Blogs from Greater Accra, Ghana, Africa - page 66

Having a fab time. I didn't yet get to see Eric's entry from yesterday, but he claims to have accurately described our day. Today is even more humid than yesterday. Sweat is pouring out of me as if from a faucet, much to Eric's amusement. We did another epic walk today covering some of the same ground as yesterday, but this time with a couple of missions in mind. Hopefully, Eric will load up the photos resulting from one mission - changing money. You'll understand when you see the pictures. It's great to be back in Africa for me. Ghana seems like it's going to be a brilliant place. It's always complicated to be in Africa, but it is always deeply rewarding and always powerful. All the impressions force one to recognize deeper truths about one's ... read more

Whew! After a little over 18 hours of traveling, I'm finally in Accra! The flights here were relatively uneventful, although I did sit next to two Baptist ministers on the flight from Amsterdam to Accra, both of whom were organizing ministries in Ghana. They were actually from Georgia and one of them grew up in Jacksonville, Florida...small world :) After I arrived yesterday, Jessica Vernon (a friend from Stanford) picked me up at the airport and took me to a hostel (Ampax) where I'll be living until a room opens up at the Obruni House (where some of the other interns are staying). After settling at Ampax, we went to the Obruni House, had a few beers, and then went to Masters for dinner. There I had my first encounter with Ghanaian food...rice with 2 pieces ... read more

Ghanaian Service Ghana is the land of contrasts: heat to AC, north to south, Christian to Muslim, Bebeni to Obruni, etc. One of these contrasts is service. It’s amazing how drastic the level of service can change from one restaurant to another or from a taxi to a tro-tro. The Royal Garden Restaurant in the Aburi Botanical Gardens is one example of the kind of odd service one can receive in Ghana. After walking in and initially seeing nobody to be found, a waiter appeared from the back room as we seated ourselves and asked “would you like food?” I thought that would be obvious but it was still a fair question. I was more surprised that after we replied ‘Yes’ he just stood there and looked at us. After an awkward moment we asked if ... read more

Okay, I hope I'm not bombarding you 'subscribers' with blogs...in actuality, I forgot my journal on a trotro the first day i was here and therefore am using this to remember my experiences...feel free to skim of course!:) Speakin' of trotros.... 1) Trotros are what I call "the ultimate car-pool":) I do not believe they are for the faint of heart or the weak stomach...ha....trotros are vans that squeeze 25 or more people into them...they are hot, sweaty, and cramped. Since most of the roads here are unpaved, the trotros rattle and toss as we hit pot-hole after pot-hole, and sometimes it sounds as though they will fall apart mid-travel:) For tourists, the trotro systems seems chaotic at first, (there is no time schedule for pick-up) and yet in time, it becomes evident that there is ... read more

Come on Black Stars, Ghana One big part of Ghanaian culture is football (or soccer for most Canadian folk). Especially these days since Ghana has recently made World Cup history. Last thurday, Ghana became the first African team to make it to the final sixteen teams in the FIFA World Cup. This makes already fanatical fans around here absolutely insane. The whole country is celebrating and to some extent the rest of Africa. Ghanaians have become extremely proud that they are representing the whole of Africa in the last part of this tournament. All this means that one has to be very careful about who they cheer for around here. This is yet another reason why it's great to be Canadian. Since Canada absolutely sucks as a soccer nation, we are not in the world cup ... read more