Akwaaba to Ghana!

Akwaaba Airport, Accra

Saturday July 3, 2011
by Nastassja Noell

The 22 E-LEEP participants came from the distant mountains of Hawaii to the cement jungles of New York City on Saturday afternoon to meet in the Atlanta airport at the departure gate for Accra, en route to Moravia. This was our first meeting 'in the flesh, and the beginning of our 28 day trip to learn about the context and issues of resource extraction in Ghana.

The flight was uneventful (a good thing), and the stars were especially bright up above the clouds. As the new day got underway, we flew over the tropical rainforests of Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia and  Cote d'Ivoire, -- the latter is in the midst of a civil conflict that is gripping the nation -- and finally touched down in Ghana, the most stable country in Africa. Ghana has not been ruled by a military dictatorship since the 1992 elections. Many citizens are struggling to ensure that they are able to participate in this developing democracy, especially during this new era of oil and gas extraction.

The sign at customs

At the customs area our group was channeled through the line for diplomats. On the wall behind the customs booths was a welcome sign warning all foreigners entering the country that pedophiles and other such undesirable persons are "not welcome" in Ghana and informing those persons to just turn around and leave the country.

Driver for Oil Company

After picking up our luggage we made our way through the airport and past the collection of drivers holding signs for the guests. Among the gentlemen holding signs for various hotels were 3 men holding signs for the oil/gas development corporation Schlumberger and TapOil, an industry we will no doubt be learning more about in the following weeks. Billboards around Ghana also advertise many of the other similar developers; learning the common street opinions about the oil/gas development will be crucial for understanding more about the issues facing Ghana, a neighbor of the resource-cursed Nigeria.

Celebrating our new friend's 87 birthday!!!

Our arrival at the Guest House at the University of Ghana, Legon, was most welcome for we were greeted with the most wonderful of parties - a birthday party for an 87 year old mother. Uncomfortably we sat down in the middle of the campus restaurant hosting the party, concerned about "crashing" it, but after a short period of awkwardness the ice was quickly broken: the birthday family was so welcoming, group leader Dr. Stan Kabala gave a gift to the mother and made a moving birthday wish over the microphone, wine was subsequently ordered and shared, and quite alot of the E-LEEP folks could later be found dancing dancing dancing along with family members in this festive birthday celebration!! (video montage to come soon!)

Ghana, you are yoking my heart -- and this is only the first day!!!