Akwaaba???

Ghana, has been put to the bottom of my list of 'must return to ...' in fact I don't think it even makes the list ...

The country is money obsessed. The new money system in Ghana SO confusing, it was changed in July and essentially they knocked off four 0's to try to copy the US dollar apparently .... They ask for 15,000cedis for instance but in fact they want 1.5C of the new system ... about a euro.


The following morning I went into Takoradi; now knowing the correct prices for a taxi up to Agona Junction and a tro-tro to Takoradi I didn't have too much bother on the way there. Exchanging euros for cedi's in a bureau de change, buying a SIM card, doing a spot of last minute Christmas stocking presents; I then wandered into an internet cafe to send an e-mail out to say that we were safe & sound in Ghana (but not particularly happy). I was amazed to see the guy next to me on a PC was 'creating' credit card numbers and putting them into some website ... and seemed to be doing well at buying stuff!! In all my travelling in Africa I've seen some scams, but Ghana seemed to thrive on scamming in any way shape or form ...



I wandered up to the STC bus station to see if I could buy tickets to Tamale or maybe Kumasi for the following day. All sold out! I made my way back to the tro-tro station and got one back to Agona Junction hoping to join Maddy & Dani for lunch (they'd been on the beach all morning!). At Agona I met two Ghanaian ladies also wanting to get down to Busua to see friends but we couldn't find the driver for the Busua taxi; it turned out the car had been parked there for weeks. However neither could we find a taxi willing to take us to Busua for the correct rate .. eventually after 45minutes in the sun one rolled in and we pounced on it; only to find 3 other ladies had spotted it too. I jumped into the front seat whilst 5 rather large Ghanaian ladies shoe-horned themselves into 3 rear seats - I felt a bit guilty but compared with CI or Guinea, there wasn't any 'courtesy' in Ghana; however I did pay for my two new friends fares!


That night I had news from JB in Cote d'Ivoire. His brother was a lot better, he drugged him up with Lariam as I'd said ... but his father died. He rang me and asked if we'd be back in CI for 26th December for the funeral. It was terrible, he spent so much time with us and everyday I kept saying to him we'd manage & he should go off to see his father at the clinic. We were all shocked to hear the news ..