I went to Accra twice this past weekend. That adds up to about at least 8 hours of suffocating on the tro tro and three hours in taxis…suffocating all the way from thick smog and diesel exhaust fumes. I hadn’t realized how polluted the air in the valley was until I went back after spending three weeks breathing fresh, clean air in the mountains. I had inaccurately assumed the gray cloud hovering over the valley was just dust or something but I was sadly mistaken. It is so thick in some areas that I had a headache and Alanna said her chest was hurting. I passed by the Environmental Protection Agency and it looked like no one even worked there. I asked around and people say that the use of automobiles has increased so rapidly that they have not been able to enforce any strict air quality regulations or control the number of cars on the road. And on top of this Diesel is used because it’s cheap but it’s less refined. While I’m on the topic of pollution…trash is all over the ground and the landfills are always on fire, I guess this is done on purpose to try and eliminate some of the waste. Basically, I feel the whole Waste Management System needs to be revamped. I never saw any landfills in Costa Rica but the amount of trash in the streets and in gutters and streams was about the same. I’m assuming that most developing countries are struggling with these same issues. Tackling pollution issues should be on every government’s list of top priorities. I don’t understand how they can’t see that being proactive about protecting the environment will consequently have positive effects on the economy, by creating new jobs and trades, and on public health. Those are like three most important aspects of life on earth for crying out loud. I talked to Alfred and he explained that they have the plans on paper but it is difficult to move forward with many sustainability efforts due to lack of funding. So, many NGOs have been stepping in to help with projects such as making drinking water reservoirs for rural communities.
On a lighter note, I’ve been working on my Ghanaian/Nigerian accent; it’s coming along quite nicely!
There are other undergrads from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, who are working at the centre this summer, they are really cool and funny (at least the parts of their conversations that they say in English)….I really need to learn some more Twi. I didn’t expect for people to speak so much Twi, I thought they would speak English mostly…but I was mistaken.
I found out that some tribes in Ghana eat cat meat and others eat dog meat… crazy stuff. Vincent offered to take me to eat some cat but luckily I’m a vegetarian lol, so I respectfully declined.
Last Thursday, Sami took us to the bead market in Kofuridua. It was great, I spent more than I wanted to and there is still so much more that I want!! I have this whole African Couture Jewelry Line in mind…a mixture of crystals and traditional African beads, I am so excited!
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ewww cat meat and dog meat? na wa o. ( do they say that in ghana? LOL) i know they speak pigin in ghana and from the ghanian music i have, it is very much like what they speak in Naija. do you hear a lot of pigin being spoken, or is it mostly Twi?
ReplyDeleteand about the polution- same in Nigeria. I didn't experience much air polution, b/c Abuja is a very developed bubble with in Nigeria. But in the village, there is so much plastic waste. While I was there, I'm sure you can imagine how many bottles of water drank in the 2 weeks I was there- where do you think it all went?
They speak pigin all the time. It's difficult to learn tho because it's not a real language, so there is no set structure. And ppl put o after words and phrases but I haven't heard na wa o.
ReplyDeleteGirl, i don't even know, your water bottles are probably buried in a landfill somewhere!