Payton’s Blog

my last week

Sorry I haven’t blogged in a while but the internet here has not been very reliable lately.  So this is my last week here, I leave Thursday (tomorrow) night.

Last Saturday I went shopping in Accra.  It was really fun!  Maakporye took me to Osu street first.  This is a busy street that is lined with market-style shops on the sides of the street and small indoor shops as well.  We were dropped off across the street and walked down to the main area.  I had a list of things that I was looking for because I tend to impulse-buy so we were on a mission!  I tried to just look at first so I could get an idea of what they had and how much I should be paying.  I was looking for a dress and some jewelery for myself, a wooden mask that hangs on the wall, a shirt for my mom from when Obama came to Ghana last month (it really hurt me to spend money on that!!),  and something for my sister.  When I saw the huge array of goods out for sale I knew this would be a challenge!  There were many shops selling dresses and fabrics (they make custom dresses too), a lot of wooden art–masks, bowls, clocks, scenes of women carrying babies on their backs and/or stuff on their head, and a lot of people selling jewelery.  There were also some shops with bags, shoes, soccer jerseys, watches, etc.  Even with all of the distractions I found everything on my list and managed to still have some money left over!  I got good at bargaining by the end, but realized that I got ripped off by one of my first purchases.  A man was selling necklaces and bracelets made from these really pretty stone and glass bead, he did not have a proper shop he was just walking down the street so I stopped to look.  I got 2 necklaces and a bracelet for 35 cedis (maybe $20) which I thought was a pretty good deal, then toward the end of the street there were the same necklaces for 3-5 cedis!!!  I could have gotten the same stuff there for like 10 cedis!  Other than that everything went well.  We even stopped to have ice cream at a place called Freddy’s that reminded me of being home.

After Osu we took a tro tro to the center of Accra to go to Makala market.  This ended up being a place that was geared more toward locals.   They had more practical things like cleaning supplies, toiletries, everyday clothes, bags, fabric, and they were not as aggressive in getting me to purchase things like the people at Osu were.  I took a picture down the row of shops, which I had been doing all day at various places, and a lady who owned a facbic store came out to yell at me.  I’m not sure what she was saying but it didn’t sound good, luckily Maakporye was there to calm her down, so we said sorry and quickly went on our way.  I did not buy anything here and we didn’t stay long because I had already gotten most of the things I was looking for so we just headed back to Manna.

It was a fun day and shopping made me think of being back home.  I can’t wait to give everyone their gifts and share all of my pictures!