Day 2 - Accra to Kumasi - home for the next few weeks)

Took early flight to Kumasi - actually cooler than coastal Accra. Not surprising, as it was pissing down in Kumasi, being, as it is, deep in the jungle! I realized that no-one had told me it was rainy season here. Asking someone on the plane when the rainy season was, I was told “May to September” and “it will rain every day”. Here they call summer the “rainy season” and winter the “hot season”. The sun is slightly cooler in Winter but the skies are clearer and there is a hot wind called the Hamattan that dries everything out, creating loads of dust and savagely chapped lips!

I was picked up and taken through this, the second city of 2m people. It has the largest city market in west Africa apparently. We only drove past it but the sheer number of people in and around this market was incredible, an oppressive surge of humanity. It was 8.30am, on a Monday - I asked if it was always this bad, they said that this was the quiet time…lunchtime is the busiest. My god, it seemed like all 2m people were there already, flooding out onto the roads, selling everything you can think of. The drivers are nuts, no indication of turns and the correct side of the road barely acknowledged. Everyone – driver or pedestrian – is weaving around everyone else.

There are women balancing 44gallon oil drums on their heads (no hands!). Asking what was in them, I got the response “oil, water, liquid – usually only half full though”. Only half full!

Spent a day at the bank, got introduced to everyone. I am taller by about a head than all of them. Very friendly though, lots of hand-shaking-morphing-into-finger-snaps. Had to have lessons on that. Generally lots of hand-holding, especially with other men. Now I understand Sams behaviour a bit more.

I get the feeling nothing will happen on time here. They have grand plans to open the new branch (in which process I am a crucial element) on July 8. But already the ops manager confided in me that it won’t happen. The whole process relies on lots of people, and people (in Ghana) simply can’t be relied upon to do things at the time they are asked …great.

Lunch: Had it in a local restaurant with Antony, the ops manager and they guy I’ll be working closely with the next 5 weeks. Lizards the length of my forearm are chasing smaller lizards around the garden bar. The sun comes out, my god, it’s hot - like a sauna.

Even the locals find it too hot when the sun it out. The ubiquity of aircon out here must be a poke in the eye for Darwin.

My hotel: It’s Chinese. With a Chinese restaurant, which is pretty good. Lots of variety too. The hotel itself is a ** but it seems more like an English ***. Except that I have the generator outside my window, which kicks in when it rains a lot. Which is a lot. It’s very loud. The power went out at work 4 or 5 times at the bank during the day. I’ll have to wear my “ear-tampons” (thanks, Bee! J to get to sleep. Can hear all sorts of crickets and god-knows what drowning out even the generator!

Dinner in the hotel cost 208,000 Cedi – good Chinese and it cost about 12 quid for two with a few beers. Very pricey for here. I’m told a more local lunch will cost about 50p.

Beer: Star is an ok local lager (“Unlocks the joy of life with sparkling brightness”), 625ml is about 50p outside, and a pound fifty inside the hotel.