Monday, April 30, 2007

Accra, Ghana, April 30

The marketplace was certainly a colorful and interesting place to spend several sweaty (but wonderful) hours today!

Most of the stalls have no refrigeration, but they manage to sell such a variety of goods!


These cargo wagons are very popular with people who don't want to flatten their heads, or mess their hairstyles, or guarantee short stature by carrying heavy loads on their heads!


Men wearing "dresses" seemed almost normal by the end of the day!


Katalin had fun looking at all the beautiful Ghanaian fabrics for sale. Today she bought 4 yards of a gorgeous fabric (for a table cloth) that matches some native-patterned plates she'll take home to Merry Ole England in June.

Cassava is a main ingredient in a dish called FUFU which is a staple here. There's also KEKEY and BANKU but, because none of the ex-pats I've met here actually eat any of it, they can't keep it straight what's made out of what, but count on corn and cassava as important parts!

Another American woman who has lived here for a few years mentioned that the local food is strange, and soups can contain just about anything, including animal hide. When questioned further, she explained that she meant pork rinds and skins, like you see here. Dogs are also eaten.

Pigs feet are for sale in the background. I found that people started yelling if I took pictures directly of them or their stalls, so I had to stand in the background and just snap what appeared to be a random shot. Hence, sometimes the interesting material seems to get lost in all the surroundings!


This boy has a load of fish for sale, right from the huge bowl on his head.

Eggs are for sale, too!


There seems to be a convention going on of women with large bowls on their heads!


Chris in back, salad saleswoman in front!


It seems that just about anything can be carried on the head!






Chris in front, cargo-woman in back.













Can you carry this much on your head?


Everything you might need for your home is available somewhere in the marketplace!

Very few people own cars here. Katalin says that at church there are only usually 2 cars in the entire parking lot. Most people ride in Tro-Tro's, which are 15-passenger vans with NO air conditioning and are commonly overcrowded.


These people know how to move merchandise! They really use their heads!


I barely heard any words of English, even though it is the official language. Everyone was speaking languages that I couldn't even HOPE to decipher!


Katalin warned us to watch our feet and our heads (and especially our pocketbooks!). There are holes and gaps and uneven curbs everywhere, and people with cargo on their heads could easily knock into our heads!


The heat was tremendous and the crowds were omnipresent!


Today we went to the Makola Market, which is really just a million vendors spread out in stalls and in the streets covering MANY, MANY square blocks of Accra.



Hugh and Katalin brought their 4 children here to Accra in June 2004. Their children attend an International School and have made many friends from different countries.


Our friend, Hugh McKee, works for the LDS Church and his office overlooks the Temple. His assignment ends this June and his family will be returning to England, where we first met them in 2002.



Sunday, April 29, 2007

On our Way to Africa, April 2007

They say that the leather goods in Ghana are quite nice and reasonably priced. Keep in mind that one US dollar is the equivalent of about 10,000 Ghanaian cedi's (written ¢10,000). I'm just not sure that the shopping experience would be as comfortable as in an air-conditioned 3-storey mall in Beverly Hills! - ha ha!)


Here, an ambitious coconut salesman plies his wares on the street corner!


Evidently, this bicycle-riding vendor has milk for sale. Somehow, I don't think this compares with the drive-thru dairies we used to frequent in California!


Street scenes here are just plain interesting - colorful, haphazard, unexpected!


These trees just outside the Temple are so cool! They string lights throughout them at Christmas time.


My friend Katalin McKee and I at the LDS Temple in Accra - our first stop on the sightseeing circuit. There are two Temples in West Africa now - this one was dedicated in January 2004 and the one in Aba, Nigeria was dedicated in August 2005.


Chris is standing in line at Immigration waiting to be allowed into Ghana. We ALMOST didn't make our flight in New York City, due to unexpected delays, and the next one wouldn't leave for 2 days, so we're VERY HAPPY to be here!

It's been 40 hours since we left our home in Grants Pass, Oregon, and the temperature is 82 degrees F. at 7:45 a.m.! But we're glad to be here and look forward to the adventure!



Chris is standing in the arrival hall in Accra's airport which is brightly draped with Ghanaian colors and "welcome' written in Twi, one of many native languages. (Most people here, even the uneducated, speak about 5 languages, we're told.)


This was the plane that carried us for over 10 hours from New York's JFK airport directly to Accra, Ghana. While on board, we ate 2 meals, watched 3 movies, read, listenend to music, tried every means possible to stretch our legs, conversed with flight crew and a "token civilian member of the board" on a peacekeeping training mission, and tried not to think about how much better the first class fliers had it than we did! ha ha


This was the closest we ever got to the Statue of Liberty! Next time we'll really have to allow for more time to sightsee!

















After school on Friday, April 27, Chris and I (Marilyn) left on a flight to San Francisco, then an overnight flight to New York City. Since this was our first time to the Big Apple, we decided to combine some sightseeing with some eating of highly-acclaimed New York pizza. One of our first stops was to the Empire State Building - which we only saw from the street level, as the wait was too long to go up to the observation deck. We also saw parts of Fifth Avenue, Broadway Avenue, Seventh Street (the fashion capital) and Madison Square Gardens.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Michael's 12th birthday

















Today Michael turned 12 and we're very excited. After a birthday party mid-week, and several baseball games since then, he has been having fun and celebrating at high speed. Here are some photos of our recent trip to San Francisco, on our way home from Spring Break in Utah and California. These were taken at a Thai restaurant and Fisherman's Wharf, where we visited the aquarium and Michael combined bungee jumping with trampoline antics! As they say, "a fun day was had by all!"

Sunday, April 8, 2007

Spring 2007 - A New Beginning

Happy Easter from Southern Oregon! I hope to post pictures and narrative so you can keep up-to-date with us, even from afar.