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Exposure to new culture eye opening
Aug 17, 2007 By: By Danielle Milley(Previously published in October 2005)
DURHAM -- The food, the language and mud huts -- Mark Simmons has been busy the past two months taking in the culture of Ghana.
Since arriving in the capital of Accra for his volunteer placement at the West African AIDS Foundation (WAAF) at the end of September, the Courtice resident has been making new friends, travelling to new places and learning new things.
Although English is the official language, Mr. Simmons has found a few Ghanaians who don’t speak any English and that many prefer their native dialect.
"I have learned a few words that I use on a regular basis and a lot of Ghanaians are quite pleased if I just say a word or two in Twi (one of the African languages used in Ghana)," he said in an interview by e-mail. "I think they feel it shows that I have respect for their culture."
Mr. Simmons has picked up the names of some traditional Ghanaian dishes, including his favourites.
"Traditional Ghanaian food is very different from anything I’ve eaten before, but I really enjoy it," he said. "Banku and okra stew is probably my least favourite. Ampesi with spinach stew and ground nut soup are the foods that I’ll probably miss most when I return to Canada."
In addition to trying different foods, Mr. Simmons has been able to try a different way of eating.
"Probably the most interesting aspect of eating in Ghana is that food is traditionally eaten without utensils, using only the fingers of your right hand. This includes the soups and stews, which you scoop up using the fufu, banku or ampesi or with your fingers," he said. "It was a little messy at first, but I’m starting to get the hang of it."
Mr. Simmons applied to become a volunteer through Canadian Crossroads International and was matched up with WAAF where he is setting up a computer network and doing other IT work. It is a five-month placement.
Janet Roth, a Claremont resident, had been to Ghana twice before she left Oct. 26 for another month there. The Rouge Valley Health System nurse got involved doing clinic work there through Project Reach Out, a charity that provides health care to children around the world.
She works in more rural areas than Mr. Simmons, but shares similar experiences. In an interview before she left, she talked about many things including the culture.
"I love the food," she said, noting rice is a staple in the Ghanaian diet.
Her favourites are wacchi, which is rice with onion and black eyed peas, and jalafras, which is rice with tomato, chicken and spices.
She didn’t pick up the African languages that easily either.
"It’s still hard to get my tongue around," she said. "They love it if you say anything."
The bulk of Ms. Roth’s stays have been in Tema, 40 minutes north of Ghana. She said there is more poverty in the north.
"You still see women walking with buckets of water to the stream," she said, adding people live more in mud huts here while the south is more 'citified.
"It was a little overwhelming. You think you’re prepared, but I don’t think you can be prepared for the extreme poverty until you see it," Ms. Roth said. "When they say they have nothing, they mean nothing."
Although there are many memories and images she carries with her from her trips, one stands out in particular.
"I still remember with my first visit seeing this garbage pile and a child, who was about 10 years old, rooting through it and a pig rooting through the same pile," she said. "I don’t think I’ll ever forget it."
Through Mr. Simmons weekend ventures out of Accra, he’s seen sights that have opened his eyes too.
He said the poorer neighbourhoods are mostly filled with huts (20-by-20 feet) or shacks, made either with wood and tin or mud and reeds. Fisherman or refugees from Liberia and other nearby countries generally live in them.
"When I see those shacks it’s hard for me to not feel sorry for the people living inside, but one Ghanaian I talked to pointed out that some of those people may be perfectly happy with the home they’re living in," he said. "And there was a time when my own idea of happiness and freedom was living in a small hut on a beach, so I have to agree with her."
His most memorable trip so far was to Cape Coast and its slave castle, which is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is one of a few dozen slave castles along Ghana’s coastline, and has three dungeons where thousands of men were kept and often died while waiting to be shipped away from their homeland.
"It was quite haunting to stand in the dungeons where thousands of human beings had been imprisoned just a couple of centuries before," Mr. Simmons said. "Most chilling was walking through ‘The Door of No Return,’ an exit from the castle that leads onto the beach. Once a slave walked through the door they boarded a ship and were taken to their new owners, never to return to Africa again."
