Ghana
is a very “throw away” society, especially with plastics. Even the plastic
water bottles say on them, “do not refill, just crush.” People toss away things
like the plastic bottles, straws, plastic bags anywhere. They accumulate in the
drainage ditches, in open areas, eventually wash down from the smaller to
larger ditches and then out into the ocean. That’s why you are advised to not
go swimming in the ocean. And the beaches, while otherwise beautiful with light
surf every day, are just littered with plastic trash at the high watermark of
the day.
Other
things also end up in the drainage ditches. We drove past a young man just
standing at the side of the road urinating into one. And there was a half-page
ad in one of the papers asking people to refrain from defecating in public.
When they started cleaning out some of the ditches in Accra after the recent
flooding, they were pulling out old refrigerators, tires, and other assorted
items.
A
little about the roads here – they are atrocious! Full of potholes, people
drive on the wrong side of the road to avoid them whenever possible. Apart from
major roads, all others have speed humps every 100 meters or so, so you have to
keep your speed down for those as well. Seeing cars with flat tires, or
suspension being changed out is very common.
The
aforementioned drainage ditches are concrete-lined, about 2’ across and 2-3’
deep. Nothing to stop you from accidentally driving into one – but everyone
here is so used to them that I never saw a car stuck in one. If you have a
business on that side of the road, you just make a “bridge” of wood or concrete
to allow people to cross at the appropriate spot.
Of
course the roads are shared by every manner of thing – not just cars, but buses
(more on that below), motorcycles, bicycles, herds of sheep or goats, and in some
places chickens or pigs that just roam free. Plus people cross the road any
time or any place that they feel like. At one point I just leaned back in my
seat in the car and took a wide view of what was happening in front of me. I
did not see any accidents, but there were plenty that seemed to be waiting to
happen!
Speaking
of cars and buses, I need to comment on how people get around when many (most?)
of them do not own vehicles. About half the cars on the road are either taxies
or buses. You can tell it’s a taxi if the quarter panels are painted orange.
Everything from ones even smaller than a Smart car up to a Toyota Accura are
used as taxies. But then there are buses everywhere as well. All these buses
are identifiable by having yellow stripes down the side. They are all larger
than the average van in the US and seem to be made for this market. They all
run fixed routes, but will stop anywhere you ask them to along that route. The
driver puts his arm out the window and waggles his fingers to ask if you want him
to stop and you do the same if you’re wanting to ride with him. They hold up to
35+ people (that’s 35 Ghanaians, I would never fit in their VERY tight seats).
It all seems to work, but it’s certainly not like in the US. Some are fairly
new vehicles, but others are very old and decrepit.
I
need to finish here with a discussion of utilities. Ghana does not have enough
generating power for the demand. So rolling blackouts are very common. The
resort I was in had a vehicle-sized generator at the edge of the parking lot so
the guests would have electricity during a blackout in the area. But that only
worked up to a point. The first morning I was there the lights were off for
several hours as they were working on the generator at the time of the
blackout. Many other times during the week, there would be light flicker (and
the a/c would cut off). That was the cutover from the outside power to the
diesel generator or the reverse.
But
no electricity also means no water as they need power to generate the water
pressure. But in addition to the periodic power outages, I had no running water
in the room for several hours (even though the lights were on at the time). I
didn’t bother to question it at the front desk, it just seemed like a normal
occurrence to everyone who was working there.
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