How to Hitchhike in Ghana

At a restaurant on the beach

On our trip to Kokrobite Beach!

Sometimes you can delve into and learn about a culture in the most unexpected and inconceivable ways, as is what happened to me last weekend.  I am convinced that it was some divine miracle of God, even if it was a bit scary at first.  But I think this was one of my first big blatant lessons in trusting God.  Though I had heard a lot about the friendly Ghanaians with their generous warmth and hospitality, it didn’t really hit me until this incident last weekend:

Since I’ve been here, the beach has been so wonderful to me!  I have already gone many times.  Our usual spot is Labodi Beach, because it is a 5 minute taxi ride away.  This is a great beach full of entertainers, fishermen, and artists.  Wednesday night is also Reggae Night at the beach where we dance around a bonfire and step into the ocean!

Last weekend a bunch of us decided to get out of Accra for a bit.  So we took a taxi to Kokrobite Beach about an hour outside Accra, a 25 cedi ride.  The beach, of course, was amazing!  It felt more “authentic” than most beaches I’ve been to, probably because the beauty of the beach wasn’t interrupted by mega hotels and stores.  We just stayed at a small resort made up of two bars, a restaurant, a stage for the reggae band, and houses to rent out.  The house ended up costing us each only 9 cedi and 33 pesewa a night.

So the next day, Anna and I need to catch a cab home.  We only have a total of 3 cedi on us.  I guess we figured that we would catch a cab to take us home and then we would run inside to get more cash to pay the driver.  Unfortunately, catching a cab proves to be a challenge as we are in a pretty rural area.  So we walk from the resort and through a small town without seeing any sign of a cab.  Pretty soon it becomes desolate as the first town fades away, and we see the next one on the horizon.

But then a man stops us.  “You don’t want to keep on walking.  In the next town, the people are hungry.  They will rob you.” (Good thing I didn’t have anything valuable on me).  So we stop on this empty road and watch as a car drives by every once in a while.  The man keeps a careful eye on us, and then flags down a car driving by.  The man in the car is going to the Accra airport, just a few minutes away from where we live.

We get in the car, where the man is warm and welcoming. He even insists on putting out his cigarette immediately.  We talk about Ghanaians, church and religion in Ghana, America and the times he lived in America, and he kept giving us clear instructions about where he was going and where he would drop us off.  He dropped us off in Osu, a part of Accra that’s only a five-minute car ride away.  He told us that it should only be a 3 cedi taxi ride home from there!  Anna and I stepped out of the man’s car, laughing at our good fortune of finding a ride home for only 3 cedi total!  It was an amazing experience.  That is something that I probably wouldn’t do in America, but because I knew a bit about the friendly Ghanaian culture, I felt safe accepting the ride back to Accra.

Baboon at Shai Hill Reserve

Anna Shaw at Shai Hills

Adventures for this weekend included going to Shai Hill Reserve to see baboons and hike up a mountain.  Then we took a tro tro home.  A tro tro is a sort of bus system, but they are really just big vans stuffed with people.  That was an interesting experience.  Today our RAs gave us a cooking lesson in Ghanaian foods, so I’ll be sure to blog about that soon!

Eat Some Fufu and Red Red

A picture of my neighborhood, Labone

A lady carrying fish on her head!

A menu at a local restaurant called Didi Pa

Banku at Didi Pa

My first lunch in Ghana.  My favorite was the groundnut soup with chicken and a rice ball (left).

I have arrived in Accra, Ghana and my first week has consisted entirely of orientation.  My first week here has brought many new experiences, and I admit that I have been exceedingly lazy about writing an update on my blog.  But with hardly any internet, it is easy to forget to stay connected all the time.
First, I need to explain the name of this blog.  Akwaaba means “welcome” in Twi, and it was the first thing I heard when I came to Ghana.  This is my favorite word in Twi, because I believe that it really captures the hospitality of the country and its people.  Indeed, the people here are extremely friendly and welcoming.  The NYU guards already know all our names (there are about 42 of us total in the program), and they are always helping us brush up on simple phrases in Twi:
εte sεn? How are you?
εyε  I’m good!

On day one of orientation it began to hit me that I am in an extremely new environment:  There are huge tropical trees around me, and it is constantly hot out.  Even at night I feel like I need to grab a coat or jacket to go out until I realize that I will be hot even in my light, breezy dress.  Everyone keeps warning us that this is actually their “winter” season, and that February and March is actually their hottest season. 
One day Anna (my roommate) and I found a lizard running around our room (I think we got it out though…I haven’t seen it for a few days anyways).  Mosquito repellent is a must, which I learned after being bitten up one night.  I’m proud to say that I haven’t had a bite for a while now.  We also need to be very conscious of how much electricity we use.  If I am not in my room, the air conditioning should not be on and my lamps and computer charger should be unplugged.  Why be wasteful when so many don’t have access to these things?
Anyways, I learned a lot about the foods here during my first few days.  First of all, beer is cheaper than soda, though the only brand of beer that you can really find is STAR, a decent local brew.  I tried a Diet Coke here, but it looked like it was from some Arab country and it tasted terrible (I can still find Coca-Cola light).  Though peanut butter seems really American to me, I was pleasantly surprised to find it in any grocery store, but it’s called groundnut paste.  I think it tastes way better than normal American peanut butter!
As far as the cuisine here goes, rice and plantains (usually fried) are staples.  So far, I have had rice with almost every meal.  They have special rice called Jollof rice that is heavily spiced and usually red in color from tomatoes.  For the first lunch I had during orientation we were served groundnut soup with chicken and a rice ball.  This was one of my favorite dishes I’ve had so far during my whole stay.  I need to learn how to cook this.  Luckily, our Ghanaian CRAs are going to have a cooking class for all of us next week!  Other local dishes include Red Red, a bean stew served with plantains (another favorite of mine), FuFu, cassava and plantains pounded together into a dough and dipped in a stew, Banku, cornmeal made into a ball of dough and dipped in a spicy sort of beef stew, and palmnut soup.  Unfortunately, I haven’t tried all of these yet.  I found out quickly that I couldn’t just eat only Ghanaian foods because they tend to be spicy and heavy.  People that are newer to the cuisine may find themselves getting what is termed Ghana Gut (I don’t think I’ll explain any further), so it is important to eat it intermittently with other more familiar foods.
Ghana also has some of the best fruit I have ever tasted.  There is the “Pineapple Lady” close to our academic center who has a little fruit stand.  She sells the best pineapples and will even slice it up for you right there.  The pineapples are strangely white, but are so sweet and flavorful!  She also sells wonderful bananas and avocados.

Leaving today!

I'm leaving today for Accra, Ghana!  I'm getting kind of nervous and my mom's blood pressure is rising, but soon I'll be in Africa, a continent that I could never fully grasp.  Wish me luck in my adventures!