June 6, 2025

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On the Saturday morning before Mother’s Day I was preparing to head out to my market town for some food shopping when my young friends Esther and Mercy stopped by for a visit. I was kind of busy checking to be sure that my shopping list was complete, that my backup shopping bags were stowed in my knapsack, and I had completed all the miscellaneous tasks that help ensure a productive outing. But I didn’t want to shoo them away.

Naturally, Mother’s Day was on my mind that morning, in large part because of all the babies and young children that I see on a daily basis. It’s a pleasure to compliment the cute baby on a woman’s back; I think it surprises her and it always leads to a shared smile. Nevertheless, it was a rare stroke of inspiration that led me to invite my visitors to make Mother’s Day cards. I think the offer was a pleasant surprise for them because without hesitation and almost in unison they said, “Yes!” So I gave them clean sheets of paper, Crayola markers, and colored pencils to keep them busy while I finished my preparations.

I continued with my shopping preparations at a slightly slower pace to give the girls enough time to make their cards. They drew lots of hearts and flowers, like kids anywhere would do. It was probably about 10:00 by the time they had finished their artwork and expressions of love to their mothers. I promised them that my shopping trip would only take a couple of hours and they could come back later to visit again (i.e., the unspoken promise of food – food – food).

The weather was fine and my shopping trip was successful. I remembered to get miscellaneous foodstuffs from the grocery store; peanuts (lots), popcorn (also lots), tomatoes and onions from the market; and a tray of eggs. And of course with each stop there was the obligatory chat about how I am and what I’ve been up to lately.

I arrived home by about 12, unpacked my groceries, had a quick lunch, and waited expectantly for a horde to descend on my porch. I wasn’t disappointed. As with almost any novel activity that takes place at TK’s house, Esther and Mercy showed off the colorful cards they had made to friends and neighbors, who were equally inspired to make cards. Soon after I had finished my lunch, Esther and Mercy returned with about half a dozen friends and siblings, all of whom wanted to make cards. I distributed paper and set out the markers and colored pencils again, and the kids got busy.

In nuclear physics, there’s the very real phenomenon of a “critical mass” of radioactive material (such as uranium or plutonium) required to generate an explosion. If the amount of material is below the critical mass value then there won’t be a nuclear explosion. Above the critical mass, an explosion is sure to happen. It’s kind of like that with children and the phenomenon of Porch Parties that I wrote about previously. When a critical mass of children congregates on my front porch, it tends to attract more children, who may have heard the noise of something happening at TK’s house or they just happen to be passing by and can’t help but be drawn in by the gravitational power of overwhelming curiousity. The net result is that more kids arrive. I suppose the only limiting factors are the amount of floor space available on the porch and the increasing heat of the sun as it slowly creeps westward and heats up more and more of the porch. Over the course of the next two hours on that day before Mother’s Day, I had at least 16 kids, from toddlers to middle school kids, on the porch. Some weren’t content to make just one card, or maybe they weren’t satisfied with the result of their initial effort, so made another one. Older kids were helping younger kids with drawing hearts or flowers and were trying their best to get the spelling correct.

I suppose the best indication of the productivity of the afternoon was that the Crayola markers started to run dry. As the kids finished up their cards I enticed them with the promise peanuts (after washing their hands). Lately I’ve noticed there’s a bit of a conditioned response at work as well. In this case, rather than the salivation of Pavlov’s dogs, once the kids get a handful of peanuts, they’ll say goodbye and head home.

Mother’s Day itself was quiet for me. No one came to listen to music with me while I did my laundry. But I enjoyed the quiet time, and hoped the mothers enjoyed their cards.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

Travel, Part II

Entertainment is a frequent feature of travel in Ghana, whether you want it or not. Occasionally there’s video entertainment, which I do my best to tune out because the videos are usually in Twi. Also, the plot is generally along the lines of Romeo and Juliet, but not nearly so poetic, or it might be characters like Abbot and Costello scheming to steal a winning lottery ticket from a Nigerian visitor. (for those not familiar with A & C, see Who’s on First: https://youtu.be/sYOUFGfK4bU?si=sScq7rj0gR4krhV9)

More commonly, there’s audio entertainment. The available genres include gospel, hip hop, dance, talk radio, Bob Marley, and on rare occasions, jazz. Gospel, hip hop, dance, and talk radio can all be mixed and matched. So the talk radio may be about politics but it could also be about religion with breaks for gospel music. There’s Christian hip hop and Christian dance music. Bob Marley’s music is revered in Ghana, although I suspect that most people don’t know much about him (or that he’s not Ghanaian). I can’t recall ever hearing a cover of a BMW song, only originals. Hearing a good song that I’ve known for decades can bring on a most pleasant reverie.

One day I was sitting in the back of a tro-tro next to a woman and her two young daughters – I’d guess ages 8 and 10. The girls were well behaved, as are most children in tro-tros, but the notable thing was that they had books and were actually reading. Moreover, these books were in English. Most kids that age would really struggle to read English well. It appears to me that most Ghanaians don’t read books unless they have to. The book that is read most often is the Bible (which sort of fits in the “mandatory reading” category). But these girls were reading story books based on traditional stories from Ghanaian culture. The books were probably 30 to 40 pages long and there weren’t many pictures, so they clearly weren’t aimed at beginners. I was impressed.

Every so often one or the other of the girls would take a break from reading. If she couldn’t engage her sister in a chat, then she might sneak a glance at me. In all likelihood, neither had seen an obroni so up close in person before. Once I noticed their glances, I tried to catch their eye and smile at them. After receiving a tentative smile in return, I asked if they like to read. That led to a brief discussion about what they like to read.

Having broken the ice, the girls seemed to feel a bit more comfortable sitting next to me and they relaxed a bit. Shortly after that, Bob Marley’s voice come on the radio singing Buffalo Soldier (https://youtu.be/uMUQMSXLlHM?si=tTU2tojrxN3bPFUQ). Imagine my surprise when these young girls started to sing. They didn’t know many of the lyrics, but they repeated the words “Buffalo Soldier” with Bob Marley. I did a quick search with my phone and found the lyrics, then showed the girls. They happily sang along until the end of the song. It was a fun way to make a connection.

There’s another aspect of the audio experience during travel that is not very pleasant. You may be familiar with subwoofers that are commonly used in home sound systems, especially those used for playing the audio that goes along with movies – especially action movies. Subwoofers bring the action to life, ensuring that you feel as well as hear explosions and other load noises. Well, believe it or not, I’ve been in a few tro-tros and several taxis that have subwoofers. In taxis they take up at least 25% of the luggage area. The listening experience is bad enough in tro-tros, but taxis are the worst. Imagine being crammed into a space equivalent to the inside of a chest freezer while right behind you someone pounds a bass drum every few seconds. Unfortunately, there’s often not much of a choice when it comes to taxis. You take what’s availalbe or you can wait for an indeterminate amount of time for another. No amount of strategic seat selection can spare you the discomfort of the subwoofer.

Ghana’s Economy

When my cohort and I arrived in Ghana in June 2023, about 11 Ghanaian cedis (pronounced just like CD) would buy us a dollar. The exchange rate is important for Ghana because, like every other country in the world, they have to use dollars to buy oil and gas. If I understand correctly, the strength of the US economy led to a strong US dollar through 2023 and 2024. Consequently, Ghanaians had to fork over more of their money for each dollar. The net result was that Ghanaians were feeling the bite of inflation (for example, the fare for a taxi ride to my market town increased by 20%, from GH¢ 10 to GH¢ 12 about a year ago). Peace Corps volunteers receive a living allowance for food, transportation, and other essentials. Our living allowance is paid in Ghana cedis, so we’re in the same boat as our neighbors: when inflation bites, we feel it too.

Recent actions on the part of the Ghanaian government, combined with an unintentional assist from the US government, have led to a rapid improvement in the exchange rate for Ghanaians. Falling energy prices (in terms of GH¢) will ease life a bit for many Ghanaians. I experienced this recently when the taxi fare increase that I mentioned above was reversed, so we’re back to paying GH¢ 10 for a taxi ride to my market town. And I was surprised yesterday when the western-style market where I often shop (think a simpler version of Target) had this sign out front:

Eggs

Last but not least: Can you spot 2 goats?