3. Week 2 - Greeting and Peeing

one of the most noticeable things in our first few weeks here, has been the constant greeting and peeing that goes on as part of everyday life in ghana. greeting is a mandatory activity that is  incorporated into daily life - everybody just does it. peeing on the streets on the other hand seems to have been embraced by many but is optional.

everyone greets everyone all the time. saying 'hi' or nodding to a person passing you on the street is not enough. you need to follow-up with a 'how are you' and often a handshake that makes a clicking noise. if you are really greeting properly you will add some form of compliment. otherwise you are considered rude. at first i found this a little confronting as people are constantly coming up to greet you. my post new york assumption is that if someone is coming up to you, they either want something from you or mean to do you harm. it has only taken two weeks to get over this and appreciate the positive sentiment and enjoy the extra 30 seconds allocated to saying hello properly. the first few days in the office and out at the field were a little difficult, as i greeted about 200 people... but now i am running around greeting and touching everyone in ghana!

once you are past greeting people and trying to catch their eye to ensure you greet them properly, you start to notice that people are peeing everywhere. i have been to india and other places where public urination is common, but ghana seems to have taken it to the extreme. i am not sure whether its the frequency, timing or bizarre methods used here, but it is definitely more noticeable than in other places. some techniques witnessed to date include the:

• free willy: for the younger generation a political statement of freedom made whilst pointing to the sun
• peek-a-boo: for the more experienced public urinator, keep the winky in the cave and directing the stream through the zipper hole 
• one-eyed-trouser snake: for the older, perhaps less hygienic individual this involves somehow bringing the snake down the side of the trouser leg and discretely draining yourself
• stand-up for women's rights: for the most experienced and confident of women in today's volatile and ever-changing world, there is the upright stance

fortunately from what i have seen ghanaians keep the greeting and peeing separate. my biggest fear at the moment is that someone will come up to us in the street with 'the old greeting-peeing double'...