First impressions take two (or would that be second impressions?)

The Accra group

Our neighborhood in Accra

After our first night, our group of 18 split into two - one group left for the Volta region, and my group settled into life in Accra.  Our mornings began with breakfast in the hotel - toast, eggs,  tea, and pineapple juice (or just toast, tea, and juice for me - I willingly gave my egg to the growing teenager in our group).  Akins, our tro-tro driver for the duration of the trip, would pick us up and wisk us to our destination for the day.  And by wisk us up, I mean, he'd get there
when he'd get there (we usually told him to come an hour before we wanted him to arrive) and he almost never knew where he was going so we always got the extra-long scenic tour.  He was our first introduction to "Ghana-time."  But he was a good guy and we learned to just go with the flow.

another Accra neighborhood

Our first day we set off to the Grace Life International School, about an hour away in the suburbs.  The daily drive to the 'burbs gave me a chance to see a lot of the city and city life.  Accra is a really busy city. There are little shops every
where.  I thought it was interesting that many of shops seemed to be made from converted metal shipping containers - very resourceful!

recycled shipping container

Driving around also made me realize how difficult the city is to navigate.  There is no public transportation system, though many people take tro-tros which seem to be their substitute for a bus system.  The roads are really busy.  The main roads are paved, but most of the side streets and neighborhood streets are not.  We saw a few people in wheelchairs begging on the streets, but the streets really are inaccessible to wheelchairs.  There are no curb cuts to the side walks...the sidewalks are busy anyway, the roads are crazy with traffic.  When I think about Ghana's desire to increase disability rights, a major obstacle they will have to tackle is transportation - finding ways for people in wheelchairs to have independence in movement around the city.

selling plantain chips during rush hour

One of my favorite things about Accra is the street vendors.  People walk up and down the streets, through traffic, weaving between cars carrying baskets of goods on their heads.  It was amazing. They carried anything and everyone on their heads: plantains, water, watermelon, sunglasses, windshield wipers, a machete, toilet paper...you name it they have it.    I kept thinking how many times I forget to pick up toilet paper on the way home from work and how convenient it would be for the vendor to be right outside your car window with it - I'd never run out :)  Somehow though, I don't think it would fly in the U.S.

anyone need sunglasses?

Another past-time during the long drives through the city was reading all the religious-themed shop names.  Ghanaians tend to be very religious, many of them are evangelical Christian, and as such they like to proclaim their faith.  One way they do this is through the names of their shops.  Some examples: "The Lord is My Light Beauty Salon," "God is my Redeemer Fashion Store."  There were some creative names out there....

One thing that I was very surprised about was the Muslim presence in Accra.  I knew about 18% of Ghananians were Muslim and that the largest proportion of Muslims are in the Northern part of the country, but there was definitely a strong presence in Accra too.  Our hotel was near a Muslim neighborhood and we could hear the call to prayer every evening. There is also a huge mosque being built - it will be gorgeous when it is done!  I didn't notice any overt conflict among the Christians and Muslims in Accra.  There was at least one Muslim guest at the hotel we were staying at and I did not see him treated any differently.    

Mosque in Accra

Dinner at the White Bell

After our long days out and about in the city (I'll write about that in another post), we would go back to our hotel, clean up and head out to dinner.  There were three restaurants in our neighborhood that we frequented.  The one we went to the most was a traditional Ghanaian restaurant called White Bell.  My favorite meal was called red-red.  It is a Ghanaian dish of black-eyed peas cooked in spicy tomato-based sauce with palm oil.  I usually had it over chicken and with fried plantains.  Another classic I discovered at the end of the trip is called groundnut soup with rice balls.  It's a peanut soup with a ball of sticky ground up rice - delicious.  I was a little adventurous one afternoon and tried homemade banku which is a paste of cassava and corn mean served in a fish broth with okra.  You grab a bit of the paste with your fingers and use it to scoop up the soup. Because of the okra, the soup was slimy and I had a hard time getting it down. But at least I tried it!

We often had the local beer, Star, with our dinner.  It's a pretty generic pilsner in my opinion - the Bud of Ghana.  But after a long day working in the heat there was nothing more refreshing! There was also another local beer that I really loved, Castle, and they made a delicious milk stout.  Sadly, White Bell did not carry Castle so I didn't get that as often.

red-red chicken with fried plantains

groundnut soup with rice balls

Our evening routine usually ended with a walk to the gas station for water and ice cream, then back to the hotel to relax and get some sleep before we started it all over again the next day!