City Life...Accra

Maren, Cara and I spend the weekend in Accra. We originally went down with the group Saturday morning. We hit up the fabric district (thousands of different fabric prints). I picked up fabric to get a shirt and dress made. We then headed to the National Culture Center, which has a misleading name because it is really an outdoor wood and craft center. I met a man named Dontty there. He was a tall Rastafarian man. His mom is from Ghana and his father is from Jamaica . His locks came down to his shoulders and he was tall and dark. A bit skinny and pushy, but a kind spirit it seemed. He approached me right outside the center walls and asked me to come to his shop. After a lot of negotiation, I decided to have him make my African drum. I took an African drum lesson about two weeks ago and decided I wanted to have a drum made while I was here. I am really excited about it. It will take him a week, and it will be black and red with a variety of adinkra symbols and my Ghana name.

It was so interesting talking to him about his Rastafarian life and he asked me which of the Rasti values I practiced. My hair is locked but I do not currently practice a Rastafarian life. It was an interesting awaking for me to think about what it means when you take one aspect of a culture and do not educate yourself on all aspects of it. This motivated me to look more into Rastafarian culture and values. I don't have to believe in them, but I should be able to speak to what I do believe in and why and visa versa. An interesting moment of self awareness!

So we also went to the Accra mall- they have AC, pizza and ice cream- it was just what I needed!!! After the mall, we split from the group and went to get our room key for the place we'd be staying. We found a person on couchcrashers.com that was renting rooms in Accra, so we made arrangements with her. It was a nice place, but we quickly met Ms. Maggi, the landlord, and head out for movie. We saw Fast Five. It is always cool to go see a movie in a different country. Unfortunately, no Ghana movies were playing at the time.

Sunday, we woke up and headed to the National Museum, Independence Square and Ghana's first President's memorial. It was a very informative day, and it felt good to get a better understanding of Ghana's history from their perspective. I think this new information will help me be a better teacher.

We headed back to Mampong around 2:30pm on a Tro Tro (bus) and arrived home around 4pm just in time to unwind and celebrate Kaylee, one of the volunteer's birthday. It was a good city weekend, and yes, I did run into some ants, but no major bugs or animals.. I love city life!