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September 7, 2013

Today Justice (aka Kwame) took the American Girls to the capitol, Accra. We experienced our first tro-tro ride, which is like a large 15 passenger van.. but the bigger ones seat 22-25 people. They stop at little stations and the door man leans out the door screaming their destination. In our case,  Accra, they would say it so fast and blended together it sounded like a crow: “Cra-cra-cra-cra-cra”. It’s a very convenient way of traveling, as it cost 1 GCD 80 pesawas (approximately 90 US cents) for the 1.5 hour drive, depending on traffic. In Accra, Justice took us to the market, showed us where they make drums and some guys gave us an impromptu drum lesson. Then we continued to important buildings in the capitol. I also tasted sugar cane for the first time- they peel it and cut it into chunks where you take a bite, chew it like gum until the sugary juice is gone, spit it out, and repeat. It was SO delicious! Definitely one of my new favorite snacks, along with pineapple and plantain chips.

We went to Mama Mia’s for dinner to order pizza. There were only foreigners there; pizza is not high up on the list of traditional Ghanaian food. We made it to the mall, and I felt like I traveled across the ocean to America, it was big and spacious and air conditioned. The tro-tro ride back home was eventful… I was in the very back with Monica, Kwame, and our friend Sierra when another tro-tro pulled out right in front of us. There was a collective “gasp” as we all realized we were going to hit it. Nothing major happened, and we both kept driving, until our engine caught fire in the front, so the driver pulled over and we all had to get out. Nothing major happened and everyone was fine, but we were pretty shaken. The driver even tried convincing us to get back in the same tro-tro five minutes later, but we opted to wait for a different one to take us the rest of the way home. What an experience!!