13 April 2007 - 11:40
This is a real airport.
That was my first thought upon our arrival at Kotoka International Airport. Cailin and I had just spent five hours on a flight that had left Senegal and made stops in Freetown, Sierra Leon, and Monrovia, Liberia, before arriving at our final destination, Accra, Ghana.
My second thought was about how welcoming the country already seemed – there were signs everywhere welcoming us to Ghana, and notices letting us know that we should feel free to contact an airport employee for any need we might have. While I knew that this was just part of the 50th anniversary celebrations marketing to tourists, it was still much more of an effort at courtesy than I have observed in any other country I’ve visited in Africa. Throughout our vacation in the country, however, we found the Ghanaian geniality to be genuine.
My third thought was this: Wow, it’s really green here for being the dry season. Our fears about visiting Ghana at the end of the dry season, when it’s really hot, and at the beginning of the rainy season, when it’s really…well, wet…turned out to be not as big of a problem as we had feared – we experienced light rain several times during the trip, but neither the heat nor the rain was much of a bother, in spite of the frequent power outages.
The flight there, preceded the day before by eight hours of traveling in a car, had tired us out, and we were in bed by seven o’clock. Fortunately, we were so tired that we barely noticed that our fan had stopped turning when the power went out about the same time, and we slept more or less soundly.
The next day was spent wandering around town with a visit to the National Museum and an accompanying restaurant, where we had our first experience with local food. Both of us ordered “red red,” a dish of spicy beans and fried plantains, served with meat, and in my opinion, the best West African dish I’ve ever had. Following the museum, I bought a Ghanaian SIM card for my phone and started making phone calls to arrange meeting up with two volunteer-tourists (more on this term later) from the area and trying to find out the status of the truck were supposed to be renting the next day. We met the two girls later that night at a sports bar/restaurant, an eclectic mix of English pub décor, American rap for our listening pleasure, and Mexican food for our palates, and made final arrangement for the next day.
Another thing I loved about Accra (and Ghana in general) is the plethora of bizarre religious business names like “Righteous Lord Enterprises,” “Saving Grace Refrigerator Repair,” and “Mighty God Computer Services.” Awesomely hilarious.
My personal favorite sign in Ghana...