Arriving in a country where it's hot whilst dark still confuses me. However, we arrived at Accra and were met by an employee of the founder of the TEABAG charity. Roger Gillman is English and is an undertaker who has a business in Accra, and so we were met by one of his drivers in a 7 seater limo! Since we came here last, a new ring road has opened around the city, so as with the joys of the M25, traffic is now filling the motorway to a standstill whilst the roads through the city are fairly clear.
We drove along the coast road this morning which was a fairly easy journey though it did start with a real shock. A group of men were moving what looked like a small shed on a trolley and moved it in front of my car just as we left. They turned it into the 3 lane dual carriageway - the wrong way. A small child ran out to join them, and just turned back in time before I hit him. Health and safety is rather different here.
We arrived at the village of Mankoadze mid afternoon, to find that it was the naming ceremony of the new daughter of the man who run's the beach lodge where we stay. As I sit, some 3 hours later, there is loud heavily-bassed piped music, though most of the 200 or so guests have now gone. It's now dark (6.10pm) and the cicadas or other noisy insects and surf on the beach are competing with the rhythms from the music. The live drummers and band have all gone.
We had a short walk along the beach accompanied by a few children who were keen to be our friends. 'What is your name?' is a sentence beautifully delivered by these children with sparkly white-teethed smiles. Any answer than 'My name is ...' confuses them. Whilst English is nominally their national language, it is generally very limited, and has usually been taught to the children by non-native speakers. The best English is spoken by those over 80 who benefited from lessons by missionaries 70 years ago. One of the contributions to village life that we can make is the English we speak.
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