So for those of you who havent seen the movie "Mad Max" this title makes little sense but hey 🤷🏻♂️
This blog post is not going to be in chronological order.. maybe it makes more sense in a different way.
So this morning I met a Couchsurfer called "Foster". I came to his place by my new favourite transportation method: Tro-tro. Honestly, it seems to work better as the KVG (the bus organisation in my home town).
We, that is Foster, two of his friends and me, planned on spending the day in the city and started with the museum and grave of the first Ghanaian president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah:
Yes this whole thing is the presidents grave. In the inside you find his sarcophagus:
It reminds of Egyptian Pharaoh's and if I understood correctly, the family of his wife (who is also buried there) is Egyptian.
We had the place basically for ourselves and worked on our modelling career, you can find way more fotos in the foto section.
In the museum itself it was forbidden to take pictures so you get to see nothing of it.This peacock is living on the graveyard tho: Fun fact about the memorial park itself: The entry price varies on where you are from AND they judge that just depending on your skin color. That's discriminating AND racist at the same time. I felt offended in my personal political correctness!Ghana 🤔" > (For those who dont know me so well: I am joking here) We also went to the traditional African market. It is a proper African market and not a thing made for tourism.Side note: There are so far only very few things only made for tourism, which is a fact that I REALLY enjoy.On this market Foster bought a necklace put it around my neck and said "Welcome to Africa". Sadly I just have this blurry picture of the moment, but I still really loved it.If you read this Foster: This really made my day, thanks ❤️Here are now just some impressions from the market: Oh and these markets also sell fans. Usually we know these chinese things but actually africans have something way better! Check this out:360° and way more surface to create wind. The engineer in me really got happy seeing this 👌 Anyway, coming to what the title of this blog post is about: A district called "James Town". Its all about the fishermen who go fishing in these small traditional wooden boats:If you think this boat is a wrecked ruin, you might be right but they still go out fishing with it. This is still in use. And yes, it happens quite often, that some fishermen dont return. The ocean here is harsh. The whole beach (and its not a small one) was occupied by fishers. It smelled accordingly. There also was no electricity, so everyone cooked in big bowl over firepits. Everything was smoked and charred, most of it in black or grey colors. It really reminded me of this dystopic Mad Max movies. Ok enough bla bla, see for yourself:These huts are also still in use. You see the ships in the background waiting for tomorrow to go to sea.More ships waitingAaand the other direction: Even more ships waiting.I think this is my favourite shot of the place.. Absolutely Mad Max: Ocean Edition.. Hmm maybe this is my favourite shot. But you get the vibes. Imagine the smell of burned stuff and rotten fish, together with this high humidity heat and this image. Crazy feeling!These are the shipsAnd here they are preparing the nets for tomorrow.More modelling on the beachAnd some shots at the lighthouse After so many dystopian impressions we needed some happiness and decided to have that happiness in the form of a fresh (sadly not ice cold) coconut. The vendors here open the nut in front of you with a machete, then u can drink it. Afterwards you return the coconut and they cut it in half so you can eat the little flesh they have. These coconuts are for drinking, so they dont have much flesh and what they have looks like leechee and tastes like.. well it tastes like coconut 🤷🏻♂️ Foster enjoying his coconut. So now comes a bit unrelated stuff:Yesterday I promised to show you the water which is sold in plastic bags.You rip or bite one small egde off and then suck it empty. When I think of Africa I think of people carrying heavy stuff on their heads. That's not a stereotype, that's reality. But the stuff doesn't have to be heavy, it just seems like no one uses backpacks. This dude is carrying sunglassesThese are "Ghanuts". Its cooked peanuts, they become softer and sweeter. I like the original 🥜 better tho. These nuts are loose. They are not packed or glued or something, yet this nice and tidy tower doesn't collapse while the woman is grabbing more nuts, packing it into bags, giving change to buyers and walking around. This woman got raw eggs and vegetables loaded on her head.Here are people going through the traffic jam selling all different kind of stuff. Cereals, bread, soap, USB cables, 12V plugs for your car, food, cold drinks, towels.. you might have everything you need before you actually get to the supermarket.This is especially crazy. If you look really closely over the metal thing this woman is carrying, you see that the air is blurry. Thats because she is carrying fresh ember in this thing to make some barbeque or fire.This dude is carrying a bag on his shoulders (yes I'm really pointing the obvious here) and it sais 100kg on it. You cant see it so well on this foto but its there. I tryed my best foto editing skills to make it visible:I hope you either appreciate my effort or just believe me 🤣So yes this madmen was carrying 100kg through the traffic. But there have been plenty of people doing this, there are truckloads full if these bags. I think they contain charcoal.As you notice these bags are not the same, it's a different truck but you can be sure that it's unloaded in the same manner.If you are worried about this truck driving through traffic like this (and it does drive like this) I can assure you: It's totally safe, there are ropes on the sides holding it all together. Also these bags are really heavy, so they stabilize themselves. This is atleast the explanation someone gave me 🤯 Talking about safe cargo, check this truck outI think you only need ropes in Ghana if your load exceeds the truck size. Also traffic is slow and as long as this truck takes the turns with ease, they dont hurt pedestrians or bikers. Foster showed me this super cool street art and I took faster a picture then they told me I wouldn't be allowed to do so.On the 23rd of August there is a festival over the whole weekend with lots of music, food and street art like this (these are small left overs from last year) - I'll really try to come back to Accra for that! Now on a different note, I also found this guy. His hand covers "unser" and his whole shirt translates to "soccer is our life". He had no idea what his shirt said and happily agreed on a foto.From that time I started watching out for german language and found quite a lot on a single day. For all people from Kiel: No this is (contrary to what I believed first) not associated with the region Schönberg around Kiel. Ok last but not least: (I hope this website allows you to zoom) There is a Tro-tro which causes a huge traffic jam because some passengers get off and/or on and it just holds right there even though its just one lane and no one can drive around. The truck behind it tries anyway, fails and cant go backwards because the cars behind him have advanced aswell. So everyone checks if their horn still works and honks wildly. The Tro-tro is peacefully standing there and doing its thing. Lovely scenery.I have marked the Tro-tro with an ice cone to demonstrate my professional foto editing skills a second time. People here in general like their horns a lot. They honk when they take a turn and when they dont take a turn but go straight at an intersection to warn everyone that the car is coming. They honk when pedestrians are crossing even tho they are maintaining eye contact and going fast enough. They honk when pedestrians are not crossing but standing on the side of the road because the pedestrians might start walking any second. They honk when they take over and get taken over, when they are standing at a red light or when they didnt use their horn in the last 60 seconds, just to check if its still working. This sounds funny and like humor but its reality.Oh, I forgot about taxis. They honk whenever they see a pedestrian that could be a customer - yes this DOES happen often and they got Way more taxis here then I saw anywhere else. And Tro-tros basically do the same but there is also someone leaning out of the window waving his hands and yelling. That's what it for the night, tomorrow I'll leave Accra and go to Wli falls. Not sure if I have internet to upload stuff, but I'll keep you updated if possible. So far,Laurin
