weekend in accra

the weekend started with some drinks and local fare at an outdoor bar, reminiscent of sitting outside at food restaurants by the temple street night market at night. more yummy grilled tilapia with avocado and spicy red pepper sauce - i will spare those of you that have been salivating over the previously-posted photos :)

saturday morning, i was fortunate enough to have peter, one of our staff members, show me around a couple of the local places in accra. we started in osu, which SC has called the "yorkville" of accra. you can judge for yourself :)

a fine selection of shoes.

a cute little stall selling grilled tilapia. i assume the extra blessings were free.

tons of the biggest mangoes i have ever seen, along with some watermelons.

we then headed to the arts centre, which is accra's large market area with tons of handicrafts, including beadery, fabrics, woodwork, and of course, football jerseys. with peter's help, i bought a kente, which is a traditional strip of cloth that is handwoven by the Asante people in Ghana. while i've been to markets in many places, i think as i get older, i am less tolerant of the "hello sister" and "hello friend" greetings as shopowners aggressively tried to get me to browse their wares. peter was invaluable in helping with the bartering process!

the traditional printed batik fabrics of ghana. men and women buy bolts of fabric and take them to tailors to make custom tops and dresses, or to wrap around themselves in headdresses.

a beautiful little boy having a bite to eat. when i waved at him and said "hi", he waved back and said "bye"!

obama seems to be highly revered - there were many of these stickers above various stalls.

a shopkeeper having a rest amongst his fabrics.

in the afternoon, at the suggestion of a gentleman sitting in the hotel lobby, i decided to go to labadi beach. there is not much to see, but it was nice to feel the breeze of the ocean and the warmth of the sun!

view from my deck chair at labadi beach.

today, i experienced church, ghanaian style, courtesy of my colleague, kojo. there were about 700 people in the second service that we went to; kojo said that in the first service, all four floors were full of people, including tents outside where people sat to listen. the church was a simple concrete building with open spaces instead of windows, and no air conditioning (i was suffering by the end of it). the worship team had 8 singers, a drum kit and a steel drum kit, a grand piano and an organ, a brass section, and the typical guitars and bass. worship was hopping!

now, to decide what to do with the rest of the day. i'm off to dar es salaam, tanzania, tomorrow night! i leave you with a couple of last photos of accra.

these are "trotros" - the ghanaian form of a hong kong minibus. more crowded, though.

independence square. ghana celebrates its independence day on march 3.

a street view of osu.

buying groceries after church. just like at home!