Trip to the next city

I think the team I'm in all the feel same way, we are looking forward to getting out of the room we've been locked away in and seeing sky and daylight again today, and to take a break from logging risks to jotting notes for new potential risks. There might even be an opportunity to buy credit for the iPad, something there has not been time for all week, and also to get to a supermarket as we're out of water bottles.

We left at 7.30am to visit a key site and interview more key stakeholders in the next city, Tema. Tema is noticeably less developed than Accra, but there is again a lot of new construction going up between the two cities, it won't take long before they are joined. A major highway moves traffic between the two cities, but like any big city, we inevitably end up sitting in traffic, crawling forward. Unlike a city at home however, there are people carrying everything you can think of on their heads or in arms for sale, walking up and down between the cars. We could have purchased power extension cables, tv antennas, phone credit, sunglasses, shoes, t-shirts, fruit, nuts, deep fried plaintin, magnets, flags, coffee tables - and the list goes on, you get the idea. This meeting was scheduled torun for 1 hour, but when Ghanians are interested, this is becomes a Ghana-time 1 hour, hence 5 hours later we left with a plethora of notes to work through. Phew! I may not complain when meetings go overtime back at home now....

Amy's presentation sounds like it went well, their meeting was also booked for 1 hour, and ran for 3, with lots of requests for increase in scope coming through, most of which we correct and advise we'd love too help, but we are only here for 4 weeks. One of the requests we may be able to accommodate, and so we'll consider that.

When shopping in Accra, shops are not what most people at home would recognize. It's like those vans that sell cherries, or a single market stall with a roof, and sometime a burnt out old car serves as shop and counter, and they line certain streets. Thats the ones with a shop front, as opposed to those selling goods from big bowls they rest on their heads. You would never think at home to go Into one of these to buy a TV, or a new Lounge. It still takes me by surprise to look into one of these to see brand new laptop computers, TVs, Home Theatre, Playstations etc. It just seems a surreal caravan of wonders.

Well this afternoon, the team took me to the mall. We had to get water for the weekend adventure we're heading out on anyway. I was beginning to think there was nothing like a modern shopping centre back home that would be found here in Accra, but I was wrong. Accra Mall is a buzzing shopping centre about half the size of Tuggeranong, or the old old Knox City for those who know it. People even dress differently at this mall, all dressed up in their best and fashionable gear (a mix of modern west and Kentish cloth). The mall itself kind of sits in what feels like the edge of the city, in the middle of a huge field, surrounded in a constant chaos of cars banked up around roundabouts in traffic. It felt like touching a little piece of home, and despite being over here for very different reasons, it was nice to spend a couple of hours in familiar surrounds and noises. I got my 3G credit at last, so I can get email anywhere in Ghana now, hooray! I still have trouble sending email however, something about the Optus network.

Ghana has a department store called Game that has to be mentioned. If Big W, Coles, and Bunnings all combined into one store, that would be Game - everything from power tools to groceries. A bit like Costco really, but in a mall, not its own super warehouse.

Weekends we fund ourselves, and this weekend we have selected to go see the Castles (old slave forts), the beach, and a treetop canopy walk. Stay tuned!

- Keep on Rockin'. Dwight.

Location:Tema, Ghana