Austin's Here!

Austin has been here for almost a week and a half now. He came to visit us and see what this whole life in West Africa thing is like. Last week was pretty laid back as it takes some time to get over jet lag and get your tummy used to the food here.

We went out for authentic Ghanaian food one night and ordered a whole smorgasbord of stuff: grilled chicken, goat stew, banku (fermented corn that tastes a little sour. It's a dough consistency and you rip off pieces to dip in the soup), grilled tilapia, jollof rice, and kelewele (fried plantains). Another night we tried a Spanish tapas place. The food there was just okay but it's in a cool spot. It's called Afrikiko, and I gather it's an event space. They do salsa dancing there once a week. There's a few restaurants around including the Spanish one we went to, a Thai place and I believe one other one.

Thursday night Hannah and Robin invited us out to a drink at this bar on the water. It doesn't look like much when you park but you go down quite a few stairs and there's a bar just on the water. There's big rocks behind it and the water slams into them and sprays into the air. It's pretty neat to go in the evening and see the stars and hear the waves. We all thought it would be a cool sunset spot. Friday night, some of Dan's coworkers came over. We had some drinks, ordered take out for dinner, and watched some movies.

Saturday afternoon we went to Labadi Beach. Dan and I had never been but we had heard there are a bunch of restaurants on the beach and it's a big party. Just walking out to the beach gets you hounded by a ton of people trying to get you to sit at their spot. We kept walking until we found one we liked. The big downfall is that people are allowed to approach you to sell stuff so it's pretty much a constant flow of people coming by with various things. But the beach was beautiful and the waves were impressive. The water was too cold by Dan and my standards but Austin went in for awhile (and proceeded to save a child who had drifted out too far and was having a panic attack).

Here's some photos of the beach (and yes that's a horse on the beach in the first photo. They also sell beach horseback rides haha):

Seeing all the different restaurants/huts made it clear that it must really pick up in the evenings and become a dance party. We definitely didn't stay that late, but we enjoyed our afternoon. A woman came by with a bunch of fruit so we got a pineapple and a mango that she peeled and cut for us. Austin and I got coconuts as well.

We came home and got cleaned up and Hannah and Robin came over for dinner. We watched some movies and the guys had a guys night out. I've been fighting a cold and Hannah's been fighting jet lag since returning from the US so the women called it an early night. They were back over on Sunday around noon to watch the Wimbledon final (since they don't have a functional TV).

All in all, I think it was a good first week for his visit to Ghana.