Today a few friends and I went to Labadi Beach, one of the more tourist oriented beaches in Accra (and also one of the closest to the university, thus the cheapest to travel to). Luckily, there were few other people there, so we had the beach mostly to ourselves.
The beach is like the ones you see in travel photos - white sand, mini umbrellas on top of lounge chairs, palm trees...and so much garbage. It litters the beach and is in the water. As each wave comes in, it brings little bags and other trash with it, which all hit your legs as the water goes by. It is really unfortunate, because the beach is such a beautiful place. The beach is fairly representative of everything I have seen in Ghana up until this point. There is litter everywhere. I don't even notice it anymore. Somehow, though, it doesn't steal from the beauty that much.
Three Ghanaian guys came and sat with us on the beach and we started talking. Eventually, we all started working out together, doing an ab workout (thanks Veronica/Mom/Jillian). They were asking me to lead them through a workout, but they could do way more of everything I showed them. I was not surprised. All young Ghanaian men are ripped. Six packs and all. It makes Canada look really out of shape.
Then a man selling bracelets and necklaces came over to us, and we started talking about Rastafari, which was his religion. He said it began with Hallie Selassie. We talked about his spirituality for almost an hour. He believes that God is in everything. Religion, he said, was human confusion that breaks us apart, when we should all be connected as people. The difference in our skin colour was just skin colour. On the inside we are brothers. He looked deep into my eyes while he was talking to me, and I listened intently to everything he said. He was well educated about the world, and had a much different perspective than I am used to.
Right after he left, two women and a man from Kumasi came up to us and asked if they could drop off their bags with us while they swam. We said yes, so the woman unwrapped her baby from her chest and laid her down before running into the water. They left their baby with us! I just laid and stared at her. She was such a beautiful child, and the sun was very gently lighting up her face. She was sucking her thumb and she had her hair in many little bunches held with neon coloured elastics.
The parents grabbed one of the girls with us and took her down to the water to take photos with her, because she is an Obruni (a white person). The child woke up to see me and Dominique (another Canadian) and started crying and screaming and trying to back away from us as we awkwardly wondered if we should pick her up to calm her down. Akina came and grabbed her and brought her to the mother and she was just fine. She started sucking her thumb again as she laid in her mom's arms.
The two women and the man did not look me in the eye once the entire 30 mins they were near us, which I felt was very strange. I am still unsure about why.
Then tonight, I played my first football (soccer) match with the Ghanaian students here. I was to only Obruni on the team. They had low expectations, and I think I slightly exceeded them. Maybe. It was a great time though, and our team won three games. I sweat more than I have ever sweat Canada. It felt amazing.
Hey just wanted to say it was great reading this and getting a slightly different view of Ghana (but still the same, somehow). It's pretty common not to make eye contact with someone you think is your superior I think. I was really bad at it, it's a weird habit to break. Keep writing I love it!
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