Christopher's 14th Birthday in Ghana
We celebrated Chris's 14th birthday by spending the day at La Palm, a luxury resort on the beach in Accra where we paid to use the pool all day and have lunch under the umbrellas. This is our last full day in Ghana, for tomorrow we return to the States. It's been awesome here! The McKees have been the best hosts and we enjoyed wonderful weather. The traffic has been a bit insane, but Katalin and Hugh McKee have really learned to manage it and drive with the best (or worst) of them! Oh, by the way, Chris admitted that the only reason he hugged me was because he was completely wet, and was trying to annoy me! I guess that's a 14-year-old boy for you! Later that evening, we went out to dinner and had birthday cake. It was a Ghanaian flag with writing on it. We had asked the bakery to write "Happy Birthday, Chris" in an African language. No one in the bakery was able to write it, then they explained that they really don't even have that saying in their languages, because they don't traditionally celebrate birthdays or acknowledge them. But they do name kids according to the day of the week they were born on. So, in the end, the writing in Ga said: "Congratulations, Thursday"! What a way to celebrate an unforgettable birthday!
Looking down the beach, we saw a large crowd of people standing in the water in a narrow group. It turns out that they were preparing to bring in a LARGE net with fish in it. Close by, we saw this stand with a price of ¢30,000 posted, but had absolutely no idea what was being sold, rented, bought, leased, or requested. Some of the beaches in Ghana, at some of La Palm's other hotels about an hour to the west of Accra, are pristine and gorgeous, I'm told. But here in the capital, it's best to stay out of the surf and stick with swimming in the pool, which costs about $8 US for a day.
This band was playing at the outdoor Restaurant at La Palm. We found their music to be quite pleasant. This resort hotel is probably the nicest in Accra. Some of their celebrity guests have included Princess Anne (last Thursday), Sting, the Ghanaian head of the United Nations (tonight) and Tom Cruise.
At "The Ghanaian Village Restaurant" at La Palm Resort the menu includes Goat Soup, Spicy Squid, Grass Cutter Soup and Red Red Stew. And look at those prices! Oh, that's right, they're in cedis (10,000 cedis is about $1 US).
It's a very common sight to see these containers in people's arms, on their heads, on wagons, trucks, bicycles, even motorcycles. Entire sections of the city have the water turned off for long periods of time, even days. So the people, who only have running water at a communal pump anyway, try to store enough water to tide them over. They conserve so well - one of these yellow containers could last 2 people an entire day - for bathing, cooking, washing clothes, etc. That purple and yellow car is a taxi. There are quite a few of them, all the same colors but sometimes different models, and NONE of them have air conditioning!
We celebrated Chris's 14th birthday by spending the day at La Palm, a luxury resort on the beach in Accra where we paid to use the pool all day and have lunch under the umbrellas. This is our last full day in Ghana, for tomorrow we return to the States. It's been awesome here! The McKees have been the best hosts and we enjoyed wonderful weather. The traffic has been a bit insane, but Katalin and Hugh McKee have really learned to manage it and drive with the best (or worst) of them! Oh, by the way, Chris admitted that the only reason he hugged me was because he was completely wet, and was trying to annoy me! I guess that's a 14-year-old boy for you! Later that evening, we went out to dinner and had birthday cake. It was a Ghanaian flag with writing on it. We had asked the bakery to write "Happy Birthday, Chris" in an African language. No one in the bakery was able to write it, then they explained that they really don't even have that saying in their languages, because they don't traditionally celebrate birthdays or acknowledge them. But they do name kids according to the day of the week they were born on. So, in the end, the writing in Ga said: "Congratulations, Thursday"! What a way to celebrate an unforgettable birthday!
Looking down the beach, we saw a large crowd of people standing in the water in a narrow group. It turns out that they were preparing to bring in a LARGE net with fish in it. Close by, we saw this stand with a price of ¢30,000 posted, but had absolutely no idea what was being sold, rented, bought, leased, or requested. Some of the beaches in Ghana, at some of La Palm's other hotels about an hour to the west of Accra, are pristine and gorgeous, I'm told. But here in the capital, it's best to stay out of the surf and stick with swimming in the pool, which costs about $8 US for a day.
This band was playing at the outdoor Restaurant at La Palm. We found their music to be quite pleasant. This resort hotel is probably the nicest in Accra. Some of their celebrity guests have included Princess Anne (last Thursday), Sting, the Ghanaian head of the United Nations (tonight) and Tom Cruise.
At "The Ghanaian Village Restaurant" at La Palm Resort the menu includes Goat Soup, Spicy Squid, Grass Cutter Soup and Red Red Stew. And look at those prices! Oh, that's right, they're in cedis (10,000 cedis is about $1 US).
It's a very common sight to see these containers in people's arms, on their heads, on wagons, trucks, bicycles, even motorcycles. Entire sections of the city have the water turned off for long periods of time, even days. So the people, who only have running water at a communal pump anyway, try to store enough water to tide them over. They conserve so well - one of these yellow containers could last 2 people an entire day - for bathing, cooking, washing clothes, etc. That purple and yellow car is a taxi. There are quite a few of them, all the same colors but sometimes different models, and NONE of them have air conditioning!
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