First Full Day in Accra

Trip Start Mar 11, 2005

Trip End Mar 27, 2005

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Flag of Ghana Accra, Ghana
Sunday, March 13, 2005

We woke to the sound of singing - really belting it out - many voices coming from the church down the street. It went on for hours! Don't forget the house was all closed up with the air on, and we could still hear them! What a nice sound. Marian made us scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast. Since Kelan doesn't eat eggs, the oatmeal packages we brought came in handy. I found out I forgot all the little packages of ketchup and vinegar I'd been hoarding for months! I don't believe it! I've never forgotten to pack them before. But I did remember the jar of Kraft peanut butter and it saved the morning. OK, so the eggs were a bit strange, little did we know this would become the theme of the holiday - the food looks the same but tastes different. After we organized the suitcases we were ready to head out to do some exploring with Sylvester. Always at the ready, you'd find him dozing in the truck in the driveway in case we needed him. Being Sunday, and not having any cedis (Ghana currency) our choices of where to change money were limited

Caught Ya!

. We thought we may have to return to the airport, but Sylvester drove us to a small shack, a Forex, that changed money. We changed $200 US and received 1,800,000 cedis. The hand painted sign of the rates of exchange were hilarious to look at especially when we figured out one of the listings was supposed to be the Canadian flag. Our maple leaf looked more like a stalk of wheat or something. The rate for Canadian $ was 7000 and for US 9000 cedis. I made sure I got a receipt for the exchange as I had heard you needed to produce these receipts when leaving the airport as they checked to be sure no visitor was exchanging money on the black market - but no one at the airport ever asked for anything. Next we wanted to buy some groceries so Sylvester took us to a Shell gas station where we bought some water, pop and beer and I just know we paid too much. We stopped at a market stall to buy some fruit - I think the bananas had seen better days and if you know me well, you know I don't eat bananas unless they are still tinged with green. We also bought some apples and a cucumber and - what a find - white potatoes. While I was trying to decide what to buy, the lady in the stall kept hitting me/fanning me with a handful of plastic bags. I'm not sure whether I looked hot (boy was I - I could just feel the sweat running down my legs) or whether she was swatting flies. OK, so tell me how all those people could be all dolled up and sit in church in this heat for hours on end and then be able to walk home for miles? The women looked beautiful in their long dresses, especially the ones with the matching head scarves. While driving around we noticed many different forms of attire from traditional dress to western style - but hardly any shorts on any of the men as they all wore long pants. The deal with the truck was that I had to pay for gas, so we filled up for 400,000 cedis.