Accra: Tim and I had an ambitious day, but as we spent over $70 USD on books, we had to cut our plans short and return home since they were too heavy to carry. We started off working our way through the Ghana Expats list of grocery stores. South African chain Woolworth was like an upscale Target, but with barely any food. The freezers were even empty. Just a paltry selection of dry goods augmented with an equally scant selection of alcohol. Tim was able to score a package of underwear and a belt for around $59 USD. He said he really needed them. Ironically, books here are very cheap. We later purchased several books for a dollar or less. The most expensive book was about $30 USD and it was a textbook I needed for my research.
We proceeded to the Melcom store next. It was a warehouse set up with electronics, household goods and furniture. The entry way was lined with small stores such as a forex, shoe store, and book store. There was a better selection of food, but more expensive than the other stores we have been to. The place reminded me of the stores in Brooklyn with the same cheesy plywood high gloss laminate furniture with 1970's styling. The electronics department did have some legitimate brands though.
We wrapped things up with another trip to the University of Accra at Legon so I could do some research on food. I was hoping to find some cookbooks in the library, but no luck. Of the ten or so books on food history we did manage to find, not one of them was authored by a West African, and other than the reference books, none were actually available. This is partially because the African Studies Library was in the process of being renovated. We did get a couple of cookbooks written by Ghanaians from the campus bookstore, however. :)
No food for us today. Instead we got by on soft drinks and Digestive Biscuits. I do believe this is how most Ghanaians get along most days. It is very inexpensive to purchase some street food as we did yesterday. I have also observed workers consuming packets of cookies washed down with water.
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| An inner courtyard of the Balme Library |
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| The Balme library is beautifully designed with the tropical climate in mind |
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| The library's namesake |
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| A corner of the U of Ghana Bookstore |
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Wheat Digestive Biscuits do a lot to kill hunger pangs!
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