The first night we were in Ghana, a few friends and I went to Coco Beach and stayed in a resort for the night. We played soccer with locals and hung out around the resort. The following morning we went into the center of Accra, which is one of the biggest cities in Ghana. We shopped on Oxford Street, which was the main street and ate a Frankie’s – one of the best restaurants I’ve ever been too! We also bought FanIce, which is Ghanaian ice cream and was absolutely delicious. You eat it straight from the package and you suck the melted ice cream out. It was very different than anything I’ve experienced in the states. That night we went out in Tema, which was the port city where the ship was docked. There were a lot of Semester at Sea students at the bar, Manila, so it was a nice mix of local people with familiar faces.

The following morning we hired a tour guide to take us around Ghana. We went to Jamestown, which is in old Accra, Nima Market, and we walked around central Accra. The first stop was the Jamestown lighthouse which was old and out of work but we walked up it and saw the view from the very top. There were shacks everywhere with people playing soccer – futbol – at the field right below it. From there, we went into the family square of Jamestown where there are houses and “neighborhoods”. We met our tour guides family and learned about Jamestown. Most people who live in the area that we visited never leave. They spend their whole lives within the borders of the neighborhoods. They work as fisherman right behind the shacks. We went and visited the fisherman and some of us got to go out with locals on their boats. I went with two friends and while the two locals that came with us were rowing, a guy who came on the boat with us had to bucket out water that was leaking onto the ship. The locals that took us out do that every single day of the week from 8a.m. to noon. After we got back to land, we were walking to lunch when our tour guide ran into his old friend- the headmaster to a school that was not far away. We ended up going to his school with him and we met all of the children. Along the way we to the school we stopped at the nearest candy hut and bought all of the toffee lollipops and gave one to every single student at the school. The students were so excited to see us and to take pictures with us. After we left the school, we went to eat lunch at a local spot. I ordered a bean burger and jollof rice, a Ghanaian dish that was amazing. We then went to Nima Market and to people’s houses and met with five families. We hung out with our tour guide Charles, and met his friends from when he was young. He also showed up his mother’s house and we went to the area where all of his friends live. At that point it was getting dark so we took the SAS shuttle back to Tema to go back for the night. When we got back we met up with more SASer’s and headed out to Manila Bar again and had a fun night where they played Shakira’s Africa and the Macarena. I’ll never forget everyone out on the dance floor while we were all yelling, dancing and drinking – Cheers to Ghana!

The following two days I went into Accra. The third day we went to Marcole market which is the biggest market is Western Africa, and the fourth day we went to Global Mamas, a store that sells African Women’s shirts, bags and headbands. Every product has a tag that has the names of the woman that hand made whatever it is you buy.

Overall Ghana was a beautiful country. The locals were friendly, nice, and happy that we were visiting their country. The most common major word that I heard throughout the five days in Ghana was “unity”. Everything was about unity and family, something that is refreshing to see and hear.