from the "lowered expectations" dept.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

The words of the JHR people echo in my head: "Lower your expectations."

After hitting the ground running (to the detriment of setting up my home), I find that I've hit a small wall built up by my expectations -- and my lack of experience with the concept of "Africa Time."

Perhaps it's all a part of settling in. Let me explain.

We've not had water in the house for two days. While I'm prepared for this with bottles and buckets of standby showering/flushing water -- it is still a drag. Especially at night when, during the dusty walk home, this sweaty white man has visions of cold showers dancing in his head.

Lower your expectations. Check.

Monday was a long day at the plant. I've written at length about the lack of resources and how it can result in a lot of waiting around. That's what happened yesterday. Big time.

The day, like every workday so far, started around 6:30 a.m. The ritual goes like this: I roll out of bed, make my way to the kitchen and boil some (treated) water. We have a kettle, but there is an issue with the plug -- it smokes and gets hotter than hell. Plan B involves boiling tap water on the gas range. It takes longer, but gets the job done. And I can use the excess water to drink later in the day. That's IF there is water. But, like a Boy Scout, I'm always prepared with standby sources of water.

After I make coffee -- usually crappy Nescafe instant as I have not been able to find better brands of real coffee -- I have a bowl of Corn Flakes or Weetabix. This is where my pledge to eat local falls down. Ghanaians eat breakfast, but it is often very heavy and I prefer something light.

After a shower (again, if there is water -- otherwise it's more of a splash, splash, wipe) I set off for work around 7:30 a.m. Along the way, I meet others walking to the main highway. Everyone is friendly and most greet me with a cheery good morning. The kids still stare, however I don't even notice the roaming goats and chickens anymore.

After listening to the morning bulletin at 8, the editorial meeting starts after a short prayer. Religion is very big here -- and I'll have more on that in another post. Following the meeting, the reporters are dispatched -- IF there is transportation.

The story that interested me Monday concerned a bunch of sellers from the local market who are being relocated to a new market area. However, there are problems at the new area -- part of it turns to swamp during the rainy season, there is no security, there is no warehouse for sellers to store their goods and the lighting is poor.

I waited in the newsroom with Christian, the reporter, for hours and hours. In the interim, I busied myself with meeting people and figuring out a cheap and easy video archiving system. "Hire a librarian" doesn't fly.

By 2 o'clock, we had still not left the plant. I was starving but there are few options. SKYY is located in a fairly rural area and there are no food stalls or restaurants nearby. The closest thing is a woman who sells bananas on the road leading to the station.

Around 3, I left with Kweku and Ben (a master control operator with a car) and we went for lunch at a Chinese joint -- the same one I visited when I first arrived in Takoradi. Finally, food! And it was cheap too: an African take on shrimp fried rice for about $4, including a Fanta.

After lunch we headed back to the station where Christian was finally able to secure a camera, a car, and a driver. The SKYY trifecta!

We visited the new market area, shot lots of pictures and interviewed several people. I was very popular with the kids and one little girl ran up just to touch me... before running off again.

After shooting for an hour or so, we went to the current market area to get some more pictures. The entire area is to be cleared tomorrow of sellers and hawkers. That should be interesting.

We zipped back to the station, arriving around 6. The story is due to be cut today, so there wasn't much more for me to do last night.

I walked home dreaming of a shower... only to be disappointed.

Lower your expectations. Check.

I was so stuffed from the late lunch (portion sizes are massive) that I couldn't bear the thought of dinner. The heat and long days leave me exhausted and lifeless when I get home. I usually listen to the BBC and stare at the ceiling. I trust that this is part of the acclimatizing process. Kweku and Gloria must think I'm nuts.

As mentioned earlier, today was a particularly frustrating day. After the morning ritual, I waited to go out on another shoot with Christian. And waited. And waited. All the other reporters had gone out earlier, and in retrospect, I should have gone out with one of them. But Christian was doing more on the market clean-up/relocation -- and I wanted to follow the story.

By noon we had a camera and a car and a driver. But then another reporter and a special guest of some sort wanted to come along. The car holds 5 people max. I became number six and was not able to go. I felt like I had wasted the morning and with everyone else out, there wasn't much left to do in the newsroom.

Lower your expectations. Check.

I decided to walk home, praying for a shower, but alas, the water gods were not smiling. Instead, I sopped up my sweat, changed clothes and decided to write this.

I do have some JHR reports to write and file, so I will spend the rest of the day doing that and getting some stuff in town done.

I need not feel bad. In speaking with my JHR colleagues, it seems I am the only one who has been working so much. While they've been dealing with things like housing and sickness I've been working away. It's all positive.

A few other random thoughts:

- SKYY shoots everything on DV tapes... of which there is a severe shortage. They use the tapes until the oxide begins to flake off. I am hoping to find a cheap source of slightly used tapes from Canada to help reduce the strain. If you want to donate some, let me know.

- Reporters carry their own tapes and shooters don't even carry back ups. More than once we've had to return to the station because of a forgotten tape.

- SKYY runs movies a couple of times a day. Most are from Nigeria, where there is a booming film industry called... Nollywood.

- White people (excluding me) seen Monday: zero. Tuesday: zero.

- Still no word on getting some sort of internet service at home. I've discovered there are some wireless services in addition to possible broadband and dial up. Newspaper ads say that the services are available in Takoradi, but we might be too far from town. Kweku is stick handling that one.

- I mentioned the Freedom Flame event in an earlier posting. It's a torch that will be carried by volunteers across every region of Ghana. I've been asked to accompany one of the reporters on the route in order to do some human rights stories in smaller communities.

I was originally told that the trip would be two weeks long, starting around February 23. It turns out that the time frame is actually 22+ days. It begins in Wa, near the Burkina-Faso border on Feb 12. From there we travel to the regional capitals and finish in Accra on March 5, the day before the 50th anniversary of Ghana's independence.

We hit a new regional capital roughly every two days. We'll likely leave Takoradi around Feb 10th and not arrive home until March 10th. It'll be a great way to see the country. A map of the route is posted on Flickr.

That's it for today.

Cheers!

PS: More pictures on Flickr!