Tro-tro your hands up

So Tuesday was Ghana's Republic Day, kind of like our Fourth of July. Basically the entire country shut down, and watched the President's Football Cup match between Asante Kotoko and Heart of Lions, which apparently was much more exciting than Ghana-Gabon. Ahhh, should've gone.

But anyways, I'd hoped to do my laundry yesterday (I have like 2 pairs of pants only ...). Nope, closed. Food? Mmm Pizza Inn was open! Yeah, definitely a bit of a disruption to my plans.

Luckily today I was able to get some laundry done. Seriously, when you sweat 24/7 through your clothes in addition to applying insect repellent to it, you start to appreciate having some clean stuff to wear. Also, my guidebook warns me against drying my clothes outside. Apparently there are these microscopic worms that love laying their eggs in drying laundry, so that when you put on your clothes, the wormlings burrow through your skin--but you can't feel it--and start to migrate around your body over the course of several weeks. They lay more eggs in different tissues within your body, though they seem to prefer your liver and brain. Once these guys hatch, the excruciating pain begins as they tunnel towards your skin to break free. Lovely. Supposedly you need to catch them when they first burrow in: you apply Vaseline over their initial air holes, which forces them to come up for air, which is when you can pluck them out with tweezers.

Or you could just pay extra to use the dryer.

I also found out today that my research assistant is awesome. He's an MPhil candidate in Social Psych (yeah, he's older than me ... kinda crazy), and just found out that he'll be studying for a semester at Carleton in Ottawa on full scholarship next semester! Will definitely have to visit him. He also really knows his way around Tema and the tro-tros, which has been an excellent help to me. And today he introduced me to these special Ghanaian peanuts (ahhhh, wish I could remember the name), which we bought from one of the tro-tro station vendors:

Thomas: Joe Kweku (my Akan name), you must really try these boiled peanuts. They are a Ghanaian speciality.
Me: Ummm, okay. (munch munch) Hmmm, they're pretty good, actually.
Thomas: Oh yes, they are excellent. They will also give you extra virility so you can pick up lots of American girls.

Oh, that Thomas. Worth every pesewa.

He also knows the CEO of a small Ghanaian oil company (wooo thesis question at the ready!), and we got to chill out with that guy for about an hour this afternoon. We even go to ride in these fancy, air-conditioned company cars. Good stuff. He was incredibly animated in his hatred towards Jerry Rawlings and the NDC (the current opposition), which was hilarious considering that Thomas is an NDC supporter. So we talked about American democracy and the atrocities of the Rawlings regime for a bit (quite a bit of graphic detail), which was definitely cool.

In the (company) car ride to Tema's market (which is right on the Prime Meridian! I think I've mentioned how cool that is like 10 times), we listened to this crazy rap song about cocaine invading Ghana. Some clutch lines:

"Ghana got more cocaine than mosquitoes."
"The chiefs of Ghana, are sitting on-nah,
parcel of coca."

Just priceless.

Emma, Esther and I just returned from dinner, and had hoped to go to the Alliance Francaise for a cultural show. But the cabbie wouldn't budge from 6 cedis, which is enough to go all the way in to Accra (the AF is not very far from us). So instead I came to the internet cafe.

One more day in Accra, then off to Takoradi!