We spent the weekend in Accra, and believe it or not, there was a Stanley Cup game to be watched...and we did watch it. We spent the rest of our time in Accra doing productive things, or trying to do productive things, like buy books for the library. Friday is a blur, and we only got there later in the day...so no books. Saturday we had to change hotels, and then went for books, only to discover that they closed at noon on Saturday (we were trying to get to the University bookstore in particular...most other book shops actually only sell stationary). Sunday, nothing was open. Anywhere. Nothing but hawkers pushing us to buy things. And Monday we had to check out early and leave for home, which took for ever. So no University bookstore.
However.
On Saturday, right near our hotel, was a sign for a book shop that we decided to try for. Not only was it open, but it was a REAL book shop! FULL OF AWESOME BOOKS!!! I had no idea how much I missed actual bookshops until we got there...my heart did a brief weeping before we swept the shelves in utter ecstasy. Lots of books! Canadian books even! Lots of books! Anyone who knows me, knows my fetish and love for books...but an actual bookstore, in the middle of our trip...I know that thats what we've been looking for all along, but it was so cool to finally do it. Any of the North American/European books were fairly expensive, but there was a whole collection of African writers (novels, poetry etc), and best of all, African children's books.
We'd been a little worried about finding appropriate children's books. Books are a hot and rare commodity....and there isn't always much available, or at least well known for Children....and not written about African children or buy Africans or talking about anything kids here might care about. A lot of them were even advertised as being gender/girl friendly/positive, which is getting to be a big deal here. Wish it were that easy in Canada some days.
I've started a catalogue for the books we've bought already, and I've spent the time since we've been back, registering all of them. This means I get to take a realy good look at many of them. We got books for all ages and reading levels...but let me tell you...the things that are in these books are crucially relevant and important....and a lot less fluffy than our books. A lot of them seemed to focus on AIDS, gender equality and children's rights and the importance of education. Because there is a lot of stigma in parts of Africa about AIDS, there seems to be a lot of books aiming to break the silence, show the dangers of silence, and demonstrate more useful approaches to to the whole thing. I'm REALLY happy about the books we got! I wish I were better at expressing how cool they are. Some of them are happy, some of them are sad...they're...I dunno...children's books.
Also, for any women reading this, I have some helpful information that the patriarchal guide book neglected to mention. Apparently moving to the equator can greatly alter your menstrual cycle, give or take two weeks. So whether you're planning ahead for a honeymoon, or trying to figure out whether you need to cart along that extra package of tampons (or any other scenario where an idea of whether or not you're ovulating can be useful)....its useful to know that the traditional counting method is apparently a little less useful in at least the first month (for anyone who cares, I'm sure I can keep you updated). This is probably caused from drastic changes in diet, time zone, sleep schedule, physical activity, travel medication, etc. Either way...a little unanticipated, but I thought it might be useful to anyone else planning to travel.
Anyhow....we miss Canada....but Ghana totally kicks ass! Its so beautiful and warm....and there are some really cool things to see (if you didn't get that from my last few blogs, you lead a life far more interesting than mine). The best part about it is that I only have time to mention about an eighth of the things that we see and do here. So just imagine!
Oh yeah! Aside from seeing the hockey game, we scoured the country and found something that one can only get in one area of the country. It will tide us over until we return to the land of beavers and coffee and snow....Nutella!!! We're trying to restrain ourselves from bathing in it. I like nutella, but I never felt like I would really miss it...I never really eat it at home after all....but Africa makes it taste so much awesomer!
Anyhow, Ciao for now,
The Spotted Jessicat
Oh yeah! Aside from seeing the hockey game, we scoured the country and found something that one can only get in one area of the country. It will tide us over until we return to the land of beavers and coffee and snow....Nutella!!! We're trying to restrain ourselves from bathing in it. I like nutella, but I never felt like I would really miss it...I never really eat it at home after all....but Africa makes it taste so much awesomer!
Anyhow, Ciao for now,
The Spotted Jessicat
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