How far and how much do you extend trust?

I think everyone is more on their guard when traveling in other countries, especially if you are in a place where you stick out like a soar thumb. At first, it may be even harder in countries where everyone is super friendly, to the point where you almost assume everyone if faking it, or trying to get something from you. But no, after just a few days here I knew that was mostly not the case. Especially in the smaller towns, people are just curious about why I am there. Not that there have not been other visitors, but in Torkor, there is maybe one or two non-locals there at a time and as far as I know, I am the only one currently living here. I should ask if there has ever been a non-Ghanaian live here before. There is also a much more open, sometimes startling, sometimes annoying habit of everyone wanting to talk anytime. Sometimes this is fine, having a nice conversation with Judith on the tro-tro, or talking to Benjamin, Emmanuel and Raymond, some of the many nice taxi drivers I run into a lot.

I like this idea for trash pick-up, a green way to be clean

But there is also the frequent young men on the street, running up, saying they want to be my best friend, that they love me, and other things that I am sure they do not realize how creepy they sound. I try to be nice, say hi, what my name is, where I am from, but it immediately jumps to where is your house and can I come and visit tomorrow? Um, no. It feels like going into a bar and being hit on by the most forward, cocky guy ever, except that most of these guys are in high school, and are just trying to “claim” a friend from the USA. If it is a friend of a friend, someone I have met many times I will occasionally give them my number and sometimes they call once or twice.  I think asking for a phone number and your address is like the same type of small talk at home asking “what do you do?” So letting down my guard completely after the first few days was not too hard. Especially when people just come out and are so honest about it, “I want to have a white friend” “Can you snap a picture so I can show me with a white friend” So it is harmless, just weird to feel like a Caucasian spectacle.

There has only been on kinda creepy guy following me down the street, but I just stopped, asked a nice looking middle aged guy for directions, and he asked if I knew the guys and I said no and he was able to shoo him off. Again, people are just nice.  In a lot of places I have traveled, I had to put up a certain amount of wall because there was so many people selling/begging/stealing , which I am sure happens more in the more touristy spots here.

A student I ran into that gave me a tour of the back-side of my town that I had not explored yet

And like anywhere, this is a small town, actually a tiny town near a small town. Just today in the one hour in the small town I ran into two students and saw Emmanuel twice on my run and then randomly he was the taxi that I took to town. So it is really important to be friendly. When I have been in the sun for 2 hours, hot, frustrated with the cell reception, feet crusted over with market grime, the last think I want to do is make small talk on the way home but it is the right thing to do in a small town. This person is probably friends/related to/work with someone I know.  There is the occasional taxi driver that wants to charge me 5 cedis to go to Torkor, probably not knowing I have done it a dozen times and know it is only 80 peswas. But all the shopkeepers and market folks sell me things at the same price as my local roommate. I do not haggle, but when everything is less than a dollar, I am not too worried about getting the best deal.

I love that I really can just walk around and mostly not have a wall, or even a short picket fence around me. I feel I can be myself, outgoing, silly, cracking jokes and getting everyone laughing with my attempts to say hi in Ewe.

PS on the ride here we set the current record of people in a taxi, 4 adults and 1 child in back, driver, passenger with two kids in the front of a Toyota little hatchback. People have to be nice here, we are always sitting on strangers laps!