We were pretty successful on both fronts and took a few detours to explore the surrounding neighborhood of Osu, a thriving commercial slice of Accra. We found a bar called Honeysuckle that offered a plethora of plasma TVs and some surprisingly good British food. I guess British food is different in Ghana...... We found ourselves excitedly engaged with a football (soccer) match between Arsenal and Manchester City. The whole bar was full of dudes throwing themselves around whenever a goal was scored. I was the only female, which I pointed out to Brian and he responded by reaffirming what a good wife I was ;) Awww.... gee...thanks....
While weaving through the craft stalls of Osu, Brian was lured into the always mesmerizing sea of cheap DVDs. Some of you may know that when he went to China for a summer, he returned with a whopping 100 DVDs, all neatly placed and organized in cases. We are trying to balance DVD hoarding with other purchases while in Africa. As I am not quite as captivated, I continued on down to some other kiosks. While waiting around the corner, a young man said hello to me. He was selling converters and outlet strips. I too said hello and looked to see if Brian was coming along soon. He was still in the movie trenches. The young man proceeded to ask me my name and then if I had a husband. I was a little caught off guard and then quickly responded with a yes and motioned that he was just around the bend. I had heard that marriage proposals were a common occurrence for female tourists in Ghana but this was my first encounter with what may have led to such a question if I hadn't moved on. Brian had found the DVD of his liking but we were in need of some cash so would return later.
We made our way down Oxford Street, the main street in Osu and gazed upon sidewalk shops full of paintings, wooden masks and fresh produce. We found an ATM and reloaded on cash. We picked up some much needed sun glasses and were bombarded left and right with people trying to sell us goods we didn't need. We politely said no thank you but found some people to be overly aggressive and claimed we weren't nice for refusing. This was challenging......what can you do but politely refuse over and over for a bracelet you just don't need or want? Just keep on walking I guess.....
After watching the soccer games back at Honeysuckle we hooked up with a local realty agency and a guy named Spike who could show us a few apartments in and around Osu. Spike picked us up at the pub and took us to see the first apartment. We pulled into an empty gravel parking lot in front of a large hideous white building with the word Heaven splattered across the top in red. There were statues of angels gawking over the top. First impression = you've got to be kidding me! We humored Spike and proceeded to the top floor to find a spacious yet rundown two bedroom flat. The owner, appropriately named Christian, came into greet us. Brian was just having a look at the back bathroom when Christian shook his hand. Brian came out with a wet shoe and mentioned to Christian that he had a water problem that needed some attention.. We were unimpressed and left as soon as we could. Spike proceeded to show us 3 more complexes of which the last 2 were reasonably priced and nice. We're hoping to settle into one sometime this week.
That was most of Saturday's events. I did attend a networking brunch that morning with a local NGO called, NAWA (North American Women's Association). I met many lovely women who are well connected with NGOs here in Ghana and have some leads to follow up on this week ;)
Sunday led to similar activities again focused around finding a sports bar, called Champs. It's American football season, and being a member of Team Feth means that you support the Cleveland Browns (sorry mom) and update your Fantasy Football team almost daily. Champs unfortunately was not broadcasting the Browns game but we managed to get some football action in nonetheless by watching the Dallas/Tampa Bay game. Champs had some pretty good but overly priced Mexican food. It turns out that every Sunday evening, beginning at 8pm, is movie night. So we stuck around to watch the funny movie, I Love You Man. (Mom- there are a lot of curse words in this one so it's best to avoid!) Neither of us had seen this movie and it was a nice little treat from back home.
Overall the weekend was fun and hopefully proves to be successful with a new apartment later this week.
Quotes from I Love You, Man:
This is the man cave, there are no women allowed in here....
Slapping the bass!
Totally....totes my goats.
I love you Bro Montana....
No comments:
Post a Comment