Trip to Champs

So, I wasn't able to travel again this weekend because I had a ridiculous amount of work to do. My HIST 309 group decided to pawn off our entire project on me. Therefore, I've been working on writing a 10 page paper this weekend and preparing a 30 minute presentation for class this Thursday. I didn't get it all finished, but I have all day today and Wednesday (no classes) to get it finished. On Saturday, I decided I needed a break from "The Protestant Reformation" (subject of my group project) and there were rumors that Champs, the sports bar in Accra, was showing the Penn State vs. Purdue game on ESPN. I rallied a small group together and we grabbed a tro-tro into Accra. Unfortunately, upon arriving at Champs, we discovered that they were merely rumors; they weren't showing the Penn State game. They were however, showing the Oklahoma vs. Baylor game (not really much of a game). Brandon, Andrew, and I decided there was no reason to stay and pay the $8 cover if they weren't showing the game we wanted to watch. We decided to explore the neighborhood around Champs and try and find a place to eat. As we were walking, we came across one of the most disturbing things that I've seen in Ghana thus far. Along the side of the roads there are these drainage (a nice way of saying "sewage") ditches that people throw their trash in and frequently defecate in. In the distance, I saw what I thought was a naked man, but as we got closer realized was a naked woman bathing in the ditch. The water was black (hence our common nickname for the ditches, "tar rivers") and must have been teeming with bacteria and parasites, not to mention a breeding ground for malaria infested mosquitoes. It was one of those things that you really, really do not want to see, but your curiosity gets the best of you and you simply can't look away. Makes you appreciate those hot showers that we so often take for granted back in the States.

Once we passed the woman and had been walking for a good mile without coming across any restaurants, we stopped and asked two security guards in front of a tax collection building which direction the restaurants were in. As we later found out, they must have been confused by our question because we continued to walk quite a ways before realizing there were no restaurants around. We decided to just walk back to Champs and eat there. On the way, we were walking along, talking and laughing amongst ourselves, when we came across this man that does shoe repairs. With a labor surplus in Ghana, people will resort to the most bizarre jobs to try and make some money. Imagine: a traveling shoe repair man. Anyways, he was hitting his wooden crate with a wood block and the sound caught our attention. When we turned to look, we must have all be smiling/laughing because the guy quickly became very angry at us because he thought we were laughing at him. He wound up and threw his block at us without a moments notice. He missed Andrew and Brandon, but hit me square in the rib cage. Fortunately, he's no major league pitcher, but it still hurt a little. I was more stunned than anything at the moment. We were all nervous that this guy was going to do something else so we just stopped dead in our tracks and prepared to defend ourselves. The guy was yelling at us, but we couldn't understand a word he was saying. We were in a pretty crowded part of the neighborhood, so there were a lot of people around, and this one bystander yelled at the shoe repairman. Feeling reassured that somebody was watching the situation, we cautiously started walking again and the guy let us alone. Hindsight is always 20/20 and if I could go back in time now, I would have picked up the wooden block and thrown it as far away from us as possible. Maybe that would teach the guy to calm down and not threaten tourists; but in all likelihood, it would have probably just made him more angry. Oh the things you'll do and see in Ghana!

Back at Champs, we ordered dinner and watched the football game. Manchester United was playing a match as well, which proved more entertaining than the #1 team in college football's trouncing of Baylor. I ordered a cheesesteak-like sandwich and french fries that were delicious! For dessert, Andrew and I each ordered apple pie and ice cream. The ice cream was just Fan Ice, essentially it's ice cream from a plastic tube. But, the apple pie was warm and delicious. It doesn't compare to one of grandma's home-made apple pies, but it was a nice reminder of home. We left Champs around 8 p.m., when the game was over. Other than that, my weekend has been spent working on my assignment and hanging around the hostel. Aquinaldo, a grad-student from Mozambique, made some of his world-renowned guacamole (that's an exaggeration, but it is quite good) last night and we sat around and talked about International Law as we ate. Good times at ISH 2!