Our port of call is the twin citiy of Sekondi-Takoradi, the largest city in the western region of the Republic of Ghana (the formal name of Ghana). Ghana is the 2nd most populated country in Africa (after Nigeria) with a population of 31 million plus people. It was the first African country to become independent, gaining its independence from the UK in 1957. Sekondi-Takoradi is basically an industrial city known for its timber, cocoa processing, plywood and more recently oil, shipping and deep water port. It served as a major staging area for British aircraft during WWII, to be used in the African conflicts.

I forgot to mention in yesterday’s blog that we had to have our temperatures taken before we could disembark in Ghana, so several locations were set up on-board the ship where we could go for the quick test. Did not hear of anyone failing the test.

The choices for tours were very limited and I picked one that advertised we would experience local music and dance as part of the tour.  I was surprised at the bus we boarded for the tour, as it was fairly modern and decorated rather “lavishly” with heavily tinted rose colored windows and tassels hanging on all the interior windows! It reminded me of the type of buses you often see in India and Malaysian countries. driving through the streets of town it was obvious this was a poor country.

Our first stop was at the Bisa Aberwa Museum which turned out to be delightful. It is a museum dedicated to the heroes of the African struggles and civil rights movements, and contains several thousand sculptures in wood, ceramic, and other artistic representations, along with photographs. It is considered one of the best private such museums in the world. It was great but unfortunately we were not given much time to simply appreciate what it held. I could have easily spent a few hours there, it was that good.

From there we were transported to one of the more glamorous hotels in the area where we were able to have beverages (good local beer, soda, water), sample local snacks (dried banana chips) which were quite good.  We watched local dancers with their accompanying drummers perform some traditional Ghanaian folk dances. The hit of the show was two young boys (10-12 years old?) who danced vigorously for a long, long time even though it was quite hot and humid.

Because we are fairly close (5 degrees N) to the equator it was hot (86 degrees today with possible showers) and humid, so these fairly short, 4 hour tours, were just about right so we could get back to the cool confines of our ship, which we did after the entertainment at the hotel. Back where the ship was docked many locals had set up to sell their local art and clothing on the wharf, and I was able to add a small item to my collection of African street art!

Showers, lunch at the pool deck, and trivia completed the afternoon activities. Surprisingly there was no left over turkey on any of the menus. We are disappointed!  (We later heard that they ran out of turkey on Thanksgiving). The entertainment tonight was a repeat performance of “Tiano”, the piano/singing duo, which we decided to skip choosing instead to simply relax in our suite.

Tomorrow is a big day as I will be visiting my 100th UN country, which will be Togo since we had to skip Senegal and the Ivory Coast. There is a funny encounter I had that lead to being interviewed for the morning video posted on the ship’s television for people to see. I wanted to get a picture commemorating my visit to my 100th country so I borrowed some paper and a felt pen from the reception desk to make a sign showing “100” on it. As I was walking away I saw the cruise director, John Ekin, getting ready to film his morning show and he asked me what the 100 meant. I explained and he said he wanted to interview me for the show which I did! It will be interesting to see if anyone approaches me after it airs!