Greater Accra Region, Ghana, Africa, Planet Earth

The past 20 minutes I've spent trying to decide how to proceed with this blog entry. The best way to relay our trip, I believe, is to break down the journey by regions within Ghana, including the photos and notes that best represent my experience while there.

PERSPECTIVE
Above is a map of Africa with an overlay of the United States. I've positioned the state of Oregon over the country of Ghana to give you an idea of relative size. While in Ghana for 10 days, we covered only 25% of its land mass visiting 5 regions (Greater Accra, Central, Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, and Eastern) and 4 significant cities (Accra, Cape Coast, Kumasi, and Techiman) and a number of smaller towns or villages.

GREATER ACCRA REGION





Accra (ăk'rə, or ə-krä') - although it appears that it's proper to pronounce the capitol city either way, the locals say it uh-KRAW. As you can see from the photos above, there's lots going on here. The first photo is of the Madina Market (one of a number of outdoor markets we visited). It's crowded, colorful, musical, and is filled with young women and girls hurrying by with a variety of things balanced on their heads. You shop here for fresh fruits or vegetables, prepared food (wrapped in banana leaves not plastic), dried fish, spices, cloth (which can be made into a piece of clothing on the spot by one of many seamstresses), etc. You can't find souvenirs or the like. Ghanaians (I heard it pronounced both guh-NAY-un and guh-NEE-un) shop here like Americans would shop at a Safeway. The second photo is of car traffic through another Accra marketplace, but is pretty representative of what any busy street looks like. The 3rd photo is a line (or it is better described as a group) of trotros and taxis. Trotros (TRO-tro) are roughly equivalent to city buses, but are actually 15-passenger vans. I'm sure it must be written in Ghanaian law that they cannot travel slower than 50mph, must have at least 15 adults and 5 or 6 children on laps, and must be able to carry anything from a wooden bedframe to a goat lashed on top. They're dirt cheap, though. The cost for most rides is less than one dollar U.S. per person. The taxis are independently owned and, as far as we could tell, are not governed in any way. Most of the taxi drivers don't know the places where tourists would go (say a restaurant that serves Continental food or a hotel), but that doesn't stop them from saying they do know and then asking a minimum of 15 people along the way. We eventually got everywhere we wanted to go, so the system must work. You negotiate (a whole section of my blog entry must be dedicated to that word) the fare before getting in the taxi, so if it takes the driver 10 times as many kilometers as it should, he (and it's always a he) is the one who loses out. The final photo is of Riviera Beach. Ghana is a coastal country, and Accra is a coastal city. While in Accra, Laurie and I stayed in the Afia Beach Hotel - a beautiful resort - for a pittance. The hotel backed up to Riviera Beach.

I see I've started a book and haven't even scratched the surface. I'll publish this much and continue to add regions so check again over the next several days.