Dan pointed out that last weekend was our first full weekend at home in Ghana since early December. Yes. It had been 4.5 months since we had a full weekend at home with no suitcase. I must say it was lovely. Friday night was Miriam's birthday so Joe invited us to her birthday dinner. I have to tell a story about dinner though because it best explains the quintessential Ghanaian customer service.
The restaurant specializes in sushi but serves a wide array of other food as well. I had been craving sushi all day and apparently some others at the table felt the same as probably half the party ordered sushi. We ordered around 8pm or so. 8:30 came and went. 9 comes and we ask where our food is... everyone who ordered burgers and other cooked food had already eaten... so where's the raw stuff? He says it's coming. Mmm Hmmm. Dan walks over to him and says "look, I know you don't have sushi tonight. Just give us two burgers instead".
Shortly afterward, we notice there are several large boats of sushi coming out from the kitchen wrapped in plastic wrap. Dan and Joe call over the manager and ask what the heck is going on. He says that someone called the day before and requested a sizable order of sushi for takeaway. Um, okay but shouldn't you be also making the food for the people that are actually here? So there's some yelling and eventually around 9:30 or 10, sushi starts coming out one roll at a time. We got our burgers which was fine. It comes time to pay and they have completely messed up the bill. We finally sort that out and they had included 12.5% service charge for the sizable group. Probably best that they did because we had no intention of tipping. We paid with cash and Joe put the amount on his card and the manager asks how much we want the charge for and was genuinely upset when we paid the exact penny amount and didn't offer an additional tip to his staff. Really, sir? I mean really. 2 hours to make RAW food, and never tell us what is going on while you have us wait that long.
Anyway, now you understand service at a restaurant in Ghana. (Admittedly, not all are like this. It's rare we have this issue, but if it had just been Dan and me, we would have walked out.) All in all, we had a nice time and chatted with some new friends. It quickly reminded us how nice it is to be back home and have friends to spend the occasional evening with.
On Saturday, we ran necessary errands to get our house supplies restocked. We needed to refill the gas for the stove, get several cases of bottled water and get groceries. We split up to conquer the tasks and upon returning home, Dan began preparation on some braised beef burrito bowls. We invited Hannah and Robin over for dinner, wine and a movie. Again, good to be home.
Sunday brought an extremely lazy day that was much needed. We slept in, watched various sporting events (soccer, Formula 1, etc) and then a movie before having dinner and getting ready for the week. After a whirlwind beginning of 2015 full of traveling and work relocations, it sure is comforting to be home for awhile.
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