost downhill alll the way!
I stopped on the way to take a picture of one of the termite castles ... i find them so enthralling.. when you think that a tiny creature hauled all this earth all the way up, up, up ... and the castles are so ethereal and beautiful ... as Shoko says, 'Natural art'
We had banana cake for desert... i had a piece and a half... after all, i deserved it after all my exercise today!!
.... oooh! and did i mention? ... the water is back in full force! i washed my hair and it felt wonderful!!
...we did lose the electricity for a bit but hey! the ipad is wireless and i kept blogging!!
Then no gas .. so no coffee...
ooh! Monday, Monday... 'at least we have electricity!' says Christianne. Yes, it is good to get things into perspective... and i am having a bit of cornflakes with my heavenly mango!! Life is good.
Shoko and i are riding our bikes in... i know what i am in for... a slight uphill allll the waaay... and a wonky wheel ..i keep telling myself people carry weights to make their exercise harder, i have a wonky wheel, be grateful... it makes it harder...
But the scenery is great... i need one of those James Bond cameras where i blink my eye and the tiny camera implanted in my sunglasses takes a picture...
... but since i don't have one, i will just have to remember them in my head. One image that was way cool: 5 women swaying in single file down the road with these gigantic silver pots on their head filled with something liquid i am sure... i was coming up behind them and it was beautiful to see... hips synchronized, pots totally steady. The other image was: suddenly up popped this soapy head from behind a wall with hands vigorously scrubbing... it was an outdoor shower!!! ... and, of course, the flocks of schoolgirls all smartly dressed in their uniforms their hair cropped short which only emphasizes their beauty...
... and there was me...pufff! puff! aahh! there is the office just UP there... not far to go...
.. getting off the bike I promise myself i won't be such an idiot and do that again...
... needless to say i dripped and melted for quite awhile. But i got distracted quite quickly as it was a very busy day!
i filled my phone... wow! first time i have done that... and quite easy... so my phone is again full of gas and ready to go!
i got out some money to put in the Micro-financing Project .. i am very excited about that. We will write out a contract saying i can withdraw my money when i need it... better than putting it in the bank these days! And meanwhile the money will help some really worthwhile people.
Also, just before Christmas i was telling my hairdresser (wonderful Mark at Au Premier in NDG... the best!!) that i was going to volunteer in Ghana working with woman doing Batik and Beading. He told me about a store he had heard a client had started that was Fair Trade and sounded really good..
So i went to check it out.... Pure Art has a store at 5128 Sherbrooke St West (near Grey) .. This is the second store Brigitte McKinnon has opened, the first one being in her town, Hudson. The story of their beginning can be found on their website http://www.pureart.ca . It is very inspiring!!
I loved the store ... it was beautifully laid out and the products are really beautiful... i found a lot of wonderful Christmas presents here. The young ladies looking after the store were delightful and i got to talking to them .... and told them my story and they immediately said i should contact the owner if the crafts nice.. (how refreshing!)
So when i arrived in Ho and saw the crafts the women were making i knew instantly that i would be proud to bring them back to Canada... so i contacted Brigitte.
She wrote me an enthusiastic email back ... so we are going to connect when i get back... and today i had a lot of fun putting in an order to Lady Volta .... so perhaps you will be able to buy these crafts at Pure Art in Montreal .... keep tuned in here!!!
And i got a start on working on an original design for a funkyFrog batik which is quite ixciting.. I hope to follow the making of this batik from start to finish... and hopefully to get some bags made so when i sell the African beads they will be shipped off in real African batik bags!! ... i am starting to feel like the Bead Lady... planning and plotting!
I had a short visit with Dela and we planned our next sortie to the bead market this Thursday... Hopefully this will be Dday or ... i should say Bday ... when i really do some wheeling and dealing!
I have been swotting (that's the influence of my fellow volunteer from the Empire...) up on beads on the internet ... amazing what you can learn there!! Also i have made myself a more detailed exchange list for switching ghana cedis to american dollars ... i am determined to look like i know what i am doing... after all that is half the battle won, right?
And the last thing i did was participate in the first staff meeting of Beads and Batik for this year. Everything is presented to the staff... how much they made last year, how much this is up from the year before, what they would like to see this year... It was very interesting. It seems to be an organization that is moving from struggling just to survive to being quite viable and actually making a little profit...
Then it was back on the bike and sailing home... in this direction it is almost downhill alll the way!
I stopped on the way to take a picture of one of the termite castles ... i find them so enthralling.. when you think that a tiny creature hauled all this earth all the way up, up, up ... and the castles are so ethereal and beautiful ... as Shoko says, 'Natural art'
We had banana cake for desert... i had a piece and a half... after all, i deserved it after all my exercise today!!
.... oooh! and did i mention? ... the water is back in full force! i washed my hair and it felt wonderful!!
...we did lose the electricity for a bit but hey! the ipad is wireless and i kept blogging!!
Sunday, January 29, 2012
6. The different beads
In this photo you can see the different kinds of beads that can be made from glass.
The beautiful translucent blue beads are the ones made from glass shards which are basically melted.
The middle beads are the ones made with different layers of coloured powders.
And the other beads are first simple white beads that are hand painted and then refired.
The beautiful translucent blue beads are the ones made from glass shards which are basically melted.
The middle beads are the ones made with different layers of coloured powders.
And the other beads are first simple white beads that are hand painted and then refired.
funkyFrog Bead Stash
One smallish pile of Ali Baba's beads, one giant step for the funkyFrog Bead Hunt!!
The tiny beads are what are called waist beads because women wear them around their ... you got it! ..waist.
...now imagine... each of those beads were originally ground glass powder that was put into moulds and then fired in the oven.... and then strung by hand onto cotton!!!
The tiny beads are what are called waist beads because women wear them around their ... you got it! ..waist.
...now imagine... each of those beads were originally ground glass powder that was put into moulds and then fired in the oven.... and then strung by hand onto cotton!!!
5. The bead is polished!
The second to last step is polishing the beads.. They are rubbed together in water across the cement bowel until the roughness is smoothed away and the colour is sharp and clear.
In the bowls you see the bead befor polishing ...
and then after the polishing...
In the bowls you see the bead befor polishing ...
and then after the polishing...
4. Firing the bead!
After the bead is placed in the moulds they are fired in ovens... which are also made of clay formed from the earth of termite castles...
..kinda reminds me of making bagels in Montreal. The moulds are place in the oven with long ladles ... just like they use for the bagels!!
..kinda reminds me of making bagels in Montreal. The moulds are place in the oven with long ladles ... just like they use for the bagels!!
3. A tour of the factory
Visitors are warmly welcomed to the Cedi Factory. Cedi explains the process of bead making.
An interesting point is : the mould in which the bead is fired is made out of a clay formed from the earth of termite castles! i need to take a photo of that still...
An interesting point is : the mould in which the bead is fired is made out of a clay formed from the earth of termite castles! i need to take a photo of that still...
1. Recycling at its best!
Bottles are the basic material for the production of Ghana beads. Depending on the bead the bottle is either broken up into small fragments or pulverized to a fine white powder. The bottles are sorted according to colour, so green glass shards will be a sort of translucent green bead. Two sorts of beads are made from the powder,. For one sort of bead, the white powder is dyed different colours and then these powders are layered to form a pattern. These are called bodom beads and were really used for status... the other bead is made with the white powder, painted afterwards by hand and then refired.
Sunday
Last night i just fell into bed and went to sleep... i just couldn't keep my eyes open another minute!!
Our full day had ended with a visitor, Jerry. He is a volunteer working with handicapped people and an old friend of Christianne's. It was a beautiful evening and we sat out on the porch munching on plantain chips and drinking ice cold beer... a real meeting of nations: Jerry (Scotland) Christianne (France) Cathy (England) Shoko (Japan) and me (Canada) !!!
Later we moved to the table on the porch to eat supper by candlelight... at one point there was a blackout and beyond our flickering candlelight was inky blackness... at another moment the night was suddenly disrupted by a loud roar from the neighbours... Ghana must have scored!
We told Jerry and Shoko about our day.
We had started out in the morning lingering over our coffee. I remember saying to Etienne, back in Montreal, that the one thing i would miss in Ghana would be good coffee. Last time we had this horrible Nescafe and powdered milk... it had been just drinkable..very strange in a country that exports coffee! But this time i had really lucked out ... as i said Christianne is from France ... and we all know how the French feel about their coffee!! She had actually brought her own stash and generously shares it with us.... and we have a Moka pot (an Italian stove top coffee maker) that makes excellent coffee. A bonus is that i have learnt how to use this coffee maker after years of thinking it was just way too complicated for me, au contraire.... it is an amazing elegantly simple machine... i feel very handy these days as i light up the gas stove with a spark maker to make the coffee!!
After breakfast we set off for Agomanya Market. Even in a truck, an hour's drive here is something... the roads are asphalt .... But some of Ghana's potholes rival Montreal's ... and that is saying a lot! ..here during the rainy season whole sections of road can be washed away.
On top of this ... the road runs through villages which are not very far apart... Christianne told us that this is done deliberately so business will come to the villages... There are small stalls with thatched roofs all along the road selling whatever the village produces... Sometimes it is yams which are big rootlike vegetables here... in another village it is pineapples, another, mangos and avocados and okra .. and so on..
The village is located on both sides of the road so people are forever dashing back and forth across the road... and apparently accidents are far too common .... So the government is forever coming up with ingenious new ways to slow down speeding drivers going through the villages. Christianne told us about the time they decided to plant huge cement blocks in the middle of the road that the car would need to swerve around... she said what would happen is people would be driving along at 70 miles an hour at night and suddenly these things would loom up!! anyways they didn't last long ... now they have put in speed bumps! And there is every variation possible... the single large bump, 5 smaller bumps all in a row .... anyways, you are being jostled and bumped 75 percent of the time! I admire Christianne as she never seems phased by anything these roads can throw at her!!
Agomanya is a one of these villages (though larger) that has a market that is one of the nicest in Ghana , the Bradt guide says. ...and in my humble opinion i agree!
It was Market Day so there were dozens of tro tros picking up and dropping people.. the main road was crammed and clogged... The energy and aliveness needs to be experienced to be believed!!
Another thing i have come to understand is that if i don't FEEL like a sore white thumb, i don't stick out so much. I had begun to get this feeling the other day when i deliberately ignored everyone's gawking and instead pretended to fit in. This time i was able to be 'one with' my surroundings with much less effort. I just let everything wash over me, the bright glaring sun, the colours, the shouting and cajoling of the sellers, the kids crying, the red of the tomatoes... the flash of batiked fabric... the 'alivenes' just entered me and i felt at home.
We weaved our way around for awhile... It was a market i had visitied once last time i was in Ghana.. i had photos i had gazed at while dreaming of going back... But the market was so big i couldn't find the bead section... so I picked a studious looking young man who was delighted to show me the way.. he immediately stepped through to the back through some stalls away from the main throughfare and there were the bead stalls!! ... just as i remembered!
The same sellers were there, too! In fact one lady told me she remembered that i had been there before a long time ago and.. she had been waiting for me for a long time!! I believed the part about her remembering me because i recognized her..
The stalls were only about a quarter filled ... because there were a lot of funerals today, i was told. And it was true... we had seen several large gatherings of people all dressed in red and black along the way....
Funerals were a big deal here.. bodies are often kept in the fridge while the village raises enough money for a proper send off.. If the person was 'important' enough this could include many villages involved in the preparation.. Then everyone gets dressed in their finest to celebrate the life of the person with singing and dancing and food.
But for me, this was a perfect introduction to another bead market, having less bead sellers made it less overwhelming ... It was starting to sink in that the idea of importing beads is a lovely one BUT how to go about it?? Which beads did i buy? How many? I am very much a dreamer ... but the the practical aspects of this endeavor keeps shifting and changing with experience...
I pushed all these thoughts aside ... and decided to just assess the market like i had at Kofaridua.
There were two stalls of beads from other African countries... and then there were many stalls of the Ghanaian recycled glass beads..
Once i got my bearings i decided to concentrate on the two stalls with the variety of beads because i knew these beads from buying them myself from various places.... and I decided to have a go at bargaining... i carefully chose strands of beads that interested me, asking for the prices as i went.. i had a small card with the Ghanaian amount converted to Canadian dollars.. it was a slow process but the men were wonderfully patient and not pushy. When i had chosen a little pile that looked like it was from Ali Baba's cave.. lovely ruby red, sea green, golden brass.. i took a deep breath and made my offer .. 100 american dollars.. He pretended to look shocked and brought out his calculator ... But i knew this was a fair price and said 'No, take it or leave it." I pretended to be calm but my heart was hammering away... It is hard to be firm even if you are sure. He capitulated and started wrapping up my treasures. The next negotiation was much easier...
And then i moved on to the stalls selling the Ghana beads..
The Ghanaian recycled glass beads are going to be much harder to choose because there is such a variety but on the other hand they are much the same ... if you know what i mean... it is like trying to choose a fabric. The fabric is cotton but there is an assortment of patterns and colours. The beads i had just bargained for were quite distinct... going with the fabric analogy again..those beads were like buying a bolt of silk fabric, of corduroy fabric and of a jersey knit fabric let's say (and making it easier as well was the fact that the choice of colours and patterns are limited!) ...
I bought some of the tiny waist beads which come in all colours and are 60 cents a strand.. from Elizabeth, who is the lady who remembers me!! This was a good ice breaker as they are so cheap and pretty.... and i got the feeling of bargaining with her!
I could have spent a lot more time at the market but the others were ready to go...so i went off with them vowing to come back again.. my treasures tucked in my bag.
Our next stop was Cedi's Beads. The Nene Nomada family, which runs the bead factory, have been bead makers for 200 years.
Beads play an important role in the Krobo culture of Ghana. The Krobo people, whose spiritual home is the Krobo Mountain, use beads as a symbol of family status, and on special occasions for example; rites of passage (ie puberty).
Cedi, for whom the factory is named, made his first bead at the age of 7. He showed us how the beads are made, which is still pretty much in the same way his ancestors have done for centuries but with small improvements...
I took some photos of the factory which i will include. Each series of photos will be numbered so you can see them in order if you like.... as i have said the layout is very constrained and i don't have a lot of control of which photos show up when for some reason ... but today the order should be Sunday, The bead stash and then the 6 series from the Cedi Factory.. even in the series the photos are out of order..sorry but i just cannot figure out how to take control... but maybe this is a good life lesson!!!
It is quite fascinating to see the painstaking care these beads entail. It makes you appreciate the individual bead much more when you realize the craftsmanship behind them.
Our next stop was for a bite in a restaurant located on the shore of the river. I was delighted to recognize a dish i knew ... boiled plaintains and palava !! It was almost as good as what i had at the house! ... and from the shore of the river there we could see the Adome Bridge, a large suspension bridge that forms one of only two places where cars are able to cross the water..
And lastly, Christianne took us up to see the Akosomba Dam, Ghana's largest dam which provides hydro-electric power. The dam was inaugurated by then President Nkruma in 1966 and hems in Lake Volta, the biggest artificial lake in the world. (From Bradt guide) This area is very green and lush with beautiful flowers like bougainevalea. It is a real oasis especially when you come straight from from dusty, red Ho!
Christianne took us up to the Volta Hotel which is definitely a luxury class hotel even in western terms. The terrace where you can have a meal and drink has a bird's eye view of the dam and lake.. very beautiful..
We couldn't linger as we were to meet Jerry at the Whitehouse to bring him home for supper!!
All in all, a very full and interesting day!
Now, this morning, i am writing the blog with the sound of singing in the background, sitting on the porch where a lovely breeze is blowing.
Lizards scurry back and forth along the top of the cement wall... i smile to myself remembering a moment in town, on Friday i think it was, when i was chasing a lizard with my camera and a man walked by laughing at me .... i chuckled along with him thinking to myself, 'Laugh if you like but i KNOW you would be chasing our silly squirrels trying to take a picture of THEM if the the tables were turned!!' (i will be more tolerant of those tourists in the future!! ..must remember!)
Anyways right now i am much too lazy to think of chasing anything ...
It is a very lazy Sunday morning...
Our full day had ended with a visitor, Jerry. He is a volunteer working with handicapped people and an old friend of Christianne's. It was a beautiful evening and we sat out on the porch munching on plantain chips and drinking ice cold beer... a real meeting of nations: Jerry (Scotland) Christianne (France) Cathy (England) Shoko (Japan) and me (Canada) !!!
Later we moved to the table on the porch to eat supper by candlelight... at one point there was a blackout and beyond our flickering candlelight was inky blackness... at another moment the night was suddenly disrupted by a loud roar from the neighbours... Ghana must have scored!
We told Jerry and Shoko about our day.
We had started out in the morning lingering over our coffee. I remember saying to Etienne, back in Montreal, that the one thing i would miss in Ghana would be good coffee. Last time we had this horrible Nescafe and powdered milk... it had been just drinkable..very strange in a country that exports coffee! But this time i had really lucked out ... as i said Christianne is from France ... and we all know how the French feel about their coffee!! She had actually brought her own stash and generously shares it with us.... and we have a Moka pot (an Italian stove top coffee maker) that makes excellent coffee. A bonus is that i have learnt how to use this coffee maker after years of thinking it was just way too complicated for me, au contraire.... it is an amazing elegantly simple machine... i feel very handy these days as i light up the gas stove with a spark maker to make the coffee!!
After breakfast we set off for Agomanya Market. Even in a truck, an hour's drive here is something... the roads are asphalt .... But some of Ghana's potholes rival Montreal's ... and that is saying a lot! ..here during the rainy season whole sections of road can be washed away.
On top of this ... the road runs through villages which are not very far apart... Christianne told us that this is done deliberately so business will come to the villages... There are small stalls with thatched roofs all along the road selling whatever the village produces... Sometimes it is yams which are big rootlike vegetables here... in another village it is pineapples, another, mangos and avocados and okra .. and so on..
The village is located on both sides of the road so people are forever dashing back and forth across the road... and apparently accidents are far too common .... So the government is forever coming up with ingenious new ways to slow down speeding drivers going through the villages. Christianne told us about the time they decided to plant huge cement blocks in the middle of the road that the car would need to swerve around... she said what would happen is people would be driving along at 70 miles an hour at night and suddenly these things would loom up!! anyways they didn't last long ... now they have put in speed bumps! And there is every variation possible... the single large bump, 5 smaller bumps all in a row .... anyways, you are being jostled and bumped 75 percent of the time! I admire Christianne as she never seems phased by anything these roads can throw at her!!
Agomanya is a one of these villages (though larger) that has a market that is one of the nicest in Ghana , the Bradt guide says. ...and in my humble opinion i agree!
It was Market Day so there were dozens of tro tros picking up and dropping people.. the main road was crammed and clogged... The energy and aliveness needs to be experienced to be believed!!
Another thing i have come to understand is that if i don't FEEL like a sore white thumb, i don't stick out so much. I had begun to get this feeling the other day when i deliberately ignored everyone's gawking and instead pretended to fit in. This time i was able to be 'one with' my surroundings with much less effort. I just let everything wash over me, the bright glaring sun, the colours, the shouting and cajoling of the sellers, the kids crying, the red of the tomatoes... the flash of batiked fabric... the 'alivenes' just entered me and i felt at home.
We weaved our way around for awhile... It was a market i had visitied once last time i was in Ghana.. i had photos i had gazed at while dreaming of going back... But the market was so big i couldn't find the bead section... so I picked a studious looking young man who was delighted to show me the way.. he immediately stepped through to the back through some stalls away from the main throughfare and there were the bead stalls!! ... just as i remembered!
The same sellers were there, too! In fact one lady told me she remembered that i had been there before a long time ago and.. she had been waiting for me for a long time!! I believed the part about her remembering me because i recognized her..
The stalls were only about a quarter filled ... because there were a lot of funerals today, i was told. And it was true... we had seen several large gatherings of people all dressed in red and black along the way....
Funerals were a big deal here.. bodies are often kept in the fridge while the village raises enough money for a proper send off.. If the person was 'important' enough this could include many villages involved in the preparation.. Then everyone gets dressed in their finest to celebrate the life of the person with singing and dancing and food.
But for me, this was a perfect introduction to another bead market, having less bead sellers made it less overwhelming ... It was starting to sink in that the idea of importing beads is a lovely one BUT how to go about it?? Which beads did i buy? How many? I am very much a dreamer ... but the the practical aspects of this endeavor keeps shifting and changing with experience...
I pushed all these thoughts aside ... and decided to just assess the market like i had at Kofaridua.
There were two stalls of beads from other African countries... and then there were many stalls of the Ghanaian recycled glass beads..
Once i got my bearings i decided to concentrate on the two stalls with the variety of beads because i knew these beads from buying them myself from various places.... and I decided to have a go at bargaining... i carefully chose strands of beads that interested me, asking for the prices as i went.. i had a small card with the Ghanaian amount converted to Canadian dollars.. it was a slow process but the men were wonderfully patient and not pushy. When i had chosen a little pile that looked like it was from Ali Baba's cave.. lovely ruby red, sea green, golden brass.. i took a deep breath and made my offer .. 100 american dollars.. He pretended to look shocked and brought out his calculator ... But i knew this was a fair price and said 'No, take it or leave it." I pretended to be calm but my heart was hammering away... It is hard to be firm even if you are sure. He capitulated and started wrapping up my treasures. The next negotiation was much easier...
And then i moved on to the stalls selling the Ghana beads..
The Ghanaian recycled glass beads are going to be much harder to choose because there is such a variety but on the other hand they are much the same ... if you know what i mean... it is like trying to choose a fabric. The fabric is cotton but there is an assortment of patterns and colours. The beads i had just bargained for were quite distinct... going with the fabric analogy again..those beads were like buying a bolt of silk fabric, of corduroy fabric and of a jersey knit fabric let's say (and making it easier as well was the fact that the choice of colours and patterns are limited!) ...
I bought some of the tiny waist beads which come in all colours and are 60 cents a strand.. from Elizabeth, who is the lady who remembers me!! This was a good ice breaker as they are so cheap and pretty.... and i got the feeling of bargaining with her!
I could have spent a lot more time at the market but the others were ready to go...so i went off with them vowing to come back again.. my treasures tucked in my bag.
Our next stop was Cedi's Beads. The Nene Nomada family, which runs the bead factory, have been bead makers for 200 years.
Beads play an important role in the Krobo culture of Ghana. The Krobo people, whose spiritual home is the Krobo Mountain, use beads as a symbol of family status, and on special occasions for example; rites of passage (ie puberty).
Cedi, for whom the factory is named, made his first bead at the age of 7. He showed us how the beads are made, which is still pretty much in the same way his ancestors have done for centuries but with small improvements...
I took some photos of the factory which i will include. Each series of photos will be numbered so you can see them in order if you like.... as i have said the layout is very constrained and i don't have a lot of control of which photos show up when for some reason ... but today the order should be Sunday, The bead stash and then the 6 series from the Cedi Factory.. even in the series the photos are out of order..sorry but i just cannot figure out how to take control... but maybe this is a good life lesson!!!
It is quite fascinating to see the painstaking care these beads entail. It makes you appreciate the individual bead much more when you realize the craftsmanship behind them.
Our next stop was for a bite in a restaurant located on the shore of the river. I was delighted to recognize a dish i knew ... boiled plaintains and palava !! It was almost as good as what i had at the house! ... and from the shore of the river there we could see the Adome Bridge, a large suspension bridge that forms one of only two places where cars are able to cross the water..
And lastly, Christianne took us up to see the Akosomba Dam, Ghana's largest dam which provides hydro-electric power. The dam was inaugurated by then President Nkruma in 1966 and hems in Lake Volta, the biggest artificial lake in the world. (From Bradt guide) This area is very green and lush with beautiful flowers like bougainevalea. It is a real oasis especially when you come straight from from dusty, red Ho!
Christianne took us up to the Volta Hotel which is definitely a luxury class hotel even in western terms. The terrace where you can have a meal and drink has a bird's eye view of the dam and lake.. very beautiful..
We couldn't linger as we were to meet Jerry at the Whitehouse to bring him home for supper!!
All in all, a very full and interesting day!
Now, this morning, i am writing the blog with the sound of singing in the background, sitting on the porch where a lovely breeze is blowing.
Lizards scurry back and forth along the top of the cement wall... i smile to myself remembering a moment in town, on Friday i think it was, when i was chasing a lizard with my camera and a man walked by laughing at me .... i chuckled along with him thinking to myself, 'Laugh if you like but i KNOW you would be chasing our silly squirrels trying to take a picture of THEM if the the tables were turned!!' (i will be more tolerant of those tourists in the future!! ..must remember!)
Anyways right now i am much too lazy to think of chasing anything ...
It is a very lazy Sunday morning...
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