Teaching in GhanaTeaching in Ghanahis blog details our day-to-day lives, thoughts and ideas, and observations and challenges during our year at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, West Africa. If you are planning an extended trip, a semester abroad, or are just curious about life Articles
Day trip to Lomé
2007-12-07 13:50:00 Stephen?s department organized a trip to take everyone to Lomé, Togo for a day trip. I had mentioned I really wanted to see more of Africa when we first arrived, and they had spent the semester organizing this trip for us (e.g. arranging a letter of introduction from the Togolese embassy to facilitate our ... More About: Travel , Events , Photos , Author , Trip
The car culture
2007-12-06 13:21:00 I have talked before about the number of cars that are imported here, and I will now attempt to give a more thorough analysis of the car culture here. Much to my surprise, owning a car here is almost as important as owning a car in Canada and the U.S. There is little ... More About: Ideas , Culture , Author , Terri
Zimbabwe and Mugabe
2007-12-06 13:20:00 It has been very interesting getting an African perspective on Robert Mugabe and the events in progress in Zimbabwe . To say the least, he is not a villain in Africa. There are strong and interesting arguments that suggest that the response of the West (e.g. economic sanctions) is just a continuation of previous ... More About: Ideas , Author , Stephen
Losing my marbles
2007-12-05 15:20:00 The welders kicked my marbles down the hill this morning when they attached the part of the motor with the wiring to the part of the steel drum that should spin. I had to ask them how much wiring they were going to give me since the wires would wrap themselves around the apparatus while ... More About: Author , Terri , Marbles
Excess labour == low margins
2007-12-05 15:17:00 Terri talked earlier about how there is excess labour (aka high unemployment) in Ghana. She gave some examples of how you can get services performed for very low prices, but the full extent of the pressure it causes on margins is just starting to seep in. Allow me to give an example. Our friends who run ... More About: Ideas , Travel , Labour , Author , Expenses
Discipline
2007-12-03 12:14:00 As I was leaving the school after a morning class, I couldn?t help but wonder why there were students cutting the lawns and weeding the flower beds. I asked a girl with a hoe in hand and she told me they were being punished. The class had colluded and lied about something and when the ... More About: Teaching , Discipline , Author , Terri , Highschool
A surreal life
2007-12-03 12:01:00 Our trip to Africa is an opportunity to see a different part of the world, but it is definitely a weird perspective that we get in many ways. We are living on UCC campus in the lecturers village. Our chalets are on the edge of a sprawling residential area where comfortably sized and well-spaced bungalows ... More About: Life , Travel , Author , Surreal , Surreal Life
The other side of the slave trade
2007-12-02 14:08:00 I love talking to people who have strong oral traditions. They seem to know so much more about their ancestry than I can ever imagine. A friend of mine was telling me a bit about his ancestry and his mother?s family accumulated a large amount of wealth from the trading of slaves. In fact, one ... More About: Ideas , Trade , Author , Side , Terri
Reading food labels
2007-12-02 12:58:00 I don’t know why I bother, but some habits die hard. I still read all the food packages to see what they’re made of and what the nutritional content is. Invariably, it’s bad — lots of palm oil and lots of saturated fats. The only product I’ve found that isn’t made with ... More About: Travel , Medical , Food , Reading , Labels
Being more Canadian
2007-12-01 12:10:00 As Clare and Stephen pointed out, travelling makes you more Canadian . After spending nearly 4 months in Ghana now, I see a lot of parallels between the two countries and things that Canada needs to do to improve on the world stage as well. Part of Ghana?s economic problem is that it is ... More About: Ideas , Author , Terri , Adia
Back to the internet age
2007-12-01 12:06:00 Its been about four full weeks since UCC’s satellite dish made a permanent exit. UCC has suffered a complete internet blackout for since then, and it has turned me into an internet vagabond…carrying my laptop to whatever locale with I think I can find an ether cable. It is amazing how much internet access becomes ... More About: Internet , University , Teaching , Author , Back
This is Africa? (my turn)
2007-11-30 16:56:00 We had a great trip to Accra with some friends. Other than the traffic (which was horrendous), the trip was fantastic. We went to a shop that caters to foreigners to get my cheese fix again. The prices were outrageous. A box of ?Special K? that would be about $4 in Canada sold for roughly ... More About: Ideas , Travel , Africa , Author , Expenses
A trip to anywhere in the world
2007-11-30 16:55:00 Yesterday, we went with some friends to Accra. We stopped by the new Accra Mall…or is it just “the mall” because does it really matter where it is? I have been told that the Monroeville Mall outside Pittsburgh, USA is (in)famous for being the first suburban mall in the world. Other than being the first, I’m ... More About: Travel , Events , World , Author , The World
Difficult Terri
2007-11-29 13:04:00 When I checked in on the welders again, my 50cm diameter drum got turned into a 50cm circumference drum. The excuse? There was a ?calculation? that needed to get done and it didn?t happen correctly. Of course it?s nobody?s fault because the ?boss? was away, and so and so didn?t know what ... More About: Author , Terri , Diff
Noises at night
2007-11-29 12:58:00 There are a lot of different noises at night, and you’ll hear them all because its normal to sleep with the windows wide open. Outside of the church services which can go past midnight and start before 6am, there is of course the local wild life. Above the background buzz of squeaking insects, ... More About: Travel , Night , Author , Stephen
Project update
2007-11-28 16:58:00 I?m starting to get really frustrated at the pace of my projects here. Patience is clearly a virtue that I don?t have. Life moves at such a slow pace that I?m going loco. Land negotiations have taken a very long time ? I?ve heard sometimes it can take over a year. I?m just trying to ... More About: Project , Author , Update , Terri
Help, we?re melting! (November weather)
2007-11-28 16:56:00 The relative humidity went down this month…because the temperature went up! However, that temperature increase did have some interesting effects on the weather overall — morning showers instead of evening down pours (although it hasn’t rained at all during the last half month or so), several comfortable cloudy days, but several unbearably stuffy and steamy ... More About: Weather , Travel , Author , Stephen , November
I miss snow
2007-11-27 13:37:00 Word from home is that the first snowfall has already hit the ground a week or so ago. The changing seasons are always a good indicator of time. The biggest one for me has always been the bright orange and red maple leaves hitting the ground ? more than anything else, that tells ... More About: Weather , Travel , Author , Snow , Miss
I wish I could stay up all night?
2007-11-27 13:34:00 In Ghana, when its dark, its dark. There are very few street lights around campus, and the dirt road to our chalet is not one of the lit areas of campus. Terri and I have walked home a few times in the dark, and it has been darn hard to see the ruts ... More About: Travel , Night , Author , Stay , Stephen
Supply Chain Management
2007-11-26 16:37:00 The supply chain management here is nothing like the Wal-mart precision that we often get in Canada. When something is low, chances are, it already has been ordered from the warehouse (with the exception of on-special products). Here, even the best of shops have problems keeping consistent stock on their shelves. When we ask for ... More About: Travel , Management , Author , Supply Chain , Chain
The case of the expanding underwear
2007-11-26 16:33:00 Terri and I have a problem…our underwear doesn’t fit anymore. I know that clothes shrink in the dryer, but I’ve never had them re-expand before. Here, everything is line dried, and I think its allowing our underwear to re-expand. Oh, you should probably know that Terri and I buy underwear one-size larger, and the first ... More About: Travel , Clothes , Author , Case , Underwear
Time isn?t money
2007-11-25 06:00:00 I always thought time was money. When I get back to Canada, time will probably yet again equal money, but in Ghana, time isn?t at all treated like a commodity. It is frustrating at times because functions that are supposed to begin at certain times are invariably late. In Canada, we have ... More About: Ideas , Money , Time , Teaching , Author
Electricity and plugs
2007-11-24 15:38:00 Ghana (and I assume large parts of Africa) uses 220V at 50Hz. They also use these monstrous plugs — they are invariably almost an inch thick and you can only fit four across a normal length power bar that would handle 6-7 North American plugs. I don’t think the “flat plug” aesthetic would ... More About: Travel , Photos , Electricity , Author , Stephen
School Uniforms
2007-11-24 11:45:00 One thing I totally admire about the education system here in Ghana is the policy towards school uniforms and haircuts. Girls of school age all have the same short hair style. It does two things. 1) it makes them easier to identify in case they are skipping lectures, and 2) because there ... More About: Teaching , School , Author , Terri , Uniforms
Projects or Exams?
2007-11-23 10:35:00 I am trying to figure out what I should base my self-evaluation on — the projects or the exams? The projects were quite impressive overall. All of them ran, most were respectably ambitious, and even the least of the least demonstrated some amount of learning and programming. I invited a recent graduate ... More About: Projects , University , Teaching , Exams , Author
The zoo, the market, and the foreigners
2007-11-23 00:02:00 One of the professors organized a trip for all the foreigners to go to Kumasi (Ghana?s historic capital) for a day trip. We started with a trip to the zoo. The zoo housed some beautiful animals but I?m sorry to say I was very sad at the sight of many of them. ... More About: Travel , Events , Photos , Market , Author
Living at the top of the hill
2007-11-22 17:37:00 There are a lot of advantages and disadvantages to living at the top of the hill. The primary advantage is that sewage flows downhill. In general, we live in ignorant bliss to the fact that there is an open sewer behind our chalet. Our drains are on the downhill side of the chalet, so there ... More About: Living , Travel , Author , Hill , Stephen
Eating customs
2007-11-21 15:51:00 One of the great things about travelling is learning about the eating customs of others. Eating is something everybody must do, yet how and what we eat can vary so much. In Asian countries, the chopstick is the utensil of choice while European descended nations of course use knives and forks. In Ghana, the utensil ... More About: Travel , Food , Author , Terri
Doing research
2007-11-21 15:35:00 It’s hard to do research in Africa. I was working on several papers with colleagues around the world before I came here, and I just got one submitted and the slides for another prepared. It hasn’t been easy… Communication requires email, email requires the internet, and the internet requires electricity (and someone to reboot the server ... More About: Research , University , Teaching , Author , Stephen
The 200 body mortuary
More articles from this author:2007-11-20 16:55:00 I wasn?t sure whether I found the billboard advert for a 200 person mortuary funny or morbid. For sure it is different and I couldn?t figure out why you would need a 200 person mortuary, let alone advertise it. What we have noticed though is that funerals are a very big deal around here. Almost ... More About: Ideas , Body , Author , Terri , Mort 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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