Barbecue and Soccer

June 23^rd, 2013 11:20am

It is a beautiful Sunday morning here in Accra and I have power and internet for once so I decided what better to do than write a blog entry.  We are planning to go see Accra Hearts of Oak play a soccer match versus the Tema youth today at 3.  It is the last game of the season in the Ghana premier league so it should be a good game.  Accra is trying to move up to fourth place and Tema is trying to avoid relegation.

We had a barbecue for Jordan’s birthday last night.  We bought a bunch of crab for ten dollars and some fish and had vegetables and garlic bread to go with it.   It was very good, but the only problem is that as a former chef I always end up in charge of the cooking.  People don’t realize that cooking in a large professional kitchen it not the same as cooking over a small coal fire.  We managed and it turned out pretty good.  ‘Auntie’ had to help us out a couple of times when the fire kept dying on us.  At one point she grabbed the grill with her bare hand, as I saw her reach for it I yelled out a warning as you would to a child.  She just grabbed it as if it wasn't hot at all.  She then told us her first job as a young girl was as a kenke vendor.  Kenke is a fermented corn and cassava dough that is boiled in corn husks.  As a girl she would have to grab the kenke out of the boiling water bare handed, and I though year of cooking had made my hands resistant to heat, but I would not have dared to touch the hot grill.

The gang celebrating Jordan's birthday

Me and my grill

With the success of the barbecue we are thinking of starting our own grilled crab store on the street here.  We want to call it ‘Obroni & Obroni’.  Obroni means white man and gets yelled at us every time we head out.  Mostly small children yell it and then you go through a very formal “Hello, how are you today” back and forth.  I think mostly they want the opportunity to practice a bit of English, as they learn English in school but for the most part don’t speak it at home.

After the barbecue we went out to Accra’s party district, Ossu, and had a few drinks at a small bar.  On the cab ride home we got stopped by three different police check points and got searched once and had to pay two bribes.  Luckily the bribes were only 1 cedi (50 cents).

My survey assistant cutting some branches away so I could see him

The pipe installation continues

Surveying Africa

Johnny