In a way, today was my first real day in Accra, since I had spent pretty much all of my time in the city so far either leaving it by car or at Kathy and Keith’s house. After breakfast and taking the girls to school I was dropped off at the WILDAF offices where I will work while here. After checking out the building I went to Oxford Street, the main drag in the Osu neighbourhood of Accra. I spent about an hour walking around there and seeing the sights, and I bartered for some flip-flops in the colours of the Ghanaian flag. The heat, humidity, and hustle and bustle all reminded me of my travels in Southeast Asia, although I was pleasantly surprised at how little I was hassled by vendors compared to what I experienced walking down similarly busy streets in Asia.
Then, fairly drenched in sweat even though it was only 10:00am, I decided to have a bite of lunch at a roadside stall/restaurant. I figured if my stomach was going to toughen up and handle the local street food here I might as well jump right in. The fried chicken and fried rice was pretty tasty, and so far tonight my stomach has only been mildly to moderately unsettled. A victory of a sort?
After returning from Osu on foot, and getting slightly lost in the process, I visited Kathy at Wold Bank headquarters, where she was giving a talk to a group of Brigham Young University students interested in international development. It was a treat to get to hear Kathy’s take on the work of the World Bank in Ghana and the challenges the country continues to face as it tries to increase the standard of living for all its people.
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