We left our paradisiacal hotel fairly early this morning and headed back to Accra for the final (stressful!) part of this Ghana trip. We’re done with all the touristy things now—all we have left is project work. All those PEF interviews that we (haven’t) done so far? Time to synthesize them into some logical report that will actually be useful for the PEF.
The drive from Cape Coast to Accra should only take 2 hours, in theory, but torrential thunderstorms, a leaky bus, and horrible, horrible traffic made the trip 3.5 hours long. Normally this wouldn’t have been a problem, but because of some fun stomach issues I’m having (curse you doxycycline and weird Ghanaian food!) I pumped myself full of Coca Cola this morning. Caffeine is a diuretic, or a drug that elevates the rate of urination. Half an hour from Accra, I started to get mighty uncomfortable. The traffic slowed to an almost standstill and for the next hour, I was sure kidney failure was imminent. When we stopped at the embassy to let the three people who had their passports stolen pick up their replacements, I immediately jumped off the bus and ran to the front security desk looking so desperately panicked that the guy let me in without asking for ID. I survived, thus subjecting you all to a fantastic TMI story :)
After the embassy we went to the Osu Food Court for lunch and spent some time wandering down the market street. I wasn’t really interested in buying anything—I’ve been saving most of my tourist shopping for our last day here—but I accidentally showed interest in one of the coolest shirts ever. This:
A President Obama African shirt. What could be better than that?!
The seller followed me around for half an hour until I finally relented and bought it for 7 cedis, or a little over $4. It rocks.
They love Obama here. He visited in June 2009 on his Africa tour (the same trip where he went to Cairo while we were there), and remnants of his trip are all over. Billboards like this are all over the place, putting Obama next to Ghana’s President Mills. Fun times.
We checked into the hotel and met together as a PEF team to discuss our final project strategy for about 45 minutes before walking over to the stake center for a special family night. A Church member is the manager for a drum and dance troupe, and he puts on special shows whenever BYU students come through.
It was an entertaining show, with lots of super loud drumming (like the Tannoura Sufi dancers in Cairo, only with girls and dancing and less spinning). At the end, the dancers plucked people out of the audience to dance with them. I was pulled up three times. And I rocked the dance floor :).
Videos by Jenny Barrow
We all did actually. It was awesome.
We got back from the dancing late tonight and did some minor project planning before finally heading to bed, completely exhausted. Beyond our final PEF school visits tomorrow, all we have left here is to make and give our final presentations. Yikes! Time has gone by way too fast…
You know, if you had asked the bus driver to stop so you could go to the bathroom I bet you he would have, he probably would have joined you as well... It's not like you aren't allowed to pee in public there.
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