Dakar

After a few weeks of no new blog posts, I bring you old news -- pictures from my trip to Dakar, Senegal in late October/early November.

I was in Dakar for work, but I had a chance to look around one day. My colleague, Emily, and I went to Goree Island, a short ferry ride from Dakar. It's a pretty spot without cars, pleasant lanes to stroll along, and colonial-style buildings.



Sadly, Goree is also known as a spot from which slaves were sent across the Atlantic. Far fewer passed through here than through the slave forts of Ghana, however. (See previous blog post about Ghana's Cape Coast Castle.)



Back in the city of Dakar, it was nice to walk around. Unlike Accra, Dakar has lots of sidewalks, shops full of enticing merchandise, and French cafes and bakeries. It seems more urban than Accra, with taller buildings and wider avenues. Not wanting to appear too conspicuous, I didn't take photos while meandering the busy streets.

Instead, I took photos from the inside of a car, so many turned out fuzzy. Live and learn. Here is a shot of a streetside mural:



Dakar's beach is much nicer looking than Accra's. I didn't get that close, but from the road it looks pretty great. The water is turquoise blue, rather than the gray Atlantic off Accra, and I don't see a sea of plastic bags lying around. (There is actually a Club Med resort just outside of Dakar.)



Dakar is known for its lively music scene. Someone told us about an outdoor club/restaurant called Just 4 You, where live bands perform nightly. Lucky for us, Amadou and Mariam were performing during our visit. I already knew their music thanks to our friend Jules, who provided us with a plethora of African music CDs before we moved to Ghana. Little did I know I'd eventually be sitting 5 feet from the stage, watching these amazing musicians.



Amadou and Mariam are a blind married couple from Mali with an incredible band. They had most of the audience dancing, including old and young, African and European. One African man who must've been at least 60 was the most energetic booty-wiggler I've ever seen. Amadou and Mariam's two on-stage female dancers got a big kick out of him. They descended from the stage to dance with him. I tried to take a mini-video with a digital camera, but apparently I used the wrong setting, so you'll have to imagine the scene in your heads. Trust me, it was highly entertaining.

POTUS in Ghana

As some of you might have heard, President Bush, First Lady Laura Bush, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Ghana last week. The visit was part of a 5-nation tour of Africa. Ghana was the fourth of the five countries visited. While here, the President discussed AIDS and malaria initiatives, viewed projects funded by US programs, attended a state dinner, and watched kids playing t-ball (no kidding).

Both Dan and I, as well as many of our colleagues, played a role in the visit. Neither of us interacted with the bigwigs, and I didn't even catch sight of them. Nor did we see last year's American Idol winner, Jordin Sparks, who was part of the entourage.



Dan, however, at least saw the Bushes boarding Air Force One when they were leaving.



Air Force One is gigantic! Unfortunately, they did not give us a tour.



Dan's duties were at the airport. See how much he enjoyed them?



The amount of time, resources and people that go into a visit like this is truly unbelievable. Hundreds of people (no exaggeration) spent hundreds of hours putting it together. Some of those coming from Washington appeared to be about 12 years old, but surely they must be at least 21. Some were nice, others not so much.



Wheels up! Hear the collective sigh of relief?

Visiting Kwame

Kwame Nkrumah was Ghana's first president. He died in 1972 and is now entombed in a mausoleum and memorial dedicated to him. Now the memorial site is one of Ghana's major tourist attractions. We visited there when our friend Mark came over from the US in October.



Above you can see the top of the mausoleum and a statue of Nkrumah.



In front of the mausoleum is a fountain with a line of horn-playing statues.



Due to water shortages, the fountain was not operating on the day of our visit. Mark and I are on the right.

Street food

On the way back from Cape Coast going toward Accra, enterprising young men sell treats along the roadside.



This gentleman displays a cut-open roasted grasscutter, sort of a giant rat-type creature.



Close-up, it looks like something you dissected in science class.



Mmm, mmm. Hungry now?

Cape Coast Castle

Shortly after we returned from South Africa, our friend Mark came to visit from the US. We showed him a little bit of Ghana, including Cape Coast Castle, one of the biggest tourist sites here.



This site was once a slave trading hub, where people kidnapped and sold from various parts of West Africa were held in horrible conditions before being shipped across the ocean to live and labor as slaves.



The slave dungeons were damp and dark, while the governor's quarters above were well-ventilated with plenty of windows.



The cannons protected the castle from invaders approaching by sea.

Slaves would board the ships after passing through the Door of No Return. Today, fishermen are right outside that door, repairing their nets.



Cape Coast lies on the Gulf of Guinea. The sky is beautiful although a storm is rolling in.



Here's a view of the street next to the castle.

Cape Town

At the end of our South Africa trip, we went to Cape Town, a lovely city near the southwestern corner of the country. It's similar to San Francisco in many ways: hilly, full of Victorian buildings, located on a pretty bay, known for its fine cuisine, cosmopolitan, and diverse. It's hard to say what we enjoyed most, but I must say that exploring the city on foot, walking on sidewalks without danger of cars pushing you into a giant drainage ditch, was a great pleasure.

Reminders of Ghana were here and there: the yellow building pictured above is a museum that featured an exhibit about Ashanti gold from Ghana. We also saw beads from Ghana in a Cape Town bead store. They were priced at over 10 times what they cost in Ghana.



We stayed near the Victoria and Alfred waterfront, named for Queen Victoria of England and her second son. There are lots of shops and restaurants here, as well as a marina. This photo shows Table Mountain in the background. It's a wonderful city to visit if you ever get the chance.

Completely off-topic, some of you might be wondering what happened in the Ghana-Nigeria match in the Cup of African Nations Sunday night. Ghana's Black Stars defeated Nigeria's Super Eagles, 2-1! Next they will face Cameroon in a semi-final match on Thursday (tomorrow).

CAN 2008 Ghana

This blog is taking a break from its South Africa report to take note of a big event here in Ghana. We are in the midst of the Cup of African Nations 2008 soccer tournament, hosted in Ghana this year. For CAN, Ghana built new stadiums (stadia?) in various parts of the country. Thousands of visitors from all over Africa are here to see the games. The whole country has soccer (called football here) fever.

At first we planned to avoid the games, thinking they'd be overcrowded, rowdy and dangerous. When we heard that wasn't the case, we went to a game with some friends. This was our first time at the new Accra stadium. It's nice, modern and clean! They have indoor bathrooms! There's a giant electronic scoreboard! We were impressed.

There were snack and beverage vendors, but no alcohol was allowed, so there weren't any drunken fans (that we noticed). Even smoking was prohibited. They patted us down and searched our bags as we entered. One guy had his cigarettes and lighter confiscated.

Our tickets had microchips embedded inside them! Fancy.

We watched Cote d'Ivoire trounce Mali, 3-0. There was a large Ivorian contingent, cheering and dancing each time a goal was made. About half the seats in the stadium were empty, though, probably because Ghana was not playing in this particular game.

Ghana faces Nigeria in the quarterfinals this Sunday, Feb. 3. The entire nation is crossing its collective fingers.

So Ghana did a great job of preparing for CAN. Let's hope they'll apply the same effort to water, sanitation and electricity in the future.