"50 peswa jollof, please?"

I made peanut butter cookies for everyone in the office and gave one to our house keeper and Renae’s personal assistant, Sam, who had never had a cookie before. He said it was too sweet. It is hard to imagine that people don’t eat things like that, but here they don’t. Cakes, cookies, pies and other bakery items aren’t popular here, neither are desserts. Only in western shops do you see these items. Even prepackaged cookies here aren’t sweet like the ones we have. The only real desserts here are kelewele, rock buns and fan ice. For being a major produced of the cocoa bean, Ghana’s people don’t use chocolate much. When they do it is the cheap very poor quality Kingsbite-which has a very artificial flavor to it and an odd after taste. I went to a birthday party with my friend Gifty, surprisingly they had cake, but even that wasn’t really sweet. Most of the good quality cocoa beans are exported.

I miss fresh food the most, the closest I come to fresh food is a salad from the local salad lady, but even that is loaded down with mayonnaise. The food here is good, not superb but good. Staples in almost every dish are palm oil, tomato paste and peppe-the local name for cayenne pepper. Starches consist of fufu-pounded plantain and cassava until it resembles a ball of dough, banku-a combination of cassava and fermented corn dough, kenkey-which is similar to banku, rice, jollof-a spicy mixture of rice, palm oil and tomato paste, and boiled/fried yam or plantain. These starches are eaten by hand with stews and soups. Fufu and rice eaten with soups: light soup, groundnut soup (peanut) and palm soup. Boiled or fried yams and plantains are often eaten with stews, okra stew, palava sauce (made with spinach leaves) and seafood stew. Red red is a favorite dish here, it is a sauce made with black-eyed beans, palm oil, tomato paste and many spices and served with fried plantains.


When ordering food at the local chop bar, you say how much you want to pay and then they give you an amount equal to the price. So 50 pesewa rice would be approximately 1 ½ cup cooked rice. Even in the market place you say how much you want to pay, 1 cedi bananas would be about 6 bananas. When buying food in the market place, vendors will always dash you a little extra of what ever you are buying. Buying a cup of beans in Ghana is completely different than buying a cup of beans in the states. Here a cup means a 14 oz tin can, piled high. I made the mistake of asking for 5 cups of flour, when I was really thinking 5 actual measuring cups of flour. Needless to say that flour lasted us quite awhile!

The market is a bustling place of vendors hawking merchandise from make shift stalls, tables, their heads or even their arms. Sounds of bartering and calling of items being sold by head sellers float through the market, along with the constant beeping of taxi horns. Girls walk down the isles with containers balanced on their heads, announcing, “Pure Water”. When you hand her a 5 pesewa coin she will give you a plastic sachet, which holds about 2 cups of water. My favorite place in the market is when you get deep inside the crowded halls and stalls. There you will find no obrunis and no curios or trinkets. Strong scents of what is commonly called stinking fish, fill your senses. The people selling these items are so friendly, the women call out to you “Obruni! Et te sain?” White person! How are you? I respond with “Eya” I am fine and a smile. She asks my name and I tell her Aba, Thursday born. We chat for a little while, “Where are you from?” “Oh Washington DC!” “Obama!” Are all common responses I hear when I tell them about myself.

Walking through the fabric isles I see beautiful arrays of bright and colorful materials. I walk up to a stall with a fabric I like and warmly greet the vendor. She tells me to step into her shop, which is about 3 ft by 5 ft. I ask her how much for the fabric, she tells me 18 cedis for 6 yrs. I tell her that is too much I only want 4 yrs. She thinks it over awhile and tries to explain to me why I need 6 yrs. (Here fabric is sold in 6 yr increments, enough for the traditional dress-cover and slip, which is a full length skirt and top) I end up walking away with 4 yrs and 14 cedis lighter. What I will do with all the extra fabric I don’t know.

Walking out of the market I am constantly stopped by “Obruni, How are you?” If I am lost, everyone is polite and very helpful, some will even take me to the place I need to go. When I was in Makola Market (Accra’s largest open market) with Cora, we were stopped by a gentleman who told us we should see the lighthouse in Jamestown and explained to us how to get there, even though we didn’t ask. (Jamestown is a tourist spot in Accra)
A day in the market is exhausting, even if it is only for 3 hrs. However, it isn’t exhausting like going to the malls in the US during Christmas time. I don’t have a headache after shopping here. Besides shopping here is excited, you never know what you will find. From cow carcases to fetish items to chalk (which is something pregnant women apparently love-it tasted like dirt). I don’t think I could ever be bored in the market!