Chapter 56...The five month Ghanaversary!

A picture (where possible) dictionary of all things Ghanaian that I have no doubt used in my blog or emails over the past five months, but not explained very well...

"Aba" or "Oh why":  
 "Aba" in every context I have heard it means why. It is nearly always said with it's very own special hand clap in which the person claps their hands together then flings them open so their palms are facing upwards. The intensity of the hand clap and the intensity of the look on the face can really suggest someone has done something very wrong indeed.

Alefu:
Similar to spinach, this is a green leaf that is good to chuck in dishes to bulk them up. I've used it in tomato ristotto, pizza and quiche. It has a very bitter taste, which goes when the leaf is boiled for a long time.

 Alvaro: 

 A malt based non-alcoholic mineral (soft drink) that comes in three flavours - pear (my favourite), pineapple and passionfruit.

Cedis: 

 The currency of Ghana. The exchange rate is currently 2.4 Cedis to the £.

Chop/Chopping/Chomped:

To chop: To eat, To be chopping: To be eating, To have chomped: To have scoffed/devoured.

 Chop bar: 

These often look similar to spots (see below), but serve food instead of alcohol, so a restaurant really. My favourite chop bar in Bolga is 'Good Taste' where they serve all sorts of Ghanaian dishes from banku, fufu and kenkey to red red and groundnut soup!

  
Compound:

 We refer to the grounds that our VSO house is in as a compound, so basically the walls surrounding our house and anything within that. Similarly with more traditional housing, found in the rural areas of Ghana, the word compound refers to the whole area in which several mud huts are joined together by an outer mud wall.

Egg 'n' bread:

 

 Egg 'n' bread is at its best when purchased on the street from a street stall. It is essentially an omelette in bread, but there is something about the way it is made here that makes it exceptionally good, that thing may well be the amount of oil that is used to fry the egg/s and then also the bread! Yummy! 

 Freeing oneself (urinals and toilets):

Urinals for women, urinals for men, toilets (majority of the time a long drop) for women, toilets for men. You do one thing in one and the other thing in the other. Simple!

 GMT (Ghana Maybe Time):
This is the timescale that Ghanaians work to, it is on average one to two hours after regular time! This means if you want a Ghanaian to meet you at 11am you should tell them to meet you at 10am and they will still be late! 

"Go and Come":
 "I will go and come" is a frequently used term to say to somebody that you will return. 

Meat house:

  Meat houses can be found all over Ghana, they are basically a wooden or tin shack like this one where someone grills up meat on a kebab stick. Usually they are found near a spot (clever thinking eh?! Beer and kebab, just like at home, although it's usually cocktails and 'Wok-in-a-box')!

MTN (Phone and Internet Dongle):

When I arrived in Ghana five months ago I purchased a phone and internet dongle from one of West Africa's biggest providers - MTN. I have to top-up both with units (credit), which can be purchased as scratch cards in 2, 5 and occassionally 10 Cedis. I usually use around 10 Cedis per week on my phone and 20 Cedis per month on internet if I purchase an internet bundle.

Pito:

 Pito is a locally brewed beer that I still haven't got used to the taste of yet! It is served warm in a calabash (see photo) and usually costs around 20 pesewas (0.08 pence) from a pito bar, which are dotted around all over the place!

Pure water: 

Pure water is basically filtered water packaged in a plastic sachet (the 't' is often pronounced strongly here). A sachet is 5 pesewas, which is around 0.02 pence in pound sterling! The sachets always come in 500ml and can be found EVERYWHERE in Ghana, mainly being sold in cool boxes on the street or on childrens heads!    

Red Red: 
 
Beans, deep fried plantain (in lots of palm oil) and chicken - my favourite Ghanaian dish by far! 

Shandy:

Shandy is my favourite 'alcoholic' (2%) drink, mainly because it is the sweetest of the 'beers!'

"Sorry oh" or "oh sorry": 

One of my most used Ghanaian phrases in everyday speech, text and email. "Sorry oh" is usually said in a soft manner and is commonly used to express sympathy e.g. someone has lost their phone. "Oh sorry" is more of a shock way of saying sorry if someone has heard some big news or seen something shocking e.g. someone has had a moto accident.

Spot:  

 My local spot, which I guess is the equivalent to a pub or bar back home! This one is brilliant, because they let us buy and take drinks home then send the empty bottles back and they have their music at a decent level so people can actually talk! 

Star:

  Nope not the sparkling stars in the sky at night, but a Ghanaian beer that tastes best (in my opinion) when mixed with pear alvaro!

"This thing": 
A favourite of mine, which you will hear when a Ghanaian can't remember the word for something or is simply describing something that the person they are talking to is fully aware of what "this thing" is referring to. 

Tro tro: 

 Probably the main form of transport in Ghana. Minibuses and vans that fill with people and pile anything and everything onto the roof. I've seen bikes, motos, goats and sheep tied to the top of tros. They will not leave the tro park until absolutely full, which is often one drawback to tro-ing your way around Ghana! 

T-Z (served with okro stew and groundnut soup with chicken):

A maize based dish served after hours and hours of pounding to create a smooth, almost mash like, consistency. The idea when eating is to scoop some T-Z with your right hand, roll it into a ball then dip it into the soup before swallowing the whole lot without chewing.

"Uh huh":

This one is just brilliant and a great one to hear non-Ghanaians saying. It is a very deep or very high pitched, very drawn out "Uh huuuh." It is used when agreeing with someone or simply saying yes and the strength and length of the "uh huh" can mean you agree or strongly agree. This one I will definitely be bringing back with me.

 Wakye (pronounced wa-chee) / Rice 'n' beans:

 Similarly to egg 'n' bread, this is at its best when purchased from a stall on the street! Rice, beans, spaghetti and spicy spicy sauce!

So I hope you've enjoyed this picture dictionary post, I definitely had fun trying to figure out how to describe and explain a lot of the new words for things that I am using in my everyday speech here in Ghana! There are definitely plenty of things that I haven't included here - banku, fufu, koko, kosay, palm oil, yam etc - mainly because I had to draw the line somewhere or I'd have been writing this blog post for weeks and weeks! Also they are words that feature less often in my Ghana vocab!

Now I'm going to give all you lovely readers of my blog two weeks of  peace and quiet (is that a sigh of sadness or joy that I hear) while I go off 'avoiding reality' for a little bit in Togo and Benin. I promise to come back with stories of voodoo, beaches, trying to remember GCSE French and I'm sure a whole lot more! Until then...!