Accra, Ghana

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Trip Start Jun 23, 2006 Trip End Jul 17, 2006 Next
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  Accra, Ghana
Monday, June 26, 2006

Hello from Ghana....it is hot and I am already sunburned. But I guess that is the price I pay for spending a very enjoyable day at the beach yesterday. I have made my first mistake of the trip just now and i am quite annoyed at myself. I have no way of getting money. None of the atms in this country will accept either my Lesotho or American atm cards because atms here only accept visa. I pride myself on being so organized and I have planned for this trip for months, and yet I overlooked this one mistake. Oh well. I will find a way.

I arrived here Friday night. My plane made a stop in Ivory Coast. I realized that within one week, I will have visited three of the five African countries that are in this year's world cup: Ghana, Togo, and Ivory Coast (even though I didn't leave the plane). It is crazy here with the World Cup. Every single radio station is talking about the World Cup and analyzing Tuesday's game against Brazil. You literally can't find a radio station that is playing music. TV stations are repeating the same interviews after the win over America. The streets are jammed with people selling ghana hats, shirts, flags. Every 5th car has a Ghana flag on it somewhere. I bought a SIM card today. I received a free Ghana hat that I will wear proudly tomorrow. Every time someone finds out I am from America, they do not hesitate in reminding me that they beat the US. I don't spoil their fun by telling them that I actually wanted Ghana to win...I let them think that I am disappointed America lost. I went to the most popular public beach in Accra yesterday. In the water while playing in the waves, a group of guys spontaneously started singing world cup/soccer songs for about 20 minutes. People just joined them and I found myself in the middle of a group listening to 15 people sing about how Ghana beat USA. It was pretty cool.

I have been treated wonderfully so far. Saeed, the Ghanaian teacher at my school, is having his family take care of me. They picked me up at the airport and I have been staying with two of his sisters. Saturday, we went an hour north of Accra into the mountains to the botanical gardens. Yesterday was the beach. And today Emma and I are shopping. I am busy buying jewelry and fabric. The women here have the most beautiful clothes...there are 50 times as many traditional patterns on fabric here than in Lesotho/South Africa. It has been very overwhelming to choose the patterns I want.

I have to go back to the Togo Embassy to pick up my visa and then off to the Benin Embassy to get my visa. I will leave here for Togo on Wednesday and then be back in Ghana a couple of weeks later to do the rest of my touring.

Ghana (and I assume this part of West Africa) is SSSSOOOOOO different than the Africa I know (southern Africa). It is so lush here. I feel like I am on a south Pacific island. It is humid and hot...at 6am, it is 80s. But the locals think that is cold. We didn't go to the beach until 1pm because we needed it to warm up!!! If it was me, I would have been at the beach at 7am because of the weather. The people here are truly warm and welcoming. I have been harassed a little by men, but NOTHING compared to what we get in Lesotho. I have been really shocked by that because I am so used to constant harrassment.

I must go. My time on the internet is almost over. I must figure out how to get money!

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