in accra

Well, here I am. I've been in Accra for not quite 2 days now, but I have nothing terribly exciting to report yet. My bag didn't make it on my flight, so I had to spend several hours at the airport last night waiting for it to come in (which it did, thank goodness). The place I'm staying is expensive (there aren't really any cheap places to stay here, and the ones that are cheap are all booked), but it has AC and a TV that gets some kind of global version of CNN, so at least I'm being spoiled. I'm trying very unsuccessfully to get over my jet lag. I slept for much of yesterday afternoon, and then I went to bed for the night at 1 a.m., woke up at 4:30 a.m., finally got back to sleep and then accidentally slept until 3:30 p.m. today. Oh well. I've only eaten one meal since I got here (dinner last night...and I will eat again very soon, because I'm very hungry), but it was good. I was unadventurous and got fried rice at the restaurant next to my hotel, which was very good and not particularly exotic. I also drank two bottles of something called Sahara Dry Cider, which was very good. Yay, African hard cider!

Some initial observations/anecdotes about Ghana:

• The heat is really bearable so far (and not just because I have AC in my room). I think it might be worse in Kumasi.
• Accra is cleaner and less crowded than Chennai was, and fewer people randomly harass you on the street.
• The people that do harass you, however, often say "hello" using the exact same tone and inflection as the Indians did, as though it's the only word of English they know, which in this country it certainly isn't.
• Most people seem to speak English, but there are also other languages being spoken (often by the same people...presumably they are speaking the tribal languages I've read about) and I think maybe there's a modified version of English being spoken. People certainly have accents and aren't always readily understandable.
• I have seen almost no overtly homeless people.
• One of my cab drivers told me he wanted to marry a white woman. I told him that I was sorry, but that I'm spoken for, and he said, "no, I don't want to marry you." But he gave me his number and wanted me to hook him up with one of my American friends. All I know about him: he's 28, his name is Emmanuel, and he can drive.

Anyway, I need to go see about buying a cell phone before the stores close. More soon, of course. Internet is cheap and only sort of slow.