A God send

Henry the driver and God send, drove me toward, Accra. So far the workshop had caged my exploration of Ghana, with that over on the 27th, I felt relieved. However the dust on Khzaima's car remained unwashed. Checking my email, I came across this in the inbox.

Salam Usman,

Compliments of the season. Hope you are having fun in accra.

There is a daddo maritime country manager sadiq, pullo on, pls feel free to call him if you need assistance or a friendly voice. Number +233 249 253 313.

Best Regards, Mahmud B. Tukur.

Sadiq, was on holiday in Yola, and but kindly dispatched Henry his driver. A brief parle with Khuzaima and Henry at the Sonset office and I had a mental itinery for the next few days. The Cape Coast and Akosombo would come later. But today that meant seeing the capital more and for the nation of Ghana that meant going to the Kwame Nkrumah mausoleum.

Zongowood and the day of the Assemblymen

My host Khuzaima easily spotted my Khaftan and black Indonesian cap in the arrival lounge of the Kotoka airport. Earlier I exchanged 20 Euros for 37.50 Chedes the Ghanian currency. The car a black Toyota Corolla was attired in a thin light brown veil of Ghanian earth, a drizzle of mundane dust that testified to Khuzima industry. As the Chief Iman's executive secretary, Khuzaima's attire was more much more heavenly . Kotoka airport is right in the city of Accra. The road to the great Accra area the new Fadama was very shaded. One of Ghana major highway's is named Olusegun Obansanjo! "What is this! I exclamined to Khuzaima", "Well it seems that former Presidents Obansanjo and Kofo had a good working relationship, we are good at that in Ghana, naming things after big people." The next road we passed by, Laura Bush road was an uncompleted confirmation to the vainglory of "big people". My abode for the past three days has been the Annashi guest house new fadama, my feet are up on the balcony (I love balconies!) and searching through the library of the Chief Iman house I came across "Life of Pi" a Booker winning novel, about a young boy castaway on the Pacific with a Hyena, a Zebra and a Tiger. Good company for the next few days. The new Fadama is a part of Accra know as a Zongo a corruption of the hausa word Zango which means "station". A Zango or Zongo (is a fulani suppose to care?) is a new neighbour for stangers, equivalent to the Sabon Gari's of northern Nigeria, a ghetto well? Sort of, the ghutters had the exact same stench as Obalende's but the layout was more spacious and organised, so it looked like Unguwan Rimi but smelled like Lagos! A prefect melange of two Nigeria's towns. Today is actually an election day for Ghana's "Assembly men", governement representatives at the local level all looking forward to becoming "big people". Ghana is considered to be "Africa's most sucessful democracy." Obama's vist in July giving it the US president's stamp of approval. In contrast to Nigeria they was certainly no "tension" in the air as politicians made their way through the Zongo's. The scene below is right in front of the Chief Iman's office.

At night another stupidly euphoric calvary passed by my balcony.

The room at the Annanash guest house.

Akwaaba

Akwaaba, that's akan for Welcome. Why am I in Ghana? for the pure joy of traveling. Well it's not that romantic, I do have a paper to present at a forum on climate change for Ghana's Iman's. The flight was brief and the clouds motherly. Ghana's kotoka is seems smaller that Murtala Muhammed. Small is beautiful as immigration, baggage pick up and security took no more that 15 minutes, my butt in a chair at the arrival lounge I await my host, the grandson of Ghana's chief Iman, Khuzaima.

Backlogs of sleep and thoughts

This time I took no chances, self discipline is the Fulani's religion. I followed my rules of peregrination. Take a day off from work before traveling to prepare. That helps to deal Nigeria's PHCN and other "invisible" enemies, (the ominous "they"). I've got a big backlog of blog to upload with electricity blackouts chased away from the Ghanian borders (and all of Nigeria's neighbours for that matter). It time to go into SEAL mode. Tomorrow a short flight to Kotoka international airport and Insha Allah, a start of a West African adventure.