Accra, Ghana: Journey & First Impressions

Well, it's hot here. Bet you couldn't guess that, huh?

Right now, my body is in denial of having crossed 5 time zones, so I had a hard time sleeping last night (Body: "Why are you sleeping fool, it's only 6 PM!" Mind: "DEAR GOD, why won't you let me sleep?!?!"). Pardon me if any portions of this post are complete nonsense. I've only been here for (not quite) two days, but I at least wanted to give you some notes about my journey here to Accra and my initial impressions of the city. I must confess that I'm going to ignore Blogger's tip to increase readership by "keeping posts short."

The Journey
The trip didn't start well. At Newark, I was stopped for having some unknown, potentially dangerious chemical found on the outside of my carry-on bag. "I've never seen anything like this before!" the TSA dude cheerfully told me. Pat-down and my designation as a potential terrorist ensued. They let me go eventually. Suckers.

I flew on Lufthansa Airlines, because it was the cheapest option and so I could accrue sweet frequent flier miles. Bottom line: excellent service, terrible food. One of my on-board snacks was something called "Pizza America." Because, you know, nothing says "America" like corn and carrots on your pizza. I've also concluded even more definitively that German is really cool sounding, and that my German-learnin' at the Goethe-Institut in Chicago was woefully inadequate. I did get to use my (non)skillz during my layover in Frankfurt, though (Me: "Haben Sie Mineral-wasser?" Surly German clerk: "Nein.").

So the flight was smooth and fairly uneventful, save for the very cool part of flying over the Sahara desert. First off, let me say flying over the Sahara was extremely cool. It's very...yellow. But the first thing that really hits you is how huge the desert - and thus Africa - really is! Here I shall begin my tirade about how racist our world maps are. I mean, the flight from Frankfurt to Lagos/Accra is about 6 hours, and we were over the Sahara for a good 3.5 - 4 hours. That's like flying from New York to California! And then you look at the map of the world, which depicts that Northern Africa is comparably sized with Europe. WTF?!?! For example, Ghana is actually the size of Great Britain. Check out a typical map and see how puny it looks in comparison. The (Democratic People's Republic of) Congo is approximately the size of all of Western Europe! Racist maps! ARRGH!

Arrival at Kotoka International Airport was a little different. Instead of your airplane taxi-ing to a gate (where you would walk through a tunnel and thus end up in the airport), the plane literally just parks on the tarmac, and you de-board and end up outside the plane, right on the tarmac. You then ride a bus to get to the airport's single Arrivals gate. As I rode the bus, I couldn't help but think that it was a very Speed moment - you know, during the second half of the movie, when they are driving the bus around LAX? It was almost like that, except Keanu Reeves didn't rescue me, and the bus obviously didn't blow up.

Accra: First Impressions
Accra is the capital of Ghana, and it's also the biggest city. It's very sprawling and, like most non-American cities, doesn't have much going upward. There are few high-rises here, and most buildings are probably 2-3 stories tall. It's admittedly not the prettiest city, but it's functional (as far as I can tell!).

The first thing you notice about the streets (besides the fact that they are winding, dusty, and sidewalk-less) is that they have open sewer/drainage systems on both sides. That is, there is basically a one-foot open ditch on each side of the road. Combined with the fact that cars are free to drive down whatever direction they please (no lanes marked on the street), the average pedestrian must manage to get to his/her destination without getting hit by a car or falling into an open sewage ditch. It's quite an adventure everytime you step out the door.

The activity on the street is constant. Kids playing soccer, people rushing to their destinations, ladies carrying/peddling their wares (I saw one woman impressively carrying an entire bakery on her head), loads of little stalls lining the streets. This leads to a constant din in the city, which, combined with all the different animals on the streets, can be quite interesting.

There are your typical dogs howling (perhaps a bit more ferociously), but it's worth noting that the cats are scary business here. They sound like babies crying or, worse, people pretending to meow. I have only heard them so far, but - judging from sound alone -I don't really want to see them. In addition to the man-cats, therer are also chickens, roosters, and goats - all of which are conveniently located next door to my residence! I curse the rooster who has a messed up circadian rhythm and decides to crow at 1:30 AM and 3:00 AM each morning, thereby causing the man-cats, dogs, and goats to awaken from their slumber. DAMN YOU, ROOSTER!

Ghanaian Moolah
The monetary unit here is the cedi, which exchanges at a rate of about C$9,000=US$1.00. This weird exchange rate is thoroughly confusing to me at this point, because I'll look at something and think, "Whoa! It's C$30,000! That's pricey!" when in fact, it's about US$3 and very reasonable. Hopefully, I'll get used to it soon and move past shoving large wads of cedis to cashiers and shrugging (I did this yesterday).

Food & Drink
Basically, Ghanaian cuisine is low carb hell. That's probably why I like it so much. It's very starchy (beans, plantains, yams) and tasty, with a tendency towards the fried and oily. Yum. Then again, any cuisine where fried chicken and chips (i.e., fries) are the staple is OK by me (note earlier ranking of Harold's Chicken Shack). This cuisine is admittedly not the best for me, but I'm hoping that my planned diet (Equatorial Heat + Walking + Potential for Malaria/Parasite = Weight Loss!) will take care of all that. ;)

As for drink, let's just say the booze here flows like, er, wine! It's certainly accessible and very cheap - about the same price as soda (or "mineral", as they say here...I like that better than "pop"). US$1.50 will get you a huge 1/2 liter of Guiness. SWEET. I must note, however, that I was horrified to learn that Red Bull has also taken over this country. Sigh!

My Digs
I am currently staying with Yinka, a friend of a friend, and a very cool person. She runs her own media company and has been a great host so far. She'll be teaching me a little bit about video editing, and I'll be helping her with a movie project that she and my friend, Andrea, have been working on. Fun stuff.

I have my own room in Yinka's apartment, which is pretty nice and well-equipped with a mosquito net (yay!). It's on the top floor of a building in a part of town called Asylum Down (yes, it's near an Asylum. Apparently, the patients escape frequently! So it's not just a clever name.).

I'm also proud to report that daily showers are indeed possible here! The only quirk is the plumbing: when someone outside is pumping water, the running water inside stops. This is not really a problem, but it has happened at inopportune times ("Doo, doo...washing my hair, oops, shampoo getting into my eyes...that's OK, I'll just use a little water to wash it away...hey...HEY...WTF?!?"). Such is life, though!

And with that said, I'm off to explore Accra on foot! I'll report back with more soon...

PS Some Asian people just walked into the Internet cafe, and we had a moment of "Hey! You're Asian! And so am I!" Glad that happens everywhere.