Drive-by shopping in Accra

Much of our time in Accra was spent either trying to get visas whilst we were parked at the swish Accra Mall or in traffic. One of the things I started to notice was what you could buy when stopped at traffic lights, what I am calling ‘drive-by shopping’. I worked out that you could actually buy an entire outfit whilst driving around town: shirt, shorts, belt, underwear and shoes. How you would try these on whilst stopped at the traffic lights still baffles me though.

Here’s a full list of what we saw for sale when stopped at traffic lights in Accra (some appropriate and others questionably so – I mean why would you suddenly think ‘gosh I really need a tummy tucker’ whilst stopped momentarily at some traffic lights?!):

Key hooks

Personal scales

Powerboard

Shaver set

Drinking yoghurt

Water packets

Mineral map and road map of Ghana and a map of Accra

Shoes (thongs and covered toes – selection of 5 pairs)

DVDs

Phone cards

Plastic tambourines

Air freshener

Mentos

Dog collars and muzzles

Toilet paper (in bulk – about 16 rolls in each pack)

Shirts & shorts

Plantain chips

Superglue

Oranges

‘Greeting from Ghana’ wood carvings

Scrabble and Monopoly

Hand towels

Paint brushes

Bread rolls (brown and white)

Ab workout machine (tummy tucker)

GI Joe army man toy

Zach and Staci leaving – SNIFF!

We knew right from the start that it would be hard when Zach and Staci were due to get off the truck and leave us in Ghana. And it was. But we made it one hell of a celebration. For dinner that night, the 3 Amitos cook group took full advantage of the fresh seafood available from Abandze and started with an entrée of ceviche,

followed by small lobsters, fish and salads for a main. Amazing. What’s more amazing is that I learnt how to scale and gut a fish!

And the most amazing was that their budget was only ever so slightly increased from our usual one euro per person per day (seafood is such great value for money here). The next morning the boys even managed to produce lobster rice cakes for breakfast! We were spoilt!

The highlight of the night in my eyes was when Dom presented Zach and Staci with a laminated proclamation, declaring them both Patron Saints of his Kingdom, Domainia (of which I am of course the 2^nd citizen – my Secret Santa present).

We continued the celebrations with an impromptu truck party

and had an incredible time until it was time to say our (long, dragged out!) goodbyes the next morning. Josh was completely depressed and mopey for the rest of the afternoon and even now, it is hard to mention their names without eliciting a sad sniff from him! We love you Zach and Staci! xxx.

Another hair update!

I think I need to change my hair updates to ‘Hair style of the week’ as every time I seem to post an update on hair or facial hair, someone else goes and does something radical.

So Guber got a skullet. Amazing.

Here he is with his skullet, Josh with his now overgrown mullet and Garrett with his mohawk. An incredible sight.

Then Garrett decided the stares from the locals weren’t so friendly any more so he decided to shave it all off. For a minute he was considering leaving one small tuft

but then decided to get rid of all of it.

Guber has also since shaved off his skullet again for the same reasons – to not freak out the locals. It’s one thing for our truck society (which clearly has lost all touch with reality and good taste for that matter) but it’s another thing when you start getting angry or scared looks from the locals.

So at this stage, dare I say, most of us look pretty respectable for once.

Slaves For Sale or To Let (back in the day)

Ghana’s slave trade history really comes to life when you visit its castles. After taking guided tours through three of them – Elmina, Cape Coast and Fort Amsterdam, I feel as though I have a better understanding of the horrific events that took place.

Elmina is the biggest and oldest slave castle in Ghana. Out of the 3 million slaves that passed through there, two thirds died and only one third survived. Those who survived then still had to endure terrible conditions on boats to their far away destinations, and if they made it, were forced into a lifetime of slave labour.

Cape Coast Castle contains a very poignant display in its museum, showing for example, a poster dated 18 May 1829 that advertises slaves for sale. The slaves on offer at that particular auction were: ‘Hannibal, about 30 years old, an excellent House Servant, of Good Character’, ‘William, about 35 years old, a labourer’ and ‘Nancy, an excellent House Servant’. On the same poster, there were slaves to let, and at the bottom of the poster other wares were listed – ‘Also for sale fine rice, grain, books, muslins, needles, pins, ribbons, etc.’

Fort Amsterdam was smaller than the other two and more in a state of ruin but our guide was an incredible storyteller going back to the days of European/African trade before going into detail about the slave trade.

One thing all three have in common is the dreaded ‘Door of no return’ where the slaves would exit from the castle onto the awaiting boats. Cape Coast castle now has a sign on the back of the door saying ‘Door of return’, essentially encouraging the different generations affected by the slave trade to return to their roots.

All also have plaques saying ‘May humanity never again perpetrate such injustice against humanity’.

Surf, sun and sand

Whilst we’ve had some tough bush camping stints, we’ve also been pretty spoilt at times. I mean what an incredible way to wake up here at Abandze beach resort,

camping in a mozzie net tent right in front of the beach and waking up to the sound of the waves crashing on the shore.

We had our fair share of swims here – the water was so lovely and warm you could easily stay in it all day long. And we often did, only getting out when we were ‘tired’ of jumping up and down in the constant waves. Lazy times here at Abandze…

Interestingly, we’re here in West Africa during Harmattan a West African trade wind that blows from the Sahara to the Coast from November to March, explaining the hazy sunsets.

As you would imagine, the seafood here has been incredible, namely the fried calamari with chips and salad and the lobster sandwich which I had for lunch – very decadent (and cheap)!

We also swum at a beach near Accra though it was unfortunately quite polluted. While swimming, pieces of plastic would quite often brush past you. I decided to do my litter picking in the ocean for the days we were there, and Bruce said he wished there were 1 million more Lisa’s – to pick up rubbish that is! With any luck, there will be if I can get this ‘10 pieces’ idea off the ground when I get home.

Sacred swords and unusual newspaper headlines in Kumasi, Ghana

In Kumasi, a group of us visited the cultural centre and its small, but interesting, museum, where we learnt amongst other things about fertility dolls that women (even today still apparently) look after as though they were real children in an attempt to have kids. We also learnt our Ashanti names which are based on whether you’re male or female and on the day of the week you are born – mine being ‘Ama’ as I’m a female and born on a Saturday.

Visiting the sacred sword stuck in a rock (similar to Excalibur) was a strange experience in itself as we had to walk through the Komfo Amokye hospital to get to it, seeing a surgeon wheeling a covered body right past us on the way. Mohammed Ali was apparently unsuccessful in his attempt to remove the sword from the stone, which is fortunate as its removal would symbolise the end of the Ashanti culture and make a lot of people very unhappy to say the least.

Walking past a newsstand, I was intrigued by the following newspaper’s headline. It makes for an interesting read – apparently medium-sized (not large) is preferred.

Lastly a group of us visited the main market (Kejetia) which is one of the biggest in West Africa. It is heaving with people bustling about and the cries of sellers touting their wares. Our group wasn’t on cook group duty so we didn’t have to buy anything, rather just wandered around and unwittingly drew lots of attention to ourselves, particularly due to Garrett’s size – being constantly called a ‘big boy!’ or ‘big man!’ followed by fits of laughter. This is also where the corn row mullets were made.

Vent of the month

Plastic water sachets… young kids make small change from selling icy cold water in plastic sachets and everyone seems to love them, but it’s the environment that truly suffers. Much of the litter I’ve picked up recently consists of these wretched plastic sachets. There must be a better way… how about re-usable cups/bottles or even biodegradable plastic?? ..And recycling bins or even just bins in general.. And rubbish collectors…Aargh…

FACT: 270 tonnes of plastic waste is generated every day in Ghana, 85% from non-biodegradable bags containing purified water and ice cream.

Mullet and facial hair update

No sooner than I’d uploaded my ‘Mullet’ post then others began to join the strange haircut and/or strange facial hair trend. I believe this might be a post that keeps evolving… But I can understand that this is probably the one time in most people’s lives that they don’t have to go to work and can create all sorts of funny hair- and facial hair- styles.

Garrett joined the mullet club

and later cracked due to the intense heat, instead getting Zach to turn it into a true mohawk (with a cute rhino horn at the front)…

At the market in Kumasi, Guber and Josh kept the locals amused by being the first men ever at this stall to get corn rows (only women normally do this). And needless to say, they looked hilarious with corn row mullets…

Meanwhile Zach and Dom had been busy – Zach proudly sporting handlebars

and Dom with a filthy mo…

And Shaun’s just Shaun with his ‘grow til you go’ mentality.

Or you could do what the locals do and call him anything from ‘Ali Baba’ to ‘Osama’ to ‘Santa Claus’… See Shaun and Karen’s blog for a more detailed update on Shaun’s beard.

Silly quotes to date

Here is a selection of our group’s silly quotes thus far on the trip. Sadly I had to severely edit the list as most of them are *too rude*!

“Are your ears as delicate as my ass at the moment?” – Lee (with diarrhoea) asking Dom if the conversation at hand was too rude for a king such as himself

 “Are you having a stroke Kristy?” “No, that was just my seductive look” – Shaun to Kristy and her reply

“I have the depth and capacity to give pleasure” – Sonny

“If Europe has the Euro, shouldn’t Africa have the Afro?” – Sonny

“2 kilograms of ribs. As long as it’s not human, I’m golden” – Sonny in response to Kristy telling us you could get 2 kgs of ribs in Namibia

“If an army boy said ‘I’m going to war tomorrow and I could die’ and asked me for sex, I couldn’t say no” – Sonny forgetting to add ‘If I were a woman’ to the front of his sentence

 “All of my appendages are very lovely” – Josh, who particularly likes his wrists…

 “You don’t get laid with fried food” – Staci in response to Shaun telling her “You don’t make friends with salad”

“I’m not always right, but I’m never wrong” – Garrett

 “Did I win??!” – Sonny next morning after drinking 25 cans of beer in an attempt to beat Garrett (twice his size) in a drinking comp

“Your idiocy makes me cough” – Josh after Dom spat on himself

“At the end of the day, I’m a woman. If you give me money and tell me to buy stuff, I’m happy!” – Lee re: how she feels about cook group shopping

 “This is why I never shower – ‘cause I want to save the world” – Josh in response to not showering to save water

“Sonny, you forget something every day” – Dom in response to Sonny saying “I learn something new every day”

“I wish there were a million Lisa’s here…[awkward pause]…to pick up rubbish that is” – Bruce in relation to me litter picking in the ocean at a beach near Accra

“Oh, wait a minute. I am not a gay Christmas owl!” – Josh when lamenting about Staci and Zach leaving us in Ghana and then consoling himself by saying “it’s like they’re still with me”as they’re taking ‘Ferdinand’ his gay owl Christmas tree decoration with them

Religious shops

The Christian influence is very evident in Ghana as one can tell by all of their churches, religious posters and… religious shop names. One of the shops we actually did shop in was the ‘God Will Make A Way’ Supermarket.

 

But here are some of the more interesting shop names we’ve collected on our travels in Ghana thus far:

Jesus Plus Nothing Enterprise – selling chainsaws!

Jesus Opens Doors Ltd – car repair

Then they will know you only as Jehovah mechanics

The Shrine – a pub!

Dr Jesus Fast Food

Heaven Gate No Bribe Furniture Shop

Choose Jesus Beauty Salon and Training Centre

Jesus is coming soon – dealers in cement

Jesus is Lord Meat Pies and Soft Drinks

Jesus is my all and all fashion

Repent Fast Food

God is One Tea Spot

No Jesus No Life Wood Enterprises

In God All Things Are Possible Bookshop

God First Rasta Hairdos

God is King Plumbing and Tiles

In God We Trust Farms

Salvation Beauty Salon

God Will Provide Car Wash

Tea, Oath & Bread

Faith in God Chop Shop Bar

Aroma of Christ Chapel International

Nothing but Christ electrical store

Pray Hard Provisions Store

The blood of Jesus bicycle workshop

Goodness and mercy bakery

Fill my cup oh Lord laundry

There also seems to be an abundance of ‘Do not urinate here please’ signs around various towns; these being two of the cuter versions.