Here are 10 practical and simple things you could do to lessen your impact on the environment while traveling in Ghana and to enhance your experience as a traveler. It will probably also enhance the experience of those Ghanaians you meet along the way too.
1. Turn fans and air-con off when you leave your room. This is especially useful for fans. Keeping fans on while you’re outside the room doesn’t cool the room; it just blows hot air around. Fans are only useful when you’re actually underneath them in the room. As for air-con, it takes a few minutes for cool air to kick in, so turn it off when you leave the room for more than 15 minutes and turn it on when you come back in. Saves electricity and reduces costs too.
2. Use water economically. Water cuts and shortages are common across Ghana as there is less rainfall than ever and more people needing access to water. If showering, wet yourself under the shower, then turn the shower off and lather up. When you’re ready to rinse, turn the tap on and wash the soap off. This saves loads of water. Sometimes water will be supplied to you in buckets. You only need a couple of scoops to wet your skin and then a few to wash the soap off. If I’m washing my hair, I bend down and dunk my hair in the bucket as it uses less water (and I tell myself that it’s like doing yoga) instead of scooping several scoops onto my long hair.
3. Only flush when necessary. Connected with the water issue in point 2, flushing toilets uses way more water than is good for any nation, much less one with water shortages. Perhaps the lack of toilets in Ghana isn’t such a bad thing. Also, many homes use septic tanks which means they can’t cope with too much liquid flowing in. Trust me—when you’re septic overflows you will wish you applied the following: If it’s yellow let it mellow; if it’s brown flush it down. You get our drift? Be prudent with flushing and limit water use and the impact on the septic.
4. Don’t throw rubbish on the ground. I know. I KNOW! Ghana is covered in plastic refuse from pure water bags and black “rubbers” and I know most visitors struggle with this and wouldn’t dream of throwing their rubbish on the ground. As annoying as it is, hold on to your bits of rubbish until you’re home, at a hotel, or find a rubbish bin. Bins are few and far between, but you do find them from time to time. I hold on to my rubbish and dispose of it at home. Godwin used to complain about all the plastic crap in my bag but he’s used to it now.
5. Small tips help. If you’re on an extremely tight budget you probably won’t want to drop money around, but if you can spare it, the small change you leave with street vendors makes a difference to them. If I’m buying say, a bunch of bananas for 1 Cedi and some oranges and it comes to 1.40 but I only have 1.50, I’ll often leave the 10 with the vendor in the market where traders eke a living from very little. Of course, there is no moral obligation to leave tips and it shouldn’t be connected with guilt over the poverty that you’ll see everywhere; it’s just a really simple gesture that hardly takes any effort and will make a little impact wherever you go. It’s akin to leaving a few bucks in the US or Australia.
6. Buy close to the source. If you have the option, buying souvenirs from the producers directly, or as close as possible to them, provides more of an impact to them than buying from a retailer in, say, Accra. Although if you do buy from an Accra based retailer you’re also providing them a living, but they most likely have squeezed the producer—they can be ruthless. One retailer with a difference is Global Mamas in Accra—their profit margin is a small percentage of the total revenue and the producer gets a great percentage than the retailer.
7. Don’t promise anything you won’t or can’t deliver. You may be excited or impassioned about helping someone out after hearing their story and promise to give or do something for them that, with a day or two’s reflection, you may feel less inclined towards. It’s better to keep your ideas to yourself until you’re ready to enact them in reality. Better still, if it’s possible, surprise the person/people when you’ve completed the action—their reaction will be worth the wait!
8. Show someone how to do something simple. This may sound silly, but if you see someone struggling to do something you know how to do, offer them a helping hand in a no nonsense, understated way. This is a simple example, but I saw a little kid struggling to do their shoelaces up. They couldn’t do it for love or money and no one was offering to help, which is unusual in Ghana. I finally felt I should do something and walked over, bent down and tied the laces for the kid. I think they were more excited about the white lady coming so close than the shoes, but it doesn’t really matter. Maybe you know how to fix computers and see someone struggling with a recalcitrant lap top. You could always lend them a hand.
9. Consider beggars (this is not meant to sound like a Ghanaian shop sign). The issue of how to respond to beggars has perplexed me for as long as I’ve been in Ghana. I’ve “traveled” through various approaches from “don’t give any money because it perpetuates begging” (in the beginning) to “just ignore them” (after about one year) to pragmatism (now). I’ve seen a lot of suffering and extreme poverty in the last four years, listened to a lot of sad stories of how peoples’ lives fell apart because of their own actions or through no fault of their own, and seen how little there is by way of support for people with disabilities. I no longer feel any harm or shame in offering someone in need something to help them get through the day, especially if they’ve approached me. On the other hand, I’m mindful that those with disabilities can do things for themselves too, but everyone’s situation is different and I feel, in the end, it makes little difference to me but it can be the difference between a meal and not eating. It’s not like I’m faced with this every day (especially in Bolga where begging is hardly seen), so it doesn’t take an effort to keep change in my pocket to give when confronted with this.
In January, during a visit to Accra when I had to visit hospital, we completely ran out of money as the hospital expenses were exceedingly more than I had anticipated. I had never run out of money in my life and never needed to ask for it ever. Godwin, on the other hand, was used to surviving on very little and the good will of others. We had no where to stay and no way of eating for at least 5 days until a payment arrived. I found it very difficult to ask for help then, whereas Godwin rescued us by calling everyone he knew who could help. So, there I was, a white woman in Ghana, surviving for a few days on the grace of strangers and distant Ghanaian relatives—talk about turning the tables. Godwin had helped a bunch of older, struggling students when he was an assistant lecturer at UCC during national service. They didn’t pay anything for the extra classes—he helped anyone who was genuinely interested in learning—even though he didn’t have enough money to eat then. So, when he called one of them for help, the older man said he’d been looking for him for a long time to repay him for his help and this was perfect; he transferred enough for us to live for a few days. A relative provided a little and we were then OK. I was quite frightened that week and I realised, for the first time, how hard it is to ask for help—essentially to beg. Perhaps after a while it becomes easier, but it wasn’t easy at all and I was grateful that I didn’t have to do it and Godwin has never made an issue of it.
I suppose the moral of this is that, while there are scammers out there and children sent in organized gangs (you’ll see this in the cities a lot) to collect money, use your judgment and remember that it takes a lot of guts and courage to beg, in whatever form. Not making a big deal about giving a few coins or a Cedi or two will help the person more than you can imagine. I now truly understand the expression: “But for the grace of God, there go I…”
10. Smile and greet people. This may be the greatest single thing you can do traveling anywhere and one of the simplest too. Ghanaians are generally smiley and friendly people so smiling is natural (although it’s a challenge when you’re waiting for your 3 hour late bus…). I remember the saying, “When you smile, the whole world smiles with you.” Trust me, the whole of Ghana will be smiling with you instantly.* Try it!
*Babies or toddlers may burst in to tears, but that’s another story. Smile anyway.
Does anyone have any ideas to add on ways to make a difference while traveling? Or any comments about the ideas mentioned here? I’d love to hear more.
Download a free sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana see inside the guide before buying.
Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana see inside the guide before buying.
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