Sunday, 26 February 2012

I spy with my little eye...more white people!!


I hope this blog doesn’t end up being too long, but I will fill you in on my weekend in Accra:

We were supposed to leave Thursday evening, but it poured rain like crazy making traveling ridiculous and the power went off from 3 in the afternoon til like 10am the next morning so that was just awesome too.
Instead, we spent time with Auntie Joe’s son, Samson and his friend Fiifi. They say “really?”/”are you suuure?”/ “am I clear?”/ “do you understand?” A LOT. It’s hilarious, and I realized that after making fun of it so much, I have started saying them too.

Friday we caught the trotro in the morning to Accra and got there around 9am. It was nice and cool in the morning from all the rain the night before, but the roads were worse and the potholes were all filled with water and the rivers were much higher. I am starting to wonder how ANY traveling gets done during the rainy season since it apparently rains for 4 days straight, stops for 2 and rains for 3 days again. Not looking forward to that...goodbye tan!
Belinda had some things to do in Accra this weekend, so she got off the trotro at Circle and told us to stay on until Accra. So we said goodbye and we were officially on our own.
We got off at “last stop” in Accra Central and we were lost for the first time. We walked around aimlessly for a bit to see if we could find our way, but no such luck. We called Akua for backup, and she talked to the taxi driver to tell him how to take us to the bank. For some reason, no one in Accra seems to know where the CalBank (our bank) is, so we have to tell them it is beside the ADB (Agricultural Development Bank) which I never remember the name of. Getting there is always a challenge.
The taxi driver was playing Top 40 music in English and he must have noticed that I was singing along (despite trying to cover up my awful voice), because he turned the music up real loud for me.

After the bank, we made our way with trotros back to Mummy Biney’s house. We had to do a bit of walking in between and we realized how nice it was to walk with just the two of us because we get places much quicker when we don’t have to go at a Ghanaian pace haha.
Mummy’s husband greeted us with a huge hug when we got there and Michael and Kwadwo were on their midterm break so they weren’t at school which was exciting! It was so good to see them again and Michael gave me a running and jump hug which made me smile real big. He was my bud all weekend long again.

Heart Shaped Cake for Petra's Birthday
In the afternoon, Petra and I decided to go to La Beach. It is just down the coast, but much nicer than Tawala Beach. We decided to go for Petra’s birthday since she couldn’t really do much for it in Asamankese. We got a free taxi ride to the beach, which was a plus. Most parents would frown upon it, but a taxi driver and his friend needed change for a 20 and we gave it to them. They asked where we were going so we told them, La Beach. They offered us a free ride, and against our better judgment, we jumped in. They asked us for our number, and I decided that it was rude to refuse it if they had given us a free ride, so instead I gave them the wrong number.
Things I found at the beach:
-there is still quite a bit of garbage at the beach. Samson told us not to go up to our waist in the water here because we would get a UTI...very comforting...I went in to my knees.
-the sand is white and BEAUTIFUL
-LOTS of white people go to this beach. It was very comforting not being the only white people
-as a foreigner, there is no such thing as relaxing on the beach. People come up to you like crazy selling fruit, paintings (they ALL claim to be artists here), beads, bracelets, etc.
-a guy did a “show” like a tiny busker performance on the beach. He was a gazillion-jointed and twisted his body in ways that a body should never go. I had to look away. It was gross.
-I got proposed to 4 times in 3 hours
-I got offered to ride this guys horse down the beach like 3 times
-one of the lifeguards wanted me to take him back to Canada with him
-I realized that Ghanaians think that Canada is in Europe (even Kujo, the supervisor from school thought that, and he`s a TEACHER)
-I saw a dead snake in the water...ew...

Beach
Depending on who was asking, there was a variety of responses that we gave to the men who approached us that day:
-we are students in Canada, we are married and have no children, Petra was married for a year and a half at one point, I had been married since I was 20, I don`t want to get married because I am way too young
We realized we could tell whatever stories we wanted to these guys and they would believe us. So we just had fun with it and told different stories to everyone.

The power went off in Accra too that night...maybe we are bad luck?

Saturday morning we hung out with the boys for a bit. Their cousins were over for the weekend, so that was fun. Lots of kids to play with.
We went to the Accra Mall to get some comfort food, and checked out Osu for fun in the afternoon. They have a lot of cool shops with African jewellery and masks and things. It also has a food court with Chicken Inn. Mmm.
We saw a TON of white people on Saturday. There was a white couple in Asamankese the other day, but we didn’t have a chance to stop to talk to them. We saw them in Accra of all places and introduced ourselves. Their names are Kjerstin and Carl, they have been married for 3 years and have been living in Ghana for 2 years. They are from Missouri. We exchanged contact information and we are going to meet up in Asamankese sometime. Exciting.

Osu
We also met a couple of people from Germany on the trotro to Osu. Believe it or not, we told THEM where to go. It felt nice to be less new than someone else and definitely gave us Ghanaian confidence.
They have KFC in Osu. It’s really expensive here, so we didn’t get it, but it was fun to see a familiar restaurant. It also has amazing A/C pumping in it.

When we got home, Michael and Kwadwo wanted to go to Tawala Beach before dinner, so we took them for a bit. We saw a guy from the States who we had seen at the bank a couple weeks earlier too. I think it was “white people in Ghana” day.
Tawala Beach with Michael :)

That evening, Awu and Serwa and their friend Fiifi (different Fiifi), took us out. We went to this really ritzy hotel (nicer than any hotel I’ve ever been to in Canada before) and we had milkshakes on the patio outside by the palm trees and the huge and beautiful pool. It was really nice to get out with people around our age and just have a night out; it was a lot of fun!
Afua, Petra, Me, Awu
This morning we got up and went to church with the Biney’s. It was in English, but honestly most of the time, I couldn’t tell. A lot of Ghanaians talk SO loudly into their mics and their accents are so strong that most of the service was spent trying to figure out whether they were speaking English or Twi. We couldn’t tell. I definitely get the most homesick during church services. So much so this time, that I literally prayed that I would hear ONE familiar song in English before the service was over...The last song I could sing every word!

We took the trotro back to Asamankese after church because I had to get back to teach my Business class. I was worried I would be late, but when we got to the trotro station in Accra, Anita was there too. Half my class was also trying to get back to Asamankese...haha...

The class went well, minus the fact that the power went off halfway through and we had to finish by lantern.
Teaching Class without Power
All in all, a great and refreshing weekend.

1 comment:

  1. No wonder you weren't in Accra on Thursday! Sounds like you guys had an awesome weekend...so jealous am I!
    RE: ghanaian pace - soooo slow!
    RE: more white people - I know the feeling ma dear and I'm so glad its given you such a perspective...enjoy it ohhhhh!
    RE: proposals - I was seriously cracking up ....too funny!
    RE:KFC - seriously go and get some, on me!
    RE: church service - the shouting into mics will not go away...except perhaps in a catholic church!
    ciao ciao!

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