Setting Roots in Ghana – An In-Depth Look with Mary Oluonye

[00:00:00] Paula: Hello, everyone. Welcome to Chatting with the Experts TV show. My name is Paula Okonneh and on this show, I’m going to be speaking with women from Africa and the Caribbean who now live in the US or Canada or Europe or the UK. And this show, we’re going to be talking to these women about their experiences living abroad, but even more this is going to be a show in which these women can share with you their tips and products and services that they now offer in their new homes.
[00:01:17] Paula: They’re also going to be educating you on some things that I need to learn, and so do you. And with that, I’m going to be telling you about the guest I have on today. Her name is Mary Oluonye, and she is a remarkable dual citizen of both the United States and Nigeria. Her decision to retire early and pursue a life that she’s always envisioned has led her to combine her love for business with her research and writing talents, both here in the United States and Africa.
[00:01:56] Paula: Mary has published several books, mainly nonfiction. And she’s the co owner of Celma Travel and Tours, Africa’s Travel Planning and Tour operator business that’s based in the United States and Ghana and with that, I want to welcome Mary Oluonye to the show because we are going to be talking about something that she is really passionate about, which is moving to Ghana and the things you need to know.
[00:02:32] Paula: Welcome Mary.
[00:02:36] Mary: Hello, Paula. Nice to see you.
[00:02:40] Paula: I’m so happy that you said yes to being a guest on this show. And I know you’re really passionate about Ghana. What can you share with my viewers?
[00:02:51] Mary: Viewers, you’re looking at somebody, as Paula just mentioned, I am so passionate about, number one, Africa, and then let’s narrow it down.
[00:03:01] Mary: I’m passionate about Ghana. And that all happened when I took a trip to Ghana. And so many other people, they go to Ghana and something about Ghana makes you fall in love with Ghana. So I found a way to stay in Ghana part-time.
[00:03:20] Paula: Yes. Okay. So you tend to live, if I remember correctly, you spend six months of the year in Ghana and six months of the year in the United States or not so equally balanced?
[00:03:31] Mary: Just say the first year, I stayed there about 10 days. The second year, I stayed there about a month. The third year, oh, two months. Now it’s six months, now it’s six months out of the year you can find me in Ghana.
[00:03:47] Mary: People are always asking, where are you? Are you in the U. S. or are you in Ghana? So I spent a lot of time in Ghana because I think this is the way I’ve wanted to create my life now at this point in time. Yes. So that’s how you find me there in Ghana.
[00:04:03] Paula: And I know you love it. Passionate is probably not good enough a word to describe how much you love it.
[00:04:11] Mary: I’m an African person at heart, I’m a Nigerian and I’m an American and, when I think about home, Africa calls me. I get to a particular age, and I decide, I want to go and spend more time back home. So I go to Ghana. Ghana is one beautiful country. I don’t know if your guests have never been to Ghana. You might want to just take a little trip there. I’m just saying, because Ghana has beautiful, it’s just a beautiful country, both in terms of the land, the people, the cultures, traditions. It’s just beautiful. So everything works for me for Ghana. It’s not like that for everybody, but for me and for a lot of people, yes, Ghana is Ghana calls.
[00:04:55] Paula: Okay, so why, I know one of the things or the main thing today is to talk about Ghana and the things that we need if I decided to move there, the things I need to know. So what would you say is the first thing I should do or anyone should do?
[00:05:11] Mary: Okay, I’ll tell you because I went through these steps myself, moving to another country is not something you do lightly.
[00:05:18] Mary: I went through certain 13 steps to be exact of what I needed to know before making a move. So some of the things I had to do was ask myself, at first when I hadn’t narrowed it down to Ghana, which country in Africa I wanted to go to. So let’s just say Ghana. Out of Africa’s 54 countries, I chose Ghana.
[00:05:41] Mary: Okay. Yes. Okay, that’s the first thing, picking the country. The second thing I would advise is check out the language of the country. In Africa, they speak French, Portuguese, a whole lot of hundreds of national, local languages. And since English is my first language, I needed to be in a country where English is spoken as a main language, because you want to be able to communicate.
[00:06:14] Mary: And for me, I want to know what are people saying? All the people around me, I want to know. So you have to determine, okay. English, that’s one of the main languages in Ghana, and that works for me. Number three, what kind of climate do you want? You have to know that in Ghana, we’re talking about, it’s a tropical country.
[00:06:34] Mary: I like hot weather, so that works for me. It’s warm year round, or we have a rainy season and a dry season. Those are three things. The fourth thing I would look at are the people. How welcoming is Ghana to tourists or to expats or to people who want to live there? So I had to check that out in my research.
[00:07:05] Mary: This is all part of the research, which is a very important thing. Anybody who wants to move to any country, not only Ghana, but any country. They have to do the research.
[00:07:14] Paula: And I was just about to ask you because you have these points. So it’s like this sounds like research that you’re recommending for people to do.
[00:07:23] Mary: Exactly. And in your research, you can go on online. You can see a whole lot of YouTubers up online and sometimes what you see online might be glamorized looks at, moving to Ghana. Some things I’ve seen in my research are just almost blatantly not true, so you have to do really good research and consult multiple sources of information. That’s just the research. You never just depend on one source of information.
[00:07:54] Mary: Verify, cross check. So you do this research. So in Ghana, it’s a very welcoming country. When we talk about people, they are very welcoming. I’m sure a lot of your viewers might have heard about ” The Year of Return ” when the Ghanaian government invited Africans in the diaspora, African Americans, anyone who wanted to come back to Africa to live. Ghana was inviting them to come back and making it easy For people to come back, people living in the diaspora, they wanted to live in Ghana to come back.
[00:08:29] Mary: So it’s very welcoming.
[00:08:30] Paula: Were you already there when that happened? Sorry to cut you short, but were you already there? Were you one of those who took advantage of that or were you already decided that Ghana was the place for you?
[00:08:40] Mary: Oh, I’d already decided Ghana was the place for me, I actually saw the trend coming, I could see more and more people coming or I could see the questions online people asking about Ghana.
[00:08:51] Mary: And even before the announcement of the year of return. I wrote a book about moving to Ghana, and I didn’t even know ” The Year of Return” invitation was going to be extended by the government, but I wrote that book that covers some of what we’re talking about today.
[00:09:10] Paula: Yeah. All right.
[00:09:12] Paula: Okay, so we talked about doing your research, which means in your case you checked , you did your research to find out which country you wanted to live in, their language.
[00:09:21] Paula: If it was like for you, you speak English you said so it had to be an English speaking country which Ghana, of course, qualified the climate, you like hot weather, like me, so it was Ghana and the people are welcoming. All right, so those are four things,.
[00:09:36] Paula: You said 13. What else did we, did you put in, or would you tell people that they need to do research on?
[00:09:43] Mary: Let me add one more thing about the people of Ghana.
[00:09:46] Paula: Okay.
[00:09:46] Mary: I always say this, they’re among the most courteous, friendliest people you would ever want to meet. It’s a very courteous country. So I just thought I’d put that in there too. So on another point you have to double check is healthcare. Think about Hey, how healthy are you?
[00:10:07] Mary: You might have some conditions that you need to be close to specialized medical care. In that case, maybe moving to another country is not the thing for you. But you have to understand what the healthcare is like in the country you’re moving to. As for me, for Ghana, I was surprised to find some state of the art facilities in Accra.
[00:10:31] Paula: Wow.
[00:10:31] Mary: Better than some of the places I’ve been to in the U. S.
[00:10:35] Paula: Wow.
[00:10:36] Mary: And yes, I was surprised to find that out. I said, Huh. And I just looked around. I said, I can handle this. But you have to know that in a lot of countries, you’re only going to find the medical, that kind of medical facility in the big cities.
[00:10:55] Paula: Okay.
[00:10:56] Mary: Yeah, so you sometimes when you decide to move to another country, you want to make sure that you can easily access healthcare, especially if you have any chronic issues. So that’s the main thing and you have to know these things and you have to assess your health to, before you make any decisions. This is all part of your research.
[00:11:18] Paula: And I’m thinking like if you’re planning to retire there, as we get older, there’s certain health conditions that seem to pop up and I say seem to because right now I’m nursing a knee that. Five years ago, I didn’t have. It wasn’t bothering me.
[00:11:34] Paula: I had the knee, but the problem that I now have with this knee has been told to me by doctors, you’re aging, you’re getting old.
[00:11:43] Paula: Going back to what you’re saying.
[00:11:45] Mary: Exactly. Oh, ouch, my back hurts. I said, when did this happen, or as you get older and embrace your eldership, you still have to be able to take care of the little things that start to not work so well.
[00:12:01] Mary: So it’s very important. And I’m also, I can add in here, you have to check your insurance. Medical insurance matters too because Medicare is not accepted in at least Ghana. They don’t take Medicare, but they take other insurances. And so you want to take a look at medical insurance as well.
[00:12:23] Paula: That’s important to know because as you said, Medicare, I guess it’s not accepted there, but there must be some other form of travel or there is some other form of travel insurance, correct?
[00:12:33] Mary: Yes. The travel insurance, and then there’s a local insurance you can buy too, but I would suggest buying from the international travel insurance companies.
[00:12:44] Mary: The medical insurance companies. So whenever I’m in Ghana, I always have comprehensive additional medic insurance to cover any medical emergencies. Flying back evacuation. I need to have that on board to know. There are some things that you go to a doctor for. They can treat it if you’re willing to wait a long time at the hospital.
[00:13:11] Mary: You wait all day. Maybe they send you running around for lab tests here, x ray here. But you can get it done. And the cost is a fraction of the cost. A fraction of the cost you pay in the U. S. Oh yeah.
[00:13:26] Paula: Okay . So you may have that inconvenience of things not just being so centralized, as you say you may have to go somewhere else to get a lab work, another place to get blood work done, etc.
[00:13:37] Paula: But that’s a fraction of the cost that you pay in the United States, right?
[00:13:42] Mary: Outside of the cities , it might be an issue because you might have some hospitals and clinics that don’t have enough equipment or medications and you have to pay for things up front. It’s very important that you’re very aware of what medical facilities are around wherever you decide to live. That’s just the way it is.
[00:14:05] Paula: Alright. What about the cost of living? Because we already, you said, medical care, for the most part, in the cities, are a fraction of what we pay here in the United States.
[00:14:15] Paula: Cost of living. Is it cheaper there?
[00:14:18] Mary: The cost of living, three years ago, was much less in Ghana than it is now. This past year, I was in Ghana. Most of, from March until September, the cost of living was going up up. It was really increased. Things were doubling in price almost every month because they were undergoing some economic hardship.
[00:14:44] Mary: The government, business, but it has stabilized a bit now. So hopefully it’s still going to stay stable, but it’s still going to be a lot less than what you’d pay. Me than what I pay for here on a monthly basis.
[00:15:02] Paula: Especially if you’re using the U. S. dollar, right?
[00:15:06] Mary: Yes, especially if you’re using the U. S. dollars. And that brings me back to something about your bank account. Maintain your U. S. bank account. If you’re retired, you can have your social security deposited in your bank account and you can use your ATM card in the cities in Ghana to withdraw the money. Yes, you can withdraw in local currency.
[00:15:34] Mary: Okay. So when I’m in Ghana, I can get my pension. It’s paid every, every month on time. I know the money’s there. I just go to the ATM and take out what I need. Right now, the exchange rate is good. Yep. The dollar is powerful. So you maintain your U. S. bank account. And if you’re a foreigner living in Ghana, I don’t know if you people know it, but you’re not allowed to open a bank account unless you have legal residence there.
[00:16:04] Mary: Or you have a work permit, and that’s a lot, that’s a big deal to go through that. Me living there, six months, and I’m I usually will go on a tourist visa. And extend my tourist visa extended. I Can’t open a bank account, but they do have something called mobile money with that technology where you they can put money on their mobile money accounts.
[00:16:28] Mary: Local vendors, and so you can pay using your phone and just transfer funds. Yes, so they do that a lot more of it there than here.
[00:16:38] Paula: I was about to ask. Wow. Okay. So you just need a smartphone, and you’re able to transfer money between, from one person to the next using your phone.
[00:16:49] Mary: Yes. And you can pay bills. You can pay Uber or Bolt. Like they like to use Bolt. It’s like Uber. You can pay at restaurants. You can use, it’s almost like a banking system without having a bank account. But you need to have a SIM cards and a Ghana ID.
[00:17:10] Paula: Okay. Wow. Okay. That’s good. These are very important things to take note of within your research.
[00:17:18] Paula: I’m talking to you that lives there. You’re making it pretty clear. Some of these may not even
[00:17:22] Paula: be explained, if you search online.
[00:17:26] Mary: No, you won’t know. You can read about it, but you need to be there and find out exactly how it works. I didn’t know about this, even though I’ve been going there for four or five years, but this last time I was there, because I decided to take an apartment last year, I rented up an apartment. Now it’s really on my own. Before I was staying with my friends and they did a lot of the back end work. Now I was really on my own. So I had to figure out oh. How does this work?
[00:17:58] Paula: Wow, that must have been a bit, scary so you did you do some research? As you say, how does it work? This brings me to housing. How does housing work there? Is it like here where, there’s a credit, someone is checking before you get an apartment, they need to check out your credit to make sure you’re credit worthy, et cetera or no?
[00:18:17] Mary: It’s not, it’s sometimes it’s not that easy to find a place that you really want. I had to go through. An agent who knew another agent who knew about the place I wanted, because, it’s not so easy I would suggest anybody who’s looking for a place, go through a recommended agent, somebody refers you to somebody they know. Yeah. Things you won’t know you can, and when you do rent the place you’re going to rent it for about a year up front. It’s not like month to month, chances are, you’re going to pay. I’m a year ahead of time. For a year in advance. Yes.
[00:18:59] Paula: Wow.
[00:19:00] Mary: So you got to have that money upfront. You’ve got to plan for
[00:19:02] Mary: that budget for that.
[00:19:04] Mary: Correct. These are going to be in your budget and you will make a budget before you go anywhere. You want to know how much money do you have to work with how much money are you going to have a year and what do you need to that money to do for you. Some of these questions, you have to go there and find out. I always tell people do not just go to Ghana one time and think you know everything that you need to know.
[00:19:32] Mary: You have to go there, maybe a couple of times, and it’s good if you know somebody, a Ghanaian, somebody who knows what living in Ghana is all about, who can walk you through some of the steps you need to know.
[00:19:47] Paula: That’s very…
[00:19:48] Mary: That’s part of your research. I throw that into research is make that pre move visit is what I call it.
[00:19:56] Paula: Okay. So talking a little bit about research, what about things like infrastructure, we may be used to roads being a certain way, the bridges, is that something that you say we need to put into consideration as well during our research?
[00:20:09] Mary: I would say so. Infrastructure, everybody who comes to Ghana, they say one thing, bad roads, It’s okay. They are terrible in some places. Even in the city? Yes, even though Ghana is a tourist country, it’s a big tourist destination. The one problem a lot of people always have is that of roads. And we, and of course, traffic in the cities.
[00:20:39] Paula: Traffic?
[00:20:40] Mary: Oh, and cities. You can have what you call major go slow.
[00:20:45] Paula: Okay.
[00:20:46] Mary: You know about go slow?
[00:20:48] Paula: I didn’t think there was go slow or traffic jams in Accra.
[00:20:53] Mary: Oh, it can be bad. But other things you want to think about are your water supply. In Ghana, I don’t drink tap water, I drink bottled water, or a lot of water sold in sachet packs or maybe 500 mls of water.
[00:21:13] Mary: Okay. So sometimes you have to be careful with the water. Think about things like electricity. Yeah. But electricity is pretty, pretty much constant compared to some other countries this past year, they did have a few months where they had to inform people that, okay, this neighborhood is going to be no electricity for six hours, or this neighborhood, you won’t have six hours.
[00:21:42] Mary: For the most part. You’d be surprised. But Ghana, even in villages have electricity. I think this had to do with Rawlings time around President Rawlings. I think that was one of the things he wanted to make sure they had the electricity in almost everywhere. So when you look in West Africa. Including Nigeria, you find out that Ghana is doing really well with the electricity.
[00:22:07] Mary: Wow. So we need it.
[00:22:09] Paula: No, go ahead. But at the same time, I was
[00:22:10] Paula: going to say, so they don’t have a lot of generators there like we have in Nigeria.
[00:22:15] Mary: No, you don’t hear all that noise. Like sometimes you go to Lagos and you hear all the noise of generators, but in Ghana, way less. Just in case of emergencies, they’ll come on.
[00:22:27] Paula: Okay. Alright.
[00:22:28] Mary: I also like to know that there’s a nice airport nearby, close by. I put that in infrastructure. What’s the airport like?
[00:22:35] Paula: What is the airport like? Yes, because I know, being Nigerian like you are, when we go to Lagos, Sometimes, oh boy, it’s a different, it’s you have gotta prepare your mind for that. So what’s it like in Ghana?
[00:22:49] Mary: Oh, it’s really nice. It’s so easy. It’s so modern. Everybody comes in. There’s no surprise. And immigration and customs, they’re so nice. Everybody’s so nice. Directions are so clear. It’s pretty impressive. That’s Kotoka International Airport in Accra.
[00:23:07] Mary: That’s the one most people will comment. And since I live just in somewhat in the suburbs of Accra, I always make sure I’m located at airport. The airport is close to where I am. Just, you never know. You just never know.
[00:23:22] Paula: Yep. That’s important. Okay. I was going to say, talking about you never know.
[00:23:26] Paula: So that brings me to a major question that I’m sure you get a lot of people asking you this particular question. What about political stability?
[00:23:36] Mary: And that’s another draw Ghana has. It’s pretty much stable. Of course, there are times where people might protest this, they might protest that.
[00:23:44] Mary: But for the most part, it’s a pretty even keel, stable country where people can voice their differences, but it doesn’t mean they’re enemies, we can talk about it. So that’s what I, one of the things I really like is listening to just even the radio news or the commentaries or the TV shows where you have opposing viewpoints, but people let one person talk, listen, and then respond.
[00:24:15] Mary: The person can and they listen back and forth. And it’s amicable. So it’s pretty much stable. Pretty much, compared to countries all over the world, one of the draws for me, with respect to Ghana, is it’s kind of peaceful. Thank you very much.
[00:24:32] Paula: Wow. Yes. So people agree to disagree, amicably.
[00:24:38] Mary: Exactly. And then there’s another thing I wanted to say, in terms of personal safety, I’ll say that Ghana is one of the safest countries that I feel safe in Ghana. Even at my age, by myself, solo living, or just adventuring around Ghana, there’s no place I’ve ever gone and felt uneasy, or any fear at all, because of the people.
[00:25:08] Mary: But it’s pretty safe. Use common sense, you wouldn’t go, there’s some things you even, say New York or Chicago, there’s some places you know not to go. There’s some places after midnight, why would you be going to some places? People have to use common sense, but for the most part, even in the remotest village, I walked around early morning by myself or in the evening, and there’s no problem.
[00:25:32] Mary: Never felt any fear. That’s another draw for them.
[00:25:38] Paula: That’s good to know, Mary. So good to know. Yeah. All right. So we live in the technology age. And you know where, as you said, you mentioned that electricity tends to be pretty steady there. So what about technology? How does that work with us?
[00:25:57] Paula: So many of us work in hybrid and remotely and almost everyone has a smartphone or some form of technology. How’s that there?
[00:26:07] Mary: That’s great. There’s some places that internet is spotty, and sometimes you’ll hear this thing, oh, the network is bad today, like you’re on a phone call and it keeps dropping, or it’s sporadic, it keeps breaking up, those are network issues, everybody is okay, it’s just the way it is.
[00:26:29] Mary: But for my internet, where I am, where my apartment is, I have great internet service. I’m almost always connected. You know how you have the bars of your strength. I have four bars or five bars or whatever.
[00:26:46] Paula: Wow.
[00:26:46] Mary: So it’s good because it helps with working. I’m in business. I’m retired, but I also have a business and I’m in the travel field, but so I need to be able to go online.
[00:26:58] Mary: I write, I do my research. I need. The internet, so it’s pretty good. It depends on where you are in the cities. Yes. If you’re out in the mountains, or, in the rainforest, you might have issues with your internet connectivity, but for the most part, it’s good. And you’ll be surprised to find out that Ghana and the Ghana youth, they’re very high tech people. They’re always online. They’re on their devices. They are way ahead. They’re way ahead of some of what I see here in the U. S. when it comes to ingenuity and technology. Yeah. So yeah, that’s pretty good with the technology, I must say.
[00:27:46] Paula: You have made me want to go to Ghana right now. You’ve, outlined all the positives, but it’s more than positive. These are the realities. These are very valid points that you’ve brought up. But what I even like more is that even as you said this, you still pointed out some of the flaws, some of the difficulties that one can experience while they…
[00:28:06] Mary: There’s one other thing people should be aware of too is legally working. If you have a business and you have a business that’s registered and established in the U. S., you can take your business anywhere. But if you’re a foreigner and you come in to work legally, you have to have a legal permit or worker’s permit.
[00:28:29] Mary: So people who have skills, knowledge, who can be consultants and whatnot, they can take their work anywhere in the world. So, this is… Like actually looking for a job and working to supplement say your income when you are in Ghana, that’s not going to be easy at all. There are legal ramifications and if you’re going to live in Ghana or any other country, it’s best that you adhere to the laws of the country that is welcoming you.
[00:29:02] Paula: That’s important, very important. So you’d say if you do, if you’re thinking of retiring , living and workingin Ghana, I guess you need to consult a lawyer to know what you can and cannot do. As opposed to thinking, oh, I can just get there and just stay there indefinitely, without a work permit, without, any legal permit, allowing you to, overstay your visit and be there long term, correct?
[00:29:26] Mary: Yes, you have to number one, have your visa in place. I am there on a tourist visa. I can apply for a retirement permit. I might do that retiree permit when I go back. As with a retiree permit, you’re not supposed to, you can’t work in Ghana. When I’m in Ghana, I’m not working. Okay, let me go back to the visa first.
[00:29:48] Mary: With the visa, you can get a tourist visa and they’ll give it to you for 60 days. And you can always renew it. It’s easy to renew. They’ll renew it several times. I think up if you renew and renew you can stay up to about six months, which is what I, and that’s enough for me. And that’s enough. But what was the other point I was going to try and make?
[00:30:09] Mary: That was for the visa, and then for working, you have to have those permits to work legally. And if you are caught working illegally and living there illegally, you can be deported, serious, you need to consult with a lawyer and, So that’s why I say sometimes it’s good to know people on the ground, let them walk you through the process, people who have gone through what you want to go through.
[00:30:34] Mary: You want to live there, talk to people who live there, and who, have made this journey ahead of you. I say why reinvent the wheel.
[00:30:44] Paula: Why reinvent the wheel? So with that are there places like communities where you find like a group of people who have moved from , let’s say the United States who now all live in one community, or you have a group of people, say from England who are living in their own little community and not actually, assimilating with the people, the Ghanaian people?
[00:31:06] Mary: Yeah, you do. And you have to decide what’s best for you when you come. Me, I’m part of the people, these are my peeps. So I want to be in living like a local, living like the African that I am, but I’m in Ghana. So I live in a community where they have some expats, but mostly local.
[00:31:25] Mary: But then you have some areas where you have the foreigners living. And they’re gated. Just think about gated U. S. communities. Of course, it’s going to cost a lot more to live out there because anywhere foreigners live, the prices are going to be way higher. So some people choose to live just there, but they don’t assimilate really with the local people so they don’t, they’re not immersed in the culture because they can live separately and apart, and there are neighborhoods from one extreme to the other, I tend to like the mixed up bunch .Mixed up local and expat plus multiple income levels too. Just, we all mix it up. Yeah.
[00:32:11] Paula: But there’s one thing that we haven’t talked about food. Oh, what’s the food like there?
[00:32:17] Mary: The food is good. Oh, the food is good.
[00:32:22] Mary: I always tell people, this is one country where, okay, I eat a lot. I can eat a lot and I lose weight. I won’t gain. As soon as I come back to the United States, I eat not even that much. I gain weight. So the food is. It’s because
[00:32:41] Paula: clean. I want to say they’re less additives, right?
[00:32:44] Mary: Exactly. Less additives, especially sugar.
[00:32:48] Mary: They don’t eat as much sweets like in the US to forget about desserts or whatnot. That’s something new that’s coming in. The Western influence. Food is fresh. You go to the market to buy the fresh food every day. Just, when my nieces come to visit, we go down the road, I get the oranges, I take the oranges, make fresh orange juice, no added sugar, same with coconut water.
[00:33:14] Mary: Just go to the corner, buy your coconuts, they pour it inside the plastic bag, you take it home, put it in the fridge, you have your coconut water, and everything’s so cheap. Oranges, pineapple, just fresh fruits and vegetables, everything. So the food is fresh, and it’s good for you.
[00:33:36] Paula: That’s one of the advantages of living among the people because you have access to those fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, just.
[00:33:43] Paula: Freshly brought, brought in from their their farms or, and you’re not really processing, you’re not really, grown for the supermarkets, et cetera, but these are for the local people.
[00:33:54] Mary: Right. You can go to the market or you can go down The road to the stall, neighborhood stall.
[00:33:58] Mary: When I go walking down my streets, everybody knows me now. All these little kiosks with their little, selling whatever. Like they call me Auntie Mary. Auntie Mary, how are you, Ma? Or they call you Ma because of your age. Because of my age now, I’m always called Madam, Ma, Auntie, Mama. Yes. But not just, hey, Mary.
[00:34:22] Mary: No, they don’t come and just call me Mary. Even with people I work with, these people are in their 40s and 50s. When we’re out in the public, they call me Auntie Mary. Auntie Mary. Yes. There’s a big respect for elders there. That’s another draw. Yes. That’s another.
[00:34:39] Paula: Respect.
[00:34:40] Mary: Yeah.
[00:34:41] Paula: Wow.
[00:34:42] Paula: Can you believe you’ve been speaking for a little over 30 minutes?
[00:34:46] Paula: If you had to redo any or recount any of those points, what is the very first thing that you would say to people. Should we approach this with fear or should we be relaxed, because you talked about, there’s a lot of things to do for the
[00:35:00] Paula: research.
[00:35:03] Paula: And there’s something else you talked about visiting, but you know how what time span would you say people should, give themselves, you say, do all the research in six months.
[00:35:16] Paula: A year, a year and a half, what would you say?
[00:35:21] Mary: I say take your time, give yourself about a year. I mean you can go visit in the summer, but give yourself a year at least. And I also want to add in, manage your expectations too. Because you’re going to move, if you’re thinking about moving to another country. You’re moving to another country because it’s another country.
[00:35:43] Mary: It’s not the same as the country you’re leaving. If you’re going to move to Ghana, Ghana is not America. Leave that behind, leave preconceived notions behind, leave expectations behind, and be open to the new experience and your new adventures, and I bet you find out that you’ll love Ghana as much as I do.
[00:36:08] Paula: Yes, I can see that all over your face, even your
[00:36:12] Paula: voice and the inflection of your voice is that’s the place to be.
[00:36:16] Paula: Mary, where if people wanted to talk more with you and find out more about what we just discussed, where can they find you? How can they contact you?
[00:36:26] Mary: I think the best way to get me is mary@maryoluonye.com.
[00:36:35] Mary: So it’s just Mary at my name, Mary O-L-U-O-N-Y e.com. And yeah, the best way to catch me is email. Email, at this point. I also have a website. This is my writing website. That would be www.maryolunye.com. And I have my travel website, which is being worked on, updated. If you email me, I can give you that website as well.
[00:37:07] Mary: But the name of my company is celmartravelmentors.com. And we’re here, if you have any questions. So many people do call me and they’ll just have a question or two. No question is ridiculous. I usually am very generous with my time. If you need further information, we can go there later, but call me, email me and I’ll get with you. Not a problem.
[00:37:34] Paula: And so folks, that was Mary Olonye. She’s the co owner of Celmar Travel and Tours, Africa’s travel planning and tour operator, that’s based in the U. S. and Ghana. You can hear the passion in her voice. You can see the passion in her eyes when she talks about Ghana. And as she said. No question is too silly, is too difficult for her to answer, or is too dumb for her to answer.
[00:38:01] Paula: She’ll answer them all regarding Ghana. Visit her. Learn more about what she’s doing. And if you like to be… a Guest on this show, please reach out to me, Paula Okonneh at chattingwiththeexperts. com or you can visit my website, which is chattingwiththeexperts.com go to the contact us page and apply.
[00:38:26] Paula: And of course. If you’d like to be a guest, feel free to reach out to me in either one of those places. I’d love to have you on. Thank you again, Mary. And this was great. Now you make me want to go to Ghana today.
[00:38:42] Mary: Okay. Come on. Come on, we’re ready for you. Thank you for having me. This has been real fun.
[00:38:50] Mary: Thank you all.
[00:38:51] Paula: It has been fun. Thank you.