Ghana Time

Nancy and I got up early to catch the first (8 am) bus into Accra since it was a 45 min ride.  We climbed on the bus with some other early risers and sat.  Elsewhere on the dock, other SASers were waiting for trips to various destinations like a drumming workshop, Habitat Visit, etc.Things were not moving very fast, and we were missing a few buses for trips.  Welcome to "Ghana time".  Ghana's propensity to not worry about schedules is exacerbated by infrastructure problems that ripple throughout.  Vehicles break down since they are used vehicles that are imported with high mileage, and traffic overwhelms the highways during rush hour.  Our driver said he was not supposed to leave until he had a full bus, but that was not the case, so we got away at 8:40.

A bus trip does offer the opportunity for sight seeing--giving you a snapshot of the culture.  I think we have all become better observers during this trip since a lot of discussions center on things that we have seen and our efforts to understand them. When we arrived in Accra, we stopped first for a good cup of coffee.  I've learned to love coffee with hot milk.

Our first goal for the day was to visit the Makola Market where people in Accra shop.  Most of the stalls are operated by women who are very friendly and love to greet you.  These two ladies welcomed us happily.  There is no pressure from the shopkeepers since they don't normally deal with the tourists.  Picture these two stalls above and duplicate them about 1000 times and cram them in a space with about a 3 ft path as the grid and you've got Makola Market.  It was too overwhelming to buy anything but fascinating to see.  One huge section was devoted to fabric, another to shoes, another to foods, another to bras, another to stainless steel cookware.  We even wandered through a section about half a football field filled with people with sewing machines who would make clothes to order.  Walking was at your own risk, and you mostly got swept along with the tide. Nancy and I had to keep ducking as we met women carrying things on their heads.

Makola is one of the largest markets, but the market concept is duplicated throughout Ghana, and we saw a number of them everywhere.  This one was mostly covered with lots of traffic

 We passed by the Greater Accra Regional Library, and I had to stop in.  I met one of the librarians--Charlotte--and she gave us a tour.  Like most libraries, they could use more funding for more recent materials.

Then we proceeded to walk to the National Cultural Center, or the "Arts Center" as it is more commonly known as.   It was open on Sunday, so most of the students has been the previous day.  When you walk in, someone grabs you like a car salesman, and you seem to be their  person while you are there.

It has a huge collection of African crafts like masks, drums, clothing and jewelry.  We were off to meet Kojo Boateng who designs and makes jewelry.  I introduced myself, and he said he had been expecting me.  Kojo was recommended by Edith Boateng who is a friend at the Univ of Virginia.  Edith is Kojo's Mama which means there is a relationship but not necessarily his mother.  Kojo had some great items in his shop, and we were able to shop here in comfort without the pressures of all the sellers in the booths.

We had to leave for a short time to meet our friend Michael at the entrance for lunch.  He talked us into an interesting lunch. Nancy had fufu and I had a dish of bantu which is like dough that you break up and dip into a stew with goat meat.  They were both spicey, but the fufu is kind of like uncooked bread dough in consistency.

Michael accompanied us back to Kojo's shop and ran interference.  That was a super service to allow us to shop without a lot of pressure.

We bought some nice things from Kojo and headed down through the other sections.  Michael was a great help, and our guides disappeared.  He helped me negotiate for a Ghana soccer jersey, and Nancy got some earrings.  But we were getting pretty tired and Michael needed to get back to work, so we caught a cab, dropped Michael off and stopped for some ice cream at Frankie's.

  Here we watched the tro-tros work.  It is a unique solution to the public transportation problem.
We eventually made it back to the place where the shuttle bus was to pick us up.  The bus was scheduled to run on the hour and we were back ty 4:40 to catch the 5 p.m. bus, so we settled in with a strange fruit juice from a small market across the street.

One of our students who was waiting for the bus had bought a soccer ball, so a few of them started kicking it around.

They were soon joined by one of the employees of the Kofi Center where we were waiting.

Pretty soon, they were joined by more students and some of the guys who had been trying to sell us stuff.  These guys even asked me to watch their stuff for them. Soccer is huge here, and they party in the streets after a win.  As a result, even these guys working the streets have some pretty good skills.

Finally, after everyone had settled in at around 6:20, a bus arrived to take us back to the ship.  That was Ghana time, but we saw what can happen in the meantime.