Ghana be fun

Tempest Tossed Travel

So, it has been a good long while since I last got around to writing a blog entry, and of course lots has been going on- mainly travel related, because why have an easy travel experience when you can have a regular ordeal.

My first interesting flying experience was on a KLM flight back from Amsterdam just after Easter, we were somewhere over the Sahara when the call went out.  It was one of those, “Is there a doctor on board moments?” Of course there was.  However, true to form that wasn’t where the incident ended.  The first responder turned out to be a Witch Doctor.  He entreated the whole plane to pray for the sick man, and ordered the demons leave.  In the past this has never seemed like a great treatment for epilepsy and the same was true in this case.  Luckily by the time the cabin crew had moved the praying doctor away a real doctor, this time with an MD appeared and proceeded to put the world to rights- or at least as right as you can make it while cruising at 37,000ft.  I left that flight wondering, and vocalizing how often things like this happen.  It turns out I wasn’t going to have to wait to long to find out the answer…

A week later I was on a BA flight from JFK into Heathrow when the same call went out over the tannoy system.  This time it appeared the situation was more serious (or at least we were over a more densely populated area with more hospitals and medical services) as we re-routed to St. John’s in an attempt to land and reach a hospital.  Unfortunately the weather was too unsettled and after circling for a while we were forced to divert to Gander, where the pilot did land the plane and medical teams were brought on board to help the patient- who was removed and transported to hospital.

Unfortunately for us (maybe a little selfish) Gander airport was officially closed as it was 1:30am and we were running low on fuel due to the detours and the circling- so back toward St John’s we headed, where we could refuel and finally head back toward Heathrow.  For the first time ever I was glad I had had a six and a half hour layover planned as by the time the plane landed in Heathrow it was down to a solid one hour.  Which meant there was just enough time to make the connection without having to sit in a Starbucks free B Gate section of Terminal 5.  When everyone tells you how great the shopping is at Terminal 5 I assume they have never had to connect thru there- either that or WH Smith, Boots and Weatherspoons now constitute amazing shopping and a fantastic retail experience.

I am however, now back in Accra and all that that entails.  The weather is hot, hot, hot with a few storms thrown in for fun.  There are of course all the little Ghanaisms still here:

The Container Store is not, as you would find in the US a big store selling nothing but containers of all shapes, styles and sizes… but rather a store made from a shipping container.  It is usually used as a workshop, or had products to be sold from inside and more often than not is painted in some bright color as sponsored by a cell phone company.

I’m sure I have said it before- but what is it with the way people drive here?  People are generally very laid back, the phrase Africa Time has come about for a reason; until people get behind the wheel of a car!  Then there is mayhem.  It is like nothing I have ever seen before.  Hands on horns, any side of the road you want to be on, someone is already occupying the place on the road you want to be in? No problem you can just shove them out of the way.  If you don’t look then no one is there.  The shouting the yelling, the pushing the shoving… and then when you get there- well, you can be laid back again!  No rush to actually do anything, jobs and activities can wait.

Thursday night saw a rather large and somewhat damaging storm.  The kind that rips up trees, and tears off roof tiles (proper roof tiles, not the banana leaf sort); I also decided that as hurricane season started in the US on May 1^st and in lieu of Fox News to do the scare mongering I would name the storm Alice.  If it had been a few miles off the coast then I am sure Fox News would have the Doppler Radar on it and they would be tracking it while telling everyone that the entire Eastern Seaboard was going to be obliterated. (I really do miss Fox News), so I did their job for them and created a storm watch of my own, along with the name. Accra city seem to have completed the hurricane experience for me by making sure the power (and thus the water) have also been erratic since Thursday, I think we have managed a whole three hours with them working; not too much of a problem until the generator also ran out of Diesel on Saturday night.  Not too much to do on a Saturday night when you have no power, no water and no light by 6:00pm.  Early night anyone?

Anyway, this has led to me being in a bit of funk this weekend and really needing to get out of town and just be somewhere else, so next weekend is looking like a trip along the coast.