Have arrived in Ghana
Trip Start
May 16, 2007
1
9
25
Trip End
Jul 28, 2007
Accra,
Ghana
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Iced tea at the harbourfront, the sun setting, a live band.
I love toronto.
In a bizarre set of circumstances - too complex to really bother trying to explain - Leslie and I have wound up renting a room in a house in Accra.
Through a friends' friends' friend, we're now living with an east indian nonprofit worker, a filipino christian non profit worker, and a muslim ghanian football player.
It's hilarious.
We're downtown Accra, in the kokomlemle region.
Our room has big windows, and lots of cool breezes. We have a cold shower - access to a fridge, a gas stove, a porch - a kitchen table. We were short a bed, but bought a foam one yesterday.
This house should be an interesting place to live.
We apparently get rationed power supply. So tonight we'll have no power for twelve hours. But we've had it all day and all night yesterday, and we'll have it until dinner time tonight.
There is no tv, no radio. Not that that is unusual.
We're living in one of the few muslim areas in the city, right between a bunch of mosques. So every morning at sunrise (5 am) there is a lot of allah calling.
The place is sparsely furnished - with a big laundry line running through the would be 'living room'.
There are more windows then walls, but there are screens, shutters and blinds.
Across the street there are little stands ( like there are all over the city) selling corner store goods - there is a seamstress and a couple of hair salons. All the names of the businesses refer to their faiths. iko shei Allah fashion ( meaning " god is able fashion") and 'In God We Trust' convenience store. But the places are full of beautiful happy business women who are brimming with welcoming words. Friendly children come running out of the place to give high fives and stare at us.
Ghana..
I'm inspired by the resourcefulness of the people here.
Its kinda unique in my experience so far.
The ghanians I've met and understood so far - aren't still. They aren't just surviving, they're actively progressing.
Experts at everything, it seems.
Their crafts are stunning.
It's hot here. Really humid. And - they sell things like:
Handkerchiefs (which have saved our lives)
Little cold bags of fresh water are sold for pennies.
Little bags of iced yogurt.
I've been to other hot african cities - and they do none of this.
If you want a drink in Dar es Salaam - you have to drink it on site (they need the bottle back).
Here, it's not like you have to go looking for cold things - lady merchants approach you on the street. Carrying their products on their heads.
Things on your head. Brilliant.
I mean, in Tanzania and some parts of Kenya you would see it occasionally.
But here, everything! And I mean e-v-e-r-y-thing, is carried on their heads. Fantastic.
A week ago I was wincing watching ethiopian women carrying water jugs on their backs. Now I'm standing in awe at the ease with which the women dodge traffic, clothes lines, bump into people and carry stacks of items without using their hands.
I'm going to take some pictures to show you what I mean.
Yesterday we had a most ridiculous day.
I arrived early in the morning. And by lunch time - the heat of the day (and it was really really humid) we were downtown wandering a market. A fairly dense one, and some places were so compact, tented over - it seemed like it was night time.
But the heat, and humidity was suffocating. Literally, it was hard to breathe.
We were looking for towels and handkerchiefs and food. And our friends/guides are both football players - so they were both shopping for jeans and football cleats. We ended up in the 'guys' section of the market, exhausted, thirsty and being harassed from every corner. Merchants grab your arm, and hang on to you - if you don't swipe yourself free. There are open gutters everywhere, garbage to climb and cardboard tables to avoid. Its been a few months since I'd been to a place like it, and Leslie had never been to anything quite like it, so it was an interesting 'welcome to Accra'.
We also went to the equivalent of a walmart- a store that has everything from food to flat screen tv's. I'd kinda expected it to be like the ones in Nairobi. But it was anything but like them. The place had little light, and their were tons of people crammed around. There was one or two fans, but you couldn't tell they were on. And then - something else different here - we weren't actually allowed to pick up the items we wanted to buy. Even though they were sitting there on the shelves. There was a worker who would write down the ID of the items and then we'd pay for the items, and then with the receipt you could pick up what you bought.
Long process.
Anyway.
Last night I slept for twelve hours.
Haven't slept like that in ages.
It was good. And today is better.
