Ghana at night is a beautiful sight! And Corruption Works for US!

Lots to catch up on- sorry if this is VERY LONG!

Wednesday Jess and I went to the orphanage- we meet a lot of new people- Becky- Another volunteer and two sponsors from the UK. Coming home there was some of the worst Accra traffic and fullness at the trotro stations so we sucked it up and got a Taxi and its still took 1hr40min for a usually 30min ride- ahhh.

Thursday I skipped my first class! I skipped drumming. We aren’t learning anything new and I wasn’t really in the mood in the morning to review. I went to the bookstore and got 4 novels for about 7USD- almost new- this is fabulous! Had theatre management and then came back and people wanted to go to Dracula. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go- but it was a very very good show- They like to have audience interaction- but all of the girls were sooo scared of these masked men! Oh well. Worth the about 0.50USD!!!

Friday morning Andi and I headed to Kumasi (hopefully to get tickets early for the game.) We left the university around 11am. We took a trotro to circle (a hub)- from there we could either take a bus or a trotro- we decided to have fun and take the trip of from anywhere 4.5 hours to 9hrs by tro. The tro we got on was almost full so we left by noon which was great. The first half of the trip the West African Transport (Highway) N6 is in major disrepair so your rear hurts. We got to Nkawkaw and everyone got off- and about 20 minutes before this we had hit a storm. So I leaned over and was like Driver are you going to Kumasi and he was like oh I will transfer you- so not even two minutes later another tro came- the Oburonis got wet and we were on our way with a very nice tro full of people wanted to now what we were doing- except for the rain that followed us the whole way we had a pretty uneventful day! We got to the hotel around 6 which was great- grabbed some dinner at the hotel restaurant and went to bed early. There were another 7 ISEPers up there but they did their own thing and we did. Tickets were not going on sale until Sunday morning- but no one knew what time we heard between 7am and 11am! We also meet a tour guide from Mali-

So Saturday Andi and I didn’t want to shop so we decided to go to the Kumasi Fort and Arm Forces Museum. With some help of the front desk at the hotel we got their easily. It was a very nice tour- crazy the amount of wars the Gold Coast/Ghana was in and the things that have been collected. Some of the pieces like the original Ghana flag are here. I was glad Andi agreed to do this. Our tour guide was very good and it lasted about an hour and a half. On the way out we walked around a little and meet a street vendor- not really trying to sell us anything! We talked with him for about an hour and a half. He invited us to a music concert but we weren’t sure on our plans for the evening so we got his number- but it ended up not working and our plans came through so we didn’t go. After walking around a little more we headed back to the hotel. There were at least another 11 people coming up this morning (it ended up being another 15.) So because transportation is all over the place here- I thought maybe we should see if we can get a big tro for all or most of us. So I asked the guy who helped us in the morning if he knew any tro drivers that might charter to Accra for us- He knew someone not with a tro but who manages part of a rental company. Cross is his name! And he is great!!!! He came over we talked about first only 15 of us- but then there was really 24 of us- so long story short we got people to agree to pay 12.50GHC a piece (300 Total- we had to pay Gas both ways because they would be coming back empty- but so worth it)- the bus from Kumasi to Accra alone is 11GHC so it would have been more because when we get to Accra its still far from where we live and it would have been at least after 3am and no tros so we would have had to take Taxis- some people didn’t want to do it at first the bus took us right to Legon. So Andi and I chartered a 28 passenger bus not 24 hours before the game! How I love Ghana. At first you don’t know what is bull here and what is truth but Cross seemed good but we weren’t handing money over to him. So we arranged to go to pay the deposit to the bus company in the morning after we got tickets.

Saturday Night- Andi and I invited Wisdom (Israel’s brother who I have meet in Accra) to go out to dinner. We went to a restaurant a little walk from our hotel and I had the best Chicken Sandwich ever! It is nice to be making more Ghanaian friends and just go out and learn more about the culture and the way of life here. I feel that I have a family of friends here both American and Ghanaian- that I will miss dearly. We were at dinner for almost 3 hours!

Andi and I decided to go early for tickets (fend for yourselves is the game) because no one could tell us anything- we woke at 5am walked over to the stadium we got there and basically it was all of the Oburonis- I think it was a big joke to all of them. We got there they said tickets were going on sale where we were at 7am. Then at about 6:45am they were like not here and the few Ghanaians there ran- we were like whats going on- and someone finally told us we had to go to this other part- but there was like no one there. And at this point we are told tickets arnt going on sale till 9 or was it 11- so we got into lines- but then how corruption pays! We got two tickets in the ‘VIP’ section by bribing a ticket seller with one cedi hours before tickets went on sale. We had great seats with the thanks to Christian a Ghanaian we meet in line- who got us to the ticket guy. They were about 7USD a piece- which is sooo cheep! So we went back to the hotel at 830am to take a nap and then were ready to go pay the deposit. So we called Cross at about 10:45- we got our stuff together checked out of the hotel and waited for him. (Andi was getting very grumpy she knew it and said it and was getting mad at how long it was taking him to get to the hotel- I was trying to stay optimistic). We had been told even though we have tickets we should get there early because of the crowd- so this was cutting into that. So at about 1pm (yup GHANA TIME AGAIN) Cross, Gerry the driver and Abeseriwa picked us up. Cross and these two friends work at the biggest radio station in Kumasi. So we go and pay the deposit at a legit building at the Kumasi Airport with a contract! And then they are like will you make us a jingle? Andi and I are thinking they want us to write one (I jokes only if we get royalties)- but because we had said some things in Twi they wanted to have American with very American Accents to actually record a saying (I am sure if this happens the people will laugh at it!)- and we were pulling into the radio station- they gave us a tour of the station but because another show was being recorded we couldn’t (at this point Andi was pissed but then two seconds later she was laughing and smiling- which I was glad to see and I told her later- and she was like it was fun doing these types of things after we sand the Thong song and some Bob Marley- and danced in the car!). So we meet all of their co-workers and then we went to the rival station so they could drop something off?- we got a picture with our new made friends. We drove through central market to go to the stadium- where they escorted us- when we could have walked but that’s how the men are here to our entrance. We picked up some Ghana gear, lunch and headed in! We were about two hours early but we ate and talked to some people around us. The match started on time and only 1:11min into the game Ghana scored! It was great- but it was the only goal of the whole match so the rest of it was fun to watch- but I wanted some energy! In the section next to us (separated but a big fence was the Benin crowed) they had spirit- were we were sitting was the calm section so nothing to exciting was seen by us- Ghana won the World Cup Qualifier Game! So the game ended Andi and I had the tightest fist formed and some people let us pass nicely but the crowd pushes out. We got out of the stadium (swam the perpendicular way in a huge crowd)- we got back to the hotel and Andi and I had everything we went with! We called Cross- and the bus which was going to leave at 9pm sharp was there around 815pm and we left- ISEP history breaker early. By 835 we were on the road- I was shotty on the bus with a driver who spoke very little English- but it was fun trying to turn on and off the AC when it got cold or when the radio got to load with my little Twi and his little English. But I heard a few “oh s***” from him on big pot holes! We got back to ISH (all the way to our hostel!) by 12:30ish. Record time in comfort. We passed so many police check points and never got stopped which was great. Andi and I felt great getting home- by the time we got home we most likely would have been still in Kumasi if we tried to get a bus or tro back. This was also much safer- people could sleep and not worry about there belongs- paying for connivance is the best- We also gave Cross a little something for his work as facilitator. He also called during the trip to make sure everything was okay and if he needed to translate anything to the driver for us! He is coming to Accra next week or so, so Andi and I might meet up with him and his friends and they want to try to get us to record that jingle still! Lets say though I never want to sit in the front of a car with a working speedometer in Ghana there were times we were doing 110kmh in a 50kmh--- but it’s a back road and there are no road laws here!

The ride home gave me a lot of time to reflect and was just a good trip to see the beauty of Ghana in so many different ways. Ghana is beautiful, the people, the land, and the society. Sitting in the bus- reflections will come with another entry.

Thanks all- Love Midge
Album 9 has the pictures from this past weekend....