The Machete: Ghana's Answer to the Swiss Army Knife

I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw someone using a machete for a toothpick here. They’re used for everything, and everyone seems to have one. On the side of the streets, teenagers can be seen with carts of coconuts to sell, using machetes to carve the top into a point, cut open a hole to drink the milk, chop open the shell, and then intricately remove the delicate flesh for the customer (me) to eat. At the hotel we stayed at in Cape Coast, we were awoken by the sound of a man mowing the lawn – with a machete and a stick. One of the community development ministries run by Mercy Ships is to teach agriculture techniques to the women at a women’s prison. At the beginning of the program, the prisoners were all given (drumroll please) their own personal machetes. For serious. Ha.