Places that I Want to Visit #8

Accra, Ghana

Accra is the capital of West African nation of Ghana. First up, I have a declaration to make, perhaps a conflict. Every Ghanaian that I’ve met, I’ve liked, I’m not sure if that indicates bias, but best to declare it straight up. This intuitive ‘liking’ has no doubt influenced my desire to go to the place (and no doubt explains my lack of desire to ever visit Durban!).

Anyway, an perhaps rather distressingly for me, the word ‘accra’ apparently derives from the word nkran which means ‘ants’ in the local tongue, a reference to the numerous anthills seen in the countryside around Accra. Now ants annoy me, but I have faith in the Ghanaian people to take care of any potential ant population problem.

Accra is one of the wealthiest and most modern cities in the African continent, with a high quality of living by African standards, and according to my Ghanaian sources Accra is also known as being the continent's most ‘fun’ cities.

I am told that the best way to visit Accra’s many attractions is through hiring a car and driver to take you around. Apparently there are a bunch of prospective drivers who double as guides, which would be a great way of taking in an understanding the Ghanaian lifestyle and history. Given how friendly the locals are that I’ve met, it should be a good trip.

As an afterthought, the wonderful Accra by Day & Night blog is a good start to understanding Accra, and certainly whets the appetite!

Comments

Emmanuel.K.Bensah II said…

Hi Kris!

So many thanks for the shout-out. I appreciate your very kind words about my beautiful country, which is not the only beautiful one in the world;-) Australia is certainly on my top ten countries to visit in my lifetime!;-))

15 January 2008 at 22:06

Kris McCracken said…

One day I'm going to make Ghana.

16 January 2008 at 08:49

Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it...

I still have the robot on the job. Here you can see the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery . And here is a poem: Soliloquy for One Dead Bruce Dawe Ah, no, Joe, you never knew the whole of it, the whistling which is only the wind in the chimney's smoking belly, the footsteps on the muddy path that are always somebody else's. I think of your limbs down there, softly becoming mineral, the life of grasses, and the old love of you thrusts the tears up into my eyes, with the family aware and looking everywhere else. Sometimes when summer is over the land, when the heat quickens the deaf timbers, and birds are thick in the plumbs again, my heart sickens, Joe, calling for the water of your voice and the gone agony of your nearness. I try hard to forget, saying: If God wills, it must be so, because of His goodness, because- but the grasshopper memory leaps in the long thicket, knowing no ease. Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it... I like Bruce Dawe. He just my be my favourite Austral...

There was nothing left. No reason, no conscience, no understanding; even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong.

Here is a self portrait. I’m calling it Portrait of a lady in a dirty window . Shocking, isn’t it? However, it is apt! Samhain , Nos Galan Gaeaf , Hop-tu-Naa , All Saints , All Hallows , Hallowmas , Hallowe'en or HALLOWEEN . It’s Theme Thursday and we’re talking about the festivals traditionally held at the end of the harvest season. Huh? No wonder Australians have trouble with the concept of HALLOWEEN. For the record, in my thirty-two L O N G years on the planet, I can’t say I’ve ever seen ghosts ‘n goblins, trick ‘n treaters or Michael Myers stalking Tasmania’s streets at the end of October. [That said, I did once see a woman as pale as a ghost turning tricks that looked like Michael Myers in late November one time.] Despite the best efforts of Hollywood, sitcoms, and innumerable companies; it seems Australians are impervious to the [ahem] charms of a corporatized variant of a celebration of the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darke...

In dreams begin responsibilities.

A life at sea, that's for me, only I just don't have the BREAD. That's right, Theme Thursday yet again and I post a photo of a yacht dicking about in Bass Strait just off Wynyard. The problem is, I am yet again stuck at work, slogging away, because I knead need the dough . My understanding is that it is the dough that makes the BREAD. And it is the BREAD that buys the yacht. On my salary though, I will be lucky to have enough dough or BREAD for a half dozen dinner rolls. Happy Theme Thursday people, sorry for the rush.

This will hurt me...

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