Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Ghanaian weekend adventures

This weekend was thankfully very busy and quite intense  - how I like them really.

Saturday was spent at the Red Cross National Youth Day at a Botanical Garden outside of Accra.Getting there, in true Ghanaian  style, took  ages with lots of waiting in a long line for Tro Tros in a dusty paddock.When we finally got there we found hundreds of kids running around enjoying the outdoors and taking part in Red Cross activities. My job was to help handing out the juice which was totally fun.  



Although, one big difference between Ghana and Australia is that here they have no problems in leaving litter. Partly because there are hardly any bins but... I don't know. My bag becomes full of my own rubbish that I just can't bring myself to let drop.   



Getting back involved taking a shared taxi with four strangers to an unknown location. The driver thought it would be funny to drive at about 100 KPH into on coming traffic, but we made it out alive.

With the blessing of my Boss, I got to go to Cape Coast for two days. Cape Coast is famous for its connection with the slave trade. It was a strange experience walking through the "door of no return" and also the church directly above the male slave cell - seriously, how could they?   

But looking out over the beach that is below this Door of No Return, it was nice seeing people enjoying the beach and local boys having a casual game of football. Which, considering, their passion for football, they took very seriously. It was nice to hear that in 2008, either some the descendants of people that were taken as slaves or their remains were taken back through the door as a symbolic gesture. Breaking the chain so to speak.


The rest of the day want spent walking around and hanging out, although the constant interest by the local men began to get a little annoying. They are often so insistent to "take me as a friend" or to get my number.

waiting
This morning began by waiting for the bus what didn't seemed to be coming but suddenly a Tro Tro appeared out of no where with a kid hanging out of the door shouting "Accra, Accra". Awesome, I thought as I managed to score a seat. 






After finally getting home, I enjoyed a coffee and started doing the washing - by hand. 

It is now the half way point of my Ghanaian adventure, I starting to get into a routine such as to doing the laundry by hand and not using the water out of the tap. Finding the right tro tro to work from Nima Markets has long stopped being a challenge!!           


Nima Markets

It is sad to think that there is only two and half weeks left before the long journey home but I am sure it will be an awesome couple of weeks.    








2 comments:

  1. Wow - what an adventure - love the photos

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love it! It sounds incredible. (Sonia, Perth).

    ReplyDelete

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