Blast Off

Graham Engineering is launched today.  No party.  No fanfare, just mark you calendars and maybe there will be an anniversary party.

Ghanaian Cuisine

Pizza Hut at Coconut Grove

Tanya hated it and I didn't.  She can rebut my claims in the comments if she sees fit.  Her gift of flowery prose far exceeds mine.  For example, the country-cured ham I fixed at Christmas, she described as, "the jockstrap worn by a pig after it had just run a marathon."  Oh, if only jockstraps were so tasty.

My assessment of the cuisine is that it is similar to Mexican, with one important distinction.  That distinction is that, in Ghana they use fish to flavor most dishes.  Tanya says that it is not enough to just say it's fish stock -- she insists that people know that it is dried fish that is thrown in the pot whole and allowed to simmer until its rancid flavor permeates the entire dish.  This is of course hyperbole in most cases.  My mane complaint was that they do use the whole fish and I don't like fish bones in my soup.

Some of the staples are as follows:

Chicken and Rice Joloff

Rice Joloff:  This is usually served with chicken or some other meat.  It is very similar to a Mexican rice.  It has a little zip, but should be acceptable to even sensitive pallets.

Fante Fante:  A red fishy sauce served with a meat or banku.  This is about the consistency of a marinara and slightly spicy on the low end of arabiatta but with a strong fishy flavor.  I only had this once and it was too fishy for me, so I am not sure if it is the cook having a heavy hand or if it is the dish.  If you can get past the fish, every thing else i liked.

Tilapia and Banku

Banku and kenkey:  These are very similar.  The difference being that one is fermented and the other is not and I do not remember which is which.  These dishes are both made of cornmeal and are very similar to a tamale.  The portion is typically huge -- at least as big as a banana leaf tamale.  Tanya claims that they are like tamales only tamales don't suck.

Fufu:  A white pasty substance of unknown origin usually found at the bottom of palm nut soup.  Not bad just kind of pointless.  It was Tanya's favorite.

Palm Nut soup

Palm Nut Soup:  A soup made from red palm oil, a fish stock and spices.  We had it once and I liked it and Tanya did not.

Ground Nut Soup.  Ground Nuts are what Ghanaians call peanuts.  This is another of Tanya's favorites and not one of mine.

Redred:  A spicy red sauce that may or may not be flavored with fish and sometimes served with rice.  Tanya and I both liked this.

Fish and Chips, Ghana Style

Tilapia:  The national fish of Ghana.  I can not be certain that it was the same fish everywhere we ate it although it appeared to be similar.  The fish is usually cooked and served whole.  It was generally very good.  I never cared much for Tilapia prior to visiting Ghana.

Bananas:  Several varieties and all pretty good.  I preferred the smaller ones.

Peanuts:  Outstanding.  They don't dry roast them.  They are fresher and come with more than two in a shell.  Best I've ever had.

Pineapple:  The flesh is generally more pale than what we get in supermarkets in the US and the taste is less sweet.  They are very good though.

Oranges:  Are green and more sour than what I am used to -- more akin to what Tanya is used to in Mexico.  We stopped at the Shoprite in the westernized portion of Accra (a very nice grocery store, suitable for Overland Park, KS) where we saw more white people than in the rest of the country.  There they had oranges, imported from California that were orange.

That sums it up for ghanaian cuisine.  Any food can make you sick and I often worry more about the food when it's Ghanaians trying to cook American than when they are cooking something that they are used to.

Aba House -- Where's the Mint on my Pillow?

Aba is apparently Twi for mother.  Ellie, who owns Aba House, prefers to be called Aba.  The caretaker's name is Patrick, but he prefers to be called Talktrue.  This is a fiting metaphor for most of what is Ghana.

Aba House in Nungua is home to Tanya's residency and our home base for our stay in Ghana.  The accommodations appear pretty typical by Ghanaian standards which put them below what one would expect at any US hotel.  I say this not because of the subpar nature of the place, but because US building codes in most jurisdictions would not permit occupancy.  For example, the windows do not have glass and the bathrooms do not have sinks.  There are other issues such as lighted exits and dead-end corridors that also would be a problem in most jurisdictions.

Dinner at Aba House is served communally on the upstairs patio.  As is custom in Ghana, only breakfast and dinner are served.  At our first dinner, Tanya and I dined alone with Ellie, who brought us up to date on changes to our tour and nuances of life in Ghana.  Ellie is as older Jewish woman from Boston.  She has owned Aba House for a number of years and splits her time between Ghana and Boston.  Her husband is Ghanaian, but he did not accompany her on this trip.

First up was that our tour had been modified.  We were told that we would not be going to the Larabanga Mosque and Mole National Park because the roads had flooded.  Instead we would be going to a monkey sanctuary and a crater lake.  This was a bit of a disappointment as the mosque had been specifically added at our request.

Ellie then told us that one thing we needed to remember was that everything in Africa was make believe. This phrase would grow in significance throughout the trip.  It was the mantra, the motto, the excuse for much.  Ellie used it to segue into a discussion of why our plumbing only sort of worked.  Our suspicion was that it was also why we could not visit Larabanga.

Another commonality of Ghana was that maintenance was seldom a priority.  Ellie told us that Ghanaian seemed to take pride in their appearance, but not in the appearance of their homes.  Few Ghanaians bothered with ornament or decoration.  This seemed to spill over into maintenance and cleaning.  Cleaning is probably difficult in Ghana as most of the roads are dirt and dust is just a part of life in this arid climate.  Without windows it is difficult to keep at bay.  Maintenance is just simply not done.  In a previous post, the sign at Aba House is shown leaning against the fence and with pealing paint.  This is common.

Air conditioning is also a rarity in Ghana and does not exist at Aba House.  During our stay the climate was comfortable and sleeping was fine with a fan.  It should also be noted that Ghana does not have a public water supply as we do in the US or Europe.  Water is trucked in and stored in large black plastic tanks such as these shown in the photo.  There is also no hot water, so it is best to take showers in the afternoon to benefit from the solar gain.

I am not sure what happens to the sanitary sewer in Ghana, whether at Aba House or elsewhere.  In the foreground of the photo, is a concrete-lined trench. These are seen throughout Ghana, along all roads and at the perimeters of buildings.  These certainly act as storm sewers, but I am not certain that they are the sanitary sewer because they were typically dry and did not stink as much as I would expect them to if  they were being used as sanitary sewers.  My guess is that Ghana must have a system of cesspools in the more metropolitan areas, but I don't know for sure.

Returning to the issue of maintenance, the photos shown on the Aba House website appeared to be dated.  At a minimum, they were taken from the best possible angle and the lighting was perfect.  Here are a few more current photos.

Staying at Aba House is probably reflective of what life is like in the real Ghana.  The experiences here are can not be experienced at the Labadi Beach Hotel or Coco Beach.  The grounds at Aba House are actually slightly removed from the real Ghana.  To get to the real Ghana, you have to walk out of the gate and up the street to the main road -- but you can get there form here.

After our first night, we would leave Aba House for a one week tour of the country.  This would be our first prolonged interaction with Ghanaians.

Ghana -- Initial Impressions

First, a note on Kotoka International Airport:  We had no idea who or what Kotoka was when we arrived.  According to the guide at the Military Museum in Kumasi, Kotoka was a general in the Army.  While among the nation's military elites in the late 1970s, General Kotoka took part in coup.  The Coup was successful, but Kotoka was kidnapped and his body was found a few days later at the airport.  It was then renamed for him.  The guide said that they would like to change it, but it was very extensive to rename an airport.

The photo at the right is the first photo taken on Ghana soil.  The two red shirts are missionaries and there are plenty more where those came from.

I didn't take any other pictures until we arrived at Aba House.  Initially, this was because we were going through customs and trying to navigate the airport.  Once we were out of the airport, I didn't take any because we were too busy looking.  The world outside was vastly different than what we were used to seeing -- I was beginning to understand culture shock.

Kotoka International Airport does not have a jet way.  Flights are unloaded on to the tarmac and passengers are then bused to the the terminal.  This setup is used for smaller flights all over the US, but this the first time I had seen an Airbus A330 handled in this way.  The entrance to the terminal was through a building that looked like a temporary structure from the outside.  Inside, it was decorated to look like a soccer field.  I assumed this was done because of the World Cup that was going on at the time of our visit though the decorating is likely to remain for the next decade.

Attention to detail is not a strong suit in Ghana.  The field was made of what appeared to be inexpensive AstroTurf laid over the concrete tarmac.  It was not glued down as there were numerous wrinkles in the surface.  the signs welcoming us to Ghana were supported by plastic pipe with crudely lettered signs attached with zip ties.  All of this was perfectly adequate but in stark contrast to what would be considered acceptable in the US.

After waiting in line for Customs, Tanya was approved to go through, mine was somewhat trickier.  The Customs officer did not approve of the penmanship on my Visa and thought it could be outdated.  Luckily, I brought the receipt for the Visa as well as the Visa itself and was let in after a stern lecture.  Later I would learn that another woman at the residency had a similar issue relating to her Visa, so it appears that someone in Ghana's Washington embassy has a problem.

A few more random checkpoints and we were out of the terminal and staring into a large crowd of people and having no idea what to do.  At about that time a man walked up to me and called me by name and introduced himself as "Talktrue".  He had come from Aba House and took our bags and led us away from the terminal.

A man approached Talktrue and they started speaking in a language that I did not understand and was surprised to hear as everything I had read was that Ghana was an English Speaking country.  According to the Guidebook, English was taught in all the schools and all the signage was in English, from that we made the leap that English would be spoken among the people.  This was my first opportunity to witness two Ghanaians speaking to one another and they did so in Twi -- by far the most prevalent spoken language between Ghanaians.

Talktrue negotiated our cab fare -- a must in Ghana.  There are no meters, fares are negotiated in advance.  We got into an old rundown cab without air conditioning.  In Ghana, anything from the smallest hatchback to a minivan can be a cab.  The only distinguishing feature is that all four fenders are painted orange.  This one was a sedan of some variety.

After leaving the airport and and making a couple of turns, we were off paved roads.  Nearly all of the roads in Ghana, whether in a City or rural area are dirt.  The typical road will have an open trench on each side constructed out of formed concrete.  The trench is approximately one-foot wide and two-feet deep.  The road surface is red dirt, the color of Georgia.

One of my first impressions of Ghana was the poor air quality in Accra (and later in Kumasi or anywhere except the country side.)  The dust from the roads, the substandard condition of most of the vehicles (many were diesel and it would appear that Ghana does not use low sulfur fuel), and the use of wood, charcoal, or trash as the main cooking fuels all combined to make air quality a concern.  Any time we were in a car my eyes and throat burned.

It was about this time that I saw my first goat -- and then my second, and so on.  Goats and sheep wander freely.  We were told that they all know where they live and come home at night only to go out the next day and forage.  Chickens are the same.  It is very common to chicken, goats, sheep and dogs loose in the City.  It is less common, though not unheard of to see cattle, hogs and cats.  Cattle are generally in herds and in the company of a cowherd.  I only saw one hog in Ghana and it was enjoying a day at the beach.  Cats made themselves pretty scarce.

We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and traffic was not as bad as I had expected.  The whole time we were in Ghana, traffic was never as bad as I had expected.  You see few cars with only a driver.  Most cars are for hire in some way, either a taxi, tro tro or some kind of commercial vehicle or car service.  There is no discernible rush hour and there is always traffic.  The traffic is always heavier than in Kansas City but never as bad as rush hour in Manhattan.  The country lacks infrastructure, so most of the cars are taking a relatively few streets causing congestion.  This coupled with generally poor road conditions and little or no traffic control make situations appear bad.

On the drive to Aba House, we saw many people selling things that they were carrying on their heads in the traditional African way.  These items ranged from basic foods such as peanuts and bananas to bras.  We also saw a number of corn fields, including one on a beach.  The fields were typically small and my guess is that they were planted by squatters based on their odd shape and randomness.

Aba House is located on a dead end street in Nungua named Beach Crescent.  I could find no evidence of this name actually existing.  There are few street signs in Ghana and few addresses.  roads are more frequently named for the places they connect than an arbitrary name assigned by a government entity.  It, like most things in Ghana, had a rundown, weathered look.  By the time we arrived, I felt that once I passed through the gate, the best course of action would be to hunker down and become well read over the next three weeks and never venture outside.

Canceling Tivo

Today was the day I called to cancel Tivo.  The guy asked me, "How do you plan to record all of your favorite programs now?" like it was an important question.  It struck me that so much of what goes on in this world is really unnecessary.

We are well past the point where people work to support life.  How many of us have jobs doing something that actually matters?  Farmers, some doctors and nurses, I guess that you could make the case that some construction workers are necessary.  Not the ones building Walmarts, but the one building water treatment plants.

At this point in our existence we are a civilization of Ipod users.  How many people owe their livelihood to this device or something similar?  Millions of digital music players have been sold enabling people to listen to more music than ever, yet it has decimated the music industry.  Record labels are going out of business and artists are making less from record sales.  This forces them to tour more and make their money from touring, which has been a boon for clubs (recent recession not withstanding).

The other trend that I noticed relates more closely to the Tivo problem.  The reason I canceled Tivo was that I am also canceling Time-Warner and switching to ATT DSL and Dish Network.  This move saves me about $60/month for the first year and $25/month for the second year.  After two years, I suspect I will be switching back for similar discounts.  How many people are employed to switch me, and people like me, from Time-Warner to ATT and back.  We have now been trained to do this kind of thing to provide growth in the economy.

To date, this blog has made 23 cents.  How far removed are we from an economy where people spend their days looking at other people's blogs and clicking on ads to generate revenue for the blogger.  Seems like might be just as well off if people did nothing.

Ghana -- A Preflight Check

I would like to begin with a picture.

This is the last piece of American culture we saw before we boarded our flight for Accra.  Yes, a giant carrot with what appears to be a bean on top.  It can be found adjacent to Gate E16 at Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta.

This undoubtedly says something, though I'm not sure what.  Bad art knows no bounds?  A monument to American excess?  I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque?  Not exactly what I want to remember the homeland by.

We had allowed for a six hour layover which the Airline of Broken Dreams (my pet name for Delta going back many years) whittled to four by being late getting us out of Kansas City -- still plenty of time to get something to eat, get accosted by the power-hungry clerk in the duty-free shop and just hang out and eat jelly beans.

I think we were both excited when we reached Atlanta.  We found our gate and then went to choose our last meal on American soil.  Tanya chose shitty Mexican.  I chose shitty Chinese (an inferior choice as we would later find out when the airline served us shittier Chinese as the in flight meal.)

Here is Tanya standing at the gate.  The smile is genuine.

Our excitement turned to fascination as the gate area began to fill with fellow travelers.  Note:  If you are white and traveling to Africa and not a missionary, you are in a minority.  The missionaries on our flight were all wearing bright red T-shirts to identify themselves.

More interesting than the missionaries were the Ghanaians.  Most of the Ghanaians on the flight were well-dressed, some in more traditional African apparel and others in suits.  A family sat adjacent to us.  They consisted of an elderly grandmother in a wheelchair, and a younger woman who had several young children with her.  The grandmother had an elegant if not regal look to her wearing a green traditional gown -- she commanded respect and had the air of being a formidable presence every where she went.  The younger woman looked to be more assimilated into American society with braided hair and jeans.  She carried the youngest, a boy of about 18 months, in the traditional African way though.

We watched in fascination as the woman lifted the boy onto her hip, while he balanced there she quickly swung her arms around him and slid him onto her back.  While he lay there with her bending over, she picked up a large piece of cloth and draped it over him, brought it around her front and tied it at her breasts.  She then flipped the bottom of the she under his butt and brought it around and tied it at her waste.

Later we would see hundreds over children toted in this manner.  It seemed so easy and comfortable.  Later in the trip when we would see someone selling baby strollers by the side of the road, we wondered who would buy one.  The terrain isn't really conducive to strollers and their traditional method just seemed better.

Overall, the Ghanaians appear to be experts at carrying all manner of things, be it babies on their backs or nearly anything else on their heads.

A Quick Update on Job Hunting

I have now applied for 130 jobs in the past 3+ months.  I have had two in-person interviews and several more phone interviews.  Very few of the jobs have been positions similar to what I have done in the past.  Working in a position closely tied to new construction, makes for tough going at the moment.

The free-fall in residential construction appears to be continuing.  Commercial vacancy rates are in the mid-teens.  That must come down if new construction is to pick up.

I am beginning to think in terms of not returning to the workforce full-time.  I have purchased professional liability insurance and started to move toward marketing my own business.  In the coming weeks I will launch Graham Engineering.  My hope is that it will generate enough income to keep me out of working for the man.

Thoughts leading up to Ghana

Although I had travelled abroad before, it was more than 25 years ago with a high school tour group to Europe -- the culture shock of that trip was minimal.  The hotels were not much different than American hotels, the food about the same.  The biggest difference was that we were usually allowed to drink beer -- the coolest part of the trip for most of us.

In the years since my European travels, I had always planned to travel internationally but hadn't.  Money, family obligations, US company vacation policies all got in the way.  At 43 I had remarried to an artist with a lifelong desire to travel to Africa.  Early on she had told me that she was going to get us to Africa.  As she said, "I've wanted to go to Africa ever since I was 4 years old and told my preschool teacher that my family went every summer."

Tanya set about applying for grants, writing proposals and researching residencies in Africa and was eventually successful.  For my part, I watched my company's fortunes slide further into the abyss to the point where they laid me off.  Until this point, I had maintained that I would go for a week or so of the month long trip as that was all the vacation time I had.  With a layoff and not a lot of prospects on the horizon, I had little excuse not to go all in.

Tanya is an optimist.  She never doubted that she would get us to Africa or that it would change our lives in a positive way.  I've never considered myself a pessimist, but more of a realist or pragmatic.  That may just be how pessimists put a positive spin on their outlook.  For the sake of the story, we will just say that I am a pessimist.  Tanya read and researched exhaustively about Ghana prior to our trip.  My research fell into a few broad categories:  motorcycle tours; black mambas and 23 other varieties of poisonous snakes found in Ghana; obtaining local currencies, cellphone and internet services; and, the required shots and visas.  So maybe I am just pragmatic.

Everyday leading up to our trip Tanya would provide me with a new interesting fact about Ghanaian culture -- a recipe for fufu, or something about the Kente weaving village we would be visiting.  I would point out that black mambas were not actually black at all -- they could be in a variety of colors like "gunmetal gray" and that they were called black mambas because of the colors of their mouths.  Or, that black mambas were one of the fastest species of snake and could move at speeds of up to 15 mph, that thankfully if you were bitten by one, you would die within an hour.

Tanya travelled to New York about a month before our trip to visit her mother.  Her stepfather had set up a dinner with a Ghanaian friend of his and a woman from the Sudan who worked for the UN.  After the dinner, Tanya called excitedly to tell me how much she loved the fufu, didn't care for the chicken and that the woman from the Sudan could get us on as rape counsellors in the Sudan next year.  I responded that that was never mentioned as option on the skills inventories that I took in high school.

During this time we purchased plane tickets, made arrangements with the residency for Asafo lessons, and got our shots and visas.  The only required shot was yellow fever.  Typhoid, polio, hepatitis A and B, MMR and antimalarial drugs were all recommended and were opted for.  Also, meningitis was borderline.  Tanya's doctor gave her the shot , mine did not.  I wanted money in reserve for anti-venom.

I contacted the motorcycle tour company -- the only one in Ghana.  They had gone out of business.  Everyone seemed to think that this was a stroke of luck -- that touring Ghana by motorcycle was insane. I struck out in all attempts at obtaining local currency prior to getting to Ghana -- no banks or foreign exchange bureaus trade in it.  Cell service would have to wait until we got to Ghana.  There really wasn't a very viable option from this side of the Atlantic.  I went to Walgreen's to fill our anti-malarial prescriptions and ended up spending $111 on various supplies ranging from sunscreen to cold packs to neosporin to finger splints.

We arranged for my son and ex-wife to dog sit for our three large, poorly behaved dogs.  We decided that the only way this would work was if we left the dogs at our house and arranged for her to pick them up after we left.  This would make it much harder for her to back out as Caleb (the Doberman) wouldn't be able to countersurf until we were safely on our way to Ghana.

Ghana Beer Ratings

It is actually possible to get quality local beer in Ghana and as I once read, there are no known pathogens that can survive in beer -- drinking it is a healthy alternative.  Most beers are served in 625 ml bottles (roughly 20 ounces) and cost about 4 cedis ($2.80 at the current rate).

My favorites:

1.  Castle Milk Stout.  A mild, dark stout that stacks up well against Stouts from around the world.  Certainly my favorite.  Think Guinness.  This is brewed locally in Cape Coast.  I am not sure if it is the same Castle as in South Africa and elsewhere.

2.  Stone Strong Lager.  Most of the Ghanaian brews are lagers.  This one is note-worthy for its high alcohol content and strong flavor.  I would compare it to a Doppelbock.  Not one of favorite styles, but this one was quite drinkable.

3.  Gulder Lager.  This is owned by Guinness.  Think Harp's.  Not a bad all-purpose brew.  If your worst problem is that a beer equivalent to Harp is the best you can do, you probably don't have much to complain about.

4.  Club Lager.  Think Miller.  It'll do in a pinch.

5.  Star.  I believe this is the most popular beer in the country.  Think Schlitz -- not even the best of the yard beers.

Back from Ghana

Posting from Ghana proved to be difficult.  We are back now and I will begin to gather my thoughts and post them.