Thursday, August 4, 2016

Circle – one of the most dangerous areas in Accra and the place where a woman got caught selling human meat this summer. Of course, I had to experience it myself.

This morning Adam, Zach, Emma, and I jumped on the tro tro that was headed toward Circle. This is the farthest I’ve traveled on the tro tro before, and I haven’t seen this part of Accra since we drove past it during our tour of the city on one of our first days in Ghana.

I was told to never ask anyone at Circle for directions and to always keep my purse in front of me so I don’t get pickpocketed. I was nervous but also excited to see what all the hype was about.

What’s funny is I actually met some of the nicest people at Circle and had one of the best days I’ve had while being in Ghana. I was asked if I wanted to play Ping-Pong and got my ass kicked by a Ghanaian man who obviously had way more practice than I did. Ping-Pong in “one of the most dangerous areas in Accra” still has me cracking up.

We walked around the market and it was almost the same as every other market in Accra we’ve been to. There were men and women calling for us to come into their shops, and I was invited by a man to share his corn on the cob. This was a piece of cake compared to the market in Kumasi.

After walking through the market, we made our way back to catch a tro tro and saw a group of people dancing in the middle of Circle. The police were putting on a concert to raise awareness for the upcoming election. Like always, we stuck out of the crowd and were instantly taken in the middle of the group to dance. The singer of the police band grabbed my hand and had me pose for multiple pictures. He gave me the microphone and asked me to sing and twirled me around what seemed like a hundred times to get the perfect picture. Next thing I know, we are surrounded by hundreds of Ghanaians who had their phones out, video taping us. I have never laughed so hard, or sweated so much, and we will definitely be in the newspaper tomorrow.

What made this day so much fun was how random it was. I thought I was going to a dangerous place, and I ended up being part of a concert and having one of the most memorable experiences I’ve had while being here.