Headstrong

This is a guest post from my parents, Alan and Linda, who visited me in Ghana this summer. It was interesting for me to get a different perspective of Ghana after living here for a year and a half.

I have a lot of memories of my trip to Ghana this summer.  And we were lucky to see what Ryan has been experiencing since arriving here.  One of the most interesting things for me to see was the way the people can carry most anything on top of their heads.  On the streets, in the city and the villages, people are everywhere selling their goods off the top of their heads.  They can balance heavy items, flat, square or even lopsided things.  They can even run or bend down with whatever is on top of their heads.  These women are selling items to people passing in cars.  It’s the ultimate drive thru.

These women are at a market and they didn’t appreciate us taking pictures.  But you can see the ability to balance so much on their heads is amazing.  And their posture is perfect.

On the first night we were in Ryan’s village, we needed to purchase a case of soda.  The soda was part of our gift we gave to the clan leaders of Ryan’s village at a formal greeting the following morning at 6:00 am.  That’s another blog post.  This case of 24 soda bottles in a plastic crate was no problem for Ryan’s cook, Beatrice, to put on top of her head and carry through the village, on an uneven road, parts up hill, and almost 9 months pregnant!

And there are a lot of babies in Ghana and no strollers.  So in addition to carrying all things on their heads, the women also carry their babies on their backs.

Not just the women carry things on their heads either.  We came across this man, with machete in hand, carrying a huge piece of wood.  I know it looks photoshopped, but it’s not.

It was interesting to see how Ryan has adapted to the way of life in Ghana.   But the time we were with him, he never attempted to carry anything on his head.

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