Chips and Coconuts

Goodness I am indeed in Ghana! So far so good. Flights arrived, landed, all is good. Landing in Accra was beautiful. I'm not sure if the fact that I had very little sleep during the 11 hour flight had something to do with my delirium but the multi-colored rooftops combined with the rich red dirt was simply stunning.

My bag was just about the last one off so it seemed to take forever to get to the meet and greet area. We were met by signs with our names, which feels so funny. Philbert and Kaori were there, along with Mensah Asamoah and Honey. Photos were taken and before we knew it Philbert, Kaori and Honey told us they were headed to Ivory Coast. There is another project there. So Asamoah got us to our lodging for tonight at Ghana University, just north of the airport.

As we strolled around campus, enjoying amazing breezes, we took in the sights at a coconut stand located where the tro-tros drop off and pick up folks. Three coconuts were ordered and we watched each one chopped up expertly with a machete. The gentleman with the machete handed us each our coconut and we drank amazing coconut water. After the juice is gone, the machete man cuts up the remaining part of the coconut and hands back to us with a little tool (actually part of the coconut) to scrape the coconut out. Tim's was 'mature' and looked so different from mine. We also got some 'chips' which are similar to little graham crackers. The tro-tro stop was busy. Asamoah saw a highschool classmate. She was dressed in an elaborately beaded long lime green gown. She told him she was heading to a wedding, smashed into the tro-tro, a minivan.

I am typing from an Internet cafe on campus. The rate is 1 cedi per hour. I'm going to finish, send a quick e-mail and let Asamoah check his with the remaining time. The television is on in here and the program is a show about Fashion Week in guess where, NYC, of course.

We head to Pease (pronounced Pee Ah Zay) tomorrow and will begin our work in earnest on Monday morning. Cinderblocks were mentioned so it sounds intense. Pease is near Kumasi and we were told the drive might be 5 hours with traffic. My friend Tim is here. He brought his film equipment and will be able to document it. We had a fun flight, mostly trying to figure out how to pronounce Accra because every flight attendant pronounced it differently.