Thank You (Meda w'asé)

 

Travel is a fascinating thing; it takes you to places only read about or often unheard of. It makes you meet people whom you may never see again but still feel an association with.  I am not articulate enough to express the experience of travel but it’s my own way of saying thank you and marking the memories.

I recently travelled to Accra in Ghana and from the moment the travel was decided I was keen and not knowing what to expect, I just kept myself open to the experiences that would lie ahead.  Also official trips are kind of constraining because there is a limitation on time and whatever exploration needs to be done has to be done within those very constraints but it’s still better than not being there at all.

 

My journey commenced with in the early morning and was transiting through Dubai and though the initial lag between the flights was that of an hour and fifteen minutes, due to the delay in Delhi that time was reduced to 20 minutes thus my sprint across the Dubai airport made me feel less guilty of having missed my morning gym

I landed into Accra in the middle of afternoon but found the breeze to be surprisingly pleasant despite the sun. Once into the hotel and a quick shower later I was out to deal with the official duty for the day, on returning back to the hotel I was too tired to do anything else but sleep courtesy the long haul and the time lag of five and a half hours.

Next morning I was up at 5 and the official things were only slated to begin at 10 so I decided to go to the local beach called the Labadi beach.

The beach was a wonderful expand which I was told is maintained by the hotels in the vicinity and is yet open to the general public. Since it was really early, it had less occupants but one got to meet a lot of local people who were out for a stroll, a swim or just peace.

What made it really comfortable was the fact that people greeted with warmth that was genuine. I also did meet an Italian who tried to flirt with me and ask me out but yeah who can resist such a beauty as me (modest am I not!)

I have this theory that you can know a lot about the place by the way of how people eat and pray. Since it was a Sunday I decided to go to the church for the morning mass and therefore dashed to the hotel for a shower and change.

My experience at the church was very spectacular. The men and the women extremely well dressed came into the mass almost ceremonious and wedding like. One thing I have to say here is that I am absolutely in love with the confidence of Ghanaian women; they are so comfortable with themselves and celebrate their curves. Each curve of the body is wonderfully highlighted in their attire with lovely patterned fabric and weaved kente (local weaved fabric). Music is an eternal part of people’s lives and was also seen in the mass with choir songs on a conga and dancing, don’t know if it was spiritual but it was certainly very refreshing.

With that done I was off for the official work for the day and during lunchtime decided to experiment with the vendor food which included coconut water, roasted corn, roasted banana and a substance that looked like blackberries with hard shell, once I started eating it my navigator Togo told me that usually men feel shy in buying because it were tiger nuts which are considered aphrodisiac when consumed by men ;-)

Post work I wanted to go for a place where they played live music and my hotel guided me to a club called +233 that played hiplife which is a Ghanaian special and as luck would have it turned out to be the night there biggest artist was performing, Gyedu Blay Ambolley was mesmerising with his vocals and amazing tunes of the saxophone. I relished the music just as much as I relished a local company. I had several interactions with the locals there, danced a bit and got an insight into people’s thoughts on several things such as India, their own country’s politics, music, etc.

 My official event had an element of a cultural performance by both Indian and Ghanaian Troops while the Indian artists enthralled with fusion of Kathak, Bharatnatyam and Odissi dance, their counterparts presented a 5 phase dance performance which depicted the 5 tribes and the music was foot stomping with high voltage energy.

My last day was barely half a day and I visited the local markets and saw some beautiful bead work and kente, picked up some authentic coffee, made a friend in a 3 year old boy Nana Bauachi who said “I lub chockolat”. I also tried local speciality called Joll of Rice, the flavour seemed a lot like our own Hyderabadi Biryani and before I could realize it, I was back at the airport to head back home.

On my way flight back I was thinking that though the finding of oil and a growth rate of 15% has not yet transcended into people’s life perhaps it is this very simplicity that is most endearing.