Yesterday was Independence Day, celebrating 54 years of freedom from colonial rule in Ghana – the first nation in Africa to do so. Akum, Raph and I drove up to the mountains just north of Accra. Beautiful views on the way, we passed Rita Marley’s house (and recording studio) on the way up, and many fruit stands.
view of Accra from the mountains
fruit stand
Fruit stands are everywhere – actually stands in general are everywhere. Phone credit, drinks, fruit, prepared food, random goods like irons or booty magazines or sandals. Most have names that are spiritual in nature (“Clap for Jesus”) or hilarious WTF names (“Don’t Mind Your Wife”).
Rita's gate
one good thing about music... Bob was right
There was an artists market where I bought a few pieces and enjoyed bargaining for the first time. There was a fun workshop around back that I got a snap of:
power house doesn't look too inviting, eh?
We then headed a house of some friends to watch the Man U vs Liverpool match, drink wine and celebrate Independence Day. We ate (rice and coleslaw salad with a very spicy goat stew) and drank lots of cold red wine from the box. It’s cheap here and Ghanaians love it! After the football game another show came on, a very popular Nigerian preacher named TB Joshua who heals people through the word of God.
One of the guests, Obinna, is a beautician and really wanted to play with my hair and to take some pictures for his portfolio. This was a bit hit at the party, and everyone wanted to take snaps of me and my updo.
Obinna fixin' me up
As for today, it’s officially a holiday in lieu of yesterday being Independence Day. Both the GEU and WUSC offices are closed, so I decided to stay in my hotel room and do some work. Not very exciting, but I have a lot to do and a short amount of time to do it all in.
5 responses to “happy birthday, Ghana!”