Home » Ghana » African Adventure to Ghana - Summer 2003 (part I)

My summer of 2003 was a very exciting one. I went to Jonquière, Quebec to learn French for 5 weeks, and with only a few days to prepare (including a party at my friend Paul's cottage in between) I was off to Accra, Ghana landing July 1 (Canada Day, and also Ghanaian Independance Day). After that, within 3 days I was back at Ottawa to complete my Economics degree, so it was a very action-packed summer.

African Adventure to Ghana - Summer 2003 (part I)

Andrew Wozniuk
2006-04-02 10:34:03

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(Peugeot station wagon packed with people that takes specific routes like a bus that costs about 1,300 cedis). If you have to take a "drop" which is a taxi that will take you wherever you want 6,000 cedis (quite a bit more). Thing is that Tro-Tros and shared cars cost almost the same to go within a reasonable area, but a "drop" depending on how far you are going can cost you 20,000 or 30,000. Also, Tro-Tro and shared car have set price. You have to negotiate a price with a "drop". Now a Canadian dollar being around 6,500 cedis, per trip it doesn't cost all that much to get around, but by the time the day is done, you've spent quite a bit, especially if you have to "drop".

One thing that is great is how friendly and helpful the people are. If you ever need to find somewhere or where to get something, anyone will help you out. The usual place where I get food on the street was closed the other day, so I asked a girl that was close by where another food place was and she walked me all the way there. Also, when I am walking around, people can see that I am foreign and they say "Hello. How are you?".

The pace here is a lot slower than North America and it totally makes sense. It is hot, so if you are in a hurry you're just going to end up sweating a lot. The traffic is pretty heavy a lot of the time so getting places isn't all that quick. If you have to meet up with people, just being within a reasonable amount of time is good enough. There is really no need to rush. Clothes are hand-washed, and my first time hand washing about one load of laundry took me a few hours. Then I still had to hang it up for it to dry. It's not very hard to do, just time-consuming, and if I was in the fast-paced North American society, I would have no time to do such things. It is really interesting experiencing a totally different way of doing things because if you just go with it, everything works out just fine. If you try to hold on to ways of life ...