First Full Day In Accra, Ghana

I woke up and headed out. When I paid for my hotel yesterday, I paid GH¢12 for a GH¢11.50 room. The woman said she would give me the 50 pesewas when she saw me next. I went to pay for today's lodging and since I hadn't yet received my GH¢0.50, I had GH¢11 ready. So you can imagine my surprise when they told me I owed GH¢1.50 from the previous day! I told them that in fact they owed me GH¢0.50. It was a different person and all he had to go on was a sheet of paper that said the guy in room 14 owed GH¢1.50 and the guy in room 16 owed GH¢0.60. I asked if the woman who worked there would be there later and he said they would. I paid the money but I will make that woman declare before God that she remembers me paying only GH¢10 for the GH¢11.50 room. Because I have an absolute positive memory of giving her GH¢12 and an absolute positive memory of her telling me that she would give me GH¢0.50 when I next saw her. I was angry. I told the guy, while I paid the GH¢1.50 that it was absolutely incorrect. If she refuses to refund me GH¢2, then I can say with certainty that they are ripping me off.
Anyway, I thought I'd eat at a breakfast place called Orangery. But it was closed. Oh well. It was still early and I thought I'd find the Nigerian embassy and then head over to Osu where I could grab a bite to eat while I waited for it to open. I passed by the Nigerien embassy which is different from the Nigerian embassy but on the way. After a while I made it to the street with the Australian HIgh Commission, Japanese embassy and Nigerian embassy. I walked quite a way down the street, but I didn't see anything so I asked some people. One guy said I had to keep going in the same direction and another guy said I had to go back and turn right. Hmmm.... I went back and then turned around again and went further. There was the Australian flag waving. The Nigerian embassy should be really close. But not there. Hmmm... Since my hat often is confused for an Australian hat, I figured I'd try asking there.

The guard there knew where it was. He couldn't find it my map, so he drew a map that was sort of accurate and sort of not. But for the most part, I could relate his map to the map in the Lonely Planet. The guy was so excited to be giving me directions that he basically repeated the directions 3 times explaining each step. "Then you'll come to an interchange. You don't go right--that goes to the airport. You don't go left. You go straight through." At each intersection he told me the same thing--telling me which directions to not go in before telling me which direction to go in. It was sort of funny.

It as 9am and the sun was starting to beat down hard. The walk to the Nigerian embassy is about an hour walk. I got to within a few blocks when I essentially didn't know where to go. I didn't know I was just a few blocks away. So I hailed a cab and he said he could take me there for GH¢2. A minute later in from of the embassy, I handed him GH¢2 and told him "that's the easy two cedis you'll make all day." He had no response.

Basically, the Nigerian embassy is off Atchimota road. There is an interchange that goes to something called "Pig Farm" which seems to be a motor park or something. There is a Total gas station right on the corner of the interchange. If you head a little northwest from the gas station on the north side of the road, the first street to the north-east is Continental Road though the sign is really faded. Go right on Continental and go one block. There is a large nursery school called Little Angels or something like that. Turn left and go 2 blocks. Then turn right and go one block. That's the Nigerian embassy.

I went up to the window and a woman gave me a small sheet of paper with the stuff I need and 2 sheets of paper. The list of stuff I need included a letter of invitation from host, a letter of introduction from company, 2 photocopies of my passport detail page and page that carries a valid resident permit, 2 passport sized photo, and 2 fully filled out application forms. Three of those things I don't have. I asked if that would be a problem. She sort of shook her head like a metronome to indicate yes and no. I asked her the fee. For US citizens, it's US$100.
So, I had some work to do. There is a forex office right by the Total station called Orchid Forex. I headed there. Their rates are pretty good bid/ask of GH¢1.16 and GH¢1.19 for a dollar. Pretty tight. So I got a US$100 bill. I asked if there was a photocopy place anywhere near there. They suggested the Total station. At the Total station, they pointed across the street to a booth that does photocopies. Yay! All this stuff is close to the embassy. So I got photocopies of my passport, Ghana visa, entry stamp--only GH¢0.10 per page. Then I went back to the little fast food joint inside the Total and got a Sprite while I filled out the forms. Hmm... The 2 sheets of paper are not two applications, but one application.

They ask a lot of weird questions. Like every country I have lived in for more than a year in the last 5 years. And every country I have visited in the last 12 months with cities and dates. Yikes! That would take forever. In the end, I put Canada and France on their own lines and then I put all the African countries on another set of lines and just gave the date range for all those countries together. I had to say whether I've ever been convicted of a crime (no), if I've even been diagnosed with a serious mental illness (no), if I've ever tested positive for HIV, (no). Then I went back across the street and got copies of the filled out application. The guy even made one of the copies double sided and only charged me GH¢0.25 since I used one less piece of paper.

So, back to the embassy. The woman at the window let me in and I signed in and went to the lobby. I waited for a few minutes and a guy came out and sat next to me there in the waiting room. He looked over my application and asked questions about it. He asked if I had a reservation at the place I listed as my address in Nigeria. I told him no, that I planned to just show up. He asked what I would do if they were booked. I said I had a list of a lot of hotels and I would go to the various hotels until I found one. He asked if the money I said I had available--basically my bank account balance--would be carried in cash. No, I said, it's just available through ATMs. Then he said that for tourist visas he needed a photocopy of my vaccinations and a copy of my proof of insurance.

Oh boy. New requirements. I told him I'd have to get the insurance information off the internet. It was about 11:30 by now. I would have to return before 2pm or else wait until Thursday since they only accept applications before 2pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So I thanked him and headed out to find an internet cafe. I decided to give up on Tuesday and just started heading into town by taking the road that goes to Pig Farm from the Total station. Then there was a little hole in the wall internet cafe about a 1km from the Total station. So I popped in. I printed out my insurance information and browsed the web a little bit. Then back to the photocopy place. I got more copies of my vaccinations, and the insurance (it's good to have it on me anyway). Then back to the embassy. It was about 12:30 now. The woman at the window let me in and suggested I should dash her something on the way out. "Dash" is the Nigerian word for "tip". I went in and the same guy came out. I showed him all the new stuff I brought. I gave him my passport, pictures, all the photocopies, US$100, and he told me to come between 2 and 3 the next day. Whew! By far the most difficult visa application so far. Just 2 more to go--the 5 country Entente Touristique for Togo, Benin, and Niger, and the Cameroonian visa.
That done, I walked to Ryans Irish Pub in Osu. This took about an hour. It took a little finding since it's not on the main street in Osu. I had to shake off a few merchants but they were easy to shake off. One guy tried to sell me an Obama '08 bracelet. But I wasn't prepared to buy anything.

Once at Ryan's, I installed myself into a chair and got a draft Star and a big bottle of water. It was a nice refreshment after a few hours of walking in the hot African sun. When I left they didn't have one cedi notes, so they owe me GH¢3. I'll go back.

I was close to an upscale place called Monsoon that has sushi and cigars. Why the hell not? They weren't open yet but there was an internet cafe next door. I think the girl next to me was the one who was at the Cape Coast Castle Restaurant who avoided eye-contact with me. Then I went to the lounge and had a 3 hour conversation with a German guy who does microfinance promotion. We mostly talked about Obama. I had a bloody mary and switched to beer. That was fun. Then he headed off and I went into the sushi section. The chefs weren't Japanese. Oh well. And they had no tuna! Sushi without maguro? Hmm... I got a deluxe set which was pretty good. But I still wanted more so I got a shrimp nigiri and a salmon roll. Then the sushi bar section closes so I went back into the cocktail lounge. I asked to see the humidor. I got myself a nice Cuban Cohiba and smoked half of it. I'll save the other half for later. Now it was late and raining, so I got dinged on the cab ride home--GH¢5. But I made it home safe and sound. It was an expensive day--the visa, the drinks, the sushi, the cigar. But I need a day like that every once in a while.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008 7:53 Ghana local time