Ghana! Or, Country Comes to Town

Friday was a holiday in Rwanda, so we decided to take advantage by lengthening an already long weekend and leaving for Ghana on Wednesday afternoon, returning Monday morning. Why Ghana? Because a friend from UVA and his wife are doing PhD research there, and are leaving in March – so our window of time was limited. But I was also really interested in seeing Ghana because it was W. Africa that first intrigued me in college through my French/politics coursework, and I’d only ever seen Senegal, and wanted to get a firsthand glimpse of an Anglophone W. African culture.

Africa is a BIG continent. Bigger than N. America and Europe combined (I believe). And with the way maps distort the countries at the Northern and Southern ends, Africa tens to look a lot smaller than it is. So, to get from Kigali to Accra, you basically can’t get there in any kind of direct fashion. Our route took us to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where we spent the night, and then left Thursday morning for Accra – an eight-hour flight with a quick stop in Lome, Togo to discharge and pick up more passengers.

I was a bit wary of the Ethiopian experience – not the country, but the airline. I’ve flown it to Burundi a couple of times, but that is a 30 min, barely get up into the clouds kind of flight. Dg spite it being generally considered one of, if not the best African airline, I’d heard recently stories of delays, bad foods, boring airport, etc. However, it was fine. Because our stopover was forced by their itinerary, they covered the visa and hotel, and shuttled us around Addis Ababa for a night. And, the food was good! The airport was all decked out in red, yellow, and green lights – colors of the Ethiopian flag, celebrating the millennium. Now, before you think that they must be so backwards as to be a full 8 years behind on the news, it turns out they have their own calendar, which is related to ours and actually precedes it, and when the rest of the world starting using the Gregorian calendar by consensus, colonial imposition, etc, they resisted the tide. So, in Sept 2007 (on our calendar), they rolled over to 2000, and are in the midst of a year long celebration!

After all the stops, time changes, etc, we arrived in Ghana Thursday afternoon, and had one last delay in the immigration office. Apparently our fax for the visa on arrival hadn’t gotten through, so we were taken into a little waiting room and had to let 4 people take about 2 hours to decide what to do with us. I think what finally tipped the balance in our favor was my French skills – a woman from the Ivory Coast was also waiting to get a visa, but didn’t have the 100 dollar fee in actual dollars, only African francs, so they were trying to tell her to leave her passport and come back with the money to claim her passport. Until I explained to her what was going on she was refusing to hand over her passport, so once it was all cleared up the immigration staff was very friendly, and we had our visas (they weren’t so grateful as to waive the fee though!)
Thankfully our friends had withstood the long hot wait outside – it was so great to see them! And it was a hot one – I’d say 90 and humid the entire time we were there. Significantly warmer than KGL.

Accra is a city! Lots of people, lots of traffic, lots of choice. Terry and Erin (who blog about life in Ghana at http://bewisedonturinate.blogspot.com had casually mentioned some things they’d made for dinner, and some things they’d picked up at the mall. Well, when they said mall, they weren’t talking about a Rwandan style, 12 stores plus a bank but effectively only 2 stores that have any interest strip mall or even our new indoor mall, they meant a MALL. So we had them take us, and it was a big one, with department stores from S. Africa with electronics, linens, cookware, a food court with chain restaurants, a mega grocery store that had things like Roquefort Cheese, tortillas, international cuisine etc etc etc. We were beside ourselves – it was like country had come to town. And its funny, I am not a big shopper, I don’t generally feel deprived in Rwanda (other than an occasional craving for a Chipotle burrito), but I did go a bit nuts, and wonder what reverse culture shock in the US will be like.

Highlights of the trip, besides just hanging out with our friends, include: a trip an hour or so outside of Accra, on the way to Cape Coast – we took the local tro-tros (18 person buses/minivans) to a nice house on the beach. One of the nicest beaches I’ve ever been too – long, sandy stretches, lined with Palm trees, no one around – and the waves! Great surf…we spent half a day just riding the waves – the undertow was a bit strong, and the Lonely Planet I read (after swimming, thankfully) said that that part of the coast is pretty rough, and that several people drown each year.

Finally, the African Cup of Nations! For you non-soccer fans, or those outside of Africa, word probably hasn’t reached you that its football fever here! It’s a mini-World Cup – the African countries have qualifying tournaments and send 16 teams to battle it out for the title of African football supremacy. Ghana is a perennial favorite, 4 time champion, and this time, the host nation. So the national team jerseys were all over the streets, everyone decked out in the national colors, faces painted, people shouting, Go Black Stars, etc. A very exciting atmosphere, especially when Ghana won their quarterfinal match 2-1, even being down a man due to a red card – mayhem. So now as I follow the rest of the tournament from home, I have a favorite! (Don’t worry, I am not being a traitor, Rwanda didn’t qualify this time…hopefully that’ll change, as we plan on attending the 2010 Angola African Cup qualifying matches here in the spring/summer, which also double as the World Cup South Africa 2010 qualifying matches as well.

Overall, a fantastic time. And of course its so much nicer to see a country with people who know it – thanks T and E for being great hosts!