Akwaaba, Fufu, & Anka! Me Pe Paaa

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Friday 5/31 –

Today was my first full day in Ghana.  I was awoken this morning at around 7:20 by a phone call.  “Hello Good Morning – Masa Robert, breakfast, it is ready”  There are always constants here.  Breakfast is always: Tea or “Milo” (like a hot chocolate), egg, and bread.  Everywhere in the country – it’s always the same.  I’m proud of my culinary skills I developed last time, tapping sugar over the toast to have some variety with the egg sandwich I eat.

            The goals for today were simple: Phone and Money.  I walked across the Amamsama road that leads to Kumasi and continued down for about a mile to meet my friend, Frank, who sells phones.  He remembered me from my last visit!  I wanted to get a jail broken iPhone 3GS to work here, but it wouldn’t recognize the network.  So, I settled for buying a sim card and walking down the street for a dinky cell phone  John, a roadside salesman, was the one I was supposed to see.  I approached a phone seller by the road, but was almost immediately interrupted by a man waving his arms.  Frank had called John to give him a heads up that I would be coming.  I recognized the Twi words…”Brofu (English)…Obruni (white guy),” and so John recognized me!  He sold me a “Tecno” phone, new with a charger for 50 Ghana Cidis (about $25) and then I took a cab down to Pokuase.  Here, the foreign exchange “4X” had a decent rate of $1USD:1.96 Ghana Cidi, so almost 1:2!  Much better than my previous visits of 1.56 and 1.46.  

            I made it back to the Joy family lodge and had my first Ghanaian meal: Fufu in light soup with “Proper” meat – Goat!  And it was delicious. 

I retired for the afternoon to write a few letters.

            I’m quite happy to have been ambitious enough to head here by myself.  Man, I wish I had some friends to share the experience with, however.  I’m also frightened to head into Accra all by myself; it's a busy, crazy city where I’m a total target for pickpocketers and heckling.  I’ll leave that for tomorrow I think.  It will be very nice to see Keith; it’s just under 3 weeks until I see some fellow Obrunis!  Ah, and I just received a text from the family – Blood work came back and I have strep throat!  Saaaaa! Might just need to have my tonsils removed when I head back to the states.  Sounds good to me.  Antibiotics for now.  A successful day -  Money in my pocket, a working cell phone, Fufu, and a few “Anka” (oranges) for the day.