assumptions

Can I talk about something that bothers me, as an expat?

The assumption that what you say will apply to my situation.  "Privilege," some people call it.  The assumption that you'll easily be able to follow the suggestions.  That anything they say is matter-of-fact and can be done or found without effort.

I've seen pieces on racial privilege, ableist privilege, gender privilege, and others.  An example of racial privilege: "When I look for makeup, 'flesh' color most often matches or is close to my skin tone."  Ableist privilege: "I can assume I'll be able to easily enter and move around any building I want to go into."  Gender privilege: "The default gender pronoun matches my gender."  That is to say, when people don't know someone's gender they will assume "he" more often than "she" most of the time.  Gender privilege.

I call this next one "first-world privilege" or, more specifically, "suburban privilege."

I have some books from the States full of tips and tricks to stay organized.  Many of the suggestions are great.  But others - let me throw a few out there for you.

"Put important to-dos at the bottom of the stairs."
"Keep documents you always need in the front seat of your car."
"Donate it to the nearest charity."
"Don't store cereal in plastic storage containers.  It comes in a perfectly good box, so use that."
"Only buy what you have on your shopping list when you go to the grocery store."


My spacious apartment only has one story.  What stairs do I use?

For nearly a year, we had no car.  Living in Dublin, we never had a car for three years.  Where do I keep my documents then - with my taxi driver?  In my bike basket?

The charities they talk about in these books are the ones that sell clothes for the secondhand market here.  The best I can think of in Accra is to go hawk this stuff at Makola myself.   As if that doesn't create even more stress than giving these things away!

It's so humid here, yesterday we had tortilla chips go stale in two hours.  If it's not the humidity, it's the ants or the weevils.  No, I can't save myself the time and hassle on cereal storage.  Nor any spice, flour, sugar, snack or condiment.  If anything here isn't sealed, it's bug food within hours.  So spare me the lecture on how I can save time when I'm living a daily battle against ant takeover.

Stores here are pretty good nowadays, but there are always gaps.  They don't always have chicken breasts, or cream, or canned tomatoes, or fresh herbs.  You have to buy what's available in case you can't find it when you need it next week.  You don't make a meal plan and shop for it; you make suggestions, go shopping, then make a meal plan based on what the store actually had.


Once our roommate needed to send her passport by Fed Ex to get a visa.  The agent from her work's HQ in the States said, "Just go to your nearest post office, they'll have a Fed Ex counter there."  Are you kidding?  Does she know there aren't even letter boxes on the streets?  To mail anything you really do need to go to the post office, buy the stamps, and put it in their post box.  There are no other places to put letters in the mail.  I've been waiting for the key to my PO box for 10 months.  I have bigger worries at my post office than the Fed Ex counter.


Any time a site says "Stop into your local XYZ."  They don't have 'em here.


I'll add more examples as I come up with them.

more confusion.

Well, I've got my residence permit.  Six months after applying, I have a work permit and a residence permit which allows me to work on my work permit.  My case is unusual, but at the same time not so crazy that it should have taken six months.  The bottom line is I had a valid residence permit already which technically didn't allow me to work - but I had a work permit on paper which overruled that.  So the immigration office saw no rush in giving me a fresh one - and to some extent, I didn't either.

The mechanic has just reported that our car is running fine, except for some small vibrations in the engine.  He still wants to find a new head for the car and replace it - but he's bringing the car back to me today.  He'll want to take it back once he finds a new head.  I'm thinking - what's a vibration when we don't know whether we'll be here after another year or so?  It's chivalrous of the guy not to charge me before the work's complete, but I'd like my debt with him to be settled so we can be back in control of the car - then give it back to him if need be and pay him for whatever work arises after that.

Also, we have been making plans to go on a "cruise" boat trip in the Volta Region next weekend.  That's a two-hour drive each way and I do want to make sure the car's up for that.  If not we'd have to look for public transportation.  It's very hard to make plans when you're not sure they'll be possible.  If the car shouldn't be driving for two hours straight on this warped head, I want to know that, and I don't know if I trust this mechanic's word one way or the other.

Anyway, I do have my residence permit, which is a huge burden off of my shoulders.  And we might have a working car again.

stress

very stressed lately.

car woes, as previously mentioned.  latest word from the mechanic (as of yesterday) is they can't repair the cylinder head we have, and have to find a new one.  which they haven't been able to do for the past two weeks.  but he promises it'll be ready before next weekend.  let's just SEE how that one works.

political tension.  a few nights ago, a local politician called on Ashantis to "butcher" any Ga or Ewe tribe members who walk into their stores, with machetes, because he claims the new biometric voter registration is excluding the Ashantis.  He was arrested for treason and called out for incitement to genocide.  Riots ensued.  There is still a lot of tension where his supporters gather at the police headquarters, a quarter mile from my work, where he's being held.

bad sleep last night.  the half-finished house across the street received a shipping container yesterday.  more precisely, AT 11:00 P.M.  Eight men were yelling directions (clearly, all of them very necessary) to the truck driver, who had to back this cargo up directly to the front door of the house.  "BRA BRA BRA! [come come come!] STOOOOP!"  This went on for 15 minutes and woke up the neighborhood chickens, who started groaning about it every 4 seconds for the next half hour.  Then at 3 AM, the truck engine started back up - huge engine, big noise, awoken neighbors - and left.

And this is the second time that's happened this month.


wedding planning.  we can't agree.  Fiance and I and my parents have been discussing for six weeks and haven't found any conclusion on a venue for the date we want which is big enough to fit all potential guests and isn't just a big white box and has tasty food (after all, we are both foodies and this is a big thing for us).  and trying to come to terms with the fact that my mother's guest list is at the moment more than half the expected guests.

if we can't find anywhere to do it in CO, I am thinking it might be better to do something lower-key in Germany.  they have mountains and castles in fiance man's part of the country.  not bad.

sometimes I think it's not worth any of this stress and that fiance man and I should hightail it down to the registrar's office in Accra, sign ourselves a Ghanaian marriage certificate and send happy-tidings postcards in lieu of invitations.
but then I think of what I'd be missing out on, and how the wedding industry has in fact permeated a few corners of my brain, and I realize it'd be really hard to do that.

work has calmed down, at least.

car woooooes

we bought a car from J's coworker in January.  It's a 2006 Nissan and it had only been driven in Ghana for a year before we got it.

I don't think she had this many problems, but it's basically imploded on us in the past few months.

First we took it to a mechanic who ripped us off in ways and quantities I don't want to mention.  Then we found a guy who works on a lot of the cars at my workplace.  I got a good vibe from this guy from the first time I met him, and I figured he has a reputation to uphold; if he messes with one car at my office, he'll lose all his other customers there.

Well, he's needed the car two days here, a week there, and when he brought it back after that week, he told me the repairs weren't finished and he needed it another week.  That was last week.

Cut to Thursday morning, when the car wouldn't stay running after it started.  It turned over, caught, ran for a few seconds and then just died.  I panicked, all the other professional drivers waiting outside my building for their own clients took a look at it, revved the engine, listened to the noises, watched the motor, diagnosed new fuel injectors.  I dragged the mechanic to my house to come look at it because I couldn't get it going.

Of course, magically, it started perfectly for him.

It still needs that one-week repair he talked about before... but he doesn't have that part in yet.  So first he has to get the car to start, and then after that, I guess we have to wait around for the part to arrive.

It's really frustrating having a car here...


EDITING, MAY 2:
One of the drivers at Fiance Man's office brought it to a mechanic he knows in Tema.  Turns out Mechanic #2 took the engine apart and put it back together wrong.  The car runs better than ever.  Mechanic #3 also cleaned everything, from the engine to the oil to the seats, and for a good price, too.  We'll stick with this guy for any future problems, I'd say!