DAY 1 GHANA

Our ship ported in a town called Tema, about an hour away from the capital city of Accra.  This was a bit of a hassle (like porting in Orange County when you want to tour Hollywood) but luckily we had busses constantly running to bring us back and forth to the city.  Mychaela, Tammy, Margaret, and I made sure we were some of the first off the ship so we could catch an early shuttle into town.  Within 5 minutes of being in Accra a man our age walked up to us and was so excited to say that he had been following our blogs and he toured a group of Semester at Sea students last year.  He wanted to show us around and we didn’t have any plans.  How perfect!  Fred, our new best Ghanaian friend, gave us a local taste of Ghana for the next four days. 

The local way to get around is by ‘tro-tro’ which are breaking down vans completely packed with people.  At one point during the trip we were in one with 24 passengers!!   We jumped in a tro-tro following Fred’s lead and he took us to a coffin factory.  In Ghana, coffins are very significant pieces of art.  When someone dies he will be placed in a coffin representing his profession and then buried.  This shack we went to had coffins ranging from beer bottles to airplanes, or even cacao seeds.  They were all beautifully carved, painted, and then covered in sealant. My favorite was the cow shaped coffin for children.

Next, Fred took us on another tro-tro ride to his local village.  We walked by people bathing, children playing, and women cooking.  The most striking difference about Ghanaian living compared to other African countries or any other third world country I have seen in the world is that they have open sewage drains.  Along every street (dirt or asphalt) there will be a ditch about two feet deep that is running with sewage water.  Yes, I did fall in one at night when it was dark and got a huge bruise and gash on my leg... the locals laughed at me.  Anyway, we walked through the village and didn’t feel entirely welcomed at first.  Fred taught us how to say “How’s it going” and immediately people started to smile or laugh when we greeted them.  We found a local bar in the middle of the village that was playing hip Ghanaian music so we decided to stop in to see how Ghanaian beer held up to others around the world.  This stop turned into a full village dance party.  Our group of American girls quickly attracted the attention of the local Ghanaian men who decided to come teach us dance moves.  Before we knew it tons of children were peaking in from outside and some even made it in to join the party.   We got our queue to leave once a drunk old man became a little to frisky with his dance moves. 

Fred took us to his father’s home to meet his family next.   This was such a cool experience because we sat in his living room speaking with his dad about his upbringing and current Ghanaian issues. His sister even made us a fantastic Ghanaian lunch of rice with spicy sauce and noodles.  Next, we went to visit his mom’s home in the city and Stephen and Chris met up with us.   She served us one of her specialty homemade cold drinks made of flower petals and ginger.  After speaking with his mother shortly, we stopped by another bar in town while some of our girlfriends got hair wraps at the local barber.  Hungry again, we all headed to dinner at a local restaurant with Fred before hitting the bar scene that night.   Unfortunately my second blackberry of the trip got pick pocketed so I headed back to the ship instead of staying out late.   Overall, it was a fantastic first day in Ghana and exactly how we had hoped the experience would turn out!