Sebastien Gasquet's Blog - Post #4

Friday Night in Accra

It's only 3:30, yet in only 3 hours the sun will have completely set on another day and another week here in Accra. The biggest change I have yet to get used to is the pitch-dark night at 6:30, in the middle of June! A mosque is located nearby the office, so I can hear the muezzin's call to Friday prayers.

Last weekend I did manage to get to the beach, but a sudden torrential downpour put on hold my plans for a swim and instead led me to haggle with a street vendor who happened to be walking by selling umbrellas. I did manage to see some of the city's major landmarks, such as the Independence Arch and Black Star Square, as well as the outside of the Kwame Nkrumah mausoleum. Hopefully this weekend's weather will allow for more time outside!

If anything like this week keeps up this blog might turn into a food review!

Independence Arch

Banku and Okro with beef and fish, goat stew and vegetables, fufu with green soup, abom with yam, tuo zaafi and pig with hot pepper and fish gravy are just some of the items offered on the buffet men for the staff. I will confess: I haven't the faintest idea as to what some of these are actually comprised of, but I (perhaps surprisingly) haven't had too many side effects of the radical change in cuisine, so why not!

 Meanwhile the week's work was comprised of more compilation of the security threats going around West Africa, but I also worked on a briefing WANEP will release on the upcoming legislative elections in Guinea (which, FYI are still meeting sticking points between the government and opposition parties, despite years of delays). The TV in our office has been near-constantly switched to state-broadcaster Ghana TV televising the hearings of the 2012 election petition, which is challenging the results of the presidential election last December in front of the Supreme Court. C-SPAN doesn't have anything on these guys!

I think I've mapped out the neighborhood of my apartment pretty well, so I might try and go for a run as the sun sets and the air becomes a little cooler...