I have decided that I will no longer post weekend plans on the blog before they actually happen. For two weekends in a row, the plans I mentioned in Thursday night's post were not the plans that we actually went through with.
Case and point - We never made it to the Volta Region this weekend. Two out of the six of us (myself included) got sick on Thursday and were not up to the 10-hour day of travel on Friday. We quickly reevaluated, and the remaining four decided to stay back so that we could a) all go to the Volta Region together another weekend, and b) continue to take weekend trips together as a group, rather than have us all on different schedules for the weekends.
Maybe I should say a little bit about the girls I live with. When I got here, there were about 12 of us in the house. Now, three have left, one is traveling for work, and we gained one more. Including two full-time Global Mamas employees, we have 10 girls in our house. Two of the volunteers are older than we, are here longer, and have already been to a lot of the places we are now visiting. So, that leaves us with a solid group of six for weekend trips from here on out. Four of us are entering our last year of undergrad, and the other two (including Erin) just finished undergrad. Four of us leave Ghana within three days of each other. Needless to say, by the time August rolls around, we are going to be pretty used to each other.
I digress. We made the executive decision to stay in Elmina on Friday and then travel to Accra and stay the night on Saturday. July 1st (Friday) is Republic Day in Ghana and the beach resort had been advertising a huge celebration for weeks. When we headed over to lunch at the resort around 1pm, the party had already started. From the restaurant in the hotel, we could see the pool, which, to quote Erin, looked like spring break. The usually desolate pool was full of bodies - bobbing to the music blaring from a nearby DJ booth. We discovered that the celebrity performances adversited on the huge posters were to take place at 4pm and 10pm. Still not feeling well, I did some reading and napping, waiting for 10pm to come. We ended up going across the street to Sea Top (general store that doubles as a bar) to kill some time. Ten pm came and went before we headed over to the beach resort to see if we could get a glimpse of some Ghanaian celebs. In typical Ghanaian fashion, the bouncer at the door told us they would not even be performing until midnight. The cover charge was 10 cedi (almost $7). Still wiped out from being sick, I decided to spent my 10 cedi on something better in Accra the next day, and called it a night along with Kara. The others stayed up to see the show, although the accounts from the next morning ("How was it?" "Eh. It was okay.") did not make me feel bad for going home early.
Saturday morning, we headed for Cape shortly after breakfast, where we picked up a fast van bound for Accra. Ghana offers multiple options for transportation. Never have I seen so many taxis zooming up and down the streets. However, taxis can be expensive, especially when traveling. There are public busses (STC busses) that travel between most large cities for a reasonable price. These are pretty comparable to chartered busses that we have in the U.S. One phenomenom that we do not have in the U.S., however, is the tro-tro. These large, overcrowded vans (often Mercedes, but OLD) are nearly as prevalent as taxis, and are probably the most popular way to travel across Ghana. People - moms, babies, grandfathers, businessmen, and the occasional Obruni - pile into the vans, strap belongings to the roof, and set off. I think of what a group of hippies taking a Volkswagen Bus to Woodstock might have looked like. The two can't be too far off.
I have not yet ridden in a tro-tro for multiple reasons, one of them being comfort. Thankfully, there are a number of 15ish-seater Ford vans (called fast cars) that are cheap like tro-tros, but have air conditioning. Another plus is that the fast car can stop to drop people off, but it will not pick anyone up once departing, which saves a lot of time. We were able to make the usually 3-hour trip to Accra in 2 and a half hours on Saturday. Depending on traffic, this trip can take up to 4 or 5 hours! We were thrilled to make it there so smoothly.
Although I have only been in Elmina for three weeks, I was looking so forward to our little visit to Accra. Even though I prefer living in Cape to Accra, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the shopping trips that my mom and her friends, and now me and my friends, take to Columbus as we headed toward Accra. In Cape, we rarely eat out (this doesn’t count Eli’s). “Shopping” consists of bargaining with street vendors. We sometimes go to the nearby Shell station to splurge on British crackers or candy bars. Life in Elmina is good, but it is by no means luxurious. In Accra, however, we planned to go to real restaurants, shop at a real mall, and splurge on foreign imports at Koala grocery store.
We reached Accra mid-day on Saturday. Hungry from the trip, we went to the place with great smoothies that I also went to my first weekend here. Unfortunately, they were out of avocados, so I couldn’t have the “Avocado Dream” smoothie. I went instead for the “Turbulent Passion” smoothie, which was an anticlimactic blend of banana and chocolate. After lunch we headed for the mall, remarking how much we felt like 17-year-old girls again.
The Accra Mall is probably the only mall in Ghana. We felt like kids in a candy store as we walked in, stepping gingerly on the white linoleum, pinching ourselves to make sure we were really going “shopping.” It even smelled like a mall. Well, it turns out that although the Accra Mall was very nice and fancy, the majority of the stores were selling things that we really did not need – expensive jewelry, bridal gowns, and interior decorations. They did have a Levi’s, Puma, and Swatch store, which seemed strange. We spent some time walking around and making sure there weren’t any stores we wanted to visit and then headed out. Some interesting items at the mall include:
-Used Old Navy flip-flops for 65 cedi ($40ish). These sell for $3 at home.
-Used Banana Republic leather flats also for 65 cedi. These sell for $80+ at home.
-Cheap swimming goggles for 30 cedi ($20)
-Birkenstocks (I didn’t want to check the price in case I decided to buy them. I had to leave mine at home and am missing them big time)
-A book called “Abraham Lincoln: The Civil War President”
-A bottle of Pantene Pro-V shampoo for 15 cedi ($10)
-Living in a small fishing town, we are not used to looking fancy. I’m pretty sure the majority of us brought only one outfit for the weekend – the one on our backs. In Accra, people make much more of an effort to be presentable, though. We saw a lot more high heels, “bling,” and handbags than we are used to.
I’ve mentioned that Ghana is not a country of strict traffic laws. Up to this point, our group of six was able to travel as one. We had our system for piling into taxis down: four in the back, two in the front, unspoken assigned seats. Mine was the right side of the front seat. Leaving the mall, though, we actually got pulled over for what the policeman called an “overload.” Apparently taxis are officially not allowed to have two people in the front seat. We had to split up, but all reconvened at the Global Mamas store in Osu. Not surprisingly, I spent a good bit of money there, with which I got two dresses, a cookbook (Eli’s recipes), small draw string bags to hold egg shakers at the school, and a basket to hold the “things” that clutter my room.
Next we walked over to the fancy grocery store Koala, which is full of novelties like cheese, dark chocolate, and whole wheat pasta. I was hoping to find some granola bars, but the closest thing they had was Nutri-Grain cereal bars for more than $1 each. It is a good thing I don’t live in Accra, though, because I have a feeling that after a while, I’d bite the bullet go to Koala on a regular basis. Leaving Koala, we were all laughing while imagining our first trips to the grocery stores back home. We decided that we will both be in shock (of the high prices) and awe (of the variety).
Too tired to head out to dinner at 9pm, we decided to order in from an Indian restaurant called Tandoor. All of the full time employees drool at the mention of it, and I know why. We felt almost human again as we sat in an air conditioned living room, watched “Brokeback Mountain” on a real TV, and ate delicious food out of take out containers. It was a good night.
In the hopes of spending some time at the pool on Sunday, we got up and headed back to Cape just after breakfast (smoothies at Melting Moments again!). Ignoring the warning we received the night before, all six of us piled in a taxi and headed to the fast car station. Like at home, Ghanaian radio stations like to play a lot of the same popular songs over and over again. One of these, “I Love My Life,” has become a group favorite, and probably my theme song for the summer. Ironically, as we headed toward the station, it came on the radio, and we couldn’t help but all sing along.
We made it back to Elmina without a hitch, and in record time – two hours. It was raining, so our hopes of a day at the pool were crushed. After a dinner of groundnut soup at Eli’s, we got ready for the week ahead and crashed early. Although it wasn’t the weekend we were expecting on Thursday night, it was a pretty good one, and I’m already dreading saying goodbye to this group of girls.
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