To quench your eyeballs

Drinking water is sold in bottles(some may be glad to hear that Dasani is the most popular bottled brand), but also in sachets. Sachets are filtered water sold in sealed plastic bags. They're mad cheap (about US$0.03, as opposed to a ridiculous US$0.50 for a bottle!). You have to bite off a corner of the bag and suck from it. This is what I look like most of the time when I'm walking down the street in Accra. Most Ghanaians look as silly as me, sucking water out of plastic bags.



A view of Asylum Down from the penthouse flat where I’m staying. :) Note low buildings and cell phone / radio towers (and the tall building that seems to be built for the purpose of having cell phone / radio towers on it).



A street near the center of Accra. Again, note cell phone tower! Ghanaians, I have learned, love their cell phones.



The coolest thing at the largely disappointing National Museum (those who know what a museum freak I am will understand my sadness). Go, taxidermy!



A palm tree grove at the Aburi Botanical Gardens. Looks a bit like sunny California, does it not?



Another "OC" shot. As you can see, the beaches are impressive! Unfortunately, most Ghanaians tend to apply Le Chatelier’s principle when it comes to the ocean – they do whatever to it and tend to believe that the environment will work itself out. The water is dirty near the beach and overfished away from it. Still, it's a lovely sight... until you see a swarm of plastic bags or some panties (or worse!) wash up on shore. What a drag.

As for development along the beach, there are some posh resorts and “spots” (bars) along the beach in Accra, but for large stretches, it’s pure beach, with few/no developments blocking the view. And, oddly enough, it’s the zongos (slums) that are the residential areas closest to the beach, not huge beachfront homes of rich peeps.

The above photo was taken from a cool "spot" right on the beach. If you look reeeeal hard, at the end of the shoreline, there is a white building. That's Osu Castle, which was a Danish colonial fort and now acts as the government's Capitol-equivalent. It's a crazy lockdown around the Castle, so this is probably as close as I could get anyways.



This is LaBadi beach, which is probably the most tourist-y beach in Accra. Locals call it simply “La” because they feel the “Badi” part of the name is unlucky. I think they also call it La Pleasure Beach. Hmm, I guess that explains the panties in the water.


Sidenote of the Day
In my ongoing quest to become a Jack (Jill?) of All Trades, Master (Mistress?) of None, I've begun my video editing lessons with Yinka. It's fun! It reminds me of my days of editing corny movies for Chinese class in college. Aaaah...sweet, torturous Chinese movie. Anyhoo, I'm not that good, but I figure I'll be able to edit some really sophisticated (read: corny) home movies in the future ("And, starwipe OUT"), or maybe be a wedding video editing assistant (apparently, everyone hates wedding videos. YES.)

Ghanaism of the Day: Nice = Good
As in, "That's a really nice movie" or "This is a really nice neighborhood" (referring to streets and infrastructure, if not people). I really like this use of the word! I know that "nice" does mean generally pleasing and can be utilized in a manner that means "good", but - admit it - it sounds a bit dorky when you use it in certain contexts. In the States, we can say, "nice house" or "nice car" (maybe even, "nice move" or "nice pen"), and now the potential application of "nice" to inanimate objects of ALL SORTS is just delightful! In short, it's really nice!