What I love about Ghana is that there is no task that is too serious to be interrupted by a little dance move and everywhere you go there is a song playing in the background... and 70% of the time, it is this song ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOmaIOSccQQ). I heard this song no fewer than 100 times during this trip. A solid 30 of those times were at a bar when a group of four dudes had it on repeat while trying to modify the electric slide to fit the rhythm. We started to make bets on the exact time the song would play after we sat down in a different restaurant or cafe.
So another thing that makes Ghana and I get along are our mutual love for Smirnoff Ice. Now this delightful beverage has of late become quite a joke in the US with being "Iced" actually considered an affront... I welcome all the "icing" and so do my Ghanaian friends. Bring on the Smirnoff Ice at all formal occasions. I was greeted with my first Smirnoff Ice at the cocktail reception to kick off my conference. This is also the first of many times that I did the electric slide in Ghana. Could it get any better.... oh yeah, there were Cheeze Doodles!
My conference was a little bougie. I mean Smirnoff Ice and Cheese Doodles sort of says it all but we also had a police escort to get to the conference every morning. This was intended to get us through the notorious Accra traffic so I was all for it. Except then I sat in the front seat and saw what actually goes on in this escort. A man in a motorcycle rides in front and waves cars off the side of the road with his flailing hands and often directs the bus to ride against oncoming traffic. There were so many times I thought we were going to hit someone, it was terrifying. But we arrived to the conference venue in record time.
After my conference I had a couple extra days and did the requisite trip to the Slave Castle (so sad/creepy/disturbing) and the National Park. Then for the weekend I headed to the beach which was a lovely if not particularly culturally enriching experience. The setting could have been an island off of Thailand if you swapped out the little Black children playing in the surf for little Asian ones. Total relaxation. There was a monkey that tried to get into our room, and a whole lot of really high Rastas but there was also a live Reggae band and Smirnoff Ices galore.
My last Ghana experience before we left was an absolutely delightful barbecue with a fellow conference goer and all his boarding school buddies from back in the 50's. I got to hear stories about what Ghana was like 50 years ago from a group of spunky, powerful, and charming older men. Great way to end a trip.
Also, I will show anyone who wants to know the modified electric slide that goes to "ahayede".
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