Written by Caitlin Stamford - GapBreak Ghana, 2009
We spent the day today in Accra, on our tour of the city. It is the most amazing place. There are many different districts that I won't go into detail here, but basically there is the rich part (which they actually call Rich) and the place where people live. I have never ever seen anything like the homes of these people.
No wonder disease is so rampant in the city. There are people everywhere, all the time. And their houses (shacks made of metal or whatever) are built together in long, rambling 'streets'. There are clothes laid out on roofs to dry and there are small children and older people asleep in the dirt. And they are all so friendly.
We went to the food markets today, another completely overwhelming experience. The shops are all about a metre wide; maybe 2 metres long and there are hundreds and hundreds of them all cramped together in a maze. They are covered by metal sheets, so its quite dark and the smell of fish (which were all covered in flies) and sweat and smoke and rotting vegetables made us all gag. The path is made of stones, and is treacherous for people carrying huge weights on their heads. I have never seen anything like it. The women (because they are all women selling the food) get paid about 1 cedi a day, which our tour guide thought was too much. 1 cedi can buy you 1 international postage stamp.
We also learnt a lot about the history of Ghana. We went on a guided tour of the memorial where the first president of Ghana (Kwame) announced the independence of Ghana and is now buried. Kwame (I cannot remember his last name) is a hero. Everyone quoted him today saying "the independence of Ghana is meaningless without the unity of all African nations'. He was a member (or founder?) of the African Union and wanted all of Africa to 'become like the United States' ie. one country. The memorial had a room housing a few odd things he owned when he was alive, like a Sheaffer pen and his old coffin (he was buried in Romania where he died of prostate cancer, then moved to his country town in Ghana and then finally moved to Accra) and his walking sticks. They are very proud of their tiny collection of odd bits and pieces. There was a statue of him outside which was missing his head and his left hand which had been vandalised during the coup in the 70's.
We went to the art and craft markets too. It was really, really fun. We were taught how to bargain by our tour guide and spent about an hour haggling with the store-holders. They always try to rip you off, in the expectation that you will bargain with them because they love it too. To give you an idea, if they say '25 cedi' you say '5 cedi' and they scream 'you are crazy!' and it goes from there. Some of the other obrunis ('white people' - all the locals call out obruni! obruni! whenever we walk past) are really tough and don't except anything above their first, really low offer but I had trouble with the thought that these people have absolutely nothing compared to me so I gave in a little. They try really hard to keep you looking at their things. Some people go to shake your hand, and then don't let go and pull you into their little shop. And because the shops are all so close together, and every one of them sold basically the same things, if you were looking at something, like a bracelet, you would be surrounded by other shop-keepers, all holding bracelets for you to look at and trying to get you into their store. It got easier to say no, and to leave to go to a different shop. Being rude is necessary. The store owners are all very close, borrowing change off each other and trying to help each other sell their things. It was nice. Our guide told us they are all there every day except Sunday.
There are goats and chickens EVERYWHERE. Our guide told us that they sleep at their family's house, roam the city during the day and promptly return to their house at dusk to be fed. You are not allowed to feed them, because otherwise they would not go back to their families. Apparently the chickens are just as clever as the goats, and return every night without fail. Unless they got stolen, or run over.
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