ACCRA, Ghana

24 -27 March 2011

ACCRA

Staying at the Salvation Army hostel here in Accra, a lot about this place is very poor due to the careless attitude of the manager – another one of these belligerent Ghanaian women I occasionally encounter. But it is in Osu, which is an upmarket area with lots of restaurants, shopping etc and it only costs 6 cedis a night. There are 2 long term Ghanaian women here and the obruni (all european volunteers ) change every couple of nights as they

Perhaps you need a shoelace? This is the place to buy them!

pass through town to and from their villages. I spend a day acquainting myself with the supermarket, a salad bar restaurant and a few Fair Trade outlets here. The first night here I meet up with Alice Boateng, Ghana Girl Guides International Commissioner – she is very sweet - welcoming me home! She tells me about the Guide Training Centre and suggests I could stay out there but for the moment I prefer to stay inner city. Then she invites me to join in a camp there this coming weekend and I accept with pleasure. The next day I visit the Guide Headquarters which was not easy to find on the directions I had been given, but find it I did after circling the Accra’s main market a few times. I met with Emelia (Guides Executive Secretary) who confirms the camp arrangements and the site location etc. I visit the Nigerian embassy to ‘test the waters’ – if I return to morrow with my letter of invitation, flight itinerary from Abuja and required money. Yes please, that will be US$120 cash, $50 being the visa cost and an extra $70 because I am not a resident of Ghana!! I think I am becoming inured to these high visa costs and happily head off to create my invitation letter complete with letterhead and my supporting letter citing booked hotel reservations etc. It all looks good and the Nigerian staff seem to think so too because they take my passport, cash and paperwork telling me to return the next day at an appointed time between 2.30 and 3pm! Looks like I’ll be able to get to Nigeria to pick all those millions of dollars that bank president’s widow has promised me in her emails J

The coffins, the water seller and the cripple!

One day I travel out to Teshie to see a carpenter’s unique take on coffin making – pick your style: a beer or coke bottle perhaps? OR what about a bible if you were particularly religious (show me a Ghanaian who isn’t). It’s fabulous and I congratulate the proprietor on his imagination. Apparently tourists occasionally buy one to ship back to their home too, although the young lady I talked to all the way there was particularly worried because I was going to look at coffins. She thought that perhaps it would be bad luck. Accra is not big on attractions and even its museum is very light on interest. I volunteer one afternoon at a library to read stories to the kids there. Then another afternoon I visit Jamestown where a couple have set up a drop in centre for local kids. I chat with

Jamestown Lighthouse

another pom who is heading home the next day after staying a few weeks there with plans to return again next year after working and raising money for them. Actually there is no end to the places that people are volunteering here and I can see why because Ghana is well set up, easy to get around etc. But compared to other west african countries I have visited I have to wonder about whether this engenders an attitude that does seem endemic here in Ghana – help me because I cannot/will not/do not know how to help myself. Many times I am asked “you will help me go to Australia?” When I reply that no one helped me come to Africa, they say that “you have money””. When I tell them no one gave me money to visit Africa, that I had to work several jobs and save money for several years, they seem genuinely mystified.

FACT: Infant mortality rates are still quite high here in Ghana, with neonatal tetanus being one very preventable cause. Apparently there is ‘traditional’ custom of using cow dung to assist healing of the umbilical cord!!

These coffins are for the keen fisherfolk!

Ahhh a carpenter!