Going Around Town

I try my best to get into Takoradi every week to go to the internet café, walk around market circle, or go down to the beach area to relax. I rely on taxis for the most part which is much more expensive than using tro-tros, but saves plenty of time.
From my past travels into Takoradi I have a whole phone book of taxi drivers willing to come and pick me up from the house and take me to wherever I am going. Yeah, sure, it’s nice. But there are times when I just have to ask them to let me walk part of the way. Why? Because if I didn’t actually make an effort to walk around the village where Moreau House is located then I wouldn’t know anyone down there.
Anyway, the internet café I go to is actually inside one of the nicest office buildings in town, the SSNIT building. The café is always swarming with young Ghanaian professionals, university students, and foreign NGO workers. It is a buzzing atmosphere. I enjoy it.
The café is air conditioned so well that I often have to step out for a few minutes to warm up my body. I mean the place gets cold! The computers are dated, but the connection speed is very good. It’s a nice place and I have been able to meet some interesting people there.
Market circle is the heart of activity for Takoradi. Takoradi’s market circle has been described in Bradt’s Travel Guide as “a rat infested, smelly dump”. A very harsh description that was fairly accurate from my experience last year, but I must say that they have done an incredible job of cleaning the place up for Ghana @ 50.
What were once spaces covered by market women and their goods have now been cleared to provide ample walking space for pedestrians. A year ago there was a large, overflowing dumpster that made the whole place stink, but it has been taken away and for the most part the air is free of any stench.
Things can still get very congested in market circle, which is the main reason why I enjoy being there. I like to walk around the circle and observe. People fighting over prices, people laughing together on the job, the traffic cop attempting to do his job, market women bellowing, young men working hard and sweating profusely under the midday sun not saying a word, the black market money changers lurking in the alleyways, the driver’s mates calling people into their tro-tros, the Lebanese family that owns the electronics shop, the sanitation workers all of them looking like amateurs, and the school children hard at work. There is much to see.
So when I don’t feel like throwing myself into the buzz I find myself at the African Beach Resort enjoying a Guinness and chicken kiev while the sun sets over the ocean. There are some other places that get really exciting after dark like Poloma Beach Hotel and the nearby Beach Sports Club, but since I am usually a party of one I keep it quiet. It is nice to reward myself with a nice cold Guinness every now and then. It also gives me a good opportunity to read over my journal entries from the previous weeks and dissect my thoughts.
Although I do get into town and I am able to experience the society I want to do more. There is so much more I can learn and there are so many more people that I can meet. Ugh! Between teaching at Skills, teaching at Moreau House, teaching at St. Joe Hall, further developing and planning for the future of HCSC, and continuing to deepen my Faith there isn’t much time left over. But I will try…