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Accra started out as a terrible disappointment. Firstly, landing back in the midst of english, bad food, terrible coffee -- it just all felt too english. And the city itself is a disaster of urban planning. There are no buildings of note, no parks, no avenues, and humungous traffic problems.

Accra (may 28th - june 19th)

Mark Davies
2006-03-28 16:44:45

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Accra started out as a terrible disappointment. Firstly, landing back in the midst of english, bad food, terrible coffee -- it just all felt too english. And the city itself is a disaster of urban planning. There are no buildings of note, no parks, no avenues, and humungous traffic problems. It was just a hot, sticky, messy sprawl of a city with little to redeem it. Even the wonderful seafront was completely neglected. But what it lacked in natural beauty, it made up for in overwhelming friendliness, a buzzing, promising economy, a somewhat liberated political system, and a host of new friends that made it the happiest time spent in any of the big cities. Indeed, I spent the last week house-hunting!

a statue of Kwame Nkrumah, the father of ghana's independence. It bears the scars of when it was
toppled and mobbed in one anti-government demonstration.

alex, one of my closest friends, flew down from Paris to be with me for a week. Here we are with elias: the owner of the hotel we were staying in who turned out to be great company, and made sure we found our footing in Accra. We ended up showing him a thing or two too!

I met Teddy, a liberian refugee whose both parents were killed in the war. He was here in Accra running a beauty parlor. We later used the parlor to throw a party for 80 of his and Henry's friends.