Ghana 2010 Census

It’s been pretty quiet the past two weeks.  No lost earring.  We have been busy, however; there is just nothing exciting to report.  So what can I say about another two weeks in Ghana?

This is the flag of Ghana.  If you ask a bunch of Ghanaians there is general agreement that the red is to represent the blood shed by those who fought against colonial rule, the yellow is to represent the abundant natural resources (gold) of the land, and the green is to represent the country’s rich vegetation.  There is disagreement what the black star is to stand for.  According to the official Ghana website, GhanaWeb.com, “the five pointed lone star . . . is the symbol of African emancipation and unity in the struggle against colonialism.”  (This is a quote from Mrs. Theodosia Salome Okoh, who designed the flag.  She is the Betsy Ross of Ghana.)   In a couple of paragraphs I will give you my interpretation of the colors and the black star.

Let me share two Ghana experiences that were new to us.   Because we’ve lived here ten months one would think that we have seen it all.  But that’s not the case.  These two experiences made us pause and say, “Wow, that’s new!”  

The first experience occurred two weeks ago on Sunday.  As we were driving down Burma Camp Road to church we heard a loud siren.  Sirens are common here but they are not the usual stop-everything-look-around-hold-your-ears sirens like they are at home.  They are less annoying.  And most of the time ignored.  But this one on Sunday sounded like it meant business.  As we looked toward the approaching sound we could see cars moving out of the way and then we visualized an honest to goodness fire truck coming towards us.  It was a hook and ladder fire truck, the kind with a driver in front, a long center and then a second driver at the rear.  We were amazed.  Amazed to see such a modern vehicle here in Accra.  And amazed because the fire truck appeared to be actually responding to a fire.   We both immediately questioned to which fire was this truck responding?  There is always smoke in Accra.  Always.  You can’t go anywhere without seeing a pile of something on fire.  We discussed the difficulty these firemen were going to have if they would be looking for smoke to determine the location of the fire.     

The second experience occurred this past week.  It was very gratifying.  It was so gratifying that I wanted to get out of the car and congratulate the participants.  It happened at the Tetteh Quarshie Circle.  (The only true cloverleaf exchange in Accra.)   Marsha and I had been in Tema and decided to stop at the Accra Mall on the way home and get groceries.  We were heading west on the Tema highway and took the offramp at the Tetteh Quarshie Circle to head south on Independence Road.  We then took the offramp to head east on the Tema highway.  This turned us toward the mall exit.  We then maneuvered into the right hand lane to take the offramp to the mall.  The offramp for the mall is a double lane.  The traffic was moving very slowly.  In true Ghanaian driving fashion the two proper lanes of exit traffic had been doubled to four lanes with a lane on the shoulder of the road (on our right) and a lane hugging the two center lanes (on our left) creating four lanes trying to squeeze into two lanes.  This is not a big deal.  Four lanes crowding into two lanes actually works most of the time without a lot of driver consternation.  The problem was the fifth and sixth lanes of taxis to our left who would bypass the proper lanes of traffic, drive to the head of the congestion and then try to squeeze in at the last moment.  The fifth and sixth lanes made for extremely crowded and slow moving traffic.  As we approached the actual exit with the six lanes of bunched up cars we noticed that there were traffic police standing at the offramp.    They were actually stopping the taxis in lanes five and six and making them get out of the added lanes and continue straight on the highway.  Most of the taxis stayed in the added lanes thinking that the police would eventually look away and they would still be able to continue and squeeze in.  But the police stood their ground, and yelled, and pounded on the car hoods, and made all of the drivers move on.  I wanted to jump out and thank the police.  It is the first time that we have actually seen traffic rules enforced. 

I forgot to mention in my last blog entry that Marsha and I participated in the Ghana 2010 Census.   A census taker knocked on our door about 7:00 p.m. three weeks ago and asked us to participate in the census.  He had an official shirt, an official ID badge, and an official notebook with the census questions.  We invited him into our living room and sat with him as he asked us 14 pages of questions.  He spent about 45 minutes with us.  He was very polite.  He spoke all of the local languages, English and French.  He recorded most of our responses by writing them out longhand.  He did not appear to have a computer friendly response sheet such as one with circles that can be filled in with a number 2 pencil and then read with a scanning machine.  There were a few questions where we had multiple answers to choose from and he would pencil the number of the choice into blank boxes.  I imagine there will be a large contingency of workers who will transcribe the answers into a data entry type format for computers to summarize the results. 

Most of the questions were standard census questions:  when and where were you born, how long have you lived at this address, what is the level of your education, are your married, are your parents alive, what are the ages of your children, what is your occupation?  Etc.   The last two pages focused on the dwelling in which the responders lived.  The census taker was kind enough to let me make of copy of those two pages.  There were 15 questions.  I have scanned these two pages and posted them here but they are not readable.  Click on the photos to enlarge them.  

Here are some of the questions.  What is the main material of the outer walls of this dwelling?  (Answers include mud bricks/earth, wood, metal sheet/slate/asbestos, bamboo, palm leaves.)  How many rooms does this household occupy?  Specify.  (Count living, dining, bedrooms but not bathrooms, toilet & kitchen.)   How many of the rooms are used for sleeping?  Specify.  Does the household share this sleeping room with other households.?  Yes or no?  What is the main source of drinking water for the household?  (Answers include pipe-borne inside dwelling, pipe-borne outside dwelling, public tap, protected well, rain water, tanker supply, river/stream, pond/lake/dam/canal.)  What is the main source of cooking fuel for this household?  (Answers include none/no cooking, wood, gas, electricity, kerosene, charcoal, crop residue, saw dust, animal waste.)  What type of toilet facility is usually used by the household?  (Answers include no facility, W.C. [water closet = toilet], pit latrine, KVIP [I don’t know what this is], bucket/pan, public toilet.)   Do you share this toilet facility with other households? 

Ponder these questions, for a while, if you ever find yourself thinking your house just isn’t quite as nice as you think it should be.     

Back to the flag.  Here is my explanation of the colors and the black star.  I’m sure Mrs. Okoh was inspired to choose the three colors of red, yellow and green for the original Ghana flag.   But I’m convinced after driving in Ghana for the past ten months that red, yellow, and green do not stand for the blood, gold and vegetation of Ghana.  I think the colors stand for three major cellular phone providers who are determined to paint everything in Ghana red, yellow, or green.  This first picture is an example of the red/yellow/green cell phone “kiosks” that are everywhere.  

These kiosks handle all of the day to day business of the cell phone owners.  

The second picture is a little blurred but you can see all of the colors of the flag in this one picture.  Note, also, the unfortunate style of wearing pants demonstrated by the young man talking to the vendor.  I think you can see the same three colors in his underwear.

The next three pictures show examples of the advertising.  The red is Vodaphone, the yellow is MTN, and the green is Glo.  Advertisements for these three providers are everywhere.  

Vodafone

MTN

GLO

It is not an exaggeration to say, when driving through any part of Ghana, either in the cities or in the villages, that a majority of the buildings are painted red, yellow, or green.  A lot of paint representing the colors of the flag has been spread around Ghana.  OK.  So what does the black star stand for?  Many Ghanaians say it stands for the Ghana football team (that beat the USA in the last World Cup.)  Mark Stubbs told us that it stands for the potholes of Ghana.  I tend to agree with Mark. 

Here’s a picture I took while driving through Adabraka.  Click on it to enlarge it and look at the line "Dealers in: . . . . . "

I can understand the general water pumps, and the water filters, but I just don’t know what they are offering when they advertise “lawn movers.”   Do customers actually come in and request machines to move lawns?  Somebody obviously didn't edit this business banner before printing it.  

Here’s another photo taken during our travels. 

In driving around Accra it is not uncommon to see buildings with instructions hand painted on the outside  “remove before ___date___ by order of the AMA [Accra municipal authority].”    There are obviously no zoning laws and no permits required in Ghana to start a roadside business.  Anyone can put up a shack and start selling.  But there seems to be a heavy handed government authority that drives around and tells certain businesses to disappear (the ones that probably haven’t paid the appropriate bribes.)  The instruction in this photograph is unique.  Does the municipal authority really want this fence to be removed?    

I have described before the fruit that is so abundant and inexpensive.  Here are some photos of our favorite fruit stand.

Ruth

Paulina

Ruth owns and/or runs the fruit stand with her sister Paulina.  We love both of them.   It is hard to believe this but Ruth indicates that the best of the fruit season is yet to come.  I’ll take her word for it but I don't feel we are currently in a fruit famine.  We have been without mangos since June but Ruth says they will be back by December.  Here are pictures of fruit in abundance.  The first is a picture of bananas on the tree. 

The second is a picture of papayas almost ready for harvest.

By the way papayas are spelled paw-paws and pronounced po-pos.  We enjoy a po-po every day.  And here is a picture of a mango tree with immature fruit.

We can’t wait until December until the mangos come into season. 

Last item:  hubcaps are a big item here.  Most of the cars on the road have hubcaps instead of sport wheels.  

Car with hubcaps

Car without hubcaps

Some of the hubcaps are pretty fancy like this one which reminds me of the axle cutting blades seen in the famous Ben Hur chariot race between Charlston Heston (driving the white horses) and the bad Roman guy (driving the black horses.)   The blades were intended to cut through the opponent’s wheels.  I hope they don’t have the same function here in Ghana.   Here’s another picture to demonstrate just how big the hubcap business is. 

So now I’m going to share a photo of something that has piqued my curiosity for weeks. 

What is it that I can see on this hubcap?  Well, with close inspection it is nothing more than another Practical Solution to Make Living in Ghana Easier (remember the new list I started two blogs ago with the method of drying zip lock bags?)    This is another example of Ghanaian ingenuity.  It is a wire tire holding the hubcap onto the rim.  It is much easier to see upon close inspection.   

Note the wire tie

 (It was pretty tough getting this close up picture of the hubcap being held on with a wire tie.  I had to hang out my car door to take the photo.  I'm sure the onlookers thought it was normal behavior for a white person to hang out his car door inspecting the wheel of a parked car.)   So, just like the zip lock bag solution keep in mind this remedy when you have trouble keeping your hubcaps on.  (Can you imagine the racket that occurs when a hub cap comes off a wheel turning at high rpm and the hub cap is held onto the rim with a single plastic wire tie?)

In celebration of November election week  I will close with this photo which, undoubtedly, was inspired by President Obama’s visit last year to Ghana. 

Don’t forget to vote on Tuesday.