Here in Ghana, I get a lot of stares because I am white. I also get a lot of stares because I do things that most Ghanaians do not. Because people often stare at me, sometimes it is difficult to do things out in public that might not be deemed as “normal”. Here’s a list of things I wish I had the courage/confidence to do here. (Some of them I have done…try to guess!)
- Tie a baby to my back and walk around the market
- convince my roommate I’m “a gay”
- buy food and then invite the people in line behind me to my meal
- stand up and start azontoing in the middle of my final exam
- pay a taxi driver to let me drive….and then crash on purpose
- pay someone at the market to carry my groceries and things on her head in a basket and then pretend that she is chasing after me and try to run away
- sit down on the ground in the middle of a crowded area and eat a meal
- invite people to my nearly finished sachet water
- agree to marry someone and actually follow through with it
- skip down the street while singing out loud “OBRUNI OBRUNI OBRUNI OBRUNI OBRUNI ORBUNI!”
- chase after stray chickens, dogs, and goats with a machete
- talk with a lisp and pretend to be a gay O”bruno”bruni
- approach a random Ghanaian and pretend like he is a long lost friend that I haven’t seen in a long time and when he extends his hand for a handshake start azontoing
- invite my taxi driver or trotro mate to my beer
- smear chocolate on my hands and then run down the street trying to high five everyone with my left hand
- wear two different shoes out and and about and try to convince people who tell me otherwise that they match
- take a poop in public
- go to a chop bar restaurant with out a shirt on
- attempt to carry a bible on my head
- wave down taxis just so they stop and then cross the street
- buy sugar cane sticks and then fight in public and pretend they are light-sabers
- pay a hawker to let me hawk her items for the day
- buy 24 bags of plantain chips from a window in a trotro and then try to sell them to the other passengers inside
- pretend to be blind and then start azontoing with my cane
- blog about inappropriate topics knowing even my Grandma will read it
Love,
Jeremy “The One Who Goes To Africa” Kwabena Ginsburg
