A game of two halves

So a very interesting weekend indeed, spent watching sport.

The plan was always to go to Kumasi, to watch Ghana ( the Black Stars - do we have a NZ sports team with that name.........) play against Benin. And its a 4-5 hour drive to get to Kumasi and back, and we did it in a day with the match being played at 5pm! Long day!!!!

Especially for the people who had to take the bus at midnight and arrived at 5am and then got back on a bus again that night, I was lucky and got myself a seat in a car, so we could choose our leaving times a bit better!

So anyway, seeing as we were staying in Accra on Saturday, and for some reason still unknown to me, the home ground of Togo is in Accra, and they were playing at 4pm vs. Cameroon, so we thought we'd get along to that also.

Tickets for the most of the seats were 3 cedis (like $4 maybe), and VIP were 8 cedis, so for a International World Cup qualifier, this to me seems pretty cheap.

But it was the most chaotic sports event I've been to, we arrived at about 3pm to buy tickets, and while technically there may have been lines, I was small enough to shove my way to the front and get our tickets, we then had to wait for awhile for others joining us to arrive, and normally you would think nothing of this, still having plenty of time to get in, but not so......

The first gate we tried was apparently VIP tickets only so we had to move around, we did this and kept walking trying to find entry, but its not that clear, when we eventually found what was an entry point, it was pretty much a tiny space with a couple of police men checking tickets technically, but mainly keeping people out who didn't have tickets, and a rotating barrier thing you had to go through.

So in theory this should be easy to get in, but not so much, kind of like a Big Day Out mosh pit, people were cramming themselves towards these tiny entrances, and again maybe would have worked, but the problem was the people pushing at the front didn't actually even have tickets, they were just trying to force their way in, and the sclapers were also in there trying to sell for a high a price as possible to these desperate people.

So after standing for about 20mins in this crush and not moving, we thought we'd try another entrance place, or attempt to talk our way past the police at the VIP gate, but walking back around, they'd closed off the entrances due to the huge numbers of people trying to push their way in, we also saw people attempting to scale the massive walls.

Once we were back around to the ticket place, this had also been shut off, so we assumed it must have been sold out, I would say though largely to scalpers, from the huge number of people selling tickets around.

So we walked our way around the satdium looking for open gates which weren't crushed with people, the game had by now well started. There were no ground security, and a few police men with random like stun gun things to move people back but we didn't really try the crushing ourselves towards the entrance thing again.

So once nearly having done a full circle and very close to just selling our tickets and going to buy a beer somewhere, we went to the last gate, and amazingly it was as simple as holding our tickets above our heads and people actually parted to let us through!!!

Why was this......because once we handed over our tickets to the police, they took them and sold them straight back to the people waiting outside!!!

So finally in, about 2 minutes before half time, we were amazed to see the stadium was no where near capacity, so many more people outside than in

But there still was a good atmosphere, and despite missing the goal which was very early on, we did get to see Adebayor (famous, I think he plays for Arsenal) miss a penaly kick, which is the video I have.

So it was a very interesting experience, and even though it was quite choatic, I never really felt unsafe, and it gave us good lessons to learn tp get there early for the Ghana game in Kumasi!!

So, Sunday morning, up nice and early ready to drive, the one thankful thing is on Sundays because of church I think, the roads are not actually too crowded, so it was a pretty good journey, and we arrived with time to relax and get some lunch before buying up some Ghana merchandise and heading inside.

It was a big difference to the day before however, there were much more police and even military around, and people were a lot more controlled, so it was almost as easy as walking right through the gates, and we even our tickets back! Still someone did lose their wallet due to a theif, but in situations where people crowd around you have to know to hold onto your stuff, it doesn't happen often, but you shouldn't give people the opportunity.

So we were in nice and early and the satdium was already much more full than the day before, and a huge huge number of Ghanaian supporters, we couldn't even see where Benin fans were for a long time as they were to the side of us and it was hard to differentiate their flag, every African country is pretty much Green, Red and Yellow somehow!!

So a good game, we saw the goal this time, scored in pretty much the opening minute by Ghana, they were meant to win over Benin so we were a little disappointed there weren't more goals but it was still a very cool exerience to go to a live soccer match.

We headed back home straight after pretty much, and arrived back at around midnight, so a long day, but well worth it, and good to do something different than going to the beach.

Also despite the organisation of the games not being to my normal standard, at the end its very peaceful, there is hardly any drinking at all, I didn't see one person really with alcohol or even anywhere selling it, so people file out pretty orderly at the end. And much more control was kept than at the game in Cote d'Ivoire where I think 22 people were killed when they stormed a fence, so it definitely never got to that point in Ghana.

The soccer itself, its hard for me to judge on style of play....the guys who normally watch European football thought especially the Togo-Cameroon game was very slow, and I could really see that also, Cameroon are meant to be pretty good, and they didn't even look like scoring.

Ghana-Benin game was pretty good, had some close shots, but still I think I prefer watching rugby :) Lots more happening on the field!! Although soccer probably moves at a faster pace, in terms of break times, even when people were injured, it was moved along quickly and play resumed, none of these long extended drinks breaks going on!!

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/emmajaynedavidson/SoccerGhanaVBenin#

http://picasaweb.google.com/emmajaynedavidson/SoccerTogoVCameroon#

I have more videos of the noise at the stadium and the playing, but due to the hand held nature of my filming, its very motion sickness inducing!!! So thought I would leave them p=out!

Its been awhile

I can remember when I last wrote so I may repeat or miss stuff, but I don't think anything pverly exciting has happened in awhile.

Again this weekend stayed in Accra, yesterday went out to one of the areas where you can buy wooden carvings and statues here, and got something to add to my room to make it a bit more interesting. Also Friday night went to a concert at the Alliance Francaise and listened to some African music, funnily enoough though the orchestra included a token white hippy guy.

Today was for relaxing, went to one of the hotels on the beach front, although you can't actually go to the beach from there as its fenced off.....don't want any hawkers getting in I think.....and the purpose was to swim in the pool, but it was 10 cedis (like the price of two meals) and we never actually got around to swimming anyway.

Plans for next few weeks, I think we hope to get to Kumasi this weekend, as Ghana national soccer team play, although no one is quite clear about we go about getting tickets, as there's definitely no such thing as Ticketek!!

Then possibly the Wli waterfalls at some point, and Easter probably go back to Kumasi and spend some proper time looking around that area, but still no complete plans yet so could be anything.....

Nothing much else to say, and I don't even really have any more photos of anything lately so no pictures to look at sorry!

Cape Coast Revisited

So Kirsty I hope the party went well, and made sure you took lots of photos for me!!

So haven't written on last weekend, as there was random internet for awhile, and then I forgot/no time, so weekend again, and actually staying in Accra so I have no excuse!!

So after Independance Day last Friday, on the Saturday I went to Cape Coast, this time more to the city itself, where last time I was more in the area, doing the tourist things.

The city I think was the English capital of the old Gold Coast, and its a lot smaller than Accra, with quite a nice look to it, a lot more churches that look like European style churches, where as here, anything with seats and a roof is a church.

They also have a fort which was used for the slave trade like at Elmina. Didn't go inside this one, but we walked around the outside and then spent some time walking through the town. Also visited what was once a lighthouse, on the top of a hill in the middle of the town. It wasn't actually technically a tourist area as there were people living in there but they were happy to show us around and it was a nice view from the top.

That night we stayed at a place in the direction back of Kakum, which was where I did the canopy walk a few weeks ago, and which the others were going to this time, so thats why we stayed that direction.

It was called Botel, and there was lots of water around, and they tried to build it like it was kinda boat like.....kinda worked. Nice place, very nice pool to relax in, especially after the heat of the day walking around.
The place is also known for its crocodiles which they have in the water, and they come out and sit around doing nothing as crocodiles do....You can also touch them if you want, but I think you had to be supervised....

The next day we just stayed by the pool while the others did Kakum, and then plan was to have lucnh and head home before the traffic started, but with Ghanaian time, lunch took about 2 hours, but lucky for us, someone was driving their car back and was happy to take extra passengers, so we didn't have to wait aroun on a tro tro to full up.

Got back and made it inside my room just before a massive downpour of rain, which was good, it also made the temperature a lot cooler which is always welcome relief!

This weekend, staying here, have someone flying in from Italy who is bringing Italian yeast for some good Italian pizza so well worth staying for I feel. Then tomorrow, back again to Bojo Beach for someones birthday, so nice relaxed weekend.

Next weekend, possibly Kumasi....weekend after, possibly hiking and waterfalls.....but its just wait and see really!! Lots of us to coordinate who is doing what when but it does always manage to come together

Happy Birthday for Monday Kirsty!!!

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/emmajaynedavidson/CapeCoastAtBotel#

Ghana's Birthday

I have attempted to add a video this time....we will see if it uploads.....its a very very blurry shot of the plane soaring overhead and the jets with the Ghana coloured smoke, but I did not capture it well

Anyway, today is a public holiday to celebrate Ghana's 52nd birthday, their independance was in 1957 from Britain.

So we went down the what is called Independance Square, a massive space with some stadium kind of seating and a monument or two, to watch them hold their parades and speeches or whatever....

Was expecting a lot more people, but there were still a lot around, lucky for us we got seats out of the sun.

It was strange that as this was an independance celebration, to me all seemed very English, with uniformed marching and brass bands, a real military type show off thing, but possibly if we'd stayed for the whole thing they may have been some actual African type stuff....

Anyway, back to Cape Coast tomorrow, to have a better look around that city, staying hopefully in a place where you can pat crocodiles....

Photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/emmajaynedavidson/GhanaIndependanceDay#

Togo

Sorry no post for a little while....seems like I have no time.

So weekend before last I was away for 4 days over the weekend with work. Our company held a retreat for one of our clients and so I got to stay in a hotel in Akosombo (the place where they built the dam to make the Volta Lake, biggest man made lake in the world or something like that), anyway so it was a bit of Westernisation with a big bed, shower with hot water, and buffet food.

The last weekend, I went to Togo. Had a bit of a mission, as my passport and residence permit were still not back from Immigration Services so I went there on Friday to try beg for it, managed to get them to give it to me, but there was no one there to sign the permit, but they said it would be ok to travel.....

And it was, I got out and back in again, although lucky for me I didn't get fined for overstaying because the guy checking wasn't paying attention.

So Togo was very nice, its about 3-4 hours by road from Accra, and you then have to get out and walk across the border which was kinda cool, never done that before. Especially as the border is right on the beach and fisherman literally cross between the two countries and they move their nets...

So Togo is very different and very similar to Ghana. Firstly, there are far far less people, and the streets of Lome( the capital) seem practically deserted which is kinda nice after the chaos of Accra. There are also lots of trees and plants around in Togo, what seems like more in the city than Accra.

We went in the centre of Lome on Saturday and walked around the city, its looks a lot more European in some ways than Accra, the French influence must have affected some of the buildings.

Then the next day we headed further east along the coast to Aneho, which is like 2km from the Benin border although we didn't go have a look, as no doubt very similar to the Togo-Ghana border.

We visited a site of 'traditional religion', which I think was voodoo-ish, unfortunately the market is big on Tuesdays and that's when they have voodoo things to sell.

We also got a lot of local food made for us by the AIESEC people who showed us round(needed as the French was spoken way too fast for me to follow) and so we got to compare Ghanaian and Togolese food, which same ingredients, but did seem kinda different.

Then back along to Lake Togo, which is salty, and had a swim. And then time to head back to the border, just in case it toook us time to get through....luckily not and the stamps came pretty fast.

So good weekend, this week is a short week, as its Ghana's Independance Day on friday, so might head into the city centre and see how they celebrate....then don't know yet what I'm doing for the rest of the weekend, will have to wait and see...


Photo above is of Akosombo Dam, pictures of Togo are at the link below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/emmajaynedavidson/Togo#