Ghana Odds and Ends

[aggienaut]

   Some interesting cultural notes from Ghana I neglected to fit in anywhere:

Going Kayayo - Several different young women mentioned "going kayayo" as something they either had done or were considering doing, an Arne and I were a bit confused as to what this meant, especially since explanations usually didn't clarify because the speaker invariably assumed it was ineherently obvious in the word itself what going kayayo meant. Eventually we figured it out -- kayayo apparently meants "carrier," and refers to the common practice of women from northern Ghana traveling to the larger cities in the south to sell things by the road, which is invariably done by carrying the materials on their head. Apparently women doing kayayo earn an average of $2 a day, which is for example significantly more than the $1.48 per day Cecilia currently makes at the hotel.
   There's an added dimension by which this is interesting to me, which is that in more than one of the several books and accounts I've recently read about people traveling in West Africa in the 19th century and/or culture there at that time, it has been mentioned that one way people fulfilled their obligations to their chief was through spending a certain amount of time a year as a carrier -- in that case transporting trade goods between the towns. I'm really curious if the old custom and new are related or coincidentally share the word.

Dwarves - Murjana and Jamila were talking about Burkina Faso, the country to the north of Ghana, and mentioned there were dwarves there. Murjana has insisted she has it on good authority that they are invisible but you can clearly hear them talking. Apparently at least one specific person seems to have them in their house and you can go there and hear the dwarves talking.

Sickle Cell Confinement?? - Jamila suffers from sickle cell anemia, something that apparently causes her terrible pain, and as a form of treatment at some point they (the local traditional healers) tied her up so she could barely move for four days and made a series of cuts on her arms the scars from which can still be seen today. Sounds pretty alarming.

   Sometimes I'm lax about taking my malaria meds, thinking "ehh, malaria isn't around me right now," but just a week after I was in Walewale, Cecilia, who had worked in the hotel there, has come down with malaria! O:

Comments

[engarian.livejournal.com]

Take the medications you have, and be glad they're available to you. In many ways, including your medications, you are a rich man in these places. To neglect your health could have life-changing consequences that will echo for decades.

Good haircut! Looking great.

- Erulisse (one L)

[springheel-jack.livejournal.com]

There's a soccer team in Cape Coast nicknamed "The Mysterious Dwarves."