Day 2 - Around Tema

On Sunday morning, the 11 members of the Ghana 6 team piled into the hotel bus for a 2 hour trip around Tema.  Over the course of the morning we visited the market in Community 1, drove along the beach road, and we visited the harbour and the fish market.  We also toured other communities in Tema and saw other key sites including churches and schools.

Tema located in Southeast Ghana, approximately 25 KM from Accra. The city was built in 1960 as a manmade harbor. Its port, developed in the 1950s and opened in 1961, is the busiest in Ghana. With the opening of an artificial harbor in 1961, Tema developed from a small fishing village to become Ghanas leading seaport and an industrial center.   The population of Tema is approximately 180, 000.

The sights and sounds assault your senses as we visited the  market.  It was a busy place on the Sunday were were there - but Francis says that on a Saturday it is difficult to even move through the crowds.

The Market at Community 1

Driving along the beach road you see the sights and sound that make Ghana so wonderful and unique

Along the beach road

At the beach



The fish market was my favourite stop of the day.  There was a strong smell of salt air and fish and the sounds of vendors selling their daily catch

The fish market

Vendors at the fish market

For most of the afternoon we had an orientation session.  CDS, our CSC hosts for the month had arranged presentations from a local doctor who warned us of the various threats (malaria, cholera etc) and preventative measures we should all be taking to minimize the risks.  The local Chief of Police also gave us a presentation on security dos and donts.  At the end of his presentation he handed out a number of his business cards which most of us promptly filed with all of the other business cards we had collected to date.

No one thought anything more about security until later that evening when we were riding home from dinner.  The cab we were riding in was pulled over by 3 machine gun wielding burly policement in green fatigues who demanded to see our passports.  Of course, none of us were carrying our passports, mainly because the Chief of Police that had presented to us that same afternoon had made a strong point about leaving them in the hotel safe to prevent their loss and theft. Luckily, our ever efficient team member, June, was still carrying the business card from the chief of police that we had received that same afternoon.  After a stern warning from the burliest of Ghana's finest we were allowed to carry on our way with the promise that we would carry appropriate ID in the future. 

And so ends our second day in Ghana.