On Sunday (14th), we made a day trip back to the Volta region (the same general area we visited last weekend). The purpose of this trip was to go and visit Dodi Island, near Akasombo. It was, of course, awesome.
There were a lot of little islands along the lake. Some of them seemed straight out of Lost. I know it's filmed in Hawaii, but I still expected to float past a statute of a giant, six-toed foot.
The boat itself was really cool. It wasn't a deluxe cruise ship or anything, but it still had quite a few amenities. The boat had three floors, one of which had a live band playing on it! Of course there was a lot of dancing. Some of the dancing was captured on video, but I don't have the uploading capabilities to put it on the inter-tubes. The Ghanaian people on the boat reacted quite enthusiastically to the presence of "obrunis" (read: white people) on the dance floor. (Sidenote: Yes, it's kind of strange to be called a white person).
The midway point of the journey was when the boat docked at Dodi Island, which was located in the middle of the lake.
We docked for only a short period of time ... maybe 45 minutes or an hour at the most. That didn't stop some of my fellow travel companions from getting in a canoe, though. What this picture doesn't capture is the comically short length of their journey. Since the boat was departing in about 30 minutes, the canoe made a small circle with a radius of maybe 100m, and then deposited its passengers back on the shore.
A sidebar about Dodi Island:
The island was nice, but it was also a little bit of a strange experience. When the island's inhabitants greeted the boat, it was clear that a large proportion of them expected the foreigners to give money. In the city, I am approached by beggars several times a day; I am still struggling to adjust to the frequency at which this happens. So, it was a little overwhelming to set foot on Dodi Island and become immediately inundated by requests for money. I had a little bag of hard candies, and thought that it would be a nice thing to give some to the children. I was immediately besieged by every child within 20m, all of whom had outstretched palms. In retrospect, I suppose I should have handled the candy distribution in a more organized and discreet manner. Some of them waited politely for their turn, but most of them grabbed at my hands, the candy, my shirt ... really, whatever piece of me they could get a hand on. At one point, I feared that the smaller children would have their candy confiscated by the larger children, but that never happened. It reminded me of something that I read in one of the guidebooks - stealing is considered a far greater transgression in Ghana than it is in North America.
The reality is that a large percentage of the population depends directly on the charity of foreigners. The tourism industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of the Ghanaian economy, so I don't see things changing in the near future. I haven't formulated a consistent policy on how to deal with begging - I'm very torn on the issue. Most of the literature on the internet advocates completely ignoring beggars, so I suppose I will have to learn to grow comfortable navigating the sea outstretched hands.
In other news, Friday night (12th) was spent dancing to live High Life music at Chez Afrique. Several folks from CEPIL joined us as well, including a few of the lawyers and even the Director himself! High Life music is an incredibly upbeat style that originated in Ghana and has since spread to other parts of West Africa. It is a little jazz, a little gospel, but it's a pretty unique sound. It's got a lot of guitar and horns, and (most importantly) is eminently danceable. Much to the surprise of nobody, my co-workers promptly classified my dancing style as "bouncy".
"The reality is that a large percentage of the population depends directly on the charity of foreigners".
ReplyDeleteOh dear! I sincerely hope you make a better lawyer, Chris. You actually mean several millions of locals depend directly on the charity of the trickle of foreigners that go to Ghana considering its not a tourist destination. You've failed to observe that hundreds of people you came into contact with from the 24 million inhabitants did not need a cent from you and did not ask you for money. There's so much wong with your observation and writing but I'm too busy to wake you from your deep slumber. You've already received a pragmatic policy on dealing with begging as it is Westerners or better still "white" :-) visitors like you to Ghana who encourage it with patronising well-meaningness. This is consequently embraced by a miniscule percentage of the 24 million population have come to acquire this pastime. Just free your mind and don't try to travel with the prejudices imbibed in the West. Happy travelling! :-)