Ghana Part 1

Hey everyone, Sorry this is so late I have had exams and papers due, things got a little crazy, and I just couldn't get time to write. I will not be able to write all that I learned and felt tin Ghana but I will do my best to hit all the highlights (I need something to tell all of you when I see you in person)! I figured for this trip I would break it up by activity, since I could write a book on each experience.
Accra was, in all honesty, dirty. I don't want to make you dislike Ghana, because I fell in love with it over the week, but I want to paint a vivid picture of what people live with here on a daily basis. Trash is everywhere, you cannot look on the ground without seeing some form of plastic bag or bottles. to add to this the winds from the north were strong and the dry dirt flew through the air, tinting everything the same shade of red. Plumbing is not standard and drawn upon walls are arrows saying "Urinate here" or "Do not urinate here" The gutters are wide and open to handle the water during the rainy season, but now black sludge flows and refuse threatens to fill them. There are fires everywhere, along the roads, in front of shacks, on the beaches. They burn the garbage as a way to get rid of it, the fires give Accra a constant haze and a strange odor. This is the world I stepped into, and this is the world the people of Accra live in each day. The first day went by so fast. and it was a constant mix of excitement and sadness. It was so cool to be in such a different place, but then I would remember that this is not a movie but how people actually live. We got into a taxi to get to Accra, since our dock was in Tema about an hour drive away. A Rastafarian, Kwasi, got into the cab with us and even though we told him we would not be paying him he became our guide and was with us for 9 hours as he showed us all around Ghana. The first thing you would notice when you arrive in Ghana would be the sea of humanity at all the stop lights. People walk through traffic selling anything you could possibly want, from combs, and baked goods to belts, books, sunglasses and chickens. Also you would notice the insane amount of goats and chickens that are just walking around, and then a cow behind the bush. As you can imagine it is a little intimidating to walk through such a place. Luckily we had our guide. He took us to Mekola market, a market that was for locals and not visitors, which got us some odd looks, but it was one of the most interesting cultural experiences of my life. A place where there is stuff everywhere. The path to walk down is just wide enough for half a person, yet two way traffic is not stopped, people just shove and push through. There were pots stacked up 20ft and pans as far as you could see. The textile area went on and on, with thousands of different cloths to pick and then have a lady make you anything with a foot pumped sewing machine. The meat area was my favorite though. Pig hooves and raw pork, and chicken just sitting in bowls. Fish, some smoked others raw laying on trays. I just narrowly missed a lady who had a massive plate of fish balanced on her head as she moved between stalls. Live crabs clawing out of pots and flies on everything. If you tried to take a picture anywhere in the market you would get yelled at, so don't ever do that. I have to go to bed because I am waking up early tomorrow to watch us pull in to Cape town. More will follow as soon as I can. Take care.