Culture and Customs - From Handshakes to Reducing

by dad

We got a letter from Alex recently which he described some of the culture and customs of Ghana. Here are some of his observations thus far...

Hand Shaking & Greetings - When you shake hands you always start on the right. It is considered rude to shake the person to the left first. Also, when you end the shake, there is always a snap. To make the handshake-snap you place your thumb on the back of their middle finger and then snapping it. All the guys do it and about 50% of the women. If the women don’t, they just leave their hand out, for you to snap off if it. Also, when your talking to people after shaking hands they will just hold your hand as they talk to you. Not like a just a long hand shake. They will shake with the right hand and then transfer your right hand to their left hand and hold on. Then once they say good-bye, they transfer the hand back and shake again. Quite weird. A lot of hand touching!

Left hand usage – It’s a big no-no to use your left hand at all (except after the hand shake). You don’t wave with it. You don’t eat with it. You don’t grab things with it. It’s just a big DON’T. I think it goes back to ‘sanitation issues’.

People are very honest, very direct and very open about everything. If you are fat…they tell you (And if you are loosing weight, they tell you are reducing). That’s just the way it is.

(Elder Darrow outside his apartment- 'reduced')

They escort you places. When you’re done teaching they will walk with you until you are back to a main road, usually a 2-3 minute walk from where you were. The men do this more often and the men will walk longer with you. Then they say their good-byes. Also, if you can’t find some place and you ask where it is or where someone lives, rather than pointing you somewhere, they will just walk you there. Cool right?!

Holding Hands - It is very common here if two people are friends. No matter the sex or if they are boyfriend/girlfriend, they will just walk around town holding hands. I like my good friend Eric Proctor, and wouldn't mind escorting him to his home, but I wouldn't walk around school holding his hand. Ha

Calling People. When you’re out and about people “Hiss” at each other. It’s a hard “S” sound like SSSSuper! You can be walking down the street and just hear “SSSSS! SSSSS!” that is coming from a window or a shop or across the street. Then once they get your attention, they put their hand up like giving you a high-five and then close their fingers (then repeat).

Taking Pictures - It’s not really ok to take pictures of poverty stuff. If people see they will get quite upset. They think you are going to give it to some newspaper or something. They don’t really like you taking pictures of their children if you don’t know them.

(Sekondi, Ghana - Gulf of Guinea)

All my love. All the way from Sekondi, Ghana

elder d