Chinese Medical Doctor Stuck in Ghana

A doctor with a team of medical doctors from Guangzhou, China is now stuck in Accra, Ghana.

The 11 member team, including Dr. Song, a psychiatrist, were sent to Ghana in early this year to help out in medical training. With a lot of patience, other specialists have already started helping out in a hospital, Dr. Song, however, is still waiting for assignment.

According to Dr. Song's blog, written in Chinese, the team had encountered several obstacles since arrived in Accra. First, there are only two teaching hospitals in Ghana, one is in Accra, Korle Bu and one is in Kumasi, which is 4-6 hours driving distance away. The Kumasi one is also less equipped than Korle Bu. However, the hospital president has little to assign to a Chinese psychiatrist, for now.

Dr. Song wrote that the team had also hard to adjust to the always daily power outage and water shortage, when the power is out, the team of 11 mid-aged men, not a single female, had to wonder outside in a small court yard to fend off the sizzling heat amid the hay days of a dry season in Accra.

Another difficult is the high cost of living. Except certain seafoods and tropic fruits, vegetables are extremely high compared to these in China. For example, two lettuce could cost a dollar or five RMB yuans. To Chinese, vegatables are vital to dialy diet.

The most difficult thing is the slow pace and back and forth it takes to accomplish a smallest task. For example, it took them four car trips to make copies of keys. Dr. song said that it always made him a little headache and retard.

Six Keys to Understand Ghanaian Culture

As a stable and growing democratic nation, Ghana has a lot to offer. Its culture and people have traveled far and to every corner of the globe. Some well-recognized figures such as Kofi Annan are just a tip of what Ghana has offered to the world.

From personal experience, I share the following observations of Ghanaian people and its culture with you. As I have mentioned in the previous articles of How to Work Effectively with Chinese, How to Easily Speak Mandarin Chinese, and the keys are my own model of UNIQUE:

Understand, before being understood

No Presumption. Even with good intention

Inquire. ASK

Quote back and confirm

Use humor

Empathy

Let’s first dive into some key words in Ghanaian culture: Formal, a well-structured and hierarchy society, Family-oriented, Females playing relatively larger roles in society and a keen focus on Present time.

To elaborate the culture in a more detailed way, let’s take a look at some do and don’ts for living a real life in Ghana:

1. General practice:

• Dress well and formal to any functions. Living in a hot and tropic climate, it is tempting to dress shorts and T-shirts in Ghana year-round, but instead dress as nice as you can under the weather condition unless you know the host very well
• Greet people of seniority and higher position first
• Respect woman who are very capable and hard working
• Show your appreciation of the culture. People love to present and gift you with traditional Kente cloth, you are supposed to accept and appreciate the artistic beauty

2. Business Etiquette:

• People love handshakes, especially among males. It’s a way to show respect and friendliness. Ghanaian way of handshaking among themselves will hold the right hand in the normal manner but will then twist and click each other’s middle finger
• Wait for a woman to extend her hand first
• Have enough time for “small talks” such as health, family and jobs. The greetings will ensure mutual understanding between the two parties
• Honor people at higher positions. Speak more formally or conservatively if not sure of the positions.
• Don’t rush to first name basis unless quite familiar with each other.
• Use two hands or right hand to present business cards, don’t use left hand

3. Meeting People:

• Address people by their former titles, especially for people holding a higher position or having a long experience
• Respect the senior and traditional leaders such as King, Queen Mothers.
• Don’t get disappointed by people not showing up on time, traffic and road situations vary
• Business are done by people, take time to develop a relationship
• People usually talk loud

4. Gift Giving Etiquette

• If invited to a Ghanaian dinner, you are not expected to bring gift. I actually heard the locals complain about westerner culture of having to bring something to a dinner.
• Thought is more important than the value of a gift
• Give gift using right hand or two hands, never left hand

5. Dining Etiquette

• If invited to a dinner by locals, accept as a sign of friendship
• Eat with your right hand only, scoop the foods with the thumb and first two fingers
• If not skillful using hands, ask for utensils
• Formal table manners are required, such as seating and asking for additional servings

6. How to Communication with a Ghanaian

• Ghanaians are indirect communicators. They tend to prefer a harmonious relationship and flexible in implementing rules.
• Respect people but firm on principles.
• A prevailing bottom line price is respected in a negotiation. It is always important to know before going to a business talk, search around for the commonly accepted rules.
• Take time to observe and ask a local guide to show around, know the potential pitfalls beforehand and don’t fall into them.

You are welcome to quote freely from this article once you give proper attribution. (A link to letterfromghana.blogspot.com and author: Brian Yang would be appreciated.) You are also welcome to republish this article in full once you give the proper attributions.

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Japanese Crown Prince in Ghana

Japanese crown prince is visiting here in Accra, Ghana. He is on a two-nation African tour with the second stop in Kenya.

The Prince met President Mills and visited a school that teaches Japanese language. He also came to Noguchi Medical Institute that bears the name of the Japanese medical researcher, who died of malaria here in 1920s where conducting study on Yellow Favor.

see The Prince arrival photos here.