Showing posts with label urban. Show all posts
Showing posts with label urban. Show all posts

Friday, March 20, 2009

Their Life, Your Life

After what i experienced a month, ago i think i have to re-evaluate the way i see things and ease up on a lot of stuff. OK here goes..... I took a trip... a month ago, to go say whats up to ma peoples in the 9 part of town(Volta Region). so i know conditions are not really good in these rural areas... but not this bad. I mean seriously people in the urban areas compared to them are living luxurious lives and we are taking so many things for granted.We got there on Sunday 1st of February 2009, the first thing that was on my mind was a nice hot bath and comfortable bed and a socket to plug my laptop and by some stroke of luck a really nice *chop bar(local restaurant) so i fill up my stomach. Thinking like a city kid(child).

So we get to the guest house and i am like ooh ok this is not bad i can live here for 5 days.
So i ask my supervisor whether that's the place we are going to stay and she says yes..... but that's the housing for the females and the male housing is a little further down. So we get there and I'm like huh!! they always say don't judge a book by its cover but when i entered the room i realized this book can be judged by its cover... Chale the ceiling was just the Zingli(aluminium roofing sheets) there were no sockets in the room and the fan blew heat instead of a cool breeze. ooh yea before i forget there wasn't a W.C but a shweetom(pit latrine). So i tell myself if i ever wanna use the bathroom i will definitely go and use the one at the girls side and not guys. Do you know how many kids would consider this as a punishment.(boy are we spoiled).



So i set up all my stuff still disappointed about not being able to use my laptop or have a nice hot bath, but then i decide to take a walk and survey the whole area to find out what i am working with. I kinda realized all the housing in the area, well not all but most of the housings in the area were made out of mud. Seriously i counted the number of brick houses in the area and i being honest and not exaggerating it wont be more than 10 trust me.(seriously its a sharp contrast) So Monday comes and we start with the work we have to do, going round taking co-ordinates and asking question so we get to this old man and this dude asks for 30gp(22 us cents) and says he's gonna take some shots(alcohol: whisky, vodka etc) with it.... so i ask myself what kinda shots is this dude gonna take coz, in Accra i definitely know that 30gp(22 us cents) will either get you a shot of alomo(local drink) herbafrique or even no shots at all...I doubt you could even get a bottle of Coca Cola.so i start to think when me and my boys go out to drink we spend more than 40ghc total at a bar. I mean not only me and my boys. Which bar or pub have u been to in Accra that has 30gp(22 us cents) worth of shots.....lets see Twist....Purple pub.....Celsbridge....HoneyS...Champs....Uncle Jerry's(East-Legon)...the list goes on and on.. If you find any let me know coz i wanna reduce cost when i step out.

You know how we always complain about how when we go out its one way(the same thing)....kinda like its always a drink up or like we are going to celsbridge or a club or something.. The people in the rural areas live a totally different lives. From what i saw and what i think, i might be wrong but i believe there's a lot of monotony and also they sleep extremely early. Some people might think i am being patronizing... but i am just trying to compare living situations and it seems like we take things for granted in the urban areas.