Sweat Rags, Sweaters, and Simple Things

From sweat rag to sweater: an alphabet of things I love and miss about Ghana, and things I’m enjoying about being in Canada. There are definitely more, for each side, but I thought this might serve as a good start.

I hope this gives you a window into the simple things in life – sometimes, it’s the simple things that count, and these are my simple things.

	Ghana	Canada
A	Afternoons under the Mango tree on weekends	Apples
B	Biking to work on my one-speed Beans and gari Bolga adventures Bucket showers Bananas (the good ones)	Biking across the bridge to Halifax Baked beans Baked anything, really
C	Cooli Cooli (possibly misspelled) – a groundnut-based crunchy snack “Chop” bars (chop meaning eat) Choco delight (chocolate spread like nutella, but better because it’s Ghana made)	Corn on the cob Canoeing Camping Coffee shops Cheese
D	Dege – the delicious yogurt with couscous in Bolga	Dogs that don’t all look the same Dunes
E	Egg-and-bread stands	EWBBC Matrix episode (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-L4S2kW6hk)
F	Fanyogo! – frozen yogurt in a bag Fanice bicycles Fufu (plantain-based mush ball)	Fog Fridges and freezers Farmers markets Free samples
G	Groundnut paste (obviously) Guinea fowls (incredibly unintelligent and ugly, but hilarious)	Gardens Globe and Mail Gas stovetops
H	Handshakes with a snap	Hiking Cape Chignecto with my brother Hotdog stands in Toronto
I	Internet cafes with air conditioning	Internet everywhere Ice cream trucks
J	Jogging at 5:30am (very unlikely in Canada) Judgement day billboards	Jelly Bellies
K	KOKO! My morning porridge.	I can’t think of any K’s because I miss Koko so much.
L	“Leafy vegetables” stew – never found out what they actually are	Lawrencetown beach Lupins Lobster rolls at corner store in West Advocate, NS
M	Mud houses Maize fields (or roasted maize) Metro Mass (the bus service) Market day Milo (Nestle hot chocolate)	Massage therapy – thank you health insurance Moss Mustard MEC
N	Nara (early millet) Ninety-nine percent MTN discount	Nine pm sunsets
O	Orange dust on everything I own	Ornamental gnomes – why? (see photo)
P	Peppe sauce Pounding shea nuts/dried peppers/groundnuts Plantains! Pure-water sachets	Picking raspberries Parks Pizza Peaches
Q	Q-tips sellers at bus stations (in case your ear wax really builds up as you’re waiting for the bus…)	Queen Anne’s Lace
R	Rain on a tin roof Red dirt roads Red millet TZ (so crazy!)	Rainy movie day Raclette Rocks at the beach Recycling
S	Sleeping outside Splitting groundnuts Sowing seeds Sweat rags	Scrabble with mom Swimming in the freezing lake with gross weeds Sweaters
T	Tro tros and taxis with names – “No hurry in life”, “Such is life” TZ for dinner	Trash cans Travel mugs
U	Ugly sheep (why are sheep in Canada so much cuter?)	Used bookstores
V	Vodaphone painted buildings	Vintage clothing
W	Watching Nollywood movies (terrible Nigerian movies, most with bad acting and poor sound control, but with a catchy theme song)	Waffles Wine
X	X-tra peppe please.	X-ray machine at the dentist – apparently looking at teeth xrays never gets old
Y	Yams (fried, boiled, stacked precariously on bicycles) Yellow flowers on trees that smell really nice as I’m biking to work	Yardsticks on door frames a la David Lombardi
Z	Zain-painted ice cream place in Tamale, with real scoop ice cream!	Zero bars in solid form that aren’t melted all over my passport and wallet

Photo: garden gnome approximately 10km into Cape Chignecto trail. Simple things, to keep us questioning.