Ghana was the first black African country to gain independence on the 6th March 1957. Independence Day is a statutory holiday so all the schools and offices are closed today.
The Ghana 6 team had had a very busy first week filled with client meetings, client presentations and two full days of sightseeing on a bus. With nothing formal planned for today we took the opportunity for some much needed "down" time including time to get caught up on our e-mail and blogs
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| Blogging at the hotel |
At lunch we headed over to the Marjorie hotel which is in Tema Community 6. Lunch was served by the pool and the pool area was very busy today with Ghanaians celebrating Independence Day. The pool was packed with children and young adults being supervised closely by their parents - it was a sight that would be very familiar in North America other than the African music playing in the background, and of course the palm trees surrounding the resort.
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| Lunch by the pool at the Marjorie hotel on Independence Day |
After lunch, we decided to visit the local grocery store to pick up some wine and bottled water. Unfortunately when we arrived at the "Evergreen" our local grocery store, the store was closed for Independence day. Drat.
As we strolled back home, empty handed, we passed what looked to be a wine specialty store. The store was clearly closed but I thought I would look in the window so I would know what kind of wine they carried. As we crossed the boulevard towards the store, a woman walked towards us and inquired whether we wanted to buy wine today. We confirmed we did, and that we were disappointed that the wine store was closed. To our surprise, she pulled the keys our her pocket, and opened the three layers of security doors that protected the wine shop and let us in.
It was clear that our saviour was not very knowledgeable about wine, and of course there were no prices marked on the wine bottles. However, armed with her cell phone she called someone that we assumed to be the wine store owner and we proceeded to choose wine, get price quotations, barter and eventually purchase 3 bottles of wine through language barriers, bad cell phone reception and the general challenges associated with purchasing wine from someone that barely knew the differences between white wine and red wine. It was quite comical actually - we were laughing, she was laughing and I suspect the actual wine store owner was laughing at the other end of the cell phone.
The final challenge of this rather bizarre experience came when I did not have the right change to pay for my bottle of wine. She bagged our wine, closed the till, locked the door and took us over the the store where she had obviously been working to give me my change. She was the hairdresser from the shop two doors away! Only in Africa!
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| The Wine Store |
Back at the hotel, the newly purchased wine was cracked open so we could join the Ghanaians in their celebration. So ended another day in Ghana.
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