A Few Differences

Returning to West Africa for a second term has certainly been easier than it was arriving the first time around.  Many of the systems and shortcuts I learned during my first term have translated well to our new country.  For example, instead of eating scrambled eggs and macaroni nearly every day while I figured out how to produce meals, we settled right into some sort of normal.

Despite these advantages, I am still finding little differences that I’m learning to navigate in our new host country.  I think it might be a bit like living in French-Speaking Canada instead of America.  Many things are very similar, but there are enough differences to make you go, “OHHHH, that’s different!” every now and then.  I’m sure there are many factors that contribute to the differences and the way the cultures have developed, but some include the fact that the climate is different, the lay of the land (being in a land-locked desert vs. a coastal country), and of course, the fact that Niger was occupied by the French, while Ghana and Nigeria were both occupied by the British.  I thought I’d share with you just a few of the differences we’ve been adjusting to, in no particular order:

•  Rest time.  Things close down here in the middle of the day.  People work until about 1PM, go home until about 4PM and then return to work to finish out their day.  In theory, I’d like to embrace the concept of a midday rest.  In reality, I’m not there yet.  If I want to grab groceries at 2PM, it makes me a bit crazy to find the store closed.  I am told that, in time, I will learn to embrace it.  We’ll see.
• The mop.  They don’t use an American style mop here.  They use a push broom type thing with a cloth that they push around.  Then they wring the cloth out, separate from the brush/ pole.  It works, but it’s still very strange to me.
• Male house helpers.  Many folks in the Francophone countries use men as house helpers.  I didn’t think I could handle it and initially I was resistant to having a man help with my laundry (it took me at least a year to be okay with another woman doing my laundry!)  But, we had the opportunity to inherit a very well-trained house helper and I decided to give it a try.  It is working out great.  He has a great attitude and works hard.  He is able to do anything our female helpers did, and for some reason, I feel less tension working with him than I did with the women, though they were wonderful!  The kids are old enough that I don’t really need him for childcare and even if I did, he seems to be comfortable with the kids too.  It’s working out well.
• The availability of goods.  In our former countries, we got lots of British imported goods.  We grew fond of McVities digestives, Cadbury chocolate, and Lyle’s Golden.  We also could purchase sliced bread at nearly every bakery, though it was often a bit sweet for my taste.  I can find very little of that here.  But, I am finding more varieties of cheese, lots of fresh cream (which was very hit or miss in the Anglophone countries), and plentiful baguettes.
• Apparel.  In many ways, clothing is similar.  However, the clothing in Accra was very, very western compared to the clothing here.  I rarely saw women with their head covered in Accra.  They often wore trousers or knee length skirts.  Here, women generally keep their head covered, wear ankle length skirts, and do not wear trousers at all.  
• Language.  We need another one.  Very few folks here speak English.  They often speak 4-5 languages, but English is very rarely one of them.  This has a ripple effect on everything.  You wanna go to the zoo?  The signs will be in French.  Wanna fill out a form at the Dr.?  Better be prepared to read French.  Wanna host a volunteer team?  Better have some translators ready to interpret for them.  I know it sounds silly, but even though I knew the people here didn’t speak English, I had not thought through all of the ways it would affect daily life.
• The cost of items.  We live in one of the poorest countries in the world.  Actually, according to the 2014 UN index, it is THE poorest country in the world.  Which means that there isn’t much money floating around, especially for “extras.”  We find that the prices of things are interesting.  It’s as if there isn’t as much of a mark-up on certain things because people can’t pay it.  But then, there is precious little actually produced in this country, so things that we could purchase more reasonably in Nigeria or Ghana have to be imported here, so they are more expensive.  So, it seems that imported items don’t have as much of a mark-up, but more has to be imported so in general things are more expensive.  Or something like that. I’m such an economist, can’t you tell?
• Donkey carts and camels.  We never saw them in our previous homes.  They are very common here.  I’m here to tell you, I don’t think seeing a camel in the road will ever get old.  Ever.  Come have a look for yourself!

• Seasons.  We definitely seem to have more of a cycle of seasons here than we did in Ghana.  There, it was basically hot, humid, and sunny about 95% of the time.  There were times with a bit more rain, but in general, the temperature was pretty consistent.  Here, we have a hot, dry season (like 120 F), a “cooler” rainy season (like 90 F), a mini-hot season after the rains, and then a cool dry season, when the harmattan comes off the Sahara.  I was told by my language helper today that when that harmattan season comes in December, I will be cold.  Y’all it’s like 85 in the day time.  Cold?!?  We’ll see.