Just when you think I can't write anymore, here I am again. BAM.
How was your day? I would love to know. I'll tell you about mine.
I woke up in a sweaty pool, per usual, with people walking around.
"No lights" is all I hear, and for some reason it didn't
register in my head that we were experiencing another power outage until I
couldn't connect to the internet. The first thing I do is take a long
hard look at my hair, which has definitely become as wild as my nightmares
predicted. I get ready, put my mane into a bun, pop in my contacts, take
my malaria meds, the whole nine. Considering that the power was out, I opened
up Life of Pi and
finished it within the hour. For those who have read the book, please talk to
me privately about your thoughts. I think that book is something I'll need to
read a few times to fully understand, but it was incredible.
A few people from AIESEC went out to grab some food and they
brought it back to the house. The carried a plastic bag full of a bunch of
round, steaming objects. Ghanaian food at last. Last night I had my first taste
of it. There's a place that sells food for cheap and a few of us went to grab
some. I got fried rice with a piece of chicken. First of all, for less than $2
in America I'd venture to say that you'd be able to get about a cup of rice. I
got at least a pound of it, it so delicious. There was cabbage, almost tasted
like coleslaw. It cooled the rice down. I wish I knew that before I mixed in
the mysterious red paste next to the piece of chicken. I've had some pretty
spicy food, but damn. It must have been a chili paste, because yo it amped the
rice up to a whole new level. I was sweating bullets, searching for the cabbage
for solace. I tried drinking water, but the fact that (1) it was room temperature,
and (2) it was water, only worsened the fire in my mouth. I powered through it,
finishing everything. Next time, I'll know better.
They grabbed two big dishes, and put a few of the balls on one
dish, and filled the other with two sauces. Both sauces were called Pepe, one
was dark and smooth while the other was red and had chili seeds and onions in
it. The balls were called Kenkey (ken-KAY). It’s made out of corn and is
smashed until it forms a dough. From there it’s steamed in a corn husk, or so I
believe.
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| They threw a few sardines in there as well. [mywaku.com] |
Everyone sat around the dishes and
dug in. African food is notoriously hands-on, it’s pretty cool. I grabbed some
of the open kenkey (which was so hot I thought I melted my fingertips),
screamed just a little bit, and tried it. It’s hard to describe, but it’s very
plain and almost gritty. It’s cornmeal, in essence. There’s nothing fancy about
kenkey, or any Ghanaian food from what I’m seeing. In the other dish were the
two different kinds of pepe, and canned corned beef. I stuck with the red pepe,
avoiding beef as much as possible and slightly afraid of the dark pepe after
the fried rice I had the night before. The pepe definitely improved the flavor,
and I found that the more I ate, the better it tasted. It is something I could
eat on the regular; I think the texture would definitely expedite how much I
would be able to eat.
After I was sufficiently full, I
grabbed my copy of The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and
began to read. The power was still out at this point (it has been around 4 or 5
hours) and I thought to myself: if this happens as frequently as it has been,
I’m going to run out of books by next week. And my dad told me that bringing
seven books was silly. Silly him.
I went to the Accra Mall with a
member of AIESEC to get me a Ghanaian phone number. On the way, people were
walking along the highways, between the lanes during heavy traffic, trying to
sell anything. I saw belts, dog leashes, sunglasses, clocks, maps, peanuts, you
name it. The roads in Accra aren’t very well maintained and the cars are all
very old. Ours kept stalling and having to be restarted, but you’d never know
because the traffic moves slowly. Lane changes happen at the blink of an eye
and my version of tailgating would leave too much room in the road. Cars were
literally bumper to bumper with maybe an inch to spare on each side.
The SIM card was cut to match my
phone. This is convenient because I already have a phone to put it in. This in
inconvenient because now I’m going to have to keep switching out between my
American and Ghanaian SIM cards. Alas. At the mall, I also took the liberty of
buying a pillow, considering I’ve been using my neck pillow for sleeping since
I’ve arrived. My neck hurts a little bit.
We left the mall and walked around
town to a tro-tro stop. A tro-tro is almost like a big taxi, but it fits around
20 or so people. They’re pretty crowded but it’s a cheap way to get around. A
person working in a tro-tro will stand outside the van, usually a 15 passenger
van or something bigger, and yell where they’re going. There was no schedule,
no numbers on the tro-tro, nothing. I would have been lost without my AIESEC
peeps for sure. I hope I get the hang of tro-tros soon enough.
We got off the tro-tro and hopped
in a taxi to take us to the place we were going to. We walked around, trying to
find Passions Restaurant and Café. I was told that we were meeting an intern
from Austria that went abroad through AIESEC there to watch a presentation. I
didn’t know it was a TEDx talk. TEDx talks are community organized TED talks.
This one was about feminism in Africa, and the current social situation. There were
four speakers and one singer, all powerful on their own. They conveyed an
incredible collective message, stating that education is more crucial than can
be imagined in the developing nation of Ghana and that woman deserve to be
respected and held to equal standards as men.
During the talk, it started
raining. I’m not talking about a light rain; it down poured. The restaurant had
a tin roof, amplifying the rain to a level so loud that they had to stop the
talk. Rain was splashing into the restaurant, and my back became wet. The floor
was soaked, even five feet away from the door.
After the talk and post-talk
discussion, we left in search of food and a way to get back to the AIESEC
house. We walked for a little while until we hit a main road in Accra. A man
asked me to buy him a loaf of bread. Children were running around. The roads
weren’t lit very well, and no street has a name. We end up eating at KFC of all
places. This was different, though. We walk in and the cold blast of air
conditioning hits me for the first time since I’ve been here. What a welcome
relief. I look around, and see that this is no ordinary KFC. The entire menu,
save the obvious star of fried chicken, was different. Sides were French fries
(not potato wedges) or fried rice. The specialty chicken dish was not a grilled
bucket, but Spicy Chili Lime Wings. And above all, this KFC was a three-story
behemoth of a fast food joint, complete with plasma screen televisions and
chandeliers. I was taken aback. No biscuits? No mashed potatoes? No boneless
buckets or grilled chicken? Actual effort in the dining room? What was this?
Gary, I don’t think we’re in Liverpool anymore…
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