1. People pack everything on their head.
We watched a young girl of about 11 years old-ish get her father to help her lift a 5 gallon jug of water onto her head and she balanced it on her head all the way back to her house. Let me repeat: she couldn’t lift in onto her head but she could balance it while walking all the way back to her house.
Meg says “I think any person that hasn’t grown up packing these things on their head would have a compression fracture in their neck”.
2. You can buy anything you want when you’re stopped at an intersection.
You stop for 1 second and flocks of vendors approach the vehicle selling their wares. Lighters? Bananas? Water? Super Glue? Handkerchiefs? Whatever you want – you can find it. Some of the fastest transactions I’ve ever seen happen through the window of a vehicle. It’s a mad scramble and somehow when the dust settles everyone has what they want and has the correct change.
3. “Lights out”.
Due to increasing power demands and a lack of power, Ghana has frequent power outages. You never know when you’ll be sitting at a computer and it suddenly shuts down or you’re on the toilet and suddenly you’re taking the browns to the superbowl in the dark. It’s something you get used to.
4. Water satchets.
Due to a lack of clean drinking water, everyone drinks out of plastic bags full of water called water satchets. Imagine the litter created by millions of people drinking these satchets every day. It’s an environmental nightmare. To make matters worse, Ghana doesn’t do much recycling to put it mildly.
5. Hissing.
Want the attention of you’re friend? A shopkeeper? A waiter? Hiss at them. Loudly. Like a giant snake. Somehow it works. Bizarre.
6. Religion is everywhere!
I know I’ve said this before but I can’t get enough of it. I would estimate that the majority of businesses are named something about God. “Jesus Loves Fashion”, “Truth in Prayer”, “Holy Ghost Shoemaker”. It puts a smile on my face. I could read the shop names all day.
7. Children flock to you yelling “Obruni”
Young kids love to meet foreigners or as they are called here “Obruni’s”. It a common occurrence to have a mob of kids approach you yelling “Obruni!” The kids are so damn cute though.
8. The handshake.
When a man greets a man, they do so by shaking hands followed by snapping each others fingers like shown in the pic above. It takes a few times to get the hang of it but I’ve got it now.
9. Cities and Towns are chaotic
Elmina, Ghana (Feb 22, 2013)
Ghanians are passionate and loud. When you put a thousand of them on a busy street, everywhere you look is a soap opera. Sometimes I genuinely can’t tell if two people are mad at each other or if that’s just the way they talk.
10. How full can you stuff a tro tro?
Meg and I are slogging down the road in an old tro tro stuffed with people and products. I am wedged in between Megan and a 40 year old local woman who is loudly yelling at her mobile phone (I wanted to use my Grandpas’ line “Put down the phone, I think they can still hear you”). Under my feet is a truck tire and an aluminum basket. On my lap is my backpack. Behind us is 2 bunches of bananas, our large backpacks, water basins, and a couple large white sacks of anonymous goods.
“GOOD. We’re FINALLY full. Now we can make some miles! ………. Wait….. we’re not stopping for those people are we? I don’t believe it…..”
Just when you thought they have stuffed as much as they can into a tro tro, you have your mind blown when they stuff two more people, a couple chairs, a goldfish, and a kitchen sink into the tro tro.
I haven’t seen this yet but I think it’s a definite possibility.
Kamikaze Canuck 
Wow, I feel like I am on the tour. Thanks, I am sharing with others who are also enjoying.
“Wow, I feel like I am on the tour”
That’s the goal! Thanks for following and commenting. Hope you and Grandpa are enjoying.
Jason/Megan, thanks so much for the blog and photos! It’s great to be able to fallow along. Glad you both are having a wonderful experience. What a great trip.
It’s been an adventure to say the least. So different from any of the other places I’ve been that it’s difficult to put it into words!
2. Please don’t forget the groundnut balls and kelewele :0)
3. The enforced power outages are only made worse when the tap is also cut :0/
4. I still can’t get used to the satchets.
9. I loved loved loved Elmina and Keta. There is nothing better though than getting outside of the cities and hitting the villages. Ugh and the traffic in the cities makes NY rush hour seem like a Sunday afternoon drive.
10. My favorite Tro Tro memory was passing one on Spintex that was broken down. The men were outside of the Tro Tro pushing, while the women and children all sat inside lol.
Thanks for the comments. Sounds like you’ve spent more time in Ghana than me!
I’ve been a few times, last time was in 2011 though. You both look like you fully immersed yourself in all the best Ghana had to offer though. :0)
If a compass is too much work yyou can always check out the maps
app too give you an exact location and a nearby look at what is where.
Coompare prices, sometimss another brand might be cheaper than the brand wirh the coupon.
Take it slowly annd don’t push them, try and get them to acknowledge when you have completed something correctly.