Ghana pt 1

To preface this, I <3 Ghana. Awesome country with awesome awesome people.

Everyone is just so friendly in Ghana, even if they're trying to nickel and dime you and you refuse. A guy who was trying to sell me stuff that I rejected explicitly told me it was their way to be super friendly regardless. Ghanaians also have a pretty sweet Fresh Prince-ish handshake that ends with a snap, its almost universal there. And, they smoke a lot of weed, freely offered (but not taken).

We ported in Tema, which is about 45 minutes away from Accra, the capital. First thing off the ship and on the bus is that many people were smiling, and everyone was waving at us and very accommodating. The roads between Tema and Accra were surprisingly modern and not full of potholes, but that isn't reflective of the rest of the country. Carter and I got a room at the Hotel Byblos, which was owned by a half Lebanese, half Ghanaian guy that was pretty cool, his wife was an American from either Minnesota or Montana. The owner guy, I'll call him Fred even though that's not his real name, was actually in some horrific car accident a few years earlier when his Ford (lol  Ford) SUV flipped over and sent him through the windshield, he broke his spine in the C5 and C6 or something like that, the Ghanaians doctor sucked and had in the hospital for weeks without a proper diagnosis, he was flown to Lebanon for treatment. And now, he smokes a lot of joints to ward off the constant pain. The Byblos was decent, for Ghanaian standards. The staff, however, were quite simply some of the most welcoming and warm hotel staffers, ever. Our first waitress there was Tina, cool awesome girl that made a lot of friends with fellow SASholes. Another waiter whose name I forget, but I'll call him Bob, was a pretty cool guy too. Actually everyone was friendly in Ghana once you introduced yourself to them, asked for their name, and did the handshake.

For the first day in Ghana, Carter, Yvette, and I went to the "cultural center", which is nothing more than a smallass souk full of Ghanaians that can't really negotiate. Everything inside was overpriced and crap. The rows of shops outside are a different story. It was a bunch of crafts and drum shops which were full of chill dudes. David, one of the owners of a shop there and whom I bought a drum from, actually met us outside and was helpful and not pushing anything on his, he gave us good advice about the shops inside and told us to stop by and played drums, and that we did. About half an hr or an hr of drum playing, which was awesome. I got myself a nice midsize drum and a sweet Ghanaian colored carrying case with it. There was another guy named Prosperity or something like that that ran a shop with his brothers, Prosperity met some girl from Philadelphia that was doing her masters from the U of Ghana and they got married, the guy was gonna immigrate to America in January, what a future. Prosperity wanted to trade my sweet Puma hat for a mask in his shop, but dude was too greedy and tried to get money from me for a small mask, that didn't happen at all. After our drum shopping experience we left the place but on the way out saw Andy and Joanna in the bar right outside so we sat down and had a drink. David joined us, so did Prosperity and his brothers. This dude name Louis came up to me and  told me that I spurned him earlier because I didn't buy his crap, but I got him a beer so it was all good.  Prosperity even got me a shot of palm wine, which is like freakin everclear, my mouth was numb after that shot. Speaking of alcohol, Ghanaian beer was actually good, I wouldn't mind having more, but it wasn't extra special.

Story to be continued, tonight we have the crew talent show going on, which may top the earlier SAS talent show we had.