The use of travel is to regulate imagination by reality and instead of thinking about how things may be, to see them as they are - Samuel Johnson

Ghana!

          By far the most hot and humid place we’ve been on this voyage. You would step outside and then 5 minutes later be sweaty. Other than the heat Ghana was pretty cool, lots of cool people and a very different atmosphere.

Day 1:

          The one problem about Ghana is that we dock in Tema, which is about a 45 minute drive away from Accra, the main city. The ship provided shuttles, but they weren’t very timely and could only fit so many people. But once you got where you were going it was great. One of my friends knew people who were study abroad at the University of Ghana, so we met up with her and she showed us around. Well first we ate at a Portuguese fast food place near the bus that had air conditioning and then we were off. (Side note: A chicken sandwich with pineapple has become one of my favorite sandwiches. I had one in South Africa too) She took us by trotro to the university where we got to see her room and walk around. (The van thing that I ended up in in South Africa was a trotro, or the South African version of it. Except in South Africa the van only seated 14. Here it’s 20 or more). After we headed back to Oxford Street, probably one of the main touristy places in Accra. Though it really wasn’t that touristy. We grabbed milkshakes at this place called Frankies and then wandered the vendors. When we were by one of the music places we started to talked to some of the vendors, mainly a young guy named Joseph and before we knew it they were putting on an impromptu concert for us. It was great. The group of us then headed off to find food, which we found at this place right near the bus stop where a man name Lawrence was serving us burgers without the burger, which was pretty good. So ends day one.

 

Day 2:

          So it took two hours for the shuttle to show up. But it was ok, because I made friends with 2 police officers and 1 security officer at the port waiting for it. Ghanains are pretty cool people to talk to, and here I definitely knew it wasn’t because they wanted me to buy anything. There were a few cultural miscommunications which was weird- for once we were both speaking the same language and there are still some confusion. Or maybe I attribute more errors to language barriers in other places than I should have.  Anyway today after trekking it into Ghana we met up with the Brooke again, the study abroad student, and she took us this huge market where there were a huge amount of locals. Again we went by trotro, which makes any experience much more fun. We also got to try this frozen yogurt thing in a bag. You just rip off one end and you’re good to go. They do the same with the water here, they’re sold in bags. They do also sell coconuts fresh, like they did in Vietnam. We spent most of the morning in the market before heading back to the university again where we go to eat for 50 cents in the cafeteria.  From there we headed back to Oxford Street where we wandered through the vendors till we decided to start the journey back to the ship.

 

Day 3:

          Today I went on a trip to a village about an hour and a half outside of Accra.  When we got to the village we participated in a naming ceremony where we were given African names. They would call you up tell you two names, one is based on the day you were born on and I have no idea how they decided on the second. You would be give a bracelet and a pot with your new name on it and could shake the hands of the village elders. Of course this whole ceremony was distracted from when kids started to play with all of us. We got to walk around the village and see how people make the pots and cloths with traditional methods. We learned that the village was mainly a fishing village and if you want to make money you have to go to the city which is where you see people from the villages selling things on the highway and the streets. After we left we headed to these hills where we hiked up into a cave where people used to live before colonialism and it was beautiful. That is if you ignored the bats and bees. It was great to get out of Accra for a bit.

Day 4:

          We went into Tema, the port city for a bit before heading into Accra again. Today was really about getting last minutes things done, buying gift if you hadn’t already at the markets and getting in real food before making your way back to the ship. One of the coolest things we saw in the markets was this table decorated with all these beads for the world cup. It had all of the flags of the participating countries and was just beyond epic.  The highlight was running into James again. He was this vendor who made bracelets; he came in to the city when he had time off from his other job. I met him the first day when one of my other friends started to talk to him. He made me a bracelet the first day and I ended up giving it away to one of the kids in the village so I asked him when I was waiting for a ride back to make me another. I think he has been one of the coolest people I’ve met.  His whole theory was about how you have to humble yourself before others, that’s how you learn.

 

And that was my Ghana. Sorry it took so long to get up. Things are going by so quickly it’s hard to keep track. On that note it is the 101^st day of the 101^st voyage of semester at sea with a week to follow. Things are coming to an end really fast. Next port is America, that in itself feels weird.