An African Sunday Afternoon

THE REST OF SUNDAY

We went to the downtown market with Spero, Zak's good friend, to see a guy about a cellphone.  Seriously.  The market was fairly dead because is was Sunday, but there were still lots of people selling their wares and foods.  They got me some "meat stew" and banku for lunch, but the fire that was on my lips from the stew left me wanting.  The Clif Bars that I brought have been very crucial to my subsistance. 

We tried to go to the beach for a swim.  We pulled up to a hotel on the beach that had a great pool and super patio bar/restaurant.  The ocean water looked brown and Zak decided it was too cold to swim.  For the record, it was like 80 degrees with a good breeze.  So I got some chicken fried rice (FAR less spicy than the "meat stew") and my stomach was full!


We drove around and around.  None of the roads have street signs (or asphalt, for that matter) and all look very similar, so I felt like we were driving in one huge circle.  My orientation had no guiding point and the jet lag was coming on strong.  We were still trying to figure out the cellphone thing.  Zak wanted us to be able to text and talk since we weren't staying in the same place.  After several hours, I turned my phone on and called AT&T to add international phone service.  For $60 I got unlimited international texting, 500MB of data, and $0.50/minute phone calls.  Not ideal, but cheaper than some of the options Zak was looking into.

This is a very typical neighborhood in Accra.  Please note the dirt road and wild goats.





This is the part of my trip when I learned that there is no such thing as a public rest room in Ghana; you either use the one at your house, the one at your work (if they have one) or the street (which I have, unfortunately, witnessed more than a few times).  As a "snobby American" I refused to do the latter and they rushed me to my hotel, where I barely made it! 

Spero and Zak went to get me a case of bottled water (no worms or travelers' diahrrea, please and thank you) and a loaf of bread.  It was only 7pm, but I was EXHAUSTED!  By the time they came back I was ready to bid them adieu, shower and sleep.  But because I am nice, and he is paying for the hotel, I let Zak use my shower.  The place he is staying does not have running water.  You have to fetch the water from a well or large reservoir and take a "bath" in a bucket.  He was SO happy to have a shower.  Especially since Ghana is hot, sticky, and dirty.

Once they left, I took a shower and enjoyed the AC and had some sugar bread while I watched the movie, Belle, on my laptop.  (Shout out to Suzzanne for all the great flix!!) 





Let me take a moment to tell you about the virtues of this thing called, "sugar bread."  It is a slightly sweet, dense white bread that is freshly baked.  Think of it like Grandma Sycamore's velvety, more substantial, posh cousin.  You can live quite comfortably on it alone for some time.  I will try to take as much back to the States as possible.  Apologies to family and friends who live nowhere near Missouri.

The movie was great, but I fell asleep before it was even half over.  I woke up around 8:30pm because the electricity had gone out and my room was a stuffy hot sauna.  It took about 20 minutes for it to go back on.  While I waited I enjoyed some more sugar bread and watched some more of the movie...of course, falling asleep before it was over.