Our last stop was an Ashanti Craft woodcarving community. My goal was to get a drum and a stool (stools play an important role in the formulation of the Asante kingdom hundreds of years ago and it is a stool and not a throne that past and current royals sit on.) I think this place was where I had the most fun bargaining. I was practicing my Twi as they laughed and corrected me. The way I played the bargaining “game” is I say something ridiculously low as they usually say something ridiculously high. So they would say 60 cedis (cedis is the Ghanaian currency) and I would say “1 cedi”. The response was usually “OOOHHH did I kill your bruda ?!” Meaning did the shopkeeper do something so wrong to me that I would try to rip him off. We both laugh.
I say “te so” which is bring the price down.
The response is “you are my sista, I give you good price. You never know, we could be family…55. ”
“Ok, I’ll give you 20”
“Ohhh 20 is no good.” Then he leans in really close as if to tell me something in private. “Look I’ll give it to you for 50. I’ll bring it down because I like you and you are Black. I don’t do dis for everyone.” Then I look at the merchandise with a critical look as if I’m considering the offer of 55.
“Well, I’m gonna go look around. I’ll think about.” I start to walk out of the shop.
“Ok, ok 45 is my final offer.”
“30. I’m a student. I know you think all Americans are rich but I’m not.” Laugh.
“Sista this is good work. 45 is good price.” Smiles.
“All I got is 35.” Smile innocently and have a slight pouty face.
“Ok.”
“Medasi” or thank you.
As long as you bargain with a smile, laugh, and attempt to speak the language so they realize that you respect their culture, you should get at least 20% the original price and 50% or more if you are patient. We both realize it’s a game. It’s a game and the goal is for someone to get as close to their desired price. I know I wouldn’t want to shop like this all the time. It can be draining. I like set prices every now and then.
Kofi from the wood carving community. Another Friday born!
Soloman the bartender
Today is Christina’s birthday and Soloman, one of the bartenders gave me some palm wine to give to Christina. It tastes like fermented vinegar. The worst drink ever. LOL! But it was fun.
Take the chug...
Gag...
Laugh... well Christina gagged some more.
While at the bar at the hotel I met a guy named William but he says people call him, Ziggy. He is a DJ on capital radio, a local radio station. He plays Duke Ellington, Sam Cooke, James Brown, and other similar artists. Because I am really interested in finding out how Africans feel about the slave trade I asked what he thought about that huge part of Black American history. He said the slave trade stripped Ghana of history and brought a depression to the land. Again, something I wasn’t expecting. We continued and I asked him about what he thought about the election that is coming up for them in December. The two large parties are the CPP (Conventional People’s Party… I think) and NDC (New Democratic Congress). He says he is active member and a participant in formulating the NDC party. He says that politicians are taking too much money and more money needs to go back to the people. As an adamant supporter of pan-Africanism and believes all Ghanaians need to work hard to become economically independent. He wants Ghanaians’ work ethic to be that of Taiwan and Vietnam is order to limit or eliminate Ghana’s dependence on foreign goods and loans. I justed want to listen and ask questions. I found that often times it can be challenging to have an in-depth conversation with some Ghanaians because there is a language barrier. Not that most Ghanaians don’t know English because they do. But I can tell the frustration in their face when they can’t find the words they want to say in our young and limited language. Only if they could speak in their mother tongue and I could understand the conversations would be more in depth. Regardless, my 1am bar conversations at the hotel have yet to bore me.
No comments:
Post a Comment