Accra – Day 1

We landed around 9:00am and taxied over to the arrivals gate, where we parked next to an IcelandAir plane.  Really?  IcelandAir in Ghana?  who knew…  It was fairly hazy and overcast as we flew in so you could see much, but my big reaction was to seeing all the dirt roads from the air.  This is a city of 3 million people, and except for major roads, it is landscaped with red dirts roads.

 The second thing I noticed was in the Arrivals terminal, just past immigration.  There was a big Welcome to Ghana sign, below which was a list of items, starting with “all those who spread good will are welcome to Ghana.”  Item #2:  pedophiles and sexual deviants are not welcome.

Anyway, since it was so hazy, it was also not as hot as it could have been (and has remained that way so far.).  We found our local contact Tebogo, loaded up the vans, and headed to the Labadi beach hotel, our home away from home for the next two weeks.  The great thing about traveling with Security is that you never have to think – we always have drives and cars readyo to take us wherever we want, stocked up with water and snacks, and since we have local drivers, not much research is usually needed to find spots.  It’s great.  The hotel is located on the ocean, but the first thing Jessica warned me against was hanging out and swimming at the beach, so while idyllic in theory, not necessarily practical.  But then agian, we have a full schedule ahead of us, so no time for sun-bathing.

 We had two hours to rest and refresh before our lunch meeting with Japanese delegation contacts.  We spent the early afternoon planning site visits with them, and then the later afternoon driving to other sites for advance work.  Then it was off to scout dinner at a french restaurant, Le Tandem.  (Nice atmosphere and decor – I had sea bass), before crashing back at the hotel.  It was so nice to lay flat in a bed at last.

 I think I only took one picture yesterday – Most of the the time we were driving around, so it was not conducive to good shots, but since I’m here for two weeks I also knew I had plenty of time to just sit back and take it all in on these initial drives.  My first comparisons were of Athens – hot, dusty, incredible traffic, low-rise buildings crammed in everywhere.   I don’t think I’ll get tired of watching all the women carry stuff around on their heads this entire time – it’s amazing!  How do they do that.  My battery is about to die, so more tomorrow.