Day 1

This blog is written for two reasons: 1) to tell my family and friends just what the heck I’m doing in Africa and 2) to provide those interested in travelling to Ghana some information that might prepare them for such a trip

My name is Andrew Franco, and I’m on a 6-week ProWorld internship in Cape Coast, Ghana.

I arrived in Accra yesterday, jetlagged and anxious after an 11 hour flight following a 5 hour layover in DC after a 3 hour flight from Houston, my hometown. I had met many of the people in the ProWorld program in DC, and we were friendly (albeit cranky) by the time we landed in Ghana. The airport in Accra is pleasant, with air conditioning and an electric luggage turnstyle. The terminal entrance was decked out in Ghana football colors and travelers walked through a cut open goal post to get to their luggage (the Ghana team had lost the world cup game to Uruguay the day prior…either nobody alerted the airport decoration committee, or the Ghanaians were too proud to take down the elaborate decorations yet). Going through customs was a breeze for us “obrunis” (foreigners), as they only seem to check black people’s luggage (even Akhil got through without any suspicion of terrorism).

We met Kofi and the Nameless Driver at the main entrance to the airport. A group of obvious tourists, we were immediately inundated by people offering to help carry our luggage to the bus in exchange for American dollars, Ghanaian cedi, or even a flashlight. I held onto my stuff just fine. We packed all of our luggage into the bus (actually a large van that seats 8 comfortably, max occupancy somewhere around 25) and we were off.

The Nameless Driver started easily enough, flooring it out of the parking lot and cutting off 5 taxis. The engine was maybe 3-cylinders, so he would accelerate exclusively in first gear to get up to speed (though that wouldn’t stop him from cutting off and tailgating other cars). The maximum gear he used was third, and that was only at 50-80 km/hr (I’m not a very good judge of metric speed, and his speedometer was broken). I was caught in the bitch seat between Lucas and Akhil, tossed around every which way around every turn and bump in the road (there were several). There were what could only be described as vestigial remnants of what might have been seatbelts, now shredded and converted into a knotted handle, good for gripping around tight turns but of no use in any other case. As we traveled through Accra, we saw the typical African scenes: women balancing large items on their heads with babies wrapped to their backs, men trying to sell you a refrigerator from your car, and children running circles around their parents. Every intersection had a large group of street merchants, trying to get you to buy bagged water (purified water in a bag), FanIce (tasty ice-cream) or nuts, fruits, or veggies. Accra is a very Christian city, and the backs of every ambulance had a proverb or an epithet such as, “Be Leave in Jesus”, “You Could Die Today…Are you Absolved?”, and “Vote for Jesus”. There were billboards for the presidential election (either the 2008 or the the 2012 one, I couldn’t tell) that had presidential candidates photoshopped (or just cut and paste) next to Obama. Once we got out of the city, I was amazed by the pretty the rolling hills, filled with large grasslands and great big trees. The entire road from Accra to Cape Coast was lined by markets and vendors and small homes. We even passed by Kofi’s house. We saw speed warnings that read, “Do not overspeed, at least 20 people died here” with a subsign “sponsored by Toyota” (it’s funny because Toyotas don’t brake, by the way). Apparently the problem here wasn’t speeding, it was overspeeding. What cracked me up the most about our journey was that the Nameless Driver didn’t say a word the entire time, but he would shout, wave, and honk at some of the cars we would cut off. Akhil asked Kofi what he was saying to them, and Kofi told us that he knew the drivers. I’m skeptical to believe that

After a two and a half hour drive, we finally arrived at the ProWorld office in Cape Coast. We met Kirsty the Scottish Project Coordinator and got phones and transportation money. I met Adina my host mother and went to her house.

I have to go now (it’s 8:30AM, time for orientation!), but more on my host family and house soon…with pictures!