On Friday morning I walked over to the Ikando offices; apparently the PC’s there were grinding to a halt. All the prices in Accra seem to have gone up a notch since last year; taxis, tro tros and food seems to have increased by 50%. However the noticeable rise was in top end items; newish PC’s were no longer around 700 but closer to 1000 cedis. An office spec PC is cheaper than that in Australia. For an NGO, the purchase of 2 new PC’s at that rate was not trivial, but seemed inevitable. I had a quick look and found that they were Dell P4’s, ok but too low in memory, with only 256M for XP. I thought that for office type things they should have been fine with a quick upgrade. I was able to find memory in a shop around the corner of all places, so between that and a bit of a clean up, they were up and running again. I am always happy to help the Ikando guys out if I can, qnd they have always been wonderfully supportive to me when I am over here.
I had a sit down and a bit of breakfast at the Paloma Hotel, which is a sort of default base in town. I remember Mark Davis saying once, ‘the Paloma; we all start at the Paloma.’ But they do a nice buffet in a cool setting, with newspapers and real coffee.
I then went to the Burkina Faso embassy for a visa, but found that they have time windows for applications. I needed to have submitted mine by 11am for an afternoon approval. It was now after 11, and to make it worse, they were just closing for 2 hour break. I came back afterwards and was directed to the Consul, who was sympathetic but explained that there was not much to do. I wasnt too stressed as I knew you could get visas at the border, but I wanted to simplify things as much as possible. I then explained that I had the bus ticket already, and asked , ‘pour votre conseille, monsieur.’ That seemed to help a little, and an hour later I had the visa for the normal price.
By now it was late afternoon. I needed to be at the STC bus station on the other side of town by 8am the next morning. So I stocked up on a few supplies for the trip: ginger biscuits, bread and water. Fortunately the local Star Beer was still a just a cedi/dollar a bottle, so I sat on the verandah with an ale under a fan, and in the dusk I read a book I found in Paris called ‘Afrika Trek’. Its about a young couple who walk everywhere. A few years ago they did the Ewan MacGregor thing, but on foot with minimal backpacks. Its a great read; they dont plan accomodation ahead at all, just relying on local hospitality on a day to day basis. They started south at the Cape, the very point where the Atlantic and Pacific meet, and the book traces their northward walk along the eastern coast to Israel. It took 18 months, and each day they need to meet new people. Now that is intrepid. I then packed for the early start, and headed for bed.