On Saturday, I flew out of Ghana. My three months are up and now it’s onto East Africa. My final two weeks were in both Cape Coast and Accra and the bulk of my time went into tying up my Ghana life, while preparing for my next month in East Africa.
I’ll start off with an update on Coastal TV. After the fire, the station moved its operations to its smaller studio in the city. The images I posted in my previous entry are of the fire damaged main studio, which is where the bulk of the station’s day to day operations took place. Since the blaze, the station's two flagship programs Sound Check and KASA have moved to being recorded outdoors and the station has launched an appeal, which is advertised in a bar running across the bottom of the screen. The damage bill is estimated at being over $100,000, but not many people in Ghana have money to spare, especially those in the Central Region and so charity is unlikely to make up for much of this. The station did not have insurance and so the end result will most likely be that Coastal TV keeps on running, only on fewer resources.
Visiting the fire’s aftermath was a strange experience, as it had been my workplace for a month prior. Stepping over the ash and rubble, it felt as though the blaze must have been huge, but over quickly and now firmly in the past. The main studio was attached to a household, but the fire brigade were able to stop the blaze from spreading and so only the Coastal TV studio was destroyed. The experience was sobering and the attention my co-workers have since given to continuing the station’s broadcast and looking towards the future has been nothing short of inspiring. Very little time has been allowed for self-pity.
Mid-last week, I moved back to Accra for my last three days in Ghana. Before leaving, I said goodbye to my last host family, although my host aunty wasn’t there. It turned out she had left for Accra a day or two and didn't bother letting me know. I didn’t mind, as the whole time I was there, she ranged from being overly businesslike to outright rude and I wouldn't say we connected. The rest of the family were lovely however and the kids a lot of fun and I will miss them a lot.
In Accra, I stayed at a Salvation Army hostel and relished in doing a lot of small things for the last time. Walking along Accra’s Oxford St and shrugging off a more aggressive breed of rastas. Visiting West End, our local drinking spot – a football pitch covered in plastic chairs. Sharpnet, Circle, riding tro-tros and of course, the mall. I spent a lot of time devouring Ghana’s street ice cream too. Until I was actually on the plane and looking down at Ghana, there was always seemed to be one more FanIce that would be my last.*
On my last night, I went to an Italian restaurant called Mamma Mia’s with a big group of my Accra friends and Cape Coast ones as well, who were in the big city for the weekend. It was a great evening and really I couldn't have asked for a better send off. In anticipation for my next month of cheap and at times remote backpacking, I ordered a four cheeses pizza and some (relatively) expensive red wine.
Cut to Nairobi.
On the drive from the airport to my hotel at around 2am on Sunday morning, we almost hit a group of giraffes crossing the highway. My taxi driver was mid-sentence through trying to sell me a safari tour when he swerved out of the way. I thought it was amazing and as we kept on driving, my driver kept trying to sell me Safari. It made for unfortunate timing on his part, as that moment more than satisfied all of my Safari desires.
Nairobi meanwhile was very deserted. At 2am in Ghana, the streets are still populated by people, many of whom sleep by their stalls. Nairobi is a large city and quite westernised, with tall skyscrapers, paved roads, big scale advertising and carefully crafted gardens. But at 2am, it is lifeless, in a way that lives up to its reputation . Shops are all closed - seriously locked and gated - and the only people who are clearly visible are taxi drivers, who congregate on the city's corner blocks.
During the day however, the city comes alive. Compared to Ghana, the streets are wide and people always seem to be in a hurry. For the first time in 3 months, I felt comparatively slow in my pace. The main forms of transport are large and somewhat old public buses, cheap-ish taxis and foot.
For my first couple of days in this city, most of my time has been spent at a hostel called Milimani Backpackers. From here, I have been battling to catch up on some sleep (in a noisy dorm of eight) and busily sorting out my Uni enrolment from overseas. Tonight, I leave for Kenya’s coast (with Mombasa my first stop and then a few smaller cities) and after that, it’s onto Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda.
Finally, I plan to write a more thorough recollection of my time in Ghana soon. And I will endeavour to post more regularly too in the coming weeks, but probably smaller updates, as my time in more places, but for less time.
* My very, very last FanIce was on Saturday morning at 8.30am. I walked down to the local store and bought one straight from the freezer so to stop the risk of it being refrozen or melted, walked back to my hostel and slurped it down in an instant, as I looked out on the sunrise. I left for the airport half an hour later.
