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| This update has been a long-time coming. |
But first: GOOGLE me! ....mollerchirogilbert
Ghana, West Africa
I was in Africa for about seven months. Was given different very appealing possibilities and I went. The first three or so weeks were okay. After that, I figured out a real third world country. Almost died of malaria and had a stay in hospital for about four days. Don't mess with malaria. The parasite stays in the liver and my enzyme count is still way high after being back in the states a few months. Ever since my little trip, my health is still waned. Good nutrition there comes at a great cost. It is literally about 3 to 4 times more expensive than the states to eat decent food with fair nutritional content.
Before leaving AZ, I was told differently. I wasn't necessarily lied to about conditions. I just didn't ask the right questions. Ghanains think President Obama as a god. Its really crazy. There were some pretty nice people whom I met, but it seemed most of the people were quite good at being extremely deceptive. Great pictures on the internet, do not believe. Believe the car bombs, killing and deaths.
Ghana is one of the more civil African countries. It takes anywhere from one hour to two hours to get to places and its mostly via cab or dangerous tro-tro vehicles where you are packed in like sardines with fifteen other sweaty people. Stay away from taxis running on propane which are immediate death traps in case of car crash. The Africans there pretty much use the ocean as a dump. Don't go swimming and eat very limited fish due to iodine content. If you walk on the beach, be careful. You might step on one or two syringes. Aids and malaria are the big deal in the region. Not much cancer or heart disease and the doctors are lucky to have limited training. Cancer and heart disease are from SAD - Stupid American Diets. Our food here is killing us. Plant-based diet is the way to go.
Okay. So I saw a few dead people in the streets. The worst one was a completely sprawled out motorcyclist who was wearing a strange American flag leather jacket. His head was split open and his blood freely flowed down into the gutters for about 50 meters. The blood was a non-stop river. 2 meters away were police directing traffic (kind of like "nothing to see here") and there were probably about one hundred or more on-lookers just standing there checking out the scene. Their attitude is "he's dead" and they mostly just gawk.
The gutters/sewage outlets are many times open holes. One night in pouring/flooding rain, I fell in one and gashed my knees and elbows. Another night walking to get a cab, I fell in probably one of the largest gutters in Accra. A huge bunch of people were pushing to get through from behind me and there was some sort of hold-up with a huge bunch of people in front of me. I couldn't figure it out and there were no lights on and no walls. Everyone else knew the gutter was there, but I went around and fell into the nine-foot down hole. Not too fun and hurt like a mother. Geez, I was angry. Today, I realized the recent knee pain is probably due to this episode. I climbed out and all these people were just gawking. Then a bunch of cabbies tried to take advantage and attempted to charge me triple to get to the house I stayed in.
As a white guy, the cabs already charged double and if you don't stay in the background and let a black friend take care of the negotiating, you're pretty much screwed.
Oh, back to eating. The cost is horrendous. An apple is in the area of $1. Pineapple, mango, oranges are all about the same cost. Two brown meat chicken and rice was average of $8 to $12. Breakfast was least cost at local chop shop for a couple egg sandwiches and Nescafe while waiting for thirty minutes. I limited meals and lost weight. Lost the most weight from malaria bout. Gym cost was $125 per month for decent place and $40 per month at sweat box. Early morning workouts and a lot of water are a necessity.
There is a lot more. The place is just kind of crazy. In conflicts, one common saying I saw a lot was "I kill you". That's when you kind of skirt around whoever is in a fight and pray for your life because they're pretty serious with lead pipes and sometimes machetes. Thinking of that I did get to see some machete wielding motorcyclists where they call them cutlers. That was kind of a strange one. Another common saying is "I'm coming". This actually means you are waiting. The longest time I waited for someone "coming" was about three hours. That was for food and I think they had to go kill it and prepare or something like that. Usual time on a menu item is one hour, sometimes less but that comes at a cost.
The scariest people there are the Muslims. Another scary thing is all the Christianity. Most shops had strange Christian names like God Saves or Jesus Loves You Market. A lot of the time this is a guise. During the night, the multiple churches all around the place play extremely loud music. The churches are extremely big business in West Africa - I have never seen anything like it. Jehovah's are big, Muslims are big up north and Chiefs they call Kings are multiple - hundreds of kings - Who they call a king is a big deal, but keep in mind that they have hundreds of them.
Everywhere you go, televisions are blaring and huge speakers scream at all sorts of open air shops. Walking around, it was extremely common for a local to come along and ask for ten Ghana Cedi which is about eight $US. Ghana is now in the oil business and prices are rising because of it.
The previous is a lot of the negative. There are positives. Media appearances were kind of fun. Working six days a week in three offices was way too much. Was basically 14 hours a day with transportation included. Just way too much. The prospect of a hopeful working with FIFA soccer/futbol was my major draw. Ghana Blackstars and World Cup action was too much to pass up. The thing with that was the people are so slow that the opportunity looked like it would never happen. Another thing I wanted out of the deal was to begin more offices/clinics which also didn't occur. Without these positives occurring, the money just wasn't there. I could have worked on a hundred people per day in the states for the most part. But, also, how many people can say they did Africa? And, then, worked on over 250 people in less than two hours at media appearances? No real paperwork, by the way. Just spinal awareness - simple talks and quick adjustments. The people in the offices we treated were mostly good patients. One problem I did have were the amount of patients who would tell me that they were not coming back for a while because they ran out of all money. I never heard people say that before. The government workers treated never had that worry and most of them had their own public vehicles and drivers.
There were many people who were extremely nice. Especially those who had experience from other European countries like the UK and Germany. A number of Ex-Pats were nice as well and I really enjoyed getting to the golf course. The older people were also fun to talk to and accommodating. They seemed to have greater understanding of this American due to their history most-likely.
A few restaurants also got to know me and I had about five places I really liked. My favorite was at the big-ladies place and the owner had me call her "mama". Yolanda's grandma's shop was cool. Another one had good burgers at only $8. Friday's was also great and they got to know my routine order of $12 rice and chicken. The places often would include a cole-slaw or side salad. I didn't care for goat - rubbery. The fruit tasted good. Coconut I didn't think much of but that was not expensive - they chop the thing in front of you from a big rolling stand. Guinea fowl is great. At big-ladies' place, (I don't remember the real name) she would try special foods prepared differently. That was really appreciated. Also there was this guy who probably had the best tasting skewers. I really don't know what goes into the skewers at the road-side stands, but he had the best and another one at a club owned by a guy from the UK - they had guinea fowl, sausage and beef - very good.
Let me see. I forgot to mention house-help and other workers. Its basically slave-trade. I had house-help which the going rate is less than $80 per month. They would stay in a hot garage. When I would try to give them decent bed, I was told this is forbidden for the help. What I ended up doing was take them out for decent food and that was good. I enjoyed the company as well while waiting for "I'm Coming" service.
Okay. So this is Ghana. Near the end of this stay, I got kind of scared. It got to the point of people coming up to me and, instead of asking where I lived, they would tell me my exact locations. On one occasion, late at night (about 10pm after my work-day) a muslim in fully-dressed traditional garb approached me and stated my name. I don't know if he saw me on TV or if he was possessed or something - but it scared the crap out of me. I ended up going to the U.S. embassy and asked for assistance. Another thing that became a constant occurrence were people asking me for help to make it to the U.S.A. The embassy told me that this sounds common for any American who has been there for extended period of time. Their recommendation was for me to finish business and hide out in a higher end hotel until I could fly out. I stayed in two hotels, finished business and left. Holiday Inn, by the way, is over $200 per night. I stayed in others after Kumasi and Takoradi and still paid $150 per night with limited surroundings in the two hotels over a six night period. The first hotel stole my $250 deposit. In a way, I would like to go back. It was an adventure in life. There are potential good things in Ghana. But if its that bad there, I would really hate to go to Belize, Nigeria or Egypt. South Africa, maybe. Even there is really not civil with multiple murders and untold of just-plain-bad-things.
If you ever decide to visit West Africa: Make it no more than a two week trip. Also, plan a stop-over for a couple days in either Germany or London. You will not regret the stop-overs. Right now, I don't recommend Cairo - too much upheaval there. Also prepare for the Euro cost as well as a minimum $2000 per week in Africa. $3000 per week is safer and will keep you alive. If you do go, plan on a lot of waiting and do not think of it as anything related to the faster way of American living.
Oh, almost forgot. Always protect yourself there. I was robbed twice to about the tune of $1000. There is a reason every place has bars over the doors and windows. Also, most houses have protected walls with locks on their gates and multiple sharp objects on the walls which include glass, iron pinpoints and electrified barb-wire. Always keep doors locked and store any secured information on safe email status with encryption. Do not access secure information on the web servers and internet cafes.
Ha! Expect a very decent coffee to cost you $7 US and no free refills. Smoothie cost: $5 US - and its their native fruits. Gosh, the place is expensive. If you eat the cheap native foods, expect not much nutritional value.
I know a lot of this sounds negative. There definitely were good times. I do miss some people there. And we will meet again at the end of the road. I don't regret taking the chance on the travel. The whole deal just didn't work out. Worth the experience because I would have always wondered what would have been had the experience not been taken.
