Random Observations

So to paraphrase the movie Memento, how does one properly describe a place? Probably only through the hundreds of little details that are part of a place can one truly get a sense of the place. Places like people are complicated like that.

One of the things that has really struck Matt about this place (but is fairly familiar to me having been to India) is the seeming excess of stalls, small grocery stores, and tiny eateries (all of which have almost identical menus by the way). Nowhere that we've yet been in Ghana can one walk for very long before one passes a number of such small businesses. The names of these businesses are also attention-grabbing (to us at least). Ghana is a very overly religious, Christian country so many small-business owners name their establishment after a religious theme or scriptural reference. So one passes "Innocent Blood Barbers', 'The Bread of Life Canteen', and 'Consuming Fire Chop Bar'.

Another little detail is that music is played everywhere. No matter the time of day or the place you are you can almost always hear something playing if you listen closely enough. About half the time it's either Church devotional music or some sort of the local 'Highlife Music' (a fusion of African and Western music that's extremely popular here). The other half of the time however it's Western pop music, but only the most ridiculously trite and insipid variety of it. Walking around one hears (either in the original or covered by a Ghanaian artist) songs by Christina Aguliera, the Backstreet Boys, Celine Dion (I've heard 4 different versions of 'My Heart Will Go On' already), and All4One (the group that gave us 'I Swear').

Finally, people here are very friendly to tourists, and especially to the Obruni (Obruni being the word for 'white man' here. That's obviously Matt, my ethnic identity is a mystery to most Ghanaians who've tried to guess. Though I'm pretty clearly Asian Indian I've been called Chinaman more than anything). Almost everywhere we go people of all ages will start conversations with us, guve us advice or directions, and inform us that Ghana is a great place and we should love it, and that they love it. It's not quite like the hassling tourists get in other parts of the World when the people may have a profit motive. Over here I'm convinced that it's just straight-up friendliness to obvious strangers. I must say it does make it hard to ever be in a bad mood when in the span of 10 minutes, 7 different people have given you a huge smile and a cheery 'How are you?'