The everyday sights of Ghana - stealthily photographed during a festival

Ghanaians are not crazy about having their pictures taken (except for children, who are really really crazy about it). Understandable, I wouldn't really be into a foreigner taking a picture of my carrying my groceries home or at work. However, it makes it nearly impossible to take pictures of the cool things I see all day, everyday. Luckily, this weekend we went to the a festival in Cape Coast (another post on that to follow) and everyone had a camera, so I could photograph some exciting everyday stuff to
give people a good idea of day-to-day Ghana.






First. Signs. Ghanaians are very religious. Consequently, almost all their shop names refer to God, Jesus, Allah, or Bible verses. Usually, like in the case of God Gives Electronics, these are hilarious. And they are everywhere. Selling stuff is the main way to make some money here, so EVERYONE does it.





Some people have shops, but many just carry things on theirs heads and walk around. Doing that with pillows is pretty weird, though, mostly its little stuff that you might want on the go, like food:

This last picture is of a delicious treat called a boflo. It's like a cross between a donut and a roll and I love them.

Another popular thing to buy off someone's head is ice cream!




The ice cream here is really good and there is rarely a time when I don't want some. These Fan ice creams come in a little pouch. You bite the corner and squeeze it out and it's only 60 pesewas (40 cents).

All these things are sold and stoplights and in heavy traffic, so it's a frequent occurrence on the tro-tro or in a car to hand people money out the window and get some water or and ice cream in the middle of traffic. It's actually gonna be super weird when I go home and am wandering around downtown and have to actually go and search for food or water instead of having someone walk up to me with it.

Speaking of, here is how we buy water:




A sachet of water is 5-10 pesewas (depending on where you are and whether you get Obruni price or Ghanaian price). It's 500 mL and clean, and frequently cold, because the people who carry them usually have a frozen water bottle in there with the sachets. Like the ice cream, you need to bite a corner of the plastic bag and squeeze the water out.

Other stuff:


So this is how women in Ghana carry their kids (especially good because they are usually out working). Little kids and women having trouble conceiving wear dolls like this as well.


These are the gutters, or "Obruni traps" as my friend who fell in one and cut her leg open calls them. This one is actually very nice and clean, as are most of the ones on campus. In major markets, though, they are a death trap, filled with filthy liquid and a thousand plastic bags with mysterious contents (lemme tell you though, many of them are poop - no toilets at the market and vendors are there all day). Sometimes they are covered with boards or cement or dirt, but they are often open because those things crack. What can ya do?



So most cabs and tro-tros have religious and inspirations stickers like this on the back and sides of them. This one is my favorite so far.

And that's some everyday sights in Ghana!