Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Hellooooooo!

After a few weeks in Accra, we are becoming familiar with the quirks and marvels of this massive city. As far as I can tell, the most dominant force in Accra is traffic – it slows us down (a 20 minute trip can take 2.5 hours at the wrong time of day), speeds us up (as we dash back from the road to avoid being sideswiped by careless motorcycles and cars), and encourages us to get to know our neighbours (cramming in next to everyone else on the small buses known as tro-tros). Sometimes, someone will stand up and give a sermon in the middle of the tro-tro, providing moral guidance and entertainment in the ‘dead time’ while people wait to get to their destination.









Long line of motionless cars fading into the distance...

My Twi is slowly improving, but I frequently wish that I knew more in order to understand the conversations, singing, and prayer that I hear around me as I walk through the city. We have found a number of small concerts around the city, and even joined in a local dance in the middle of our neigborhood! Even though Accra is a very modern city, it has a natural rhythm to it and you can find most things you need in small stores around the neighbourhood. Most people still prepare their food fresh each day, and we are woken up at sunrise by a combination of roosters and radio. So, for the most part, it doesn’t feel like a big city at all. However, we can still go to the movies or the mall - in fact, we got to see a new Nigerian movie (Mirror Boy http://www.mirrorboythemovie.com) and the stars were even there because it was the Ghanaian premier! This weekend Robin and I will be going up North to the area around Tamale for a field study, so I will be interested to see the contrast between the two regions.














View from inside a tro-tro.



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