Ghana Day 22; 8/24/14

As I’m sitting by myself at the gate for my flight tonight, I can’t help but think that coming here was  one of the coolest experiences and best decisions that I’ve ever made in my life. I’ll keep the final reflection of the trip on another post, but I’m so very grateful for the opportunity I’ve had and the relationships I’ve built in just three short weeks.

I passed out on the second half of our bus ride to Accra because I went to sleep really late last night, but one thing that I immediately noticed was the difference in wealth distribution in the city as opposed to the country, where most of our work was done. At the beginning, we saw cows that were so thin we could see almost all their ribs. 

When we got to Accra, we passed by several of the embassy houses after dropping off two of the interns with early flights, and the embassy houses were absolutely beautiful. I wasn’t able to get as many pictures as I would have liked from the moving bus, but it was so interesting to see what an affluent country like Canada could do with the land and resources it had in a developing country. We also passed by the White House-equivalent of Ghana, which was 100% beautiful. It was so classy and looked like a simple structure but obviously had a lot of complexity to the architecture, and it was in the middle of an otherwise barren land, so it drew a lot of attention.

We ended up going to one of the markets around town for the early afternoon, which reminded me way too much of a Taiwanese night market, but with tighter hallways. When we stepped off the bus, we were immediately greeted by a bunch of shopkeepers (interestingly all men) that came and started pairing with us one-on-one. It was very intimidating at the beginning, but they were just trying to be very friendly so they could take us to different shops to buy their items. There were so many things to choose from – lots of things like bags and bracelets that we saw in Cape Coast, and then lots of things that we didn’t see, including little sculptures. It was fun to be able to look, and I ended up spending a good bit of my remaining money buying a painting, some bracelets (and one made with tiny beads with flags of all the countries in the US and Ghana World Cup bracket, as well as the Brazilian flag! It was made by a guy named John who claimed it took 30 days to make, which seems excessive to me, but it really is high quality), and a small horse made of ebony wood. I’m extremely excited to gift them to people and keep some to myself!

We then made our way to the main mall of Accra. It was comparable to a mall you might see at in a smaller city in the US, and I wasn’t the only intern that found it a little off-putting that there were other foreigners in the area. It’s funny how time as short as three weeks can change your perspective and your perception of the norms of life. There were TVs showing a PSA about Ebola awareness, the same that I’d seen from the TV at Aaba lodge, which is great to see as a public health major.

We split in two groups and I ended up going to the chicken restaurant in the food court to order a chicken sandwich, which was delicious. I can’t wait to get some typical food again; rice, beans, noodles, fruit, and tomatoes are great, but it’s difficult to eat the same thing for so many days in a row.

We then split up even further because some people decided to get the 25GHC manicures (that’s less than $8), and I didn’t think I needed it. Instead, I walked with two other interns to explore the grocery store on one side of the mall and the Target or Walmart-style store on the other. It reminded me of how much excess there is in the United States, especially in supermarkets; a typical HEB/Trader Joe’s has more selection and stock than what I assume to be one of the biggest malls in Ghana.

Since we couldn’t really pay with anything with credit card, there wasn’t much point in browsing the clothing stores any further; the book store seemed to have all kinds of products, including a significant section dedicated to erotica. LOL

We got really excited when we came across the movie theater, because it meant that we didn’t have to figure out a way to waste the next two and a half hours. We decided to see Let’s Be Cops, starring two main cast members from New Girl – Nick and Coach (Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans, Jr.) – and it was cool to see that the inside of the theater room was almost exactly the same as one you’d expect to see in a typical American theater, minus the accessibility seats. The interesting thing was that we weren’t allowed to go into the room until right before the ads started.

The way that movies worked in that mall was that there were about 10 minutes of ads, then 15 minutes of previews that all started at the listed time of the movie. In other words, you could be 25 minutes late to a movie and still be fine in seeing the beginning. Note to self – the movie “Unbroken,” a WWII film directed by Angelina Jolie, looks like it’s worth watching.

Either way, some of the ads that were played were really great. One for toothpaste asked if anyone in the audience was on a date and whether they thought their brand of toothpaste would last them the entire movie, which I thought was clever and a great way to tailor to the audience. My favorite, however, was one that featured someone who looked to be a famous radio DJ or something who spoke against the stigma against HIV/AIDS, drawing on the fact that these people could be anyone. I loved that the obvious public health issue was so candidly discussed in an environment that made it unexpected, and that organizations involved with HIV awareness even bothered to address these issues to begin with.

With regard to the movie itself, I don’t know exactly how I feel about it because it’s one of those movies that has humor meant for all adult audiences – as in, a little crude and can allow you to turn off your brain for its duration. It was a cute concept and the 25 GHC that I spent on it was worth it, but it’s really not a movie that I’d spend more time watching again.

After that, we went to the airport directly to catch the flights of some of the interns. Accra, as I suspected, is a small airport marginally larger than Austin-Bergstrom. It only has five gates, but I thought it was interesting that all the shops in it except one are of distinctly-Ghanaian products, presumably because I think it only hosts international flights. Passengers are required to walk through at least one shop right after they get through security (and the items are not only similar to those that exist in local markets but are way more expensive, so I hope that the profits don’t just go to some airport CEO.

Just like when I arrived, the departure gate requires all passengers to take a shuttle about 50 yards to the entrance of the stairs that lead to the plane, so again, I wonder about accessibility because we have to walk at least one and a half stories up those stairs.

I’m disappointed to see that the movie selection is the same as it was when I came, so I don’t really have any more movies that I could watch that would be ones that I would actually want to watch. I guess, in some way, it means that I can get some sleep before I get to London, but we’ll see how it turns out, I guess!

P.S. The cabin was sprayed with what I assume is disinfectant before we took off, and the sky gets dark at 6:00/6:30 pm.