Four walls and a keyboard: Oh Accra

Four walls and a keyboard

'I love talking about nothing. It's the only thing I know anything about.' ~ Oscar Wilde

Friday, May 04, 2007

Oh Accra

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Well, not much to report on since I arrived back. I came last Thursday evening from Tamale, worked on Friday and then the lights were off on Friday night. Then the lights were on for two hours in the morning, from 6 am until 8 am. Then the lights were off until 5. Apparently there was some changes to the power grid near Techiman or something, that knocked the power out for the whole Northern Region. Then the lights were on for about 45 minutes, then off again for another hour, then on for the rest of the night. So I watched the Family Guy. Aaaah, raunchy American humor, how I’ve missed you! Thanks Squeeler, Stevie and Clint!

The lights were off again on Sunday during the day, and I went to church and then basically sweated my face off for the rest of the day. My heat rash has progressed from just being on my torso to including my back. I am sure that I’m not leaving a nice picture but I thought I would share. When the lights came on again I watched more Family Guy and enjoyed having my fan.

This week so far things have been quiet. I work when the lights are on, and when the lights are off, I sit outside and watch people, just like when I first arrived here. Today was market day and Raymond or I haven’t been gifted with mangoes lately so I actually had to go buy some at the market. It really broke the bank. I got a plastic grocery bag full for about 1000 cedis, or roughly 13 cents. Then after I bought them the man who is tutoring me in French brought me a bunch from his farm. I won’t be hurting for mangoes for a while.

I also got a phone call from Adowa, one of the CUA interns in Accra. Apparently there’s a man from the CCA in Ghana and he wants to meet with Jeanine and myself. He was wondering if we could meet him in Kumasi on Friday, or in Accra before Tuesday because that’s when he leaves. Anyone hear about advance notice?

Traveling here is not the same as traveling in Canada. I just can’t hop in a car and be there in one day. The bus ride to Tamale is at least seven hours. Then I would have to spend the night there and catch another bus in the day that will be at least another 8 hours. I was a little bit more lenient on the man over the phone because I do understand that he came straight from Canada, but still. Even in Canada I would need a little bit more time. Besides, I have a date with some sacred crocodiles in Navrongo this weekend.

Raymond is taking me up to Navrongo for the Catholic Church’s 100th anniversary of being in Ghana. There’s a village just north of Navrongo where you buy a chicken and you can feed it to crocodiles and then sit on their backs. Pretty cool!

May 4, 2007

Right now I am in Accra getting ready to go to Liberia. Today I went to the Liberian Embassy to get my visa with the SEND accountant, Freeman. I should be getting it by Monday, just in time to catch the airplane on Wednesday.

I came by a different bus line last night, I am still sticking by my vow to avoid STC. This time I took Imperial from Tamale to Accra, and I didn’t mind it that much, actually it was a lot better than STC. The bonuses were that it was cheaper, the baggage handlers were much more helpful, it went overnight so we got here early in the morning, and it was fast, and the best of all, it actually left the station ON TIME. No 6 hour delays!

What else can I say about Accra, it’s still the same. It’s hot, busy and expensive. Well, at least a lot more expensive than what I am used to. While I am here I have to get my tickets switched to go back to Canada, visit with the CUA interns, see the Kpandai MP and some other people from Kpandai, and visit Koala Supermarket in Osu.

This is what else that’s been happening of the past couple weeks. I did get up to go Navrongo with Raymond and his fiancée Vivian for the centenary celebrations. I really enjoyed the trip. We left Saturday morning and it was only a couple hours drive from Tamale to Bolgatanga, where we had lunch and checked out the first mass to celebrate the centenary, then we headed towards Navrongo. On the way we stopped to visit some of Raymond’s relatives in some villages outside of Navrongo, including Raymond’s dad who gifted me with some guinea fowl eggs. We got to Navrongo and it was very busy because it was market day, but I like market days.

From there we headed to Paga, a town just about on the BUrkina Faso Border. Paga is known for their ecotourism and they have sacred crocodile ponds there. The village things that the number of crocodiles in the ponds equals the number ofpeople in the village, and that if a crocodile dies, someone in the village will die.

At the ponds you can buy a chicken, then some guides will call out a crocodile from the pond and you can get a picture with the croc. Then the guides will feed the chicken to the croc. So that's what we did, it was pretty cool, although I was a bit scared to do it! But it was wild, it was like the guides were talking to the crocodiles, that they could tell them to sit, or go back into the water, and stuff like that.

From the ponds we went across the road and visited this small museum where they built some houses in the traditional style, out of mud with a flat roof. The guide was telling us that during the slave trade the people would hide on the tops of their roofs while the slave traders came around, and then would come back down from the tops when the traders went away.

From the museum we went to the border with Burkina Faso. Talk about lax security. The Ghanaian Immigration officials let us walk across into the no-man's land between the two border crossings, and I was seriously one foot away from crossing into Burkina Faso when an immigration lady pulled us over and said that I could not cross because I did not have a visa. I am sure that if I was not white I would have been speaking French in Burkina!

We spent a bit of time visiting friends and family of both Raymond's and Vivian's, but the next day we travelled into Bolgatanga to see the sunday mass at the cathedral there. What can I say about church mass, it was church, but there was some parts where they had traditional dancers and drumming which was very nice.

As for the rest of my time in Kpandai and surrounds, nothing much has changed. Mangoes are still crazy cheap, I still have heat rash, and work is work.

posted by angelina @ 9:13 AM

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