Sunday 9th August 2009 - LAST POST

Doh! Just realised that family and friends had left some comments re this blog! I've emailed you all - if you haven't left any thoughts but want to, feel free, I'll respond to each and every one. I'll answer a few questions here, publicly, express some final thoughts and then occupy your time no more.

Q: Why no mention of the weather?

A: This is a personal thing - I think the weather is such a boring thing to talk about and folks in the UK talk about it ALL the time. However, in retrospect, I could have spoken about the weather when I was there as it is currently rainy season in Ghana. Thinking that I know what rainy season in a lush, tropical country is like, I expected heavy downpours. It rained once. A light shower - don't get me wrong, it was that fine rain that Peter Kay speaks about - but it lasted ten minutes. It was also cool, around eighteen degrees centigrade and this is why you will see me in some of the photos sometimes wearing a jacket or a sweatshirt. At night, I was cold (I don't care about my roommates sleeping in their skimpies,) and I slept in socks, pyjamas, wrapped myself tightly in my solitary sheet and wanted a blanket but was reluctant to ask. My Ghanaian roommates also complained of the cold occasionally - especially those not used to being by the sea.

Q: What was the food like?

A: Delicious. One of the professors, who had lived in Japan, said when food is harvested and moved and bought and cooked relatively quickly, you can taste the difference. You surely can! I ate like a horse and even though I am fussy with food, I always had enough to eat. The traditional dishes I was used to - fried fish, soups, corn-based staples, yam, banana, plantain - and so many meals were punctuated with a Jamaican-heritage teacher saying 'Yeah, they cook this in Jamaica,' or me asking a Ghanaian 'what do you call this?' only to provide him with a Caribbean name (confusingly, different islands have different names for different dishes). More than anything, it was through the meals, the countryside, the family traditions, the culture, the language intonations that the continuous links between Ghanaians and Caribbeans and African Americans could be felt.

Q: Why little mention of your Liverpuddlian colleagues?

A: That's an interesting observation. Perhaps because I know them all reasonably well (we, unlike our Ghanaian and American colleagues, had a five day program of studies at the International Slavery Museum PRIOR to flying to Ghana). My only real 'agenda' in Ghana was to find out about the country and people and I suppose this and my studies occupied most of my energies. I did not expect to be clubbing it in Accra at 3am but I think this shows my efforts to get to know people paid off - sleep when you're dead... Surely my UK colleagues aren't at all bothered they have not been written about in this blog? I'll have to ask em!

Final Thoughts

I have just read an interesting article about an American woman's travels in Ghana. It was one of those typical Travel Writing pieces which, while being well-written, was also sad in some regards. Irrespective of the flowery language, there are no friends mentioned in the piece, no Ghanaians to help explain why certain things are the way they are. Aside from the careful inclusion of data there is no information about what a Ghanaian thinks about wages, healthcare or education. For me - these are the ways in which you learn about a country, when you hear people griping or praising certain aspects. It is fine to make your own opinions about things but surely you need to speak to people who live in the country to help you put this information into a proper context? Or is it that I am not romantic enough? OK, I'll try harder to get weepy at the sight of a child chasing a goat.

I have deliberately tried, in this blog, to avoid the typical observations as I mentioned above. How do you describe (without sounding trite) the way in which Ghanaians display their pride in their culture, their heritage and their history? A professional writer would probably tackle the drumming or dancing but I choose this: On a tour of the city one night, my Ghanaian colleague Johnson, pointed out parts of the city that Obama no doubt saw on his stay in Ghana in June; the gold statues, the architecturally impressive structures, the straight, smooth roads. These were parts that had obviously been spruced up - nothing wrong with that - if an important visitor comes to your house, you spruce it up. However, if a friend pops round, they meet you as they find you and if they're a good friend, they probably don't care about how they meet you.

Johnson, whom I consider a friend, also showed me certain insalubrious parts of Accra that - while not showing off the city to its best - demonstrated the reality of a country that can be oh-so-easily stereotyped with photos of smiling children on the streets. (That's another thing that WINDS ME UP and there is a reason these 'smiling children of colour' photos are absent from my photo albums on offexploring. When tourists go the UK or to the US do they take photos of smiling cockneys in east London? Nope. What about taking snaps of wealthy teens in New York's Central Park perhaps? No way - the cops would be on your tail before the flash had faded. Why then, is it deemed acceptable to photograph children in poorer countries in this manner? They have parents too!)

The disappointing attitudes that I saw on this journey were few and far between. I addressed people about these when I felt the need to and was pleased about their response - I hope I didn't tread on any toes. As I have stated before, this was a memorable journey. I used to keep a diary years ago and reading the comments and emails that family and friends have sent has shown this blog was a good idea. Thanks for reading. Thank you International Slavery Museum, Understanding Slavery Initiative, Lecturers, Colleagues and of course, Great Ghana herself, for a memorable time.

And there was me thinking this blogging lark would never take off when it first became popular!

D