There are plenty of restaurants and stores, but the majority of the food suppliers are the open air markets or women walking around with huge bowls on their heads with snacks. If you're driving and there's a lot of traffic, men and women will walk around carrying things on their head that they're selling. My favorite are these little doughnut like things. Other regular items are plantain chips, water sachets, chocolate, mentos (I know, random), etc. They walk around saying "yyyeeeesss plantain chiiips" or "yeeeessss puure watah" or you can call them over from the window. Most of the vendors are people from the North who have come down to Accra to make some money, because there's a lot of poverty in the North and not many opportunities for work, other than agricultural work. They work pretty hard selling things though, because they're out there all day and sometimes have to run after cars to get their money if they're in the middle of a transaction and traffic has started to move. And of course they're running with probably 30 pound loads balanced on their heads, and a lot of the women also have babies tied to their back with fabric. They also sell non food items like flags, fans, movies, and other really random and unexpected things. It'll be sad to go home and not be able to buy snacks right out of my car window. It makes traffic so much more fun.
Speaking of cars, I've gotten some really interesting taxi drivers. My favorite so far though was two nights ago when Carly, Liz and I were returning home from Osu. I sat up front and negotiated a good price (2 GH cedis, equal to $2 USD, for a 15 minute drive) to our house. At first he was about to complain about the price that he had agreed to but I just changed the subject and asked him how his day was. We started talking about politics and he asked who I was supporting. Of course I said Obama, and I was expecting the usual "ahh, I love Obama" response, but he surprised me by saying "I don't like Obama. Black man can't be president." I was a little confused because 90% of the time, Ghanaians do not use or understand sarcasm, so I didn't know if he was serious. I said "oh that's a horrible thing to say" and he said "no no, I don't like black man" and I looked at him funny and then he started laughing and pointing to his skin saying "ahh, I am a black man, you think I don't like myself?" So we talked about politics for a while and he continued on with the sarcasm and then we asked him his name and he said "Kwame Obama," and we laughed and I said "I'm Adwoa Obama" (Adwoa is my Ghanaian name) and Liz said "I'm Akosia Obama" and we were all laughing and Carly said "I'm Afia Obama," but the taxi driver interrupted and said "no no, you can't be, you are Afia McCain. We can't all support Obama." So we all laughed and we were almost home so we said "at the next junction, left" and he said "oh, yes, yes, Obama Junction." It was pretty amusing. I don't know if it translates well as a story, but it was pretty funny.
In other news, I have exams next week... Ew.... And soon we travel to the North! This weekend though, me and my friends are going to Kokrobite beach to dance to reggae. Yay yay! That's all for now!
Posted by lib at October 23, 2008 12:38 PM