Yesterday, being Wednesday, was one of my freedays, and after a lazy morning, I went to Makola market located in central Accra with two other girls. None of us had been there before, as the other market Medina is a short ten minute tro-tro ride away, but we had heard it was better and had some good fabric. Ghana has beautiful fabrics whether patterned, tie and dye as they call it, or my personal favorite batiks... You can buy two yards for a cedi and get beautiful clothes made for very reasonable prices from any of the local seamstresses, and at markets, it gives one something to shop for and a purpose for being there which keeps one from being completely overwhelmed.
Anyways, the first musing stems from the tro-tro ride down, which definitely makes the list of most memorable tro-tro rides, up there with the flat tire and the time the door got stuck shut. Anyways, we caught the Accra tro-tro and all was well until we were quite near the Accra station and we hit traffic. There were police officers directing traffic, but despite the direction, our driver chose to blatantly disregard the officer and was pulled over. I think they were writing him a ticket, or checking to make sure he had a license and insurance... I never really know whats going on... One of the men on the bus though started talking and arguing with another officer out the window, something about how we were all being held up, how he wanted to get down and get his money back, again the details weren't clear... Eventually he and half the passengers decided to get down while we decided to stay on, not knowing exactly where we were... Apparently though when he got off the tro-tro the arguing men shoved a police officer, for the next minute all four of the officers were grabbing him and struggling with him(For he was sturggling quite fiercely) and forcing him, accompanied by one of the officers, back onto the tro-tro. By this point the man was apologizing profusely, but I think the officer was taking him into to report assault of an officer. It all happened very fast, was quite intense, and left me wondering if it wasn't an access of force... It certainly left me wondering what the relationship between the people and the police is here. I asked a friend once as a police station is located accross from campus, and she said at least as far as students were concerned, it wasn't so good, but she didn't explain...
The second somewhat bizarre occurence had to do with a cross-dressing market woman. Now some context is needed to explain why this was bizarre. Homosexuality is strictly illegal here, and in general people seem to have some pretty bizarre views. A girl in my program's Ghanaian roomate said it was a white man's disease, for example... There supposedly is an underground gay bar, or so I have heard, but this man was obviously a man(he had a beard) wearing a dress and selling wears off his head and being a woman... I am not sure of the technicalities of that sort of thing, but one had to wonder if he was endangering himself? Its illegal, but would people turn on you, or is it simply socially ostracized. I don't know, but it was bizarre...
Otherwise, Makola market was more crowded feeling than Medina and some people were quite aggressive, grabbing our wrists firmly to get us to look at their wares. It is quite daunting really. The woman are better than the men, but that is because you aren't afraid that they will hit on you and ask for your number or ask to marry you which honestly got old some time ago...
Fun fact about Ghanaian politics. The election to be held December 7 is drawing nearer, the candidates have drawn lots to determine their place on the ballot, campaign signs are everywhere... I heard on the radio the other day that the electoral commission is creating a provision which will allow any of the Muslim population who will be undertaking the Hajj, which overlaps the election, will able to vote by proxy(in other words, have somebody they establish beforehand and trust absolutely cast their ballot for them). Ghana doesn't have our system of absentee, rather others like the military or people wth the UN or students are also able to vote by proxy. It is a good sign of religious pluralism being alive and well in Ghana even if at least in the south the culture is overwhelmingly Christian.
In other news, I am heading north this weekend to see elephants and other sites of northern Ghana. What fun!
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