That Time We Bought Dining Chairs Off The Side Of The Road

Last night, we had Hannah and Robin over for dinner. We always enjoy their company so it was a fun evening. Leading up to the weekend, we kept looking at our new dining room table and thinking how funny it will be when we have a home cooked meal, guests, a table, and no chairs to sit in. We figured we'd just go Japanese style and sit on throw pillows on the floor around the coffee table. We're an easy-going clan so I don't think anyone would have thought much of it.

Yesterday around noon, Dan asked if I wanted to go for a walk to one of the furniture stands on the side of the road. Apparently, there are some sizable ones not far from our compound so we figured why not? We can go and look and if we don't see anything we like, we will turn around and come home. We tried to look as scrubby as possible in work out clothes and didn't bring wallets. How did we bring the cash, you ask? Ah, well it was cleverly transported in what Dan affectionately refers to as my "butt pocket". Now before you think "well, that's gross", it is simply a zipper pocket located at my lower back in my work out pants. HAHA, gotcha.

So off we went... Here are some pictures of what the inventory looks like:

Photo credit: here

We roamed up and down a few times looking for dining table chairs and some outdoor patio furniture. We asked a gentleman the price of the four chairs (the ones we eventually bought), he said 600 cedis. Dan walked away. The guy yells back at him "How much you pay?! 500 cedis!" So we keep walking back and forth still browsing. Finally, we went back to the guy and Dan said 350. The guy said no, he couldn't take that. We eventually settled on 400 cedis for the 4 chairs, which for those of you in USD that's about $120 or $30 a chair. Quite reasonable for handcrafted goods with a hell of a story. Threw them in the back of a station wagon taxi and back to our flat we went.

So these are our new, locally-made, legit side-of-the-road purchased dining table chairs:

Next up off the side of the road: balcony/patio furniture :)

Accra Food and Wine Festival

We had a nice long weekend. Saturday was filled with errands, some more successful and efficient than others... spent the evening watching some football and then walked to a nearby bar/restaurant to have some drinks with friends.

Sunday, we went to the Accra Food and Wine Festival for a few hours. It was held at Alliance Francaise which we are still unsure if they are affiliated with the French embassy or whether it is just an event space with no direct country connection. It sounds like they offer classes and things during the week as there were various signs directing to classrooms and cafeterias.

The event was held outside with each company or restaurant having a small pop up tent to offer their items. Some shops offered small plates/bites and a glass of wine for free and passed out business cards. Others were serving full plated breakfasts and lunches for which you had to pay using either festival money tickets or just regular cash. We sampled fare from a few different restaurants, and tried some different wines. We ended up buying two bottles of Spanish red wine, a rioja and a tempranillo. We hadn't seen much Spanish wine in the groceries so it seemed like a good decision.

Most surprising kiosk goes to: Mexico Tourism. Yes. You read that correctly. They had some Mexican food and were pouring tequila. We can safely say of all the country tourism departments, Mexico was not one we expected to see here in Ghana.

Here are some photos from the day:

Big paella pan from a local Spanish tapas restaurant

Random festival shot

Another random festival shot

Cooling off in the restaurant that is permanently on this property. Nicolino Pizzeria.

Sunday was also Founder's Day, or Ghana's equivalent of President's Day. As it fell on a Sunday this year, it was observed on Monday so Dan got the day off. I worked most of the day as my offices were in full swing so I wanted to be available. Dan made a delicious meal that evening and it was a nice way to wind down and prep for a new work week. 

Introducing: Aspect Court

Hooray! We finally have moved into our new apartment in Accra! Friday was a crazy busy day of meeting the air freight and furniture delivery people, unpacking everything, and attempting to find new homes for our things. Nothing was broken and there were only a few miscommunications. All in all, we have had a very productive couple of days and are looking forward to settling in and spending our next 23 months calling this space our home.

The apartment is 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. Quite the size upgrade from our 827 sq foot, 1 bed, 1 bath apartment in San Francisco, though quite similar in market value. There's a master bedroom with an en suite bath, a guest bedroom with a sizable bath across the hall (you hear that, potential guests?!?!), and a small third bedroom which has become my office and our workout space. There's a large great room that will be both our living and dining space and a decent sized balcony. Currently, the balcony only holds Dan's most prized purchase... the grill. We intend to purchase some outdoor furniture from a vendor on the side of the road at some point (I think there's a new blog post brewing there).

Here are some photos of the new space. I intentionally took these before anything got delivered as I wanted you to see the "blank canvas" if you will. Once we get things situated (read as: get all the dirty laundry washed and put away), I'll take others of the furnished space to share with you. Hope you enjoy these in the meantime!

Living/dining space looking out onto balcony

Kitchen... though I'm quite sure you didn't need a descriptor here.

Guest bedroom

Guest bathroom (hell-oooooo, soaker tub. Have I mentioned 

I love that corner ledge for a glass of wine? Just sayin')

Exciting Weekend Ahead!

Nothing new happened this week so I apologize for this somewhat lame post. That said, I figured it was best to post something in my regularly scheduled time slot than have you all worry that something terrible had happened to us. No need to fear! We're totally fine!

This work week has been busy so we haven't had any new experiences worth reporting. I was getting cabin fever last night considering that I work from home all day and rarely leave temporary housing so we went to our "local watering hole" for some kebabs and beers. Little did we know, as we are not being soccer/football aficionados, that Champions League is just starting up so shortly after we arrived, the bar was packed with various football supporters.

This weekend should be quite an exciting one. We're expecting to get the keys to our apartment tomorrow and hoping to move our stuff over on Saturday. Additionally, we should have quite a few deliveries as our furniture is due to arrive and our air freight has cleared customs and will be on its way as well. We are definitely excited to soon have our own space and be able to fully unpack the suitcases, finding everything its home for the next few years. Also looking forward to having our kitchen stuff back which should broaden our food preparation horizons.

Sunday, we're heading to the Accra Food and Wine Festival. Don't worry: the bar for expectations is set extremely low. Coming from San Francisco, I think we'd be hard-pressed to find many F&W festivals that compare short of maybe Italy, France, or Argentina. That said, it should be a fun day and we're hoping to meet some new people while we're there.

Hoping to have some apartment photos to share for Sunday's post!

Party People: Attended our first BBQ birthday bash

Friday was Hannah's birthday and we met for a nice lunch at a hotel. Yesterday, she and her fiance, Robin, had a few people over for some swimming, eating, drinking and celebrating. They recently got their pool filled and treated and they were excited to have people over to break it in. It was quite a fun-filled day/night. We relaxed in the pool for a bit and had great laughs while Robin tried to teach Abraham how to swim. Abraham is 99.9% muscle so we quickly determined that he is "a sinker".

We cracked open some coconuts (with a machete... the ultimate test of manhood), and made some mixed drinks to get things started. Fired up the BBQ and Dan had his first Ghana-Grilling experience. He was thrilled to be back at a grill and is looking forward to being able to do more of it at our place once we get moved in and settled. 

Several people came throughout the day and we were so thankful to meet new friends. Some expats from England, other expats from South Africa (via Abu Dhabi), a Ghanaian who was born and raised in London but has come back to his roots to Accra, and two Ghanaians born and raised here who actually went to college in the States (one at Texas Tech, and the other is, unfortunately, a Georgia bulldog... we have already made plans for a watch party on November 1).

After the grilling was complete, we played some games at the house before heading to a bar. Had some champagne to toast Hannah's 28th year and goofed off for awhile before we all headed home.

All in all it was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday and we are so grateful for our new friends.

Learning to Cook... all over again

Apologies for the late post. I've had technical difficulties most of the morning.

Now that we've been here for almost 3 whole weeks, we're starting to get into the groove of day to day life. Grocery shopping, working normal hours, cooking/eating dinner together in the evenings, etc. Speaking of dinners/food... we've had our share of meals out and about. Mostly the normal go-out-to-eat cuisine: some Italian, Sushi/Japanese, Mexican, British Pub, even Chinese delivery and a pizza delivery. (I'll give you three guesses what we were glued to the Slingbox viewing when delivery became a requirement).

As far as home-cooking, we're slowly getting acclimated to the local grocery's offerings. Most of our meals are chicken related, though admittedly, we were pretty chicken heavy back in the States as well. I'd say the weekly grocery staples are a variety of fruits and vegetables (notable missing items include berries and zucchini), chicken, quinoa, lentils, and some additional salad fixin's. At least one or two meals, we try to incorporate something new beyond the usual fare.

We have tried some beef and pork so far which has been noticeably different in taste and texture than we are used to. We assume it is due to the soil and crops grown here that become the diet of the animals. Imagine the temperature and humidity contribute greatly. To be fair to the pork, it deserves another chance. Dan thought he grabbed a pork loin (based on appearance and the label on the package that said "pork loin" haha); however, when he opened it, it unrolled into a long, thinly cut piece rather than the round loin he was anticipating. His preparation was still very good; however, the mistake was an oven miscalculation. He was quite confused as to why the oven only went to 280 degrees. It wasn't until later that he realized he probably overcooked the pork quite a bit because that 280 degrees was Celsius (or approximately 536 Fahrenheit... whoops!)

All in all, we're winging it most weeknights and doing just fine. Most of our old go-to meals are a bit of a challenge as we are usually missing a key ingredient that isn't stocked here... namely, any Mexican food staple, ricotta, hot sauce, spinach, etc. But we're learning, even if we are a little bland and/or repetitive right now!

Visual evidence that we don't call in the pizza reinforcements every night!

 

Top row: mixed greens with tomato, bell pepper, carrot, avocado, topped with chicken;
quinoa with chicken, tomato, carrot, bell pepper, garlic, onion.

Bottom row: another quinoa/chicken concoction with cranberries, almonds, garlic and some veggies; chicken thighs with lentils and broccoli; pork "loin" with broccoli and a red wine sauce.

Lessons Learned in Ghana - Part 1

I thought it would be fun to compile a list of "lessons" that we have learned over the course of our two weeks here in Accra. Some of these may shock you and others may not seem odd at all.

• There are very few street signs, so we're going to have to learn how to get around pretty quickly... especially once we have our own vehicle. Thank goodness for Google/Apple Maps.
• Cab drivers are not familiar with street names, due to the lack of signage. Thus, you usually have to give them a landmark that is close by to where you want to go. For example, the Bistro 22 restaurant we went to, we told the cabbie Zenith Bank which was across the street.
• There are no real addresses or personal mailboxes. Our apartment lease literally states the address of our compound as "Off (insert street name), Opposite (insert landmark or noteworthy place across street)". All of Dan's coworkers get their personal mail delivered to the office.
• The US Embassy is laughably large... unnecessarily massive. We really want to go in to see what they have in there taking up that much space. I'm certain we will at some point. Future posting on that? Likely.
• Cabs are prevalent where we are currently living. There are no sidewalks here, but if you are walking down the side of the street, open cabs will often honk at you to offer up their service. Also worth noting, cabs do not have meters so you should always negotiate the cost of the trip up front before getting in.
• Ghanaians speak English with a British twist. They use British vocabulary and their pronunciation is decidedly British, but with an African accent. This makes it slightly more difficult to communicate with locals as the American accent makes it hard for them to understand what you are saying (and vice versa for that matter).
• Dishwashers and Dryers are NOT common appliances here. Very few apartments come equipped with them. Washing machines, however, are considered a standard kitchen appliance and are often located in the kitchen or in a small utility room off the kitchen.
• The "nosh" (you're welcome, Gram) of choice here is toasted peanuts. These are what you get to snack on when you order a drink while seated at the bar.

That's all for this installation of Lessons Learned in Ghana. Something tells me there will be more like this one haha!

Our first full weekend in Accra

We arrived here on the evening of August 24th, thus this past weekend was our first full one in Accra. Knowing that we were both going to start back to work full time on Monday, we decided that we should get out as much as we could. This was quite acceptable to me now that I work from home, so any chance to get out of the apartment will likely be welcomed.

Friday evening, we decided to walk a few blocks to a restaurant called Firefly Lounge. We found it online and noticed it got pretty good reviews. We had actually tried to go there a few days before but it was closed for some unknown reason (first obligatory use of #thisisafrica). We walked in and were the only people there, though a few trickled in while we were there. It surprised us that we were the only folk out and about as it was about 7:30 and we expected the after work/happy hour people to be out in full force. We decided to try somewhere else, ending up at an Italian place called Bella Roma. Again, very few people out and by now it was close to 8:30 or 9. We had some wine and shared bruschetta and a pizza. Decided we'd try one more spot before calling it a night. Off we went to Shisha Lounge (photo below). Shisha was SLAMMED... packed to the brim with people celebrating, eating and drinking. We had a nightcap and headed home around 11:30 but cars and people were still piling in. Apparently, people go out late in Accra and Shisha is a happenin' place.

photo credit: here

Saturday was a lazier day. We slept in, worked out, and watched some College Gameday and football on the Slingbox (see previous blog post about Slingbox's glory). That evening, our new British friends, Robin and Hannah, texted to meet up. We went to a lovely restaurant called Bistro 22... photo below. We were shocked to see an extensive wine selection and that they actually took reservations. We decided to sit at the bar and chatted over a glass of wine and some appetizers. The guys then decided to take us to another bar. I'll be honest. I have absolutely no clue what the name of this bar is, it was only referred to as "the place with the tower beers". So the four of us went and shared some beers and had a lovely evening.

Bistro 22 - photo credit: here

Sunday brought our last morning of sleeping in, partly due to having to start work the following day and partly due to the previous evening's tower beers. We decided we needed a relaxing day when we were invited to hang out at the pool of a nearby hotel (photo below). A few of the hotels in the area open their pools to the public. They all charge a fee but it's still a nice option to have for a change of scenery. Hannah mentioned that each hotel's pool has a different vibe so we will likely check out others as well. Spending a few hours in the sun by the pool was a nice way to end our weekend and recharge for our first work week here in Ghana.

So far so good! Sunday's post will be a little about some of the lessons we've learned thus far. Stay tuned! (Note: I know I promised apartment photos but we have not yet secured the lease so you'll have to wait just like we will haha)