Accra, Ghana, a personal trip I had been looking forward to for years. On January 12 2023 finally, the time had come. The plane would depart from Zaventem in Belgium. Once at the airport, I worriedly wondered whether it wouldn’t be risky to keep the money for my stay with me during the night flight. Sleep could overcome me and besides, my now retired generalist had warned me about extortion. None of that, I maintained, everything is going quite calmly over there in Africa. But for security reasons and mindful of my generalist’s advice, I had left my VISA card at home. In retrospect, it wasn’t necessary, it would have been an asset to get cash. Finally I put my money in safety with the help of one of the RIA or Western Union services.
Photo: construction works in Accra
I flew from Brussels in Belgium to Casablanca (Morocco), Accra (Ghana), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Vienna (Austria), Zaventem Brussels (Belgium) in succession. Unlike previous attempts to go to Africa, I started by booking the flight. Starting with my vaccinations never got me there. On the contrary, the doctors at a travel clinic once excluded me from further travel to Africa when I told them that I had never taken a plane after being vaccinated. And with booking your flight as a starting point, you have already paid the largest part of the total sum. Especially on these kinds of short trips where you are invited to stay overnight at a friend’s house and where you otherwise spend a maximum of 25$/night on hotel costs. Of course you can spend a lot of money at multi-day safaris and culture trips. My brother, an Africa enthusiastic also talked about seven à ten thousand euros or dollars. But it was not my intention on this first trip to Africa. And also, the East side of Africa, as Tanzania and Kenya have to offer the greatest safaris.
Who accompanied me on this first part of my flight, the part from Brussels National to Casablanca? Mainly many North Africans who went from Brussels to visit their family in Morocco. Also clergy who worked in education in Africa.
About the first stopover, in Casablanca, I can’t tell you anything about the North African landscape, the airport was sealed tightly from the rest of town. Neither could I find any windows. We sat in a big room with in front sockets to charge our smartphone. Shops in the side walls and further seating are distributed throughout the space.
About the same scenario at the final destination Accra. Never in my life I saw such a plural quite severe control. It was three o’clock in the morning. Yet no people came in or out. An agent I had met shortly after the landing showed me sockets in the wall where I could tap electricity for my phone and computer. These sockets where like British ones but he told me that I could just put my European one which was trough in a certain percentage of the cases.
At a certain moment he shook hands. On my question if he went away already he said that he was just around and always available. Probably that was the moment the doors of the airport opened let’s say between 8 to 10 o’clock in the morning. Around 10 o’clock, always in the seat near the coffee bar where he had launched me, and fully conscious of the daylight and my freedom to escape into the city, I took my decision, stood up and underwent a new series of checks on my visa before I could hail a taxi.
Then we drove along palm trees, houses, a garden of an artist full of big statues, women carrying towering piles of merchandise on their heads. After many kilometers we arrived at the apartment I had booked in case. The taxi driver and I took place in the gazebo near the entrance. It seemed like forever before I could finally get into my room. At a certain moment the first African animal I noticed fell from the gazebo’s carpet of artificial flowers and ivy: A lizard or maybe a few of about 30 centimeters that no one really paid attention to. When you talked about snakes people laughed mockingly. However, some days later when I was walking along the ditch on the side of a street, a guy warned me for snakes. But I only saw a frog jumping into the water.
I decided to do at least some attractions before I would fall definitely without money. The evening before I had made a walk in the neighborhood to get at some too cheap food from stalls on the street. Living goats jump around in the grass hills along the streets. Everywhere the road is bordered with a gully about half a meter deep where water chicks and ducks swim around. But here there were no huts anymore and honestly I haven’t seen a single one during my whole stay. There were only construction works everywhere and finished houses, newly built in the COVID-19 period.
The Ghanaian earns his own living from an early age. Children also join the army of roadside vendors. Quite unsure about the occurrence of more liquor sellers along the road between this point and the Labadi Beach I decided to stock up a little.
Begging for food or engaging in street vending often takes time away from attending school. These children miss out on formal education, which affects their cognitive development and future opportunities. Lack of education perpetuates the cycle of poverty, limiting their chances of breaking free from this lifestyle.
Malnutrition is a common issue among street children. Relying on food scraps may not provide adequate nutrition, leading to health problems. Exposure to harsh weather conditions, unsanitary environments, and hazardous situations on the streets can negatively impact their health.
Constantly begging or selling items can be emotionally draining. These children face rejection, humiliation, and sometimes exploitation. The stress and uncertainty of survival can lead to anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges.
Street life isolates children from healthy social interactions. They miss out on peer relationships, mentorship, and positive role models. Lack of social support affects their emotional resilience and coping mechanisms.
Without proper education and support, these children may remain trapped in poverty, unable to break free from the cycle. Their chances of escaping street life decrease, perpetuating a cycle of vulnerability.
Efforts to address this issue should focus on providing access to education, safe shelters, and social services. Advocacy, community involvement, and awareness can help create a more supportive environment for these vulnerable children.
ChatGPT
A 55 years old man approached the stall to sell me the coconut juice in a plastic bag the children filled for him but also offered to take me to a hotel. We went on our way and stopped at the entry of a big hotel with enormous garden. We sat down next to the road near the entry where I asked if he didn’t prefer me to pay him a fresh pint. He didn’t know what beer was but was more confident with wine that was served a lot on wedding parties.
We walked between trees and shrubs, that he all mentioned by name, in the neighborhood of the construction works on the photo. At a certain moment we crossed an area where people stomped the Earth for God knows what purpose. Here are some AI suggestions:
– In building houses by the preparation or for the garden construction.
– Just traditional activities as dancing, singing, ritual actions
– In agriculture by the production of flour
– People coming together for social reasons as sharing stories, discussing community questions or just pass time with one another.
Probably that was Hilton Hotel, in the Adjiringanor neighborhood. As you see on the map they have rooms from $60. That guy also asked a small one for his studies in an Islamic school. I regretted not to give him that because the chance I would fall without money was too big. He wanted to show me his school but I had promised to come home around seven o’clock. I remember a taxi driver from the Yango company on the road asking me if I had called for a taxi. I said I I didn’t but wasn’t certain about the guy I saw now on several hundred meters eager with impatience to visit his good old Islamic school.
How I understood the name of the school I couldn’t find back on the map, but there is in that neighborhood a restaurant “Coco Vanilla Restaurant Adjiringanor” a name quite resembling with what I understood.
I myself stayed at the Success Apartments, well known for their delicious kitchen, clean rooms with air condition, wind mills against the ceiling, tv, wifi, showers, as everywhere the vibrant city called Accra on 5.5° N and 0°.
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Ladadi Beach
The next day I took one of the possibilities of public traffic, changed for 5 GH₵ to a small bus where people were crowded like canned sardines, then changed once more to a taxi who brought me to Labadi Beach where they asked 20 GH₵. As you see Labadi Beach is NOT FREE at all. The sea is quite resembling to the North Sea with that difference that you are not alowed to go far into the water. It is too dangerous for two reasons: 1. The wild waves and 2. Sharks. [Read the report of my visit to the Labadi Beach]
A couple of days later or so the cook of the apartment where I stayed took me to Makola Market, about the best organized market I ever saw if I’m right about its organization which is only based on volatile impressions. Women rent themselves out to carry your purchases no matter how big the quantity was. First I thought that “we” had chosen a boy to carry ours but I understood this was a girl and next I concluded that this must be a typical female job.
You can spend as much money as you want on your trip through Accra as you see but I myself certainly didn’t spend more than hundred dollar in a whole week.
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