Quiz Night

OK, this entry is unashamedly for Unison’s Harrogate Branch members who go to quiz nights at Robert Street. Late one night a couple of weeks ago, Dan sent me a text asking for help. He had been in Accra with the new intake of volunteers. Some of them had been with him to the quiz night at Champs Sports Bar. They had won the quiz and as part of the prize they had been asked to set and host the following week’s quiz. Most of the team had to leave Accra and go to their placements before the next quiz. Hosting therefore fell to Dan, Steve (pictured, asking something obscure on football) and myself. We were assisted by Anne, Dean and Jessie, Sarah’s daughter on the night before she flew back to the UK. I reassured Dan that I had some experience of this type and the idea of asking quiz questions on another continent did appeal.
Champs is an ex-pat bar on the Accra Ring Road. It is very unGhanaian. During the Africa Cup it had hosted the BBC World Service’s Saturday afternoon’s sports programme a couple of times. We were given instructions and expected to bring powerpoint presentations, a film clip, several rounds of questions and music. Steve did sport and current affairs. Dan did the music round and wrestled with a clip of ‘Anchorman’ – two hours before we left Koforidua for Accra he found a continuity error which messed up his questions. I did a round based on people celebrating their birthdays on 21st February including Robert Mugabe and Charlotte Church. Wikipedia has its uses. We also discovered it was UNESCO Mother Language Day which was an excuse to use Alta Vista to translate Beatles song titles into Korean and back again. Some were hard and unfathomable like ‘Silence’ (Something) and ‘Inside living one’ (A Day in the Life) but my favourites were much easier – ‘The strawberry keeps defending forever’ and ‘The superior red pepper, the heart of which is lonely, hits the evil unit’. One round ended with a six way tie, so there had to be a drink off between those six team.
There were no complaints about questions or the marking, we only overran our slot a bit and we had some Windows Vista issues which led to a last minute music round substitution but as hosts we were given free beer for the duration. The next set of new volunteers arrives in September. This time I’ll be waiting for that text from Dan.

A week last Saturday Dan ‘phoned. Agnieszka, one of our volunteers in the Upper East was staying in Accra and had found tickets for the Grand Finale of the Africa Cup. Within 24 hours we were in Accra and on our way to the game. With a largely Ghanaian crowd, the atmosphere was less tense than it would have been had Ghana been playing, but there was a party mood. The Egyptian fans were to our right and before the game started some of them brought a banner round with a thank you message to their Ghanaian hosts. We had seats behind the Cameroon goal for the first half and were in a good position to see the keeper stop the Pharaohs from scoring. In the second half and at the other end of the pitch, he was unable to prevent Egypt from producing the only goal of the match and winning the tournament for a record sixth time. The President of Ghana presented the trophy and there was a final firework display before we left the stadium.
I don’t expect to be writing about football again while I am in Ghana. The tournament saw some excellent matches in some excellent facilities. Ghana, though disappointed not to have won, has much to be proud of in its handling of the event. A week on football fever has died away. George W. Bush has just stepped off Air Force One as I write for a 36 hour visit and talk has begun to return to the other big Ghanaian event of 2008 – the presidential election in its final days. The next Africa Cup will be in Angola in 2010. I hope it will not be overshadowed, later in the year when South Africa hosts the first World Cup to be held in Africa.

What I’m eating

The short answer to this is “not enough”, as I’ve certainly lost some weight since I arrived. (VSO note that generally male volunteers lose weight while the females gain). I will save what Ghanaians eat and eating out for another day, suffice to say, what I generally prepare bears no little relation to what my neighbours will be eating.

I am fortunate in that Koforidua offers a wide range of foodstuffs in its markets and shops. In Accra almost everything is available – at a price. Ho benefits from being near the Togolese border and sees some fruit and vegetables that we don’t. In the north, the variety is poorer although, from what I saw of it, Tamale does pretty well.

The market in Koforidua is large. Tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, cabbage, green beans, carrots, cucumber, green peppers, chilli peppers and spring onions are easily found and instantly recognisable. Potatoes can often be found in small (relatively) expensive quantities. Cauliflowers and aubergines are very rare indeed but huge avocadoes are available from time to time. Less familiar items are garden eggs (yellowish, auberginish and nt surprisingly egg-shaped), ochre, cocoa yam leaves (large limp leaves, not unlike spinach), cassava, plaintain and yam. Plantain is like a large banana but fried or boiled and used as a vegetable. Yam looks like a small wooden log. Once cooked it’s like a very starchy, very bland potato. With suitable flavouring it makes a fine potato substitute and costs a lot less than the real thing. Cassava is similar to yam.

There are oranges, bananas (smaller than those at home, but with a good taste), pineapples, coconuts, (lumpy) lemons, papaya and (seasonally) mangoes. Apples are available but are expensive as they are imported. They tend to sold on the roadside in packs rather than in the market. Lemons and oranges are both green.

Easily obtainable items in shops include canned fish (mackerel, sardines, tuna), corned beef, canned hot dogs and other meat but never pork based (I’ve managed to avoid the chicken or beef luncheon meat so far and the small tins marked canned mutton), baked beans, tomato paste, jam, pasta, rice, cream cracker type biscuits, porridge oats and vegetable oil.

Frozen meat and fish can be purchased from cold stores (haven’t done this yet) and, of course, live poultry and the odd goat is always available.

To add some further variety, there are the petrol station shops. Depending on what stock has come their way, they may offer Cadbury’s chocolate, Kit-Kats (fortunately the shops are air conditioned, British chocolate does not fare well in tropical Africa), canned sweet corn, kidney beans, mayonnaise, Heinz vegetable salad, breakfast cereals, cheese, butter and foreign biscuits (we have recently found a supply of Dutch spiced spekulaas biscuits and are fairly rapidly getting through the stock).

To get much more, really needs a trip to Accra. There is a supermarket with a vast range of imported and breathtakingly priced produce near the VSO office and Shoprite, a South African chain has just opened its first branch in Ghana, on the Koforidua side of town. For supplements to local goods like spices, sauces, Coleman’s mustard and European style bakeries Accra is fine, but it is not practical or affordable for a weekly shop.

For breakfast I alternate between porridge and bread fried in egg. The porridge is Quaker oats bought in a resealable tin. The local ant population has a knack of finding its way through anything short of a hermetic seal. Fresh or indeed liquid milk of any kind is almost unheard of in Ghana. Evaporated milk from Ideal or other brands is used in hot drinks and after that its dried milk. I use the dried which is fine for cooking and just add a heaped dessert spoon to the porridge as I’m making it. According to the tin it is packed with vitamins and apparently it can be turned into yoghurt. Eggs are sold individually in the market, current price 12 pesewas each. Bread is widely available and tends to be sweeter than at home. This is not so good for sandwiches but is not a problem for toast or frying in egg. I drink hot chocolate, usually Milo, rather than instant coffee or tea. At the weekend I have ground coffee from Accra which I brew in a small metal pan and pour out through a small sieve.

Lunch tends to be something picked up in town or a meal at the Ghana Commercial Bank’s restaurant with Dan.

In the evenings I often have pasta with sauce. Tuna, olives (a jar from Accra), tomatoes, garlic, onions or a Bolognese made with corned beef (better than it sounds). Chilli is an option (also corned beef based). Sometimes I have something cold with tomatoes and cucumber and a rice or pasta salad. I have made risotto with canned mushrooms. There is a range of very good stock cubes, particularly the Maggi ones. Soups tend to work well - thick vegetable ones with mashed yam to give extra body or tomato and dried bean. Just what you need on these cold, 20oC+ February nights! Fish cakes or corned beef hash with yam are good. I only have gas rings and no oven, but the fridge/ freezer means that if I make a large quantity I can freeze part for another day. I don’t often have dessert. There is always fruit and biscuits.

Tonight I’m going to see what I can do with South African dried soya mince. It says its lamb biryani flavour.

End of the ‘Host and Win’ Dream

Last Thursday afternoon the sky darkened earlier than normal and Koforidua saw its first rain in a couple of weeks. The weather conditions interrupted the power supply and the back up generator at the Mobil 2 spot kept dying. These were the circumstances in which we watched the Black Stars’ semi-final encounter with the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon. By the end of the first half the mains power had returned and the TV interruptions stopped, but Ghana’s fortunes could not be restored so easily. With the absence of a couple of key players, including suspended captain, Mensah, some debateable refereeing and against a determined performance from Cameroon, the Black Stars found themselves ejected from the competition. On this occasion the Cameroonian Lions were indeed indomitable. On the final whistle the group watching at Mobil 2 rapidly melted away. Despite a huge disappointment, the fans in town (ie the entire population) were stoic in defeat. We were in a taxi a little later and the driver was matter of fact about the unfortunate circumstances of Ghana’s final match in the Africa Cup. There was no blame. All the Black Stars had to console themselves with was a victory in the third place play off against Cote d’Ivoire in Kumasi on Saturday, ironically the fixture the Ghanaian press had been predicting as the final.

Not a proper entry this week, as time has gone rather quicker than expected. Instead, in celebration of Ghana's quarter-final victory over 'local' rivals Nigeria, a couple more Africa Cup pictures.

Africa Cup - The Opening Matches

Ghana has made it through the first round with a victory in each game. Top of group A, they now face Nigeria in the quarter finals on Sunday. I have seen each of Ghana’s three opening matches in different circumstances. I watched the first game against Guinea on TV at my landlord’s house across the compound. These were definitely the most civilised surroundings. I watched with his two boys and was plied with fruit juice and biscuits. All the terrestrial channels are showing the games live. For the first half of the tournament there are games every night so there is really no escape. Choice of channel you watch tends to depend on which has the best reception rather than the best coverage.
I watched the second game against Namibia at the Total 1 bar or ‘spot’ in the centre of Koforidua about 20 metres from my day time office window. The larger petrol stations in Ghana often have their own spots. There are three Total stations here, hence the numbering. I sat with a colleague from work. Dan would have been there too, but he reluctantly decided to go home, having discovered a large cockroach in his house and deciding he did not want to be cohabiting with any of its friends for any longer than necessary. Although this was a victory for Ghana it was not their finest 90 minutes. Fortunately, the only goal of the match came just before half time giving cause for much flag waving, dancing, singing, horn blowing, music and general excitement during the interval. This continued at the end of the match.
As previously mentioned I was in Accra for the Morocco fixture. I was in a row of seven VSO volunteers. The refurbished stadium is very impressive. We had good seats near the centre line opposite the main stand. We could see the Ghana coach LeRoy, opposite standing in his trade mark arms folded position, but the running track around the pitch puts some distance between spectator and player. Fortunately Essien, wears yellow boots and is easy to spot. The stadium was nearly full and the crowd was in cheerful mood. If there were Moroccan fans present, we could not see them. We were in more expensive seats (about £7.50) which meant that there were a lot of non-Ghanaians around us. I felt sorry for the Ghanaian sitting next to me as he was sandwiched between white people.
Although Ghana was top of the group before the game, depending on the other group game being played simultaneously down the coast in Sekondi, it was still possible for them not to proceed to the next round. Morocco needed to win to stay in the tournament. By all accounts, this was the best game Ghana has played in the tournament to this point. Ghana scored twice in the first half and Morocco was unable to recover from this.
It is unlikely I will see any more of the games first hand. Demand for tickets to the later rounds will be high and the arrangements for distributing tickets have come under some criticism in the Ghanaian press.

Bunso Arboretum

On Saturday morning I took a tro-tro westward from Koforidua for about an hour. It left the main road to Kumasi at Tafo and a couple of kilometres further on, it passed the entrance to Bunso Arboretum. Like the botanical gardens in Aburi, it was marked with an avenue of tall palm trees. I asked the mate to stop and I walked back to the arboretum. The back road was not busy and I was immediately struck by how peaceful the place was. To the right was a small wooden building and on the veranda I found Ben (26), the guide and Philip who managed the guesthouse. I later found this was two-thirds of the park’s staff. The third man was a Seventh Day Adventist and therefore understandably unavailable.

After a chat, Ben took me on a walking tour. We wandered through the trees for a couple of hours while Ben told me something about them and their various uses. It was fascinating and I only wish I was able to remember half of what he said. Early on we found an unusual type of cherry tree which had produced a couple of fruit. Ben picked one, washed it in bottled water and passed it to me to try. It was vertically ridged and looked like a tiny tomato but tasted good. We then moved on to a bush with small capsule shaped, radish coloured berries. Ben peeled an orange he had brought and gave me a quarter to eat. He asked me how it tasted and I said it was fine but a little sharp. He invited me to suck the flesh from a couple of the red berries and wait for four minutes. I then ate the remainder of the orange. Because of the berries, it tasted a lot sweeter. Ben explained that these berries had been used to make very bitter medicines, like those created from tree bark, more palatable. Sadly, although an excellent natural sweetener, also suitable for diabetics, there was no interest in using these berries commercially in Ghana. There had been some overseas interest but it not amounted to anything yet. This seemed to me particularly strange with Ghana’s cocoa research institute only five minutes drive away. (So far it has only diversified into cashews.)

We moved on to a tree with very large buttressing roots at its base. Ben demonstrated the alarm that could be raised by striking the roots with a large stick. They produced a very satisfactory booming sound. The gaps between the roots also provided sufficient shelter for his ancestors to live in. All the time we were walking we were surrounded by flittering butterflies. Ben said that there was an unusually large number this year and that a visitor that morning reckoned there could easily be 500 species present. Unfortunately they were particularly energetic and did not want to sit still and be photographed. We moved on to a tall tree from which dangled lengthy fronds some of which had reached the ground and burrowed in to become routes. This plant, monstera had a symbiotic relationship with the host tree but unlike a parasite did not draw from the tree. It just used the tree for accommodation. The fronds grew very fast and Ben happily demonstrated their strength by hoisting himself up and swinging his 70 kilo weight from them. We returned to the visitor centre via the hill top guesthouse. It was set in a secluded opening in the tropical vegetation and enjoying good views of the surrounding scenery.

Although the visitor book showed a flow of visitors into the place, it was clearly a very modest trickle. The place has no publicity budget and no website. It receives a good entry in Bradt – the only comprehensive English language guide to Ghana - and is briefly listed in a Ghana Tourist Board leaflet for the whole of Ghana. It is situated only 3 kilometres from the Linda Dor Service Station on the main road from Accra to Kumasi and the north and easily accessible by car. The guesthouse was reasonably priced and had electricity and running water but could provide no food. The whole place is sadly one of many missed opportunities in Ghana. The potential there is huge.