The Tour of Accra

We got up fairly late this morning as we found out yesterday that most shops only open at 9am and some only at 10am.  It is amazing to me as it just gets hotter and hotter after that and one would think they'd want to avoid the later heat.

I had to persuade Porks to "live it up a little" and ask a taxi driver to take us around Accra for the morning.  He would have much preferred to go back to the room and continue with his second favourite hobby.

Kobbina, "Tuesday" in Ghana, was fabulous and very knowledgeable.  We negotiated 140 GCD (Ghanaian Cedi's) (x 5 for S A Rond) for him to take us around.

According to Tuesday, there are 46 languages in Ghana (take that S.A.!) of which Twi and Ga are spoken in Accra.  Most people can speak English but when you hear a conversation it doesn't sound like it.  Only when you listen carefully can you hear that it is actually English....the accent is very pronounced, similar to the West Indies I would say.

There are 28 000 000 people in Ghana and 4 000 000 of them live in Accra, all going the same way we were at the end of our tour!!
The main road is "George Bush Road" who donated money to Ghana and guess what?..TA DAAA, it was spent on improving the road!

Ghanaian elections take place on the 7th December and it looks as though the present President John Mahama will be elected.  He was sworn in earlier on in the year when the former President died.

The picture above (sorry, it should have been here, but I don't know how to move it!) is of the Malcolm Mall that collapsed last week killing 14 people and injuring about 69 others.  The contractor is in jail for shoddy and unsafe workmanship.  The tall building that you see in the background is the "twin" of the collapsed building and all the tenants and workers have had to be evacuated.

We were then taken to Labadi Beach where Porks had a Coke Light (which comes in a glass bottle here) and I had an Alvaro, a fabulously fruity malt drink that is both refreshing and thirst quenching.  The picture shows Porks and Kobbina as well as the little restaurant where we had our refreshments.  The beach goes on for miles and is very clean.  Over the weekends there is entertainment but today there was only horse-riding available. We thought of Tony.

The next picture is of twin English first year teachers taking a group of Ghanaian school children to the beach for a Geography excursion.  They told us that it is a fairly good school with good discipline but very few amenities.

Kobbina then took us to a market through terrible traffic and increasing heat. The vehicles in Ghana drive on the right hand side of the road and when going through traffic circles or changing lanes, they just hoot and the other vehicles seem to calmly let them in.  I can't feel any road rage here, it seems to work amazingly well. But, I felt the taxi getting quieter and quieter next to me and I realised we had overstepped the patience level and asked to be taken back home.

We had a late lunch and an afternoon nap, well some of us did, and then went down to dinner before going to the airport to fetch our lost luggage.  We were ushered into the arrivals section and stood waiting a second time at the carousel to wait for our bags.  My heart was pounding as we waited and waited and some of the bags came round a second and third time.  I said to Porks that it felt as if we were waiting for our children to arrive I was so nervous.  Then, there it was, the most beautiful red suitcase in the country!!

 

I have my pillows and will sleep well tonight!