Three West

Anyone who has every met a Ghanaian anywhere, knows they are a bunch of friendly people. I met many people while in Ghana. It was the best kind of fun. We went to night clubs and had the most amazing time. Besides the fact that it only cost us $5 each (about $20) to rent a minivan for the entire night, but when we went tot he clubs it was so different than what one is used to in the states. We had a crazy fun time. Everyone was hyped up over every song and dancing until our legs hurt. When men asked you to dance they were polite and continued to be even if you said ‘no’. Amazing. *Smile*

O.K. some of the jacked up stuff just so you know what to expect or to avoid … Nothing too horrible but this is what we experienced. Be respectful! Sounds like a given but it isn’t. We went to a Royal Museum and there was living room furniture there from like hundreds of years ago. Well these silly young tourists were sitting on it; feet up and all. What an ugly sight that was. Yep, they were kicked out. Be Polite! Ghanians I felt did genuinely try to give the best service they could. Some things were just out of their hands. We went to a bank to get money and there were these uppity tourist in the bank yelling at some poor teller because they had to wait longer than they wanted to for their money. We all had to wait. These three grown ass men let into this woman right up until they go their money. Doing so didn’t get their loot any faster. It just made them look like a bunch of fools. We also ran into a bunch of miserable African American tourist who felt they weren’t being treated right by the Ghanaians but we found out it was for good reason. They were acting like tourists. If you don’t get what I mean, I’ll put it this way. What they were doing was similar to going over to an aunts house that you just met and acting out of pocket. You may not know her but she’s still you aunt. Same principle. The biggest issue we had was that one of the ladies on our trip insisted on ignoring all of the information that was given to her about how to behave while visiting Ghana. For instance, she kept taking pictures of people without asking. So much so that at one point there were people banging on the side of the bus in anger. It was also explained to her several times before and after arriving in Ghana that if when in the presences of children and you want to give something to them, if you do not have enough for each and every child you can not give the item out. Period. She repeatedly ignored this. It was by far the most horrible thing. We were returning to the bus from a naming ceremony and everyone was on the bus except her. Outside we could see a large mod of children (more than 100 I would say) and then a group of adults rushing in. We immediately knew something terrible was going on. The tour guide rushed off the bus and moments later returned with a crying group member. Yep, she was attempting to give away about 20 little trinkets to a sea of children. The kids began to beat each other senseless to get what she was giving out, the little ones getting manhandled by the older kids. The adults stepped in to break it up and they were quite angry with this woman as were we. Also if you aren’t used to hounded to buy something every where you turn, this may be a taxing place to visit. It was a bit fun at first but definitely a few days before the end of the trip, we’d all just about had it. We were being followed by the same young men trying to sell us trinkets from city to city (we didn’t just stay in one area, we moved every couple of days). But aside from all of this, we had a fantastic and memorable time in Ghana.

Click to Page 4 for videos from my trip to Ghana: