My Life in Accra

My blog so far must sound as if we are constantly travelling restlessly through Ghana. That is not true, however, I have been thoroughly enjoying the past few weeks in Accra and on Legon Campus. In fact, the weeks are passing by so quickly that it scares me sometimes. I'm nowhere near ready to even think about going back home, yet the semester here is drawing closer to its end in mid-December (that is not to say my time in Ghana, though).

I love watching the sunrise at 6am during the crosscountry-training, it's become a routine to visit the seamstress every week to get another Ghanaian dress, I start freezing at 24°C, I know the little bumps and puddles on my ways around campus like the back of my hand, I don't want to stop hearing the lovely sound of Twi around me, leave alone the (less mysterious) Pidgin, I don't want to take my eyes off the colourful clothes, I am still excited putting on my own Ghanaian dresses, Hiplife moves my feet day and night, embarking on a full-blown shopping trip to Makola Market is thrice as strenous but also four times as exciting as walking around in some shopping centre, and … „Obroni, what do you want! Obroni, I love your country“. - ...and „Oh, Obibini, I love your country even more!“

The  Registry on the hill, along my favourite jogging track  on campus

First Ghanaian dress

Fabrics out of which I had the next four dresses made...

Ghanaian Hiplife - this one promoting monogamy...so dance away!

Many of the things that may have seemed inconvenient, strange, or new almost three months ago are now the normalities of daily life:

Kumasi and Lake Bosumtwi

It has been a while since I've written anything since I was just going with the flow and enjoying life in Ghana. After the previously mentioned trips to the Eastern Region (Koforidua) and Cape Coast, is was time to spend a weekend in Accra. However, in the following week the next trip was already on: Kumasi in the Ashanti Region. This time we were wise enough to leave on Thursday to avoid the insane Friday traffic. VIP busses -which are as comfy as they sound :)- serve the Accra-Kumasi road regularly, i.e. whenever the coach is full. Interestingly though, the road linking the two biggest cities of Ghana was partly untared and left me with the feeling of sitting on horseback rather than in a bus, which was nice anyway since I haven't done that in a while. After the first night at mouldy Guestline Lodge, out of health reasons we moved to the very clean Presby Guesthouse and then hit Keyetia Market, the biggest open market in West Africa. I guess all four of us, experienced shoppers that we are, had their imaginary shopping lists in mind while we stumbled accross the market. We went from the mobile phone section to the clothes, to the shoes, to the slipper-makers, to the fabrics, to the clothes, to the anything-you-could-ever-need section, to the ...abbatoir. We had not fully realized it until a guy came past us carrying a huge severed cattle head on his shoulders. Careful not to bump into any of the pigfeet, cow- and horseheads, trying to avoid the women carrying fish and meat on big plates on their heads and eager not to breathe we finally managed to find our way out again. In the end, this huge market was not a huge success when it comes to shopping but it was worth the experience. Now Makola market in Accra doesn't seem so big after all and now that we've made quite a few market visits, we've come to understand the system behind Ghanaian markets and most importantly, bargaining.

Just found our way out of the market...Sorry I  didn't take any photos in the abbatoir :P

Somehow, despite being the second biggest city after Accra, Kumasi seemed more relaxed, less packed with traffic and not at all like a 1,5 mio city. Nevertheless, we left Kumasi for Lake Bosumtwi the next day already. It took us 2,5 trotro- and one taxi-ride, plus a nice 4,5 km walk along the lake to reach Rainbowgarden Village. The short but sudorific walk with our trekking backpacks made me reminiscent of of my last hiking trips. (Hello to my hiking buddies, especially Karin and Lina and thanks for sharing some of the most wonderful experiences with me!) Anyway, the location where we stayed looked like paradise (that is, my imagination of paradise). 

Lake Bosumtwi

It was right at Lake Bosumtwi and probably the only place we'd been to so far where there were no cars, no (plastic) waste, no pollution (which invariably comes with cars here as they have no exhaust filters), where it was peaceful, quiet and nature as far as once could see. Certainly, until then, it was one of the most beautiful spots in Ghana I'd seen. By the looks of it and from what I've read, the lake is a meteorite crater, it is round and fringed by green hills.

Fishermen

Rainbowgardenvillage

I told myself I'd go back there a second time but by now I have seen parts of the Volta Region and once again decided it was even nicer than what I have seen before...To be continued...