Sun, Sand, and Shoprite

Wow, a lot has happened even in 4 or 5 days. It’s funny, each individual day seems to hold a weeks worth of information and new experiences. I am never really prepared for what it ends up bringing. I guess my new motto should be ‘expect the unexpected’. That just seems so cliché though.

I will start at the beginning, with a general overview of our weekend and the events that transpired. We set out on Thursday morning for our beach ‘resort’ getaway. We took the 3 hour tro-tro ride to Accra and from there went to a small village called Kokrobite. Turns out Accra isn’t actually set on the ocean, its more inland.

So we arrived, dusty and sweaty, to the beautiful sight that the ocean almost always is. I’m not sure, but I always take such comfort in watching the waves come in and out, constant and true at every shoreline they touch. So although I do not live on or anywhere near the ocean, it felt like a bit of home halfway across the world. The beach is familiar. What wasn’t so familiar was the small commune of Rastas planted just outside the gate of our abode. But I will get more into that later. Lets just say we drank in the view and felt the delicious sea breeze on our skin and knew this was exactly what we needed.

On Friday our friend, Michael Duah, came to visit us. His family actually lives in Ghana, in a town called Kasoa not too far from Kokrobite. We know him because he goes to Redeemer with us in Canada. Lucky for us he has been in Ghana since May and came out to see us in Asamankese last week and came to visit us again. So we hung out all day, watched the drum show that they have every Friday night, and went to bed (much earlier than all the other expats, I might add).

Saturday Duah came back to visit and take us out for a bit. We saw the inside of a grocery store! Shoprite, it was called. Who knew that Nutella was available in Ghana? Not I, that’s for sure. Only for 18 Cedi, no less (about $15). So that was interesting. We got to see a part of Ghana that we hadn’t really gotten a chance to yet. The more wealthy parts I would say. Huge houses that sit atop huge hills, and a beautifully paved toll highway with few potholes. I felt a world away from Asamankese with its few paved main roads and rocky dirt paths used as roads. We also got to see the church and new school that Duah’s father is building, so that was pretty cool.

We left on Sunday, hoping to avoid the chaos that might ensue in Accra because there was a Ghana football match that afternoon. The actual match was in Kumasi, but I guess everyone watches it and gets right into it, so riots can break out in Accra as well.

Now we are back in our guest house, back in the swing of things and it’s oddly comforting to have a home away from home to come back to, with familiar faces that we know.

Throughout this overview I have been dying to offer small anecdotes of details of what happened, but for ease of reading I have decided to attempt the bulleted list approach once again. I will try to go in order of sequence.

• I am not sure if I will ever get used to the blatant relieving of oneself on the side of the road here. Especially the school boys who literally reach up their shorts to arrange themselves rather than using the zipper. Do they know it could be easier?
• I have conceded to the sad truth that I will be generally filthy until I go home and have a good long shower. Even after I scrub and scrub, I still feel like there is a layer of dirt permanently etched on my skin. Tro-tro rides do not help this cause very much. I made the mistake of wearing a white shirt… the outside of which is just caked in dusty dirt. Mmmm.
• Our ‘resort’ consisted of a collection of tiki huts. Ours, luxuriously, had a washroom attached to it. An outdoor washroom. No lie, there was no ceiling. Furthermore, the shower (which was a pipe that came over the wall) was about 3 feet away from the toilet, in the same area, nothing dividing it. So if you take a shower, the toilet gets soaked. It was interesting to say the least. Also it may sound really earthy and exciting, but it isn’t the best in the pitch black of night when ants litter the toilet seat and you can’t really see what is going on.
• The bar in the center of the tiki huts started playing music at 8 in the morning and continued until about 2 or 3 in the morning. I haven’t listened to that much consecutive Bob Marley in a long time. Some other treats were Ja Rule, Tupac, and my favourite which was a song that went “Obama, Obama, Barak, Obama” over and over again. What a gem.
• Rastas smoke a lot of marijuana. A lot. We were made painfully aware of this fact when we would sit atop the lounge looking out at the ocean and wafts of the scent would constantly drift toward us. All they did all day was smoke, drum, and try to sell their overpriced goods to unsuspecting tourists. Ok that is a huge generalization of Rastas, but that is what I experienced.
• Duah visiting us was a huge blessing. It was so nice to see a familiar face and hear first hand of his honest opinion about his country, what he thought of fufu, and to talk about Redeemer. He seemed to genuinely care and wanted to make sure we had a good time in Ghana, which was really comforting. Also, I tried this stuff called fan milk, purchased from someone on the side of the road. It’s basically a vanilla milkshake in a bag. Like it used to be ice cream but since its so hot all the time, its just cold liquid deliciousness. You just bite a hole in the bag and suck it out, like you do with the bags of water here. Best thing ever, and now it is all I can do to restrain myself from buying one every day.
• The last thing I wanted to talk about was the fishing boats that were on the beach. It was really cool to watch. Every morning a boat would go out and drop fishing nets. Then everyone, men, women, and children, would help pull the nets in. They all worked together beforehand too, organizing and untangling the nets. Then when all the fish came, the kids would pick up the small ones that escaped from the net and the ladies would put them in their big bowls on their heads and prepare them for smoking. It was really cool to see everyone doing their part and taking their fair share to live off of. Inspiring, even.

So now it’s already Wednesday and so much more has happened but again I will just post this blog now and try to keep up better! Also, remember that time I made bullet points but they were really just paragraphs? My bad.