So this is Ghana!

Traffic is a whole different cultural experience. It's the kind of place where you hire a car AND driver, since it's so crazy. Whenever traffic slows down, either because of a traffic jam or a toll booth, people flood the road around the cars to sell their wares. Things that we saw for sale included, but we're not limited to the following:

Cell phones

Coat hangers

Toilet paper

Papaya

Ground nuts

Donuts

Jumper cables

Towels with "Shell Oil" on them

Fabric

Chocolate bars

Bananas

Baggies of water

A puppy

The women carried their bundles on their heads, as you can see in this picture. The men carried things in their hands and jiggled them to attract attention. We had to be diligent in looking straight ahead, and particularly not gesturing, in order to avoid a swarm. 

Getting to Ghana

November 12

The last flight of my three flights was from New York to Accra, Ghana. I was sitting beside a Ghanaian-American of "traditional build". "Neku" was friendly and chatty and about my age. Things were going along well for the first couple of hours of the ten-hour flight when things suddenly erupted. It turns out that the woman behind her could not recline her chair and she got upset when Neku reclined her chair. But she showed her displeasure by thumping on the offending chair, rather than having a conversation with Neku or talking to the flight attendant. Neku was very upset about this and was yelling at the woman behind her and then the flight attendant. I was trapped in between two large women.  Fortunately it did not come to blows. The man in front of us, also Ghanian, helped find some humour in the situation and diffused tensions somewhat. Neku raised her seat back a smidgeon and peace was restored. 

Neku had an interesting story to share. She and her husband had been buying a few properties in Ghana and then taking turns going back to look after them. After several years of this, Neku discovered that he had another wife and a couple of children in Ghana. She divorced him, but had to hand over a couple of properties to him in the divorce settlement. 

Packing

I leave tomorrow night. Feeling overwhelmed!!

Lots of things to fit into the suitcases. 

I'm finding it helpful to pretend that I'm just going to Toronto (my first layover, before New York and then Accra.)