Sigh. Tonight 7 of us went to dinner, all Ikando people: Martin, Quarshie, Ralph, Kelly, Megan, Charlotte and Kathleen. We took taxis to Osu - Martin is a fierce taxi negotiator and seems to get an extra cedi off anything I can. He knew a wonderful outdoor cafe where we had Banku Tilapia, which is banku (a ball of corn and cassava dough), river fish and a hot pepper sauce. Each diner gets a water dish and a tea towel. There is no cutlery; eating only with your right hand, you scoop bits off the banku, and dip it in the sauce and vegetables, and break pieces from the whole fish. The outdoor seats were a bit dark so you couldn’t actually see the food, but it was wonderful. Good call son, I told Martin. The sauce was so hot that Star beers all round were a given.
Over here there are a few ways to rapidly clear an eating area of a crowd: shouting ‘Fire’ works least well. Running in screaming with AK47’s blazing is pretty good. But using your left hand to eat food or even bring it near your bowl is easily the fastest. Enough said. You use the water bowl and towel to rinse and dry your right hand. In Ghana, they do love their Fufu and Banku.
There have been cool breezes outdoors the last few nights, which have been wonderfully refreshing. A couple of guys with a guitar and an african drum played slow Bob Marley. We headed back late, Martin again leading the charge home in a taxi negotiation and ride home that I will save for over the bbq. I thought I had these guys sorted out, but this tall guy from Tipperary makes me look easy. I get the street rate; he gets lower. But for long term volunteers, every day and cedi counts.
Kathleen is an architect (hello!!!!) working with a well known sustainable architect firm here in Accra, but with offices in Washington. She is really good value and we had a few interesting discussions on architecture styles here. She pointed me to the place where she was working:
http://www.constructsllc.com/en/home.html
which looks perfect. Unfortunately Joe, the lead, was en route from Wahington and we would miss. However I emailed him an introduction, and he replied that it is possible we could meet up at Heathrow on Saturday morning as he is transiting through. I hope we can, and if somehow professionals with local experience like Kathleen and Joe were on board in somehow, or we could work out some engagement model, that would be great. I inadvertently created a new architecture joke based on my limited knowledge of autocad: is the latest release still R-13? Among architects it brings the house down.