Return to Accra

I woke up early hoping to walk around the hotel grounds for a bit. It was pitch black when I woke up so I decided against that and snoozed in 15 minute increments but by the time it was light enough to exercise, it was the time I would have wanted to get up without exercising. So it wasn't meant to be.

Note for next trip -- bring some kind of exercise CD that I can do in my hotel room using my computer.

For breakfast they gave me fried eggs even though I wanted boiled because it had looked as though I had checked the fried box (to them.) I didn't want to waste the eggs, so I had the fried eggs.

I went to the hotel office to check out and that's when I discovered that they didn't take credit cards -- cash only. As I stared past the "We accept Visa/Mastercard" sticker on the door I pondered what we were going to do about this. I told them they were going to have to call the office.

When I went back to get my luggage, Philip kindly offered to provide me with the cash to make the difference between what I had and what I needed to pay the bill. It's lucky he was there. Another note for next trip -- carry at least enough cash to pay hotel bills.

We stopped at an ATM machine to get cash to pay Philip back. I owed him 1100 GH₵ (about $340) but the machine would only allow a maximum of 400 GH₵ at a time so I had to make three separate withdrawals. That's a distressing situation because each time the process took longer and longer until I was sure that the machine had eaten my card. Eventually I got it all and we drove on to the office.

The Abt AIRS office in Ghana using panorama view.

Eddie also had to stop at the ATM machine, but it turned out it was because he had been robbed of over $1000! I felt terrible for him. Then I thought I lost my phone.  I had a few moments of total panic before I remembered that I had put it in an unusual place just before going to the hotel office. So I was okay.

Unfortunately, the power was off and although the generator was working, it wasn't charging the UPS (uninterrupted power supply) for the router so we  had internet access for about 30 seconds before it would go out again. It was incredibly frustrating. Samuel ended up letting me use his phone as a hot spot, thankfully. I was getting a bit worried because the weather reports were saying that a blizzard was going to hit Boston on Saturday.

I was on the internet long enough to see that Talia had committed sacrilege to her red hair.

We left the office at noon. The ride was quiet and uneventful. We got to the airport, checked in, sat and talked as a group for a while until we were called to go through security and sat at the gate. When the power went out no one even flinched. The generators kicked in after about five minutes.

We walked from the terminal to plane and I could swear the temperature had gone up about 10 degrees. Philip was sitting in the seat directly behind me and we were joking and teasing with each other. I really like him. I hope we get to work together again.

I forgot that they wouldn't allow phones on flight even in airplane mode but the flight attendant politely whispered, "You have to turn that off I'm afraid."

The flight went well but it was a hard landing. Samuel said he was surprised that Philip and I seemed so calm. He never gets used to it. I stood in the aisle waiting to get off, but it was an oddly long wait before we were allowed to get off and get onto the shuttle. No explanation -- just standing. On the shuttle van I sat with Samuel.

The luggage came out in this motorized luggage conveyer belt that was going really quickly so you had to move FAST to pick up your bag. 

Peter had arranged for a company driver to pick him up at the airport. He allowed us to go with him. Four of us (Peter, Samuel, Eddie and I) crammed into the back seat. I met Albert who apparently works in the Bethesda office, but I had not met him before. We dropped Eddie off at the hotel near the airport because he was flying back to Liverpool Friday evening and just wanted a place to relax for a few hours.

Samuel and I went to the USAID office and spoke with this fellow, Jeff, about getting Samuel to the US. He gave us good ideas and we're going to try again when I get back to the office.Afterwards Samuel and I walked to an outdoor lunch place where we had joloff rice. Samuel had dreamt of this exact scene. It was very peaceful and lovely.

Joloff Rice and chicken

Samuel drove me back to the Ramada Hotel at Coco Beach. The fellow at the Front desk remembered me by name. I had planned on asking for a smaller more modest room but he was so pleased that he was able to reserve the same room for me that I couldn't refuse. It is a lovely room. 

I handed the fellow at the desk my credit card and he looked awkwardly at Samuel. Samuel said to me, "Remember when I told you they had difficulty in processing your credit card when you were here before?" No, I don't remember my middle name at this point!

They wanted to be paid in cash! Here we go again! I had just over half of the cost of the room and we promised to go to an ATM to get the other half the next day.

Lo and behold. They had changed the bathroom!

Two towels, AND a bathmat and even a hand towel!

I hope it's not because Samuel said something after reading my blog. I would hate for them to change things just because of a silly comment I made about cultural differences.

We made plans to get together later that evening to go out to hear live music. I told Samuel that in Boston we would easily pay over $40/seat to see real Ghanaian performers so he was thrilled to be able to get me the opportunity for much, much less, plus it would be a great time.

Unfortunately, I began to realize that I was fading really fast and sent Samuel a text asking how disappointed would he be if I cancelled and went to bed early. Of course he didn't mind, but next time I come I plan to bring David and there's no way we would miss it then!