Animal Planet

Okay Readers I need your help again. I need you to help Justin and me identify this animal. We think a jaguar / raccoon mix skin would be a pretty cool item to hang in the MBA lounge at school--haha. Maybe we shouldn't encourage this kind of hunting, or weird breeding, but if we ended up with the skin we don't want to get arrested for trying to leave the country with an endangered species. 

RE: food

Dear Andrew,

What is the local food like? Have you been doing a photo documentary of it like Nicaragua?
Hope you are well

Courtney

Dear Courtney,

This blog would have been incomplete without a post on the local food. I'll do my best to answer your question. For starters read the sign here. That was our welcome to the local cuisine and I haven't seen a more apt description. 

Here is fufu. You have to use your fingers. This dish is with grass cutter, a large rodent (gerbil looking thing) that they hunt in the grass and clean and sell by the roadside stretch. I have a picture of me and snails in fufu I'll have to post later. The snail was huge. Another thing people in the village hunt for and sell on the side of the road. The texture wasn't bad but it tasted a little mossy so i just a had a couple bites and mostly left the gallon sized bowl of cassava goo and spicy spicy snail untouched.

.  This is waakye. As nasty as it looks it sounds like something I would do. It's a mix of rice, beans, spaghetti, boiled egg and some red spice. The workers here eat it at least once a day and always "invite" me. I've sampled it and the beans are really smoky and the spice is hot and not good. I haven't worked up the courage to try that slimy stuff smeared on the egg. Oh, and I think I see some cabbage in there as well. They are usually very large portions and its pretty cheap. 

 There are street vendors everywhere you go. Here this lady is roasting plantains and corn. I haven't had the roasted plantain but the corn isn't too bad, they dip it in salt water after it roasts.

 Another street vendor that sells (I think) goat kebabs. Goats run everywhere, I'm not sure what the green is but I'm sure its spicy.

 As delectable as it all looks sometimes its better to pass. because, well as they say on Hospital Street in Koforidua, "Stomach No Holiday" and how...

 This is what I eat. It might not look that appetizing but on the fresh roll on the left is cheese and avacado and on the right is banana and peanut butter and nutella. There is a backery here, they only really make a couple types of bread a sweet and butter loaf. The bread is pretty expensive (about what we pay in the states) but there seems to be a good market for it. Avocados and bananas are everywhere and cheap. Peanut butter is made locally so fresh and organic and very good. Cheese is hard to find. This stuff was the european spreadable. 

 We have a hard time keeping the fruit stocked. It only lasts a day or two but it is worth looking for. The locals don't eat it as much as you'd think so we haven't either but I think that will change soon.  Near the camera you see sugar cane. I guess you're just supposed to gnaw on that stuff and suck out the sweet goodness. I passed on it. 

So Court hopefully that helps you get a better feel for what the local food is like. Bon Appetite! You're Invited!

Andrew

Mesa Verde

Remember walking through the ruins of ancient Mesa Verde and you thought to yourself, I wonder what it was like back then. If you could go back in time and could walk the trail back into the village to see children only slightly dressed, scampering around, jumping, clapping, playing games with sticks and rocks, and see women, some gathered around open fires cooking, others cracking seeds with rocks or lying clothes out on rocks to dry. You imagine the men would be out at the farm or hunting, but probably hanging out in the shade somewhere because it was too hot to farm. If you could go back in time what would you say to that old topless lady who kind of sneered at you as you walked by or to those kids playing hide ’n seek just as you realize you are “it.” Well let me tell you because I was there today. There is this village that I love going to. The houses are almost all mud. The paths and courtyards are dirt. There is a slight descent to the main area of the village (really it is subdivided into lots by partial fences but these houses seem to share a court yard), so you have to sort of negotiate down a rocky face and dirt trail. When I was there today I kept thinking about Mesa Verde and that I had essentially gone back in time.  One thousand years ago or 1500 or what ever it was, couldn’t have been very different. It was quiet, warm, and peaceful. The people seemed happy and hospitable. When I’m in the village, there is always this away-from-it-all feeling, similar to camping but more real and more away. So next time you’re in Mesa Verde and wondering what was it like back then get yourself a ticket to Ghana and find Tsapiese in the Eastern Region. Greet the old woman with a simple “Good Afternoon” and the children by sneaking up on them.  

Beads and No-See-Ums

Dear Andrew,

Your trip sounds so exciting. I wish I could be there. Please tell me about some of the local artisans and indigenous animals.

thanks,

your friend.


Dear Friend,

I'm so glad you asked. Just yesterday I went to the bead market and talked with several of the local bead makers. Some were pretty cool. Let me know if you see anything you like I can pick something up for you.

About the indigenous animals, today we had a run in with some. These are called no-see-ums. They liked me.

I counted one arm (the bottom one in this picture)--24. The top probably had just as many.

RE: cute kids

Dear Andrew
You must be falling in love with these cute kids. Of course thank the senior missionaries for us, we are so glad they fed you....

.... Love mom.

Hi Mom,

Thanks for the email. I'm doing a couple post on kids today inspired by your comments. To be sure we love the kids and equally I think the kids are enamored by white people. The neighborhood loves us (at least we hope so). Sometimes its weird because little boys, maybe 4 or 5 will run up and grab my arm and start kissing it and hugging me. Sometimes they say master or sir but the lady who works here part of the year has taught them to say uncle or aunt so-and-so, I like that better. You'd wonder where they get it from but a lot of times adult males in the village will call me master. Its really jarring at first and I'm not sure the best way to respond. Whit, the founder/ceo, is constantly reminding employees not to call him sir, but that's not so crazy. Anyway the children are everywhere and they love to wave and watch and they love for you to interact with them. One local crazy girl constantly sneaks into our house so we have to lock the door. They're pretty sharp kids, I worry about their schools though and helping them reach their potential. A couple of girls came with us to Church with us last week. Funny story actually. They are 12 and 13 and they became pretty good friends with the MBA girls while they were here. On Saturday when we said goodbye we said we had to get ready for church tomorrow. They said they wanted to come, we said okay 9:00. Hanging out with american college students at their house is one thing but going to Church for three hours in a dress is another-- we didn't think that was a real appealing option. But 9:00 Sunday morning and there they were in dresses ready to go. We asked their parents to make sure and three hours later they said they wanted to go again. Well, the MBA girls have gone home so I'm not sure what happens from here. Hopefully we can work something out. The girls are great and speak english really well. Well, there are plenty of other "kid" stories that I'll save for later. Hope you like the pictures.

We believe the children are the future...

teach them well and let them lead the way.

Senior Missionaries...

... and why we love them.






I'll try and get a picture of their house. Its surrounded by a 10' wall with razor wire on top.. but lest you think they're hostile they have two angels mounted on the large (car entrance) swinging doors at the front gate.

How much to charge the poor... Your Opinion Needed

Yes, please respond. I have a bunch more posts I need to do and I'll save them for a bit until so you have time to respond to this.

The situation was presented a few posts ago about people walking along the streets at night and getting hit by cars. The simple solution get them reflectors. Do a quick search for the price of reflectors and you'll realize they're not cheap. I didn't know what to do until I found these in the store the other day.




Now on our routes we've been talking with villagers about the idea and they like it, and the kids LOVE the slap bracelet. We took it to two police stations and they both like it and are suggesting we take it to their chief. We'll meet with headquarters for the region on Monday to present officially to them but we also stopped at a couple places that we're peeling cassava on the side of the road and made a pitch to them. We sold 13 of the 100 I just bought. We sold them for 1 cedi each, I bought them for .20 cedis. Saving lives? Opportunistic? Your thoughts?

The Gold Coast

I'll write some later. Here's a couple pics that should buy me a few thousand words.

Sad Statistic

I was just checking the validity of my concern for pedestrians walking along the road at night without some reflectivity or light. Well this paper confirms it.

Okay, but really, what does Bob Marley have to do with Burro Batteries?

Well, for starters Rita, his widow, now lives not far from Burro headquarters in Koforidua, Ghana. You may think coincidence but here in the Eastern Region, when you get out in the sticks, you think clearer. I mean get away from the city and the paved roads and the sounds of honking cars and careening trucks, when you summit a ridge line, push in the clutch and ease it out of gear you simply survey the scene around you and take a deep breath. The air is thick and moist but energizing. Then it hits you, you can almost hear the soulful Reggae ebbing through those humid hills. “could you be, could you be loved?” You feel the rhythm and listen closer, “
Don't let them change ya, oh! -
Or even rearrange ya! Oh, no!
We've got a life to live.
They say…
Well you have to be there to actually know what they say but sensing the ethos of the region we have developed a little credo here at Burro—everyone deserves to not worry and “Be Happy!”

Well, maybe Bob M. didn’t write the song but he knows what the yearning is. So your asking yourself how did Andrew and Ankrah do it? How did they break all know sales records in the company history? Well, deep magic—harmonizing with the musical soul of the hills. All right enough. But picture our green Tata with two loud speakers mounted to the top traversing a red dirt road along a ridgeline, the lush green valley’s surrounding us below

then ts.ts…ts.ts…ts.ts…tomp…ch.tu.tu.tomp.tomp…sprroooinng (psychedelic whirl)… “Steer it up, Lidle Darlin” (HaHa, serious that’s how it goes, listen yourself. First the rain maker, then bongos, then some metallic bow strum). So the effect? First, little kids run out to the road from behind the brush and chase the car laughing and trying to jump in the back of the truck, then adults stand up straight from being bent over pulling up cassava. Ankrah gets on the horn (oh, yeah this is all playing holding the microphone up to our inside car speakers) and tells them all to stop what they're doing and come to the chief's house or some main gathering place where we'll have some screaming deal for them that is going to change their life. Anyway it’s a lot of fun and we’re just trying to share Burro Brand fun with villages all over Ghana.