Fufu is gross and other thoughts on food

My taste buds are confused about this country, I am not sure I have ever traveled to a place with food that evoked a wider variety of reactions from my mouth. Anyone that knows me knows I am an adventurous eater, brain? Insects? Sure! I will try anything once or twice. My first few days I was not very hungry just being hot and tired but my first meal made me nervous about my future meals while here. Banku, a super sticky corn and casava starch ball and fish stew. Most Ghanaian food is eaten with hands, grab a ball of sticky starch, banku or fufu, and dip in the red oily sauce that is more like a soup that has some sort of meat, often fish. It was a whole fish, no problem, I can eat fish with heads and tails, but this whole fish was also inches deep in a soup and what not cleaned much at all, lots of scales, fatty layers of skin, unidentifiable internal organ like things, gills maybe? The flavor was good but could really only get 3-4 bites that did not need half spit out for bones and other things I just could not swallow. The banku texture was ok, but it tasted sour, fermented or somehow turned bad.

Too much pepper powder first red meat here and a nice cider to wash it down

Not off to a great start but the next day I ate two meals, both very tasty. Red Red, a bean dish with lots of nice flavors, often served with fried plantains mixed in at the headmistresses house was delicious. Dinner at the hotel little restaurant was totally decent fried chicken and rich with a really good thick red sauce I later found out is made with ground up, dried mackerel (everything in Kpandu and TorKor has some type of fish being so close to Lake Volta)

Mixed experiences with street food as well:

• ok fried dough balls
• inedible meat pies but good hard-boiled egg pie
• very nice and fluffy breads
• mild but filling tamale-like packets of corn-mush in leaf wrappers
• delicious meat on a stick
• ok grilled plantains, very good grilled corn

By far the best thing I have eaten has been the fruit. Today I had the best pineapple ever, a while pineapple from the Ho market, and the most flavorful banana ever. Eating bananas ripe off the tree is just like a different fruit than the Chiquitas at the Jewel.

Patricia eating white pineapple in Ho market

I am really excited to be moving to a place with a kitchen where I can start experimenting with cooking, hopefully with some students willing to come hang out and teach me some cooking. The markets, held about every 5 days in most towns and villages, are filled with things I just do not even know what they are, and others like these delicious smelling little red tomatoes I am looking forward to playing with. Next blog will be about the quest to find the best prices and stuff to basically furnish an empty apartment here. I have more experimenting with the available beers and spirits as well, but so far the best beverages have been interesting sodas, passion fruit and spicy ginger beers have been delicious.

Last nights smorgasbord dinner

Today I ate at a chop, somewhere in between street food and a restaurant, and it was my first time experiencing fufu. I felt so terrible because after the man ahead of me heard the price, he decided to put back the little piece of meat in his stew and just get sauce with his fufu. I left almost all of my bowl there. The sauce was super spicy, the chunk of beef mostly tendon and tough bits, and the fufu, I really thought I would be fine with a raw-dough like substance, but this was like eating elementary school paste. It was sticking to my throat as I tried to at least make a dent in the glob so as to not insult them.

I am going to try to find a balance of embracing the local foods that I can, while still allowing myself to occasionally pay a ridiculous amount of money for special treats. Food, like many things is very cheap here and you can get a full meal for 2-3 Cedis (1 USD = 2 Cedis) But I will probably pay the 10 Cedis (5 USD) for cheddar or a box of cereal after meals of 2 Cedi food that I just can not make it through. And who knows what I will be thinking after the first, inevitable, food-induced sickness.

Corn packet thing

Lessons learned:

Rice before banku, banku before fufu

Expect very little meat even when you order meat

Never turn down something being fried on a charcoal pit when you pass by

The color red does not indicate the level of spicy, do not throw a whole chink of meat covered in cayenne straight into your mouth

List of my favorite things in Ghana Week One

Day 1. Being in the middle of a purchase, in the middle of the highway between driver and electric-device hawker.

Day 2. Freaking adorable mini goats, and their tiny little baby goats everywhere

Day 3. Watching the Ghanaian version of The Bachelor and talking with three amazing women, two daughters and their mom.

Day 4. First tro tro trip, not my favorite 1.5 hours but a staple of transportation here and everyone has their best “One time, on a tro tro...” story.

Day 5. Group reading with 4 students in Ho a Fraggle Rock book. Who knew Dozzers would make an appearance in Ghana.

Day 6. Exhausting but great 3 hours in massive Ho market day with Patricia. Ex-nun, ex-Bostonian, Ghana local, totally amazing woman to watch interacting with vendors, kids, and everyone we encountered.

Day 7. Getting help from several random strangers to carry all my crap 3 different times, just to be nice. And a very good local beer, Castle milk stout.

Visit to Ho School - Inspired and scared

Sorry this is a bit long and rambling but I only have a few minutes at the internet cafe and did not really edit much.


Quick background for people who do not know the general gist of what I am doing. Pagus Africa works in two schools here in the Volta region of Ghana. They directly sponsor kids but do other work, like sending volunteers, to support the work of these schools. At the Bishop Forson School in Kpandu, I am going to be helping with some special English classes for some kids that have fallen behind their grade level and also trying to start up an extracurricular girls empowerment program. More on that later when I have actually started working. This week I am setting up my house and traveling to Ho to visit the other volunteers working in the other school.

Algebra with Tracy

I traveled about 1.5 hours south to Ho where two other volunteers, Josh and Tracy are about a month into their two year stay here. They are working at the other school that Pagus helps to support with volunteers and other contributions. They have been running a summer school that includes English, math, biology and chemistry. Today was a review day for the final class and tests tomorrow. Airfield is a newer and public day school so in many ways is different than the established, private boarding school I start at next Monday. I will start with the inspiring. The students were finding atomic numbers, calculating charges of atoms, and identifying mitochondria. Josh and Tracy have done a amazing job taking what started as a summer tutoring gig with 4 kids, to a summer school of up to 20 kids from fifth to 8^th grades. We also have spent many a walk, taxi ride and dinner tonight talking about different ways to teach the subjects and a lot about how to help the kids get beyond memorizing to critical thinking and creative thinking. It was great to have some time in a classroom and bounce ideas off new teachers that  already had a few weeks under their belts.

The terrifying part is realizing that part of my job here is to teach English and while group-reading books with these students, realizing how much work there is to do and how little time I have to try to get the most English challenged students up to a acceptable level for their grade. More than algebra, DNA or the periodic table, English really seemed to be the subject that just was not clicking with the students. From basic pronunciation to reading but not really comprehending the words coming together as a thought. Yes English is an official language here, the language of government and billboards but it is not what students speak 99% of the time. In this region Ewe is the dominant language and based on how hard it has been for me to learn 3-4 words of this language which feels and sounds so different than English or other European languages I really appreciate how difficult it must be to learn English as a native Ewe speaker.

Of course I do not have any expectation that I will leave this country in 3.5 months and suddenly have 4 classes of students perfect English reading and writing. These are also not the students I will be teaching, mine I have not met yet. But it is hard to think about planning a term, and knowing even where to start when many students are severely behind where they should be at their grade level, have very scattered attendance, many start school much later than expected and come from homes that do not speak any English.

So that is my scary challenge that starts next week. On a positive note when I met with the headmistress of the my school she seems really smart, helpful and supportive of trying a girls program. This school is about 70% boys with mostly male teachers. But Mable and past teachers have done one or two days a term extra workshops for girls but this will be the first time having something regular. It is great to have the support of the administration in a place where girls are often not sent to school or supported in the ways boys are in education.And now for some random pictures, I have done a terrible job taking them so far.

Street food, meat on a stick, then covered in hot powder, really good.

My local bike shop

Technology overload

I am using a silly amount a devices here, way more than in Chicago. I have an iphone here while I have a very simple one back home. On my first trip in a tro tro (public minivan) with 12 adults and a baby everyone is sleeping, eating or just sitting. As I was waiting for the tro tro to fill up, I read my kindle. Then once the bus got going after about a half hour wait (no schedules, just sit there, wait for it to fill up, then it leaves) I put on my ipod after a while. I took a few pictures on the way, answered a couple calls, and my laptop was in my purse. Five separate devices in my purse. I am sure I would have forgone the the ipod and watched and listened to the scenery but I was in the way back and middle seat so could not really see anything. 

I am not going to try to make a case one way or the other about the pros and cons of technology, there are many much more intelligent people than me that have already done so. I do think so far though it has made this trip easier for sure, and probably better for me. I will be able to make better class plans with my computer, I can take pictures and videos to use in class projects, I am better able to stay in touch with family and friends, I am not spending my nights alone in a dark room watching bad tv or getting bored. Maybe as my time gets longer and I meet more people there will be less nights home alone, but I think that is going to be relatively common since I will not have time to really make good close friends in a few months and my new apartment is in a pretty tiny town. I am glad I have the Lord of the Rings to fill up many hours and a long list of recommended books by my friends on my Kindle. There is a LOT of waiting and just hanging about here so the Kindle has been key. I have a phone so I can call my boyfriend and mom but also text the interns and fellow staff about the next day. I do not necessarily think they are enriching my experience of a different culture. I do think these five devices are making me happier and more at ease, which I think will make living here much easier and therefor more likely to live in another culture with a positive attitude and relax and enjoy the time. Now I am going next door to watch a pirated version of Harry Potter with Josh and Tracy on their laptop.

Working in bed, always with a sachet of water.

List of my favorite things/experieces in Ghana

Day 1. Being in the middle of a purchase, in the middle of the highway between driver and elecric-device hawker.

Day 2. Freaking adorable mini goats, and their tiny little baby goats everywhere

Day 3. Watching the Ghanaian version of The Bachelor and talking with three amazing women, two daughters and their mom.

Day 4. First tro tro trip, not my favorite 1.5 hours but a staple of transportration here and everyone has theie best “One time, on a tro tro...” story.

Day 5. Group reading with 4 students in Ho a Fraggle Rock book. Who knew Dozzers would make an appearance in Ghana.

My first 24 Hours

I generally have tried to go abroad with few expectations or assumptions. I find the more guide books I read the worst off I am. Either I go to a place with expectations high based on a guide book or traveler that had a great experience, or I make myself nervous and too cautious due to warnings of pickpockets, scams or other threats to visitors. In this case, after many conversations with previous volunteers and the director, Ellen, it was hard to go in willfully ignorant. But so far, with my all so vast experience of one day, I have been all around pleasantly surprised. The people are kinder, the roads softer, the food less spicy and life easier to navigate than expected. Besides the typical first time awkward experience;“Do I tip?” and “How much water can I drink if I am not sure where my next pit stop will be” there have not been many hiccups or feelings of panic/confusion in a situation...but I am sure they will come soon.

The ease of the first day was mostly due to some very wonderful hosts the first day, Fortune, a teacher and caretaker of the boarding school, and Maxwell and Abigail picked me up in Accra where we ran errands. The first stop was to go to the backroom money changer, walk out with a brick of cash, then go to a tiny, tiny shop on the second flow of a mall-type building to buy massive amounts of school supplies for the sponsored students. It was amazing watching this tiny store produce hundreds of workbooks and notebooks from behind their catacomb-like shelves behind the counter. More impressive was the two women who carried these enormous boxes of books on their heads several blocks to the car. This is not the first place I have been where the top of the head is the normal and logical place to carry goods, but it still always impresses me. Maybe that is why everyone here seems to have great posture?

So there is certainly more to describe, like the rows and miles of people selling goods in-between lanes on the highway, the expected food, phone cards, water, soda. You need a bath mat? lumbar support brace? live tetras in jam jars? Sure, we got that.

So I am not sure how diligent I will be will this blog. Travelling is the only time I ever journal, but I will be traveling to Ho next week then will probably move to Torkor where there is no internet, so this could be quite sporadic. But no matter what, I will keep a list of my favorite people, places, things, tastes, experiences, etc.

List of my favorite things in Ghana

Day 1. Being in the middle of a purchase, in the middle of the highway between driver and elecric-device hawker.

Day 2. Freaking adorable mini goats, and their tiny little baby goats everywhere

Day 3. Watching the Ghanaian version of The Bachelor and talking with three amazing women, two daughters and their mom.