My 2nd & 3rd week.. to be continued :)

My 2nd & 3rd week..to be continued

Sitting in the office at work, trying to summarise all what has happened in last two weeks before 6pm, when the “lights off” (how ppl here call the time without electricity) will come again.

EXPERIENCING GHANAIAN GUTTERS.. TASTE OF AFRICA DIFFERENTLY
Yesterday, the time has come and I have experienced my first fall into the gutter. Along the most of the Ghanaian streets there are gutters. Approximately one meter deep, full of weirdest liquids you don`t really wish to inspect closely. Majority of them are uncovered and stinky. As the time goes by you get used to all the different smells in Africa. After few days/weeks (depends on how sensitive your nose is J) you don`t realize it anymore. Just like with the gutters! And in that very moment yesterday in the evening, when I haven`t realized it anymore, I have fallen into my first gutter. So today at work I rather walk like an old lady, careful of every step I take, well, because it hurts.. Actually I was lucky, because “my gutter” was almost empty, with minimum water on the bottom. One Ghanaian guy helped me to find my slipper inside it and in a meanwhile my friend Ana recollected me from the street.. Well, typical obroni experience from Ghana, rather painful though.. I`m sure I`ll be extremely careful for upcoming couple of weeks again with every step I take.. My friend Stevan, Serbian trainee here in Ghana described it as “always keep one eye on the street watching the gutters”. I`ll definitely stick to it from now on!

AFRICAN HAIR
- Yeah yeah, I keep on discovering! Thought majority of African men have extremely short hair (few millimeters), they are very keen on brushing them. Their brush reminds me a bit on our brush to clean the nails back home, no offense guys, please..
- in the shops you can buy special pomade to make your hair black. Also a newer version was launched saying even “Super black”. Can anyone tell me how can African black hair become more black? :)

EEE, CHARLIE!!!!
In Ghana everyone is Charlie.. “Eee Charlie!” is difficult to translate, it`s something like “You, dude!”. People use it hundred times a day, no matter if you`re girl or boy, though it seems that boys like to use it more. Of course I`m using it already, too.. You can basically tell it to everyone who is on the same “level” just like you, also to the taxi drivers, sellers in the shops. Everyone but your boss ;)

FOOD.. KEEP ON TASTING
- last week I`ve tasted my first COCONUT MILK from the real fresh coco.. Nobody told me it doesn`t taste like the Bounty biscuit. It wasn`t sweet :( People say it depends on the coconut, maybe next time I`ll be more lucky..
- another “for the first time” was with SUGAR CANE. We bought it from the car (getting used to the window shopping system ;)) and after careful observation of eating technique of my colleague (she really wondered why do I stare so much while she`s eating a “normal” sugar cane), I`ve picked up the strategy and started to chew myself. Hmm, sweet sweeeeet! If u`ll have a chance, try it, it`s really nice & tasty
- AFRICAN HONEY… is black! And tastes totally different from ours back home. I`m a honey lover back in Slovakia, so I can`t really imagine not to eat honey also here. The taste is sweet, but seems to me much more aromatic. Anyways, it`s nice :)
- FRUITS – Africans are very surprised to find out that back home we have pineapples, mangoes or bananas only in the supermarkets, but not in the garden :)
- MILK – is rather expensive here, I`ve seen Ghanaians using it for the tea only, though this is something I can`t give up consuming, so I buy 2-3 boxes a week
- I consume so much milk especially because cheese here is extremely expensive and also you won`t find shelves full of yogurts like back in Europe. So far I`ve seen only something like yogurts milks, stored out of the fridge, I need to do more investigation in this area. For an average Slovak person consuming at least few slides of cheese and one yogurts a day it`s difficult.. Well, living diversity ;)

TOP 20 IN GHANAIAN SHOPS
- based on my 3 week`s observation I`ve decided to list 20 MOST COMMON THINGS you can buy in the average Ghanaian shop. Here we go: water (bags, bottles), Malta (drink made of malt produced by Guiness – extremely popular here, though it`s very healthy doesn`t taste very good to me.. Another thing requires some time to get used to..), Coca Cola (glass bottles or cans), milk (in small cans, if you search carefully you can find the ones in the boxes, too), rice (huge packages of Asian rice), Milo (chocolate milk – chilled in cans or as a powder in the bags), eggs (stored outside, no fridge), toilet paper, black tea (Lipton is very popular here, hardly you get another brand), sugar, salt, tuna fish (in cans, rather expensive), tomato sauce (in cans, strong concentrate - needs to be mixed with water before cooking), washing powder (in mini packages), biscuits (mostly from Arabic countries), juices, matches & candles & batteries (electricity..) and of course bread (butter bread, honey bread, sugar bread, etc.. Tastes all rather the same to me, it`s sweet and puffy)

Well, it`s already 5:58pm and surely you remember that Ghanaians are very punctual in switching off the electricity, so for today, enjoy the reading and stay tuned for more :)