First day in Ghana (gordon)

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As of today we have been three days in Ghana. We landed in Accra on Monday night and then took a minibus and a taxi, all seven of us plus baggage, to the Crismon Hotel, which we discovered an hour later is located some 20 km east of Accra in the outlying town of Tema. Had a beer at the poolside bar and commiserated on the exhaustion of having travelled for about 28 hours (but who's counting).
The next day we hired a van and driver and went for a day-long tour of Accra and environs. First we went to the bustling port, not just the largest port in Ghana, but one that serves Niger and Burkino Faso as well. Grain elevators, warehouses and piles of containers. Driving west along the Atlantic coast, with breakers on the azure water; this contrasted with rather squalid scenery on land, much vacant land and rubbish tips; lots of shacks with p eople selling various goods. Surprisingly poor road with very slow traffic resulted in us taking a good three hours to reach the city.
We stopped at the cultural centre for a brief view of handicraft and textiiles, then toured the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial. This was a complex of a mausoleum, tower, fountains and pools in a square block, with a small museum. Interesting to me that Nkrumah was widely disliked at the time of his overthrow (1966) but has since been resurrected as a hero of the nation.
Later we visited the Canadian High Commission, and joined up with the last member of our group, Michael Proctor. The High Commisioner, Trudy Kernigha, as well as 2 members of her staff, Eileen Stewart and Nuala Lawlor (ex-Rotary Youth Exchange). The meeting was fruitful and enlightening, as they provided interesting context both for aid projects between Canada and Ghana, as well as about conditions in Ghana in general.
In the evening we went to African Heritaqe Hotel (swanky) to meet with Ghanain rotarians. Turns out there were 2 meetings of separate clubs; we attended both. The meetings were lively with most members being fined for real and imagined offenses.

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Photos

Canadian High Commission
Group Photo with Trudy Kerrighan

Comments

[James]

Safe and sound
Glad to hear your on the ground and doing well. Your missing important scene setting info. How's the weather and how's the food. As for us Calgary just got 10cm of snow :)

[Melanie]

Wow
Great news so far so how about some pictures with your next blog?? Take care and enjoy!!

[Ghanarotary2011]

Hello from Laraine
Hi Mel, we have not been very successful with internet while in our main stop. Sunyani. Or else we were traveling and no time. We are now in Wa for 4 days and found some time to find internet cafe. My main impressions of Ghana - HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gordon and I are of course off low carb diet!! Our main diet consists of fried egg & white toast for breakfast and rice and chicken, in various forms for lunch and dinner! Interspersed with fufu and banku which are mounds of dough made from yams, plaintain or corn. The are generally covered with a soup or stew. I just found out that you dont try to chew it, you just swallow balls of it that you dig out with your fingers. No like much. Laraine

[Ghanarotary2011]

Hi from Ghana - Laraine
Hi James, we have not been very successful with internet while in our main stop. Sunyani. Or else we were traveling and no time. We are now in Wa for 4 days and found some time to find internet cafe. My main impressions of Ghana - HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gordon and I are of course off low carb diet!! Our main diet consists of fried egg & white toast for breakfast and rice and chicken, in various forms for lunch and dinner! Interspersed with fufu and banku which are mounds of dough made from yams, plaintain or corn. The are generally covered with a soup or stew. I just found out that you dont try to chew it, you just swallow balls of it that you dig out with your fingers. No like much. MOM