5 lessons I learned while living in Ghana

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about how it was like to live in Ghana. Spending three months living and working in Accra has definitely allowed me to understand my country more as well as gain some more insights into what life in Ghana might look like.

A spending budget is pivotal

You can get drained very quickly if you do not set a weekly to a monthly budget for yourself. I had a total amount of money that I would use to cover my fixed costs (transportation, food, accommodation, leisure, etc.)

One of my biggest spendings was for sure transportation. If you don’t have a car you are forced to either use public transportation (Trotro), Uber, motorbikes to a lift from friends. Uber was my main form of transportation. Their cars are very accessible and arrive in just a few minutes. My designated monthly budget for transportation was already spent within 13 days of being in Accra.

I quickly had to adjust and schedule my weekly errands in a way that I wouldn’t have to unnecessarily travel across the whole city as well as try avoid rush hour times. I soon spent a reasonable amount every month on transportation costs and barely exceeded my monthly budget.

People are friendly but not everyone is your friend

Ghanaians are known to be very friendly and welcoming people. It happens a lot that you get offered a helping hand or support when you’re in need. However, it happened many times that people expected some kind of favor or even money to repay them. You do not want to end up in similar situation.

It can get quite awkward for both sides if intentions were not made cleat in the beginning. I would highly recommend to not accept help from everyone and be selective with the kind of people you share your personal details with. You really don’t want to be taken advantage of in any kind of way or pur yourself in uncomfortable situations.

Networking is not as hard as you think

There are so many ways you can go out there and build valuable networks. Depending on which field you work in and what your personal interests are, there is a list of occasions and events where you can easily get to network with people like you. I highly recommend researching upcoming events and hang around in known Cafés where it’s easy to socialize. For people like me who tend to not be the most extroverted and open person in a room, it can be quite hard to find valuable connections and like-minded people in the beginning. I can only encourage you to give it a try!

Work/Life-Balance is essential

If I tell you that I can use one hand to count the number of times I took a trip with friends or went out to enjoy the nightlife – would you believe me? After 14 weeks I felt restless and lost a lot of weight.

Especially when you’re staying in Accra you can easily be caught up just running errands up and down – always on the move. The city is so lively and buzzing that sometimes you forget to take care of yourself. Just slow down again.

I encourage you to take care of yourself and make sure you dedicate time to wind down. Look after yourself! Wether that’s by taking a trip to the Western Region, going to the beach to meditate or treating yourself for a spa weekend with your bestie. Find out what works best for you and take care of yourself at all times.

Your ability to adapt is greater than you think!

I’m going to be very honest with you. When I first thought about staying on my own in Ghana I did not know the challenged that I would be confronted with.

I was not prepared for the journey that I was about to be on myself.

Especially when being used to a very Westernized standard of living, you will be confronted with many different challenged that will force you to adapt to new situations.

The greatest advice I can give you is: do not compare your ways of living outside of the country to the way you live your life in Ghana. Everything works differently over here.

It will take you some time to find out how to manage yourself but trust the process and just know that with the right amount of patience and willingness to learn you will be able to adapt quicker than you think.