Trip to the Accra beach

Oct. 5, Monday, Accra

Today was kind of a slow day – a chance to relax and prepare before our trip to Liberia early tomorrow morning. So I decided to take a taxi to the beach by myself and check it out. Most of the beaches lining Accra are pretty filthy, since that's where the city's trash and sewage is dumped. But there is a nice strip of beach that is well-preserved near the southeastern end of the city. It's also where some of the biggest tourist hotels are located.

I headed over there shortly after lunch, paid one cedi (less than a dollar) to get in, and took a walk down the shoreline. It was relatively crowded near the hotels, with mostly Ghanians and some Europeans hanging out. Some guys were playing soccer on the beach with tires as goals. As I started straying from the crowd, three young guys walked up to me to say hi. One of them was holding a large rock.

“Hello. I am selling this,” he said with a smile, holding up the rock.

I played along. “How much?” I asked.

“two cedis.”

“Hmm... too much. Twenty pesewas,” I said, offering the equivalent of about 15 cents.

We haggled for a while. Then I leveled with them: I didn't want the rock. They smiled, gave me a fist pound, and said “peace!” as they walked away.

Later, I found a nice spot on a beach cafe and hung out reading a book for a while. I met some guys smoking a joint and they seemed eager to get to know me. “Let me know what you want. Anything you need, I can help you,” one of them told me. I went back to reading my book.

The beach was pretty nice, but the city has a serious garbage issue. The tide line had a nice film of trash that kind of ruined the beach experience. This isn't much of a surprise considering tons of trash is dumped into the water only so it can wash ashore again. They seemed to try to clean it up a bit near the hotels, but it was still pretty bad.

Yesterday we did about five hours of driving heading west to the town of Swedru and back. It was a great time meeting some of the people involved in the Navigators ministry over there, but also a lot of traveling. It was the second day I went without lunch – about 12 hours without food – and I ate close to a whole pizza last night, which for me is a lot. So now it's time to rest up, eat and get ready for the next four days.