Went to Ghana and Back again

Headed over to Ghana for a project workshop so I flew over to the land of Accra on a Saturday morning. Everything from start to finish was entirely unpleasant. From the moment the plane took off to the minute i stepped on the plan to get back to Nairobi.

On the plane to Accra, my unfortunate next-seat persons were drunk! You can smell the alcohol in them and they just kept ordering more and more bottles of wine! It's 7 am in the morning guys! Once arrived in the Accra airport, I was really beginning to feel the heat. I changed 100 USD thinking that's enough money to last me for one week. Check this out,

Ghana Cedes is almost the same rate as Singapore dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!

The hotel, sorry Motel, was 15 minutes away from the airport. The room was spartan and no carpet, dingy toilet and the gym consisted of 3 equipments; all 3 were spoilt. Oh well, what can you expect from a project with a tight budget. Anyway, seeing my boss and friends whom I have not seen in a month was really awesome! I miss company so much! We quickly headed out to the one and only Accra Mall for lunch.

If possible, Ghana is HOTTER than Singapore! One minute standing in the sun and my ears were getting painful! We went to this high end restaurant called Rhapsody, i like! Then we went grocery shopping... In Ghana, the prices here are exorbitant! It is way more expensive than anything I have seen! Fruits/ Juices/ salt/ Pepper - at least times 3! anyway I was curious how Ghanians survive on such expensive stuff so i checked out their GDP per capita on Wikipedia.

An average Ghanian earns 1400 USD A YEAR. Average Singaporean earns 56000 USD a year! Where do they get the money to buy all these things!

Sunday was a relaxing day with my friends, we explored a famous Ghana street, cafe in the morning, Thai food for lunch. Went for Chinese food for dinner. A bowl of plain white rice is 6 dollars!!!!!!!!

Then my horrible week started. Monday was bad, Tuesday was worst. When I think it could not have gotten any better, Wednesday was a slump. Thursday was neutral and Friday was a relief. I have been badgered, cornered, whined too, complained about, argued with, pushed around. At one point, after an exhausting and frustrating day, had to let out steam in my room by crying it all out. Stupid and unreasonable people!!!!!

My only solace was with my friends who were too, in the same predicament as I was. We went out every night, eating chinese (Chinese food is awesome there!), ice cream, Jap food etc. On saturday, which was my last day, we all went to watch a movie! Awwww... good times indeed. The cinema reminded me of Singapore's. But then again, when everything went dark, every place looks like Singapore. Needless to say, my 100 USD ran out very quickly, by Wednesday I had no more Ghana money and no place to change money. I was changing money with people, to my friends from Kenya, i changed Kenya shillings with Ghana money. From my boss, i changed Singapore money for Ghana money. We were like a mini currency exchange center!

Bitten by mosquitoes many times throughout the week, so lets see in a couple of weeks time if I get sick. Hur Hur, then more excuse to come back to Singapore early.

Anyway, once I reached back in Nairobi...the cool air that greeted me was such a pleasant feeling. Upon reaching home and coming back to my own space... even more wonderful. This week, all my clients are still in Ghana for the second phase of the workshop. So the office in Nairobi is relatively empty... I'm going to enjoy this week man.