Day 2 - Arrive, Settle, World Cup

I landed at the Kotoka airport about 20 minutes earlier that the scheduled landing time. Once I emerged from the aircraft, I easily noticed that it was overcast and about 65 degrees Fahrenheit with a cool breeze; nothing like what I had expected. We went to a bus that drove us to the customs area. I exchanged currency from US dollars to Ghana cedi. The exchange rate is pretty good, about 2 (US) to 3 (GH). Next was the pandemonium of retrieving my luggage. The plane was full and everyone grabbed and cart and pressed it up right next to the conveyor belt with little room for me or anyone for that matter to squeeze in and snatch my bags. This was one of the major things I was worried about: losing my luggage. But alas, both my bags were there and I was able to move on to the customs declaration area very swiftly.

As I meandered through the airport tunnels to the exit, a number of people looked at my bags, but not through them. The final stage of the process was two gentlemen checking to make sure that the bag tags matched the tags on my boarding pass. After that, I was home free and out to the exit where there was a number of people with signs for names, which I didn’t really pay attention to. The last I heard from my colleague Tom (whom I have only spoken on the phone prior) was that he was going to be outside waiting at the bar having a beer. Prior to exiting the outside area and approaching the bar, I stopped and briefly checked some of the names on the papers, checking to see if my name was somewhere in the mix. Before I could even scan thoroughly though, two taxi drivers came up to me and aggressively tried to give me a lift in their taxi. They were really taking no for answer, asking where I was staying and that they could call my colleague and take me to the hotel where we were staying. I think I offended them because I was telling them repeatedly that I was meeting someone with a car and I didn’t need they’re services and they were claiming that they were only trying to help; yeah right, taking no for answer, and trying to make some money off me.

So I ventured outside of the airport because I noticed the bar but didn’t see Tom there (or another white dude for that matter) and it was more of the same with aggressive taxi drivers giving me the same song and dance and really starting to bother me. Could it be that I was one of the only white guys roaming outside the airport? I then saw the bar area with many people surrounding it watching the World Cup quarterfinal between Brazil and the Netherlands. Soon after I saw the television, the Dutch scored putting them up 2-1. The whole place went crazy with cheers because if Ghana was to win their quarterfinal match that evening, I’m guessing they would rather play the Dutch than the mighty samba kings.

The waiting area outside the Kotoka airport.

So I sat down in a waiting area and watched the rest of the match, scouring the area for another white guy archaeologist. About 45 minutes later, two white people, a guy and a girl, and a Ghanaian man were heading my way and sure enough these were my new colleagues who had been in the waiting area with the signs but I neither saw my name nor noticed anybody that looked like an archaeologist (yes there is kind of a look about them). And, of course, I was being accosted by taxi drivers.

We moseyed to the car with my new friends, Tom, his girlfriend Aimee and our driver, a native Ghanaian named Peter. It was clear early on that the traffic in Accra is as Tom described it, horrendous. At first many of the streets were paved, and we were sitting in jam which included an accident, a number of drivers leading with their egos and not wanting to move. Meanwhile, a number of street vendors were selling anything and everything you could think of: toilet paper, a 3-way forearm exercise thingy (my favorite), black stars t-shirts and apparel, Ghanaian flags, Jabulani balls (replicas though with the old school octagonal plates), and of course, vuvuzelas. Yes, GhanaUruguay. They were the last African team in the tournament and a major advertisement slogan for MTN for the World Cup was “Africa United: Let’s go 2010. Let’s go Africa.” So, Ghana had the weight of not only the country but the continent. That’s quite a bit of pressure, but certainly made for a great atmosphere. Ghana was set to play their quarterfinal match in less than 3 hours against Uruguay.

It took us about 2 hours or so to arrive at our hotel in the West Adenta area of Accra. I had really only slept maybe about 2 hours on the 11-hour ride from Atlanta to Accra and I wasn’t in the mood to sleep because I felt that if I could stay up until the evening then maybe I would be used to the time change. At the moment, it had felt like around 8 am to me based on the time change.

I put my bags in my hotel room and we ventured out into town searching for a place to watch the game.

The courtyard at our hotel in West Adenta.

Tree in our hotel courtyard with a cute Ghana flag.

We found a cozy little place with a small television, but it didn’t matter, it was all about the atmosphere and not the huge flat screen HDTVs that Americans are used to at sports bars and their living rooms. We had a few of the local beers, a lager named Star and a 6% milk stout known as Castle; both very good. We also ate some beef and sausage kabobs and some fried chicken with cole slaw and rice. I was so hungry that I wolfed it down.

The game was slow at first (soccer is slow?) with the Uruguayan team the aggressors and winning the possession battle, though Ghana showed some signs of life with some excellent passing and opportunities to score that they had created. Near the end of the first half, Ghana scored from distance on a wonderful shot by Muntari and the whole place erupted. One of the fans was up on his feet screaming goal before we could even see it on the television. I’m guessing they were listening to the radio and the television was on a slight delay. Every car that went by was honking their horns and screaming and music could be heard from up close and from distance.

The second half was much of the same. Both teams going at it until the brilliant Uruguayan striker Forlán (who was easily the best player on the pitch) bent a shot on a free kick, fooling the goalie of the black stars just enough to one side to put the ball past him and into the back of the net and thus providing the equalizer to tie the match. Silence in West Adenta.

Near the end of extended time, the black stars’s player Asamoah Gyan conducted the free kick after Ghana was to inevitably score on the play before but one of the Uruguayan players committed a handball to prevent the ball from going in the net – a cheeky move to the Ghanaians, but a clever way for Uruguay to stay alive. Gyan ending up missing the penalty kick from the white dot and hitting the crossbar. Silence again.

After extended time the score was still tied at 1 and a shootout commenced. Uruguay ended up winning the shootout and hence the match after quite a bit of drama and Ghana still had the ability to pull off the victory. Again it was silence and everybody kind of went disappointed way for just a moment until the television was off and the music was blasting at the bar and kids dancing as if nothing tragic had happened. Back to normal I guess.

Tom and I sat at the bar for a little while longer talking about the goals of the project. Shortly thereafter, I was in bed asleep for about 10 hours. Well needed rest.