Matt and Kags Escape the Boonies

Hello all. So this is my first post here and I would just like to state my objections to the malicious lies and slanders Matthew has perpetrated earlier in this blog. I most certainly do NOT appreciate or get any of his humor.

So today Matt was absolved from his clinical 'duties' (I use duties in the lightest sense of the word) and I was able to skip out at noon. We spent some time planning where it is we wanted to go this weekend and then made our first foray into Accra proper.

Our first stop was the main bus terminal to purchase tickets for the weekend. We regretfully found that most of the buses we wanted were sold out. Also, because I was instructed to show up for rounds on Monday (despite the fact that it's apparent some kind of national holiday for reocvery from Easter excesses) we had to postpone our plans to head to the mountains and pick something nearer. We decided on Elmina, a nearby, allegedly-pleasant coastal town that is home to one of the large slave castles. (That is, one of the castles that slaves were stored before being transported to the New World.)

We then proceeded to an area called Osu which was recommended to us as 'the place to go' by several different people. It consisted (to us at least) of a long, ridiculously loud, traffic-choked road with tons of stores and restaurants. We ate lunch at an expat-haunt, a clean place innocuously named Frankie's where we feasted on burgers. It was more meat than either of us had seen our entire time here. We then walked around for a bit on the street, where we encountered some of the most aggressive entrepeneurs we had yet come across. Young man after young man wanted to drag us into his shop or next to his stand so we could examine his wares. One man literally clasped Matt's hand and walked with us for half a block. Another purveryor of assorted trinkets in Ghana's national colors ( a cheery combination of yellow, red, and green) stopped Matt and asked him if he was a Mormon. I think Matt would make a terrible Mormon.

On the cab rides into and out of Accra we saw much of the city, and I was struck by how much the traffic, noise, pollution, and lack of any kind of urban planning whatsoever reminded me of Bombay. But worse. One will pass lovely government buildings or cathedrals or offices and then a half minute later pass a slum. The sidewalks are nonexistent, sewage collects in open drains, and good God, the noise, the unceasing noise. Our travel books have oodles of abuse that they heap upon poor, unsuspecting Accra, and for now I'd have to say I agree.

Also in our hostel, we are now entering day 3 without power or water. Aaarrggh. Matt and I, the last couple nights, have had to go to sleep at 9 just beause we come back home and there is not really much we can do without light. And the humidity discourages us from partaking in activity.

Things I can't get over, for better or for worse:

1) the balls of goo, banku, or fermented cakes of maize meal that one dips into sauces or soups here. it's like playing with Playdoe, and then having to eat it. The taste is slightly better though

2) selling water in sealed plastic bags, called sachets

3) the spicy food; it's been a pleasant surprise. for some reason I thought African food was supposed to be bland

4) the brusque way people talk; Matt and I both keep thinking we've offended people, based on how they react to us

5) the God-forsaken humidity. One thing I've learned about myself already, if I participate in foreign aid work in the future, as I've long planned and still hope to do, it will have to be in somewhere cooler. Maybe Nepal? Or is there a need for ER Docs on the summit of Mt. Kiliminjaro?

Kags, over and out