Day 25: Last Saturday in Africa!

This was our last weekend in Ghana, so I planned to stay in Accra, do some shopping and to really 'go local'.

Oxford Street, Osu: Olivia, Megan, Mohit & I set out for Oxford Street in Osu to first get cash & to buy some Ghana football t-shirts. The road side shops on Oxford street sold all kinds of things from Ghana flags to small souvenirs to football t-shirts. Since this is a busy shopping area for expats, bargaining is a challenge. But we still got most of our stuff bargained down to half the price they first quoted - but we knew we were still paying too much. Estelle's way of looking at it was 'Oh well, atleast you're contributing to the local economy'. :) I guess a few extra cedis doesn't matter when you put it that way!

Tettah Quarshie Art Market: Bitten by the 'go local' bug, we decided to take a 'tro-tro' to our next destination - the Art Market. Tro-tros are minivans which is the only public transport in Accra apart from taxis. It was a delight travelling in a tro-tro after travelling mostly via taxis 'coz of how cheap it was. The minimum we've paid for a taxi is 5 cedis while in a tro-tro we paid only 45 pesewas to get to the Art Market!  @ the art market - the story was almost the same as last time - aggressive selling is what they know. They'll say good things about you, their product, about how they'd to give it as a gift for a 'small' amount etc are all sales tactics used. It was a rich experience to just stand around, take in the sight and observe how they try to get you to buy more. They're all one team and tries to make you buy as much as possible even if its not from their store. The market had some really amazing paintings & loads of very good wood carvings of masks, African symbols etc. It was very tempting to buy loads of stuff - just exactly what I did and burnt a hole in my pocket. :| (I was an easy task for the salesmen!) ;)

Team Dinner: It was time for our final team dinner with Estelle, Yens, Awo & Juliana - the Googlers that comprise of Google Ghana. Smitten with tro-tros, we took another tro-tro from the Art Market back to a restaurant called Monsoon on Oxford Street (the place I bought crocodile tail from!). We were almost tro-tro power users! :) The food was really good - it seemed as though each restaurant we went to was almost better than the other! Ghanians really know how to cook! :)