my neighborhood is beautiful.The house i live in is extremely comfortable and i honestly couldn't have asked for a better living situation.The neighborhood where the house is located is also gorgeous and very residential. It reminds me a lot of places in Cameroon. I spent the whole of friday in my hostess's office. She has free wifi in her office and so i was able to check email and let my parents and other people know i was here safely. I was extremely jetlagged so i kept falling asleep at her office. I still felt really tired from my travel. My muscles were still sore and i just needed a bed.When i finally was able to sleep, i passed out for hours and hours and felt fully rested when i woke up.
Yesterday, Saturday, my second full day here, was interesting.
I set out to go get my phone set up since i needed to let people know i had arrived safely. i walked to osu which is less than a mile away from where i live in Labone. I walked into a vodafone store, which is one of the popular cell phone providers here. I sat down with a very kind lady who inserted a SIM card into my phone but could not activate the phone because their servers were down. She told me to try activating it manually with a code she wrote down after an hour. I ran other errands in Osu, came home about two hours later and tried to activate my phone. It didn't work. So i decided to go back to the vodafone store. It seemed very crowded with angry customers and people coming to buy additional minutes for their phones. I was made to wait for a whole two hours! very very frustrating! I then decided to get a refund and go to another phone company to have my phone and data installed.They were able to accomplish the task in under 10minutes. I was so grateful!
Later that night, Lizzie invited me to go to her friend's going away party.The party was being hosted by her cousin, Brian, who lives in a place called Africa Unity village or something similar.. It's a small gated community with 24hour police watch.The houses in this place were huge and i heard they cost upwards of $700K. Bryan's house had to be, hands down, one of the most beautiful condos i have ever laid eyes on. Everything from the decor to the architecture was simply priceless.We had a great time at Bryan's place.All of the guests were young professionals who had either lived or had been educated abroad but where now back home to make a way for themselves. I met tons of people and i'm really glad i went.
A few things random things i've observed:
-People are can tell who is a foreigner and who is not almost immediately
-Once you are detected as a foreigner, prices of common goods start going up immediately.I set out to go get my phone set up since i needed to let people know i had arrived safely. i walked to osu which is less than a mile away from where i live in Labone. I walked into a vodafone store, which is one of the popular cell phone providers here. I sat down with a very kind lady who inserted a SIM card into my phone but could not activate the phone because their servers were down. She told me to try activating it manually with a code she wrote down after an hour. I ran other errands in Osu, came home about two hours later and tried to activate my phone. It didn't work. So i decided to go back to the vodafone store. It seemed very crowded with angry customers and people coming to buy additional minutes for their phones. I was made to wait for a whole two hours! very very frustrating! I then decided to get a refund and go to another phone company to have my phone and data installed.They were able to accomplish the task in under 10minutes. I was so grateful!
Later that night, Lizzie invited me to go to her friend's going away party.The party was being hosted by her cousin, Brian, who lives in a place called Africa Unity village or something similar.. It's a small gated community with 24hour police watch.The houses in this place were huge and i heard they cost upwards of $700K. Bryan's house had to be, hands down, one of the most beautiful condos i have ever laid eyes on. Everything from the decor to the architecture was simply priceless.We had a great time at Bryan's place.All of the guests were young professionals who had either lived or had been educated abroad but where now back home to make a way for themselves. I met tons of people and i'm really glad i went.
A few things random things i've observed:
- People are not afraid to stare at you at all
-Accra is fairly expensive.The value of the dollar here is 2:1 but everything costs just as much as in the US.
-Grocery stores here are a scam. I need to find an open market somewhere -There are a lot of foreigners here.A lot. It's not surprising to run into 4 different nationalities in the space of an hour here.
-Ghanians treat white people better than they treat their own. Sad reality.
-My hair and skin feel amazing here. I'm not sure if it has to do with the humidity or the sun but my body is loving it.
- I didn't realize my accent was strong until i came here.
-Police here don't carry guns with them like the police in other countries.
-Streets are relatively clean! Thoroughly impressed. Not as much pollution as i would've thought
- There is construction EVERYWHERE! Ghana's real estate market is booming like nothing i've ever seen
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