Accra

Today began in a fairly standard way- the girls were all ready promptly for the planned departure time to Accra of 10am, Paul however was on "Ghana time"/ his holidays, and so rocked up at 10.30.  We managed to get a tro from outside the hotel straight to Accra which was relatively simple, and a small traffic jam later we were in the centre.  Amazingly we managed to track down David (another student from the course who is spending the month nearer to Accra) amongst the hustle and bustle of Accra's circle transport hub!

We then made a lengthy walk, in the burning heat, to the culture museum, which was an interesting stop-off, with lots of information about the cultural background of Ghana and West Africa, including slavery, jewelery, dance, woodwork and much more.  From here we took taxi's to the mad Makola market area, and attempted to find somewhere for lunch- not an easy task! We ended up in a 'breezy' restaurant which boasted a range of dishes on offer, unfortunately however the cook was not there and so we were only able to have rice and chicken- standard.

From here we took another walk down towards the sea front, locating a rather dirty beach- covered in rubbish, and then ending up at the National Centre for Culture.  Here there was an extensive market, and it was our first opportunity to exercise essential haggling skills- grasping ourselves some good deals, although obruni pricing was definitely out in force! I managed to bag myself a Ghanaian football shirt- bring on Ghana vs. England at the end of the month!  There was a lot of pressure to buy, and the shops, all selling similar items really had to compete- one guy impressed us with his ability to name any capital city requested, and so lured us to his wood carving shop.  Another guy taught us how to play some small instruments, which consisted of two rattling balls in either end of a piece of string, but then obviously wanted us to buy them- declined.

We left the Culture Centre and said goodbye to David, before taking a taxi back to circle, from where we would get a tro to Kasoa.  The first taxi drivers however insisted that this would be 10 cedis, we crossed the road and flagged one down, getting the journey for an easy 5 cedi!  At the tro station however things were a bit hectic, and a very English queue for tro's to Kasoa went into a mad scramble as soon as the doors were open, we were directed to a different tro so that we did not have to participate (thank goodness!)!  The tro took a random off-road detour which was hilarious as we weren't all too sure what was going on, but we were soon back on the main road and into Kasoa in no time.  We ended the day with some Ghanaian super-noodles and Harry Potter.