I love the clothes! The patterns of the fabrics are beautiful, and I will try not to bring home a complete new wardrobe. I will be getting a few dresses made before I leave though. You buy the fabric at the market and then bring it to a seamstress to make it into a dress, skirt, or shirt. The people are very friendly. In the market and even on the streets people will try to sell you stuff. I have been told by Aunite Agnes to always cut the price in half and then barter from there. The people will try to sell things to me at a higher price especially because I am an American and they think I have a lot of money.
The day that you were born is very important in Ghana. Many people even have that as apart of their name. For example, Kofi means you were born on Friday. It is common for people to have multiple first names. This also makes remembering names harder.
On my first day I mentioned that there were people selling things on the side of the road. Well today I have established you can buy anything from those vendors. Today I even saw them trying to sell toilet paper. They sell phone cards and perfumes along with the food and beverages.
Saturday I went to KFC to each lunch. The menu is pretty similar, but no mashed potatoes instead they have rice. They also have what they call a burger, but it is more like a crispy chicken sandwich. Their drinks are only in bottles, but they have pop like coke and sprite. After eating Partey showed me around Accra a bit. We walked by the Accra Sports Stadium and many government building. We also walked to the beach, so I was able to walk along the coast of the ocean for a bit. Later in the day we stopped at a place where we could sit and relax with the view of the ocean.
Another place that we went in Accra was the Art Center. This place was insane! It was like a craft sale, but it was crazy because many people were selling the same things. Each little shop as they call then had some of the same things, but some had a few different items. Everyone was trying to get my attention to sell me their items. They kept telling me they would give me a good price. There were three main types of shops; carving, clothing, and beads. The carvings were beautiful and most were handmade by the people who were selling them. The carving shops included small tables, bowls, stands, serving spoons and forks, animals, masks, and maybe included symbols. There were meanings for most things that they were more than willing to tell me all about. Some of the wood carvings even had beading in them with made them very beautiful in their own right. There were lots of elephants and I wanted to buy ALL of them! There were many clothing shops, and some even included beads. There was a lot to look at. Some people had fabrics for you to buy to be made into clothing, but many of the shops here has some pre-made dresses, and shirts. The dresses had elastic at the waist so they would fit multiple people. There was even a lady who had a skirt that you wrap around and tie that she put on me to try to get me to buy it. The beads ranged from simple beads and cheap looking to hand carved beads that looked beautiful. At the bead shops there were also many souvenir type gifts such as magnets, cups, and small plaques. They also sold many wallets and small purses. There was even one shop that specialized in purses and bags. I found the perfect teacher bag to carry around everything, but I was not buying anything today.
A few stories from our day at the Art Center. One was this man who really wanted to get me to buy one of his masks. He thought that Partey and I were married, which we both looked at each other and laughed. He really wanted me to buy something today even though we told him that we were only looking many times. Another story was of this man TK. He was very kind and knowledgeable. He showed me around his sisters bead shop, as well as a few other shops before showing me his own shop. There were many things in his shop that were a little different than what was in all of the other shops and it was a nice change of pace. He had a few things that I know I want to buy for sure and I will be going back to his shop when I go to buy gifts to bring home. He also called me a queen.
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