Gary was on one of his early morning bike rides through the little town of Abesim on the outskirts of Sunyani. A gentleman crossed the road in front of him and then, for no reason, turned and without looking walked directly back into Gary and his bike. The man was knocked to the ground and Gary immediately ran to see if he was hurt.
He wouldn't talk, but just scowled and Gary could see he wasn't hurt--just shaken up a bit. Immediately a crowd started gathering and discussing the crash. Everyone began screaming and yelling and the crowd of people got bigger and bigger. Ghanaians when they are upset are somewhat loud under the best of circumstances and they are highly excitable. Their emotions tend to accelerate and they literally can work themselves into a frenzy--especially in crowd situations.
Gary remembered our preliminary instructions warning obrunis to be very careful about getting involved in any large gatherings or public demonstrations. The "foreigner" will always be absolutely in the wrong and this entire situation was beginning to escalate out of control. Everyone had an opinion, whether they had seen the accident or not, and were yelling in Twi. Forget trying to explain anything in English! The situation grew increasingly worse as more and more people gathered around--all VERY excited and all VERY loudly vocalizing their own opinions.
Gary saw no good end in sight, so he approached the man who had been hit, shook his hand and got on his bike and got "outah Dodge" as quickly as possible. He realized for the first time that we are definitely the outsiders and that compromising situations will very probably produce a no win. Ghanaians truly do not react or think like Americans. In a crisis situation, we generally are visably upset and perhaps even out of control and vocal at first, and then we usually think it over, calm down, and attempt to rectify the situation. Ghanaians are somewhat stoic at first and then react with increasing agitation which then escalates many times beyond control.
It was a good lesson. We will try to be more careful and keep in mind that we are in their country and that it is best to remember our mission instructions and remove ourselves from any conflict as soon as possible.
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