Prior to setting out for the airport, we managed to find and stop at the Arts Alliance Gallery that Dick Kiphart had mentioned was being promoted by Kofi Anan. It was excellent and very reasonably priced, with a wide range of appealing art work. Unfortunately, as we were not going home, and the cost of shipping for one item we liked was $800, or twice the cost of the item itself, we escaped unscathed. Not so for the craft market we visited earlier, though, a sort of "cachki" heaven, where we (Carol, with her embarrassing successful bargaining) loaded up with gifts.
After breakfast at the hotel, we set out with Peter, Freedom, Jonathan and Joseph, considerably more support than we needed. First stops were casket shops, where wooden caskets were carved in forms that reflected the professions, avocations or status of the deceased--fish, crabs, cameras, roosters, etc. Fun to see. We stopped back later in the day to pick up an item we'd passed on earlier.
From there we went to the old fishing village of Jamestown, where the beachfront was in full activity, with fishermen, sellers of fish, net menders, etc, all doing their stuff in the rather dirty, fishy-smelling village. Unlike elsewhere we'd been in Ghana, many people (women, especially) were not eager to have their pictures taken. A light house and castle sit above the beachfront, the latter being part of the slave trade.
After Jamestown, we went to the large craft market, with rows of stalls and sellers peddling all kinds of crafts. While the vendors were friendly and forward, they were not offensively pushy as we've found in similar situations elsewhere in the world.
We stopped with full entourage at a bar/pub/restaurant that had a soccer game and the Commonwealth Games on TVs. Service was rather slow, and Carol did not get what she ordered, but the rest of us all had a good lunch.
The ride to the airport from the restaurant was short, and our transition through the various airport stages remarkably quick and smooth. We said our good-byes to Peter, Freedom, Jonathan and Joseph and thanked and tipped them for their attentiveness and service throughout our trip. One of my cards got us into an airline lounge with food and wifi, which is where I'm typing this, awaiting our eight-plus hour flight to Dubai on Emirates Airline.
So what's new in Dubai? Long time no hear.
ReplyDeleteL,
W.
P.S. The girls and I all have food poisoning from a kid bday party we went to on Sat. Every last person who attended got sick. It's been a lovely 24 hours of puking all around, with C. doing massive loads of laundry and many rounds of crushing ice. Laundry Boy became Laundry Hero in the wee hours when Phoebzies came into our room and announced, "I'm ready for Care Bear." I said, "I don't know if Care Bear is dry yet, but Dadatch will check." Phoebe, very matter-of-factly, said, "It's 3:19." Translation: I've waited long enough! Laundry Hero emerged from the basement with a clean, dry Care Bear who, I might add, has never looked so good in all his life. No puking since 3 pm today and that was more than 5 hours ago so, hopefully, it's all uphill from here.