A Million Minutes in Africa

When you gotta go, you gotta go.  That’s how Ghanaians feel, or at least that’s what we assume from the astounding amount of public urination we’ve witnessed in the past couple of months.

In the US, people usually seek discreet places, behind a tree or shrub, say, when a restroom is nowhere near.  In other countries we’ve seen a little less discretion — sometimes a truck driver would just stand at the side of the road, turn away, and go.

In Ghana they don’t even bother turning around.  They face the road while urinating.  Why?  Is it to give all the passersby a better view?  Do they think they’re less likely to be hit by a passing car?

It happens all over — on country roads, city streets, residential areas, beaches.  We went for a walk on the beach at Prampram on Saturday.  Part of it appears to be a public toilet.  Charming.

Initially we thought it was only men who engaged in this behavior.  Wrong.  Last weekend we saw a woman in a nice dress, standing near a bus stop with lots of other people nearby,  standing with her legs straddled and a stream of liquid falling out.  She also appeared to be holding her underwear to one side to keep it out of the way.  No private parts showed, but yikes.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 17th, 2006 at 8:15 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.