My daily malaria pill involves a ritual. Figuring out how to take it without spending the rest of the day (and sometimes night) experiencing stomach cramps has involved, among other things, a trip to a local doctor for advice. Now, mid-day I sit down with a groundnut sandwich (peanut butter), my pill, and a huge glass of water (between a half and a full litre). I take them in that order and then wait. The waiting is just in case my new regimen fails to work, but my confidence is growing with each day. As I bide my time I watch TV.
After a week of watching television I have this to report.
I get 8 channels. One of them is devoted 24 hours a day to football, the lads back home will be glad to hear. It looks like every British game is aired, and then if no one in the UK is playing, European games. This is also the channel with the best reception.
Two channels are devoted entirely to religion, more specifically, Christianity, more specifically to my untrained eye, charismatic evangelical proselytizing which frequently seems to involve glossolalia (speaking in tongues) and collapsing. (What I thought was singing that I hear from my room at the guest house in the evenings is in fact a group of locals gathered together to speak in tongues.)
Here are some pictures of them playing we all fall down.
Oddly, in the evening, one of these channels also plays non-stop music videos, much of this Christian rock, and some of this excellent, interspersed with that form of rap that blends sexism with soft porn. Another channel is devoted entirely to music videos. The prerequisite, unfortunately, for this channel is that you sing through Auto-Tune with the speed parameter set for zero (the so-called Cher effect).
Two and a half channels are devoted to historical African (my general term) stories, mostly melodramas and mostly cheesy.
However, this morning there was broadcast a beautiful show entirely sung (with English subtitles) of the most tranquil and lilting harmonies (reminding me of the Mali singer, Rokia Traore).
The remaining two and a half channels run the gamut of more familiar programming from news, talk shows, dubbed Brazilian soap operas (very reminiscent of times in Cuba), and even game shows. The news is sprinkled with reporters saying things like "God permitting, the construction will be completed by..." and "The price of petrol, if we are blessed, will not rise beyond..."
Twice I've watched the local version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, re-titled to reflect the top prize of Ghanaian Cedi 50,000 (about Canadian $33,000, but probably with greater buying power here). On one round, I couldn't answer the very first question (which is not a national park of Ghana) and on another was stuck on the fifth question (which is not a traditional dance of Ghana). So Cedi 30,000 is as unattainable for me as $1,000,000.
Another interesting cultural aspect is that there are still Christmas ads on TV, and Christmas music still playing in the Accra City Mall.
My favourite ad on TV is for a movie entertainment program announcing "Movie facts, movie interviews, movie personalities, movie tit bits". I haven't caught the show yet but I presume that last is selected clips from certain films.
I get 8 channels. One of them is devoted 24 hours a day to football, the lads back home will be glad to hear. It looks like every British game is aired, and then if no one in the UK is playing, European games. This is also the channel with the best reception.
Two channels are devoted entirely to religion, more specifically, Christianity, more specifically to my untrained eye, charismatic evangelical proselytizing which frequently seems to involve glossolalia (speaking in tongues) and collapsing. (What I thought was singing that I hear from my room at the guest house in the evenings is in fact a group of locals gathered together to speak in tongues.)
Here are some pictures of them playing we all fall down.
Oddly, in the evening, one of these channels also plays non-stop music videos, much of this Christian rock, and some of this excellent, interspersed with that form of rap that blends sexism with soft porn. Another channel is devoted entirely to music videos. The prerequisite, unfortunately, for this channel is that you sing through Auto-Tune with the speed parameter set for zero (the so-called Cher effect).
Two and a half channels are devoted to historical African (my general term) stories, mostly melodramas and mostly cheesy.
However, this morning there was broadcast a beautiful show entirely sung (with English subtitles) of the most tranquil and lilting harmonies (reminding me of the Mali singer, Rokia Traore).
The remaining two and a half channels run the gamut of more familiar programming from news, talk shows, dubbed Brazilian soap operas (very reminiscent of times in Cuba), and even game shows. The news is sprinkled with reporters saying things like "God permitting, the construction will be completed by..." and "The price of petrol, if we are blessed, will not rise beyond..."
Twice I've watched the local version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, re-titled to reflect the top prize of Ghanaian Cedi 50,000 (about Canadian $33,000, but probably with greater buying power here). On one round, I couldn't answer the very first question (which is not a national park of Ghana) and on another was stuck on the fifth question (which is not a traditional dance of Ghana). So Cedi 30,000 is as unattainable for me as $1,000,000.
Another interesting cultural aspect is that there are still Christmas ads on TV, and Christmas music still playing in the Accra City Mall.
My favourite ad on TV is for a movie entertainment program announcing "Movie facts, movie interviews, movie personalities, movie tit bits". I haven't caught the show yet but I presume that last is selected clips from certain films.
2 comments:
Can you not just take a healthy tumbler of gin and tonic as a preventative? You could still sit and watch the tv. Some of it sounds amusing...
big sister
That had been my hope early in the proceedings, but alas, Ghanaian mosquitoes (or the malaria they carry) are quinine resistant.
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