Breakfast at Frankie's... the same Frankie's we had gone to back when i was here with CCS.. Frankie's hasn't changed at all but everything around it has! Whereas Frankie's was this clean, shining beacon, now it has become a slightly shabby place amongst many newer gaudier places.... Pancakes and maple syrup... my system seems to have a craving for that kind of food... all the vegetables and fruit i have eaten something nice and stodgy seemed just the thing! ....
Downtown Accra is a hodge podge of buildings along side the shacks .... there is not any rhyme or reason to the place except the roads are straight! The open sewers add to the already potent mix of exhaust fumes and Harmattan winds!! Everyone is selling something somehow somewhere... How many sunglasses can the world need?
The continual onslaught of noise and harassment chases us on... we finally jump into a taxi in search of a beach..
The beach is in a million dollar surroundings... white sand, perfectly frothy waves ... dotted with black plastic bags .. the thorn in the side.
It is not so bad here though ... Clarisse, a sailor and water baby, is determined to go swimming... i am game as the water feels cool and refreshing... i just won't put my head in the water!!
It was quite wonderful to swim in the sea...
The beach is busy.. there are horses, wind surfers, swimmers, people playing football ... and of coarse, the vendors...
You cannot escape the people who want to be your friend so they can sell you something.... so you need to simply have creative answers and ways to get them to move on!!!
One needs to keep firmly in the front of one's mind that these people are simply trying to eke out a living...
There are a lot of kids in Accra who come up to you and touch you and look imploringly at you in silence... it is very eerie and disturbing...apparently these kids have been taught how to beg by their parents.. they are not from Ghana but neighboring countries in trouble... the contrast between these kids and the bright young people selling water or mangos or sunglasses is night and day.... The vendors are an irritant for 'us' but they work hard and honestly...
A lot of our irritation and frustration comes from feeling the contrast between 'us' and 'them'. There we are enjoying our day as beach bums ... just hanging out.. and they are working so hard....
We bought bananas and peanuts which they sell together... the peanuts are slightly warmed! we bought water ... and plantain chips ... so even as beach bums we helped the economy go round!!
We spent the afternoon under our umbrella just enjoying all the action.. the windsurfers were quite amazing... acrobats in the water!!
Finally we were starting to feel the sun so we decided to push on to our next destination.. the Artist Alliance.
This was in a large, elegant old building that had a decayed, abandoned air... but it was fun and quite blissful to wander around looking at everything... It felt more like an abandoned museum than anything else... but we could poke around and touch everything.. really fun. There were some beads ... i was tempted but decided to hold off in case the markets yielded anything...
Beads are everywhere in Accra it seems ... yesterday we had visited the Cultural Center which is just down the road from us. There seems to be even more vendors than the last time i was in Ghana and so who are even more aggressive in their desperate attempt to get you to see that their stock was unique! It makes for a very heavy atmosphere... but one man with beautiful beads was laid back so i got to check out what he had...
It makes me realize i did very well in my shopping. My stash is very interesting and varied... The prices so far in Accra are much higher as well....
We ended the day at a restaurant Christianne had recommended called Tribes...
Well, the day was rounded off completely back at our funny, little hotel ... Kathy went off to bed leaving Clarisse and i sharing a beer and yakking a bit longer....
The crashing lull of the waves sent me off to sleep....
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