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! :) 

Day 12: The Art Market

 It was cloudy Sunday morning. I woke up early to go for a jog - yes, I was getting fat. :| Got so engrossed in the rare workout session , that I missed breakfast! :(

Headed out to the 'Art Market' at 11 am to check out African handicrafts. They had some really interesting stuff but their sales strategy is very 'in your face'. As soon as we got into the market, we were just surrounded by men trying to sell their items. They're just too pushy in making you buy their item - which backfired mostly coz half the group could not endure more than 15 mins of it & left the market. Since, I acted like an equally poor person from India - I guess I didn't get haggled as much. Found some really interesting stuff - in the meanwhile, a one of the sellers got too friendly & started introducing me to the rest as his new lover & wanted my email id!!! It's just a Ghanaian thing I guess, but this overly fake friendliness is slightly beginning to getting to me. :|

  The ATM Incident:

After an exhausting morning - coz it was really hot and humid outside and multiple trials to get some cashout, I finally located the ATM that was accept my debit card. Hopeful that I can finally get some cash, I put my card in only for it to get sucked in and there 'no response'! I just stared at the machin willing it to do something and hoping not to panic (that card was my only source of cash for the rest of the trip). After 2 mins of waiting, I walk up to the lone security guy standing descretely at the corner to find out what my options were. And he said in the most casual of tones 'Well, you wait 10 minutes'. I tried not to look flabbergasted at his careless response - so I tried again to find out if there's a plan B if the card didn't come out in 10 mins, but the security seemed convinced that after 10 mins it would just magically come out.

I waited impatiently for the next 15 mins & wow! the screen moved to step 2. In my hope that it's finally working - I tried to enter pin and there! It got stuck again. It finally struck me that that each step of the cash withdrawal process took 10 freakin' minutes to process!!! It was the quite stressful - and then you just learn to let go and expect so much less. For eg, having your bed made by the cleaners is a delight in the flat vs an expectation. You learn to appreciate the small things in life.. like the way I was overjoyed when I could finally got my debit card out of the machine!!...and in a strange way - I like it! :)

The rest of the evening - I worked on getting my blog up. Enjoy!