I was in Ghana,
sitting in front of my host's TV one evening, watching Peter Jackson's rather shit remake of King Kong with about 10 other members of his family (kids, cousins, grandparents, you get the picture) on NTV, an illegal TV channel that continuously showed Hollywood blockbusters with "For Reviewing purposes only" messages appearing every 20 minutes or so at the bottom. It was only ever on intermittently as they apparently played a constant game of cat and mouse with the police!

The young kids especially were actually severely disturbed by it because Nollywood's CGI isn't quite up to Hollywood level, but that's not really why I'm writing this.

John, my host's 25 year old brother, eventually turns to me during the dinosaur chase scene:

"Hey Mo..." imagine a rather sheepish-looking skinny Ghanaian pointing at the antics on screen. "Is it true?"



I hasten to add that my time there was the best of my life, and that this guy really wasn't stupid. He just genuinely didn't know.
( morrybyte made a subtle namechange at, Fri 19 Mar 2010, 19:14, 1 reply)

My missus is from West Africa
and she hadn't been in the UK long when she asked me if Little Cook Small from Big Cook Little Cook was really a dwarf. She's got a Master's in Geography but has never really watched much TV, was still in culture shock and was still coming across things that totally astounded her like moving walkways at the airport and video calling on mobile phones.
My 8 years there were the best times of my life too and that's why I've built a house and started a business there and hope to return by the end of next year for good. Made it to Accra a few times too, prefer Dakar though, and Ghana's internet access is shit.
(Wagane, Fri 19 Mar 2010, 22:57, closed)