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Yesterday was a Good Ghana Day.
Jane and I went to Melcom’s, Ghana’s closest approximation of a department store, but the whole system of purchasing is typically ridiculous. You decide what you want, tell a nearby employee, who then writes the item and price on a piece of paper and holds the item for you till you return with a paid receipt. That means you wander around the store collecting these papers. Then you go and pay, wander back around the store collecting your items, only THEN will you get your plastic bags to put everything in as the woman checks your receipt again.
But it’s more fun than that--there’s the customer service dimension. The women working there seemed annoyed that anyone should want to buy something, which would mean they would have to do something. Our inquiry about the difference between two irons was met with an arbitrary “buy this one.” “Why?” “Buy this one!”
Frying pans and coffee mugs were upstairs. We selected the ones we wanted, but upon bagging the items, Jane accused me of not picking out good mugs because the inside bottoms were chipped or damaged. I had focused my attention on the outside of the mugs, but was surprised I’d overlooked such obvious defects. Jane ran upstairs to exchange the mugs. The woman working there then acknowledged that these other ones were the ones we’d set aside--she had intentionally switched them for bad ones!!!
We bought 2 hot pink bedside lamps, 2 frying pans with lids, an iron (aren‘t you proud, Mom?!), 2 extension cords and 3 mugs, all for $28!
Next, we went to The Orangery, a restaurant in the same neighborhood that we’d been meaning to check out. I finally managed to have pumpkin soup and it was even served with fresh, hot bread! Roast chicken with herbs and boiled potatoes and veggies. Hmmmmmm.
In the afternoon, we went with another friend to Labadi Beach to play some volleyball. We didn’t manage much in the way of good rallies, so we threw the ball aside and went for a run on the beach (making a game of counting the number of black, plastic bags and dodging syringes and used condoms). This is the first athletic thing I’ve done in the past 9 months and my body is reminding me of that today!
From the beach, we took a tro-tro home. At the corner where I live, I saw a man peddling some clothes. (People walk around with things thrown over their arms, shoulders, or balanced on their head…roving boutique stores.) Like a raven, the sparkles and glittery red on his elbow caught my eye. It was a dress perfect for our planned Halloween Murder Mystery Dinner. I got it for 10,000 cedis, which is a little more than a dollar. I wasn’t sure it would fit, but figured I could make it work for me somehow. It fit like a glove, which means I get to be the slutty character in the play! It matches perfectly the beaded Cleopatra hat that a friend in Dahab gave me, also especially for the 1920s themed party. I’ve never before gotten a costume two months early and for so cheap!
Next up was Epo Spot, a local ‘spot’ (outdoor, chill bar) where we discovered really good ‘spaghetti’ (really it’s chow mein noodles and veggies) for a good price and played pool with some regulars. The Ghanaians schooled us the first time--the table and ball were smaller than usual and the green felt was behaving like sand, so that I couldn’t even hit the ball all the way down the table. In our second attempt, Jane made significant improvements and we lost by only one ball, but I continued to stink. We decided that we will become regulars there ourselves (and then use our influence to improve their choice of music!).
(Speaking of music, our backyard bar seems to have revived their Tuesday night live music…a fact I am not cartwheel in’ about. Thursdays were bad enough!)
All in all, it was a day spent out and about that made me remember why I’m Gone to Ghana.
Jane and I went to Melcom’s, Ghana’s closest approximation of a department store, but the whole system of purchasing is typically ridiculous. You decide what you want, tell a nearby employee, who then writes the item and price on a piece of paper and holds the item for you till you return with a paid receipt. That means you wander around the store collecting these papers. Then you go and pay, wander back around the store collecting your items, only THEN will you get your plastic bags to put everything in as the woman checks your receipt again.
But it’s more fun than that--there’s the customer service dimension. The women working there seemed annoyed that anyone should want to buy something, which would mean they would have to do something. Our inquiry about the difference between two irons was met with an arbitrary “buy this one.” “Why?” “Buy this one!”
Frying pans and coffee mugs were upstairs. We selected the ones we wanted, but upon bagging the items, Jane accused me of not picking out good mugs because the inside bottoms were chipped or damaged. I had focused my attention on the outside of the mugs, but was surprised I’d overlooked such obvious defects. Jane ran upstairs to exchange the mugs. The woman working there then acknowledged that these other ones were the ones we’d set aside--she had intentionally switched them for bad ones!!!
We bought 2 hot pink bedside lamps, 2 frying pans with lids, an iron (aren‘t you proud, Mom?!), 2 extension cords and 3 mugs, all for $28!
Next, we went to The Orangery, a restaurant in the same neighborhood that we’d been meaning to check out. I finally managed to have pumpkin soup and it was even served with fresh, hot bread! Roast chicken with herbs and boiled potatoes and veggies. Hmmmmmm.
In the afternoon, we went with another friend to Labadi Beach to play some volleyball. We didn’t manage much in the way of good rallies, so we threw the ball aside and went for a run on the beach (making a game of counting the number of black, plastic bags and dodging syringes and used condoms). This is the first athletic thing I’ve done in the past 9 months and my body is reminding me of that today!
From the beach, we took a tro-tro home. At the corner where I live, I saw a man peddling some clothes. (People walk around with things thrown over their arms, shoulders, or balanced on their head…roving boutique stores.) Like a raven, the sparkles and glittery red on his elbow caught my eye. It was a dress perfect for our planned Halloween Murder Mystery Dinner. I got it for 10,000 cedis, which is a little more than a dollar. I wasn’t sure it would fit, but figured I could make it work for me somehow. It fit like a glove, which means I get to be the slutty character in the play! It matches perfectly the beaded Cleopatra hat that a friend in Dahab gave me, also especially for the 1920s themed party. I’ve never before gotten a costume two months early and for so cheap!
Next up was Epo Spot, a local ‘spot’ (outdoor, chill bar) where we discovered really good ‘spaghetti’ (really it’s chow mein noodles and veggies) for a good price and played pool with some regulars. The Ghanaians schooled us the first time--the table and ball were smaller than usual and the green felt was behaving like sand, so that I couldn’t even hit the ball all the way down the table. In our second attempt, Jane made significant improvements and we lost by only one ball, but I continued to stink. We decided that we will become regulars there ourselves (and then use our influence to improve their choice of music!).
(Speaking of music, our backyard bar seems to have revived their Tuesday night live music…a fact I am not cartwheel in’ about. Thursdays were bad enough!)
All in all, it was a day spent out and about that made me remember why I’m Gone to Ghana.
posted by Jill at 4:42 PM
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