You are walking. Nobody is walking. The rich aren’t walking. They go by car, from one airconditioned place to an other, doing shopping from inside the car. Because it is too hot. But when you walk you can experience the big Ghanian cities. And an experience it is.
Imagine walking on the side of the road. No sidewalk, only a gutter. That is the open sewer. People pee in it and throw shit in it. It smells like, well, you can imagine. Not so nice. It is the typical smell of Ghanian cities. I still find it hard to imagine that there are people always living in that smell. Maybe you do not smell it anymore after a while? The plus side is that there is always a place to pee. Or is that only because not everyone is having a toilet? The definiton of public toilet is something different in Ghana.
While walking you hear horning. It are the taxi drivers. I guess they can not imagine why you, who has the money to fly all the way to their country, is walking on this pee smelling street. So they horn. In case you missed them.
Just to be clear: there are a lot of taxi’s in this cities. It is not like you have to search for one. When you get tired of walking you just raise your hand and a taxi will stop. But still they horn. You know, in case you did not see them.
So you walk in a bad smelling, too much sound producing city, topped with the African heat. When you walk for about 500 meters, sweat is dripping everywhere. You can not walk really fast, it is too hot. But still you walk, why?
To get the experience of walking in a Ghanian city.
To see life going on on the streets.
To discover shops and people around the corners.
And when you get sick of it, you just call a taxi. They are everywhere!
