First days in Ghana

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My first days in Ghana have been simply very intense. Rich and spicy, full of colours and discussions. I am just not sure where to begin but I ll take it chronologically.

Arrived at the airport, I meet Hayford, a very friendly ghanean with plenty of creative ideas and some interesting business and entrepreneurial experience. I will work mainly with him during these 2 months and he is very passionated about the project, which bring some motivation in me to start working on it tomorrow. I spent already quite a lot of time talking with him about his experience, view on Ghanean politics and development... Keep meeting interesting people since I m here.

First day started quite early in the morning (I am usually awake at 7 because of the heat) and we went to a school where other volunteers are giving classes. Met up the whole 120 kids and was really a funny experience to see this mass of kids looking at you with big eyes as if expecting you to disappear in a kind of magic. I went then to Accra centre for a wonder around the city, visited the area where the people indigenous from Accra live. Traffic is usually dense and the tro-tro (small collective mini van/taxi) packed.

In the evening, I managed to get through the custom a fine bottle of Bordeaux which was slightly heating by the whether but still very drinkable. Nice evening talking politics and development with some ghaneans... Fairly impressive how much they know about what s going on in the world.

Saturday started fairly slowly (the rythm in general is not too harsh over here) and we went to the beach to swim a bit. I had quite good fun and discuss with an interesting malian who told me his life story... the guy actually brought some good produced in Mali and flew alone without his family to Accra to sell them there. He showed me his pictures and so... You really need kind of gutts to do this... especially when you re not sure when you ll be able to finance your return. We then ended in a bar asking some creativity from the waitress (the men were absolutely useless over there) to create some home cocktails... We had some very nice music, a very good mix of different style and great for dancing (I was fairly afraid at the begining as they started with a 'Take that' remix... the best ever)

Sunday was actually even better. Despite the little hangover from the night before, I decided to experience a local church to see what it's like (as you know I m not really the most religious person so don t ask me a deep analysis of worship practices). After receiving a customized pray from the local pasteur, we headed up in direction to the music... A very different religious show this time... People dancing, entering in kind of transe, firing some powder exploding with heavy fumes, men dressed as wariors... There is a wide creativity in the religion here... I even saw 'real' miracles direct on TV ;-)

A bit later, I decided to do a bit of sport because I have been eating so much since I m here that I felt a bit too much energy... Not easy when it s about 35 degrees... But I can tell you I made a lot of friends on the way. I couldn t even concentrate on running as I was constantly greated or stopped to be ask why on earth an o'browny (white person... not sure of the spelling though) was running in the dusty streets of greater accra... One even wanted to run with me but chickened out as he was not expecting me to say yes to his offer to join me on the run...

So here I am Sunday night and I will be off to bed soon as I am truly knackered. take care everybody and talk soon

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Comments

[Angy]

"creativity"...
C'est le mot qu'on retiendre! :) Contente d'avoir de tes nouvelles, et c'est un vrai plaisir de te lire... Ca ne donne pas envie d'aller bosser demain ;) ...plutot de prendre l'avion! Continue à bien en profiter, et à nous donner de tes news! bisous