It wasn’t long after Dave and I moved to Ghana that we were introduced to a new word…WAWA. No, it’s not a tribal Twi word, nor is it common slang used by Ghanaians. In fact, I don’t think locals have ever heard of this word, but we expatriates refer to it often.
WAWA is simple – West Africa Wins Again.
Patience is most certainly a virtue in this country. Without it, a person will quickly go nuts. Here are just some examples.
When we arrived at our townhouse, we were told we had two Internet providers – Vodaphone and MTN. First, MTN. We have an MTN wireless router that intermittently turns off. Sometimes it will stay connected for four hours; sometimes four minutes. It’s unreliable, unpredictable, and downright annoying. Worse yet, the router is upstairs (where we live primarily), but you can't get service downstairs, undoubtedly because the walls are made of concrete! Dave relayed the problem to the Newmont IT Department multiple times, but until Monday, October 3rd, nothing had ever been done! We now have a new router, and voila, the damn thing turns off intermittently! WAWA
Vodaphone is probably one of the country’s largest companies for cell phones and Internet. We have two land line telephones in our house, and were even given a home phone number. Neither has ever worked. Over the past several months, I have opened the door to a multitude of Vodaphone employees. They come in pairs, at minimum. One day there were FOUR of them in my living room, along with two Newmont IT guys! The Vodaphone guys (dressed in white shirts and bright red overalls – picture that) walk upstairs, stare at the modem, look at the line coming in from the wall, have a discussion with each other in the local language, and then inform me that they have to come back. Why, I ask? Either they don’t have the right tools, they aren’t authorized to make a decision, or most likely….they have no idea.
While we were in the states in September, we received a wonderful email from our friend who just moved in two doors down from us. Bruce heads up Newmont Ghana’s IT Department and assured everyone living in Cantonment Gardens that Internet speed with Vodaphone had increased and we should see a huge difference in our service – 8 mgs, as opposed to our lowly <1 mg we have been experiencing. We were SO excited.
As soon as we returned to Ghana, Dave tested the speed of our service, and it was still below 1 mg. He contacted Bruce and told him of the issue. Last week we received another visit from Vodaphone. Again, two brightly red clothed workers, Kingsley of Newmont IT, and me….all staring at the same router…again. This time the Vodaphone guys tell Kingsley that we are the only town house in the entire complex that was having a problem with their service. They left and did some work on the lines outside of the house and discovered they needed to do some line work into our garage. But….it wouldn’t happen on this particular day because they needed to contact the owners of the property (Taysec), who would have to give them permission and be on site when the work was performed. After everyone left, I just closed the door and shook my head, took a deep breath, and walked back upstairs to reset the MTN router. WAWA
Finally, on Tuesday, October 4th, I received a call from the guards letting me know Kingsley and Vodaphone were on their way to my house. They were outside in their vehicles (one being a bright red truck with the word “VODAPHONE” displayed across the side of it), waiting for the Taysec representative to show up. In the meantime, the guy from Taysec drives up, walks right by the people parked in front of my place, and rings my doorbell. He comes in and says he’s just waiting for the Vodaphone folks. I point to the big red truck and say, “You mean those guys?” DUH!!! The Taysec person never stuck around…he just simply was there to let the Vodaphone guys know they could do the work. WAWA
After all is said and done, and after a couple of hours of people traipsing through the house, the line has been fixed. After Vodaphoe left, Kingsley and I conducted a speed test….3 mgs. Could be worse….WAWA!
Ghana’s television service is, I think, 100% satellite. When we arrived in Accra, there was a TV downstairs hooked up to the Satellite. However, when we received our shipment from the US, we set up our 50” LCD TV, which we located upstairs. Getting the satellite hooked up to our TV UPSTAIRS ended up being quite the fiasco. The problem was fairly simple….one would think. We have a U.S. television, and we are living in Africa. As with everything else that uses electrical power, converters are a must. After the Satellite folks came to my house 4-5 times, they FINALLY brought the converter. Much like Vodaphone, they would come upstairs, stare at the TV, tell me “that’s an American TV. It’s going to need a converter.” Mind you, this is AFTER I have contacted the company telling them that I needed someone to come to my house with a converter for a U.S. television. After about 6 weeks of this, we now have satellite TV upstairs. In addition, we have an actual DVR so we have been able to record some programs. Mostly, we love the fact that we can watch Sunday and Monday Night Football games, albeit on Monday and Tuesday nights!
Traffic is probably one of the biggest frustrations for me. Dave doesn’t have to experience it much, as his ride to and from work is always against the traffic, fortunately! I ride to work with him and then head off to the gym for an hour or two. The returning traffic continues to get worse, seemingly by the day. Some days I can get back to the house from the gym in 25 minutes. Other days it’s more than an hour. I have learned to take my iPad everytime I leave the house, but I can see how the long delays can really wear on a person.
This week our vehicle was hit by a careless motorcyclist as he attempted to maneuver through the stopped traffic. He scraped his handlebar alongside our brand new Prada, leaving a nice gash on the driver’s side. Michael (my driver) was furious. He put the car in park, jumped out, yelled at the offending party who continued on his way, likely banging up a few more vehicles. Cars around us were honking, in support of Michael. Once the light turned red, Michael took off at a high rate of speed, hoping to catch the motorcyclist. That was NOT going to happen, as the traffic was horrendous. I just took a deep breath and told Michael, “What are you going to do?” when in reality I was thinking - WAWA!
A couple of weeks ago Dave took a Citylink (local airline company) flight to Sunyani as he had some business at the mine site in Ahafo, which is a 45 minute bus trip from Sunyani. He left on a Tuesday afternoon, attended to his meetings in Ahafo on Wednesday, and then drove to Kumasi, about a 2 ½ hour drive to catch another Citylink flight back to Accra, as he couldn’t complete his business prior to the last Wednesday flight from Sunyani. Catch all that?
After making his way through security, he was sitting in the waiting area, anxiously awaiting to board the plane and make it home to me! I was expecting him at about 6 p.m. I received a text from him telling me he was going to be late as the Accra airport was closed due to a dignitary being in town. In the meantime, they brought in another group of passengers heading towards Accra (on a different airline). Now the waiting area was completely crammed with people, many of whom were annoyed at a 90 minute delay. Evidently the President of the Ivory Coast was on her way out of the country. This is a typical Ghanaian response. Instead of planning for incoming and outgoing dignitaries, everything is coordinated at the last minute. It’s as if they have no clue. Can you imagine President Obama just showing up at an airport and expecting all flights to be delayed until he got off of the ground in Air Force One? WAWA
Nothing is done quickly in Ghana. It is simply the culture and the way of the people. If you ask a local what time they will be at our house, they will say “morning” or “afternoon.” And even those loose terms won’t guarantee that they will even show up on the day they say. Fortunately, Dave and I have been able to maintain our sense of humor, and WAWA has helped. When we expats get together we exchange our WAWA stories and helps keep us sane knowing we are not in this adventure alone!
