Friday, October 7
Not too much to write about tonight. I’m thrilled about beating the Rangers. I hate them even more than the Bruins, so beating both of them is a great way to start the season. But I doubt that any of you want to read too much about the NHL so I’ll move on…
I checked out the local tourist restaurant, Vic Baboo’s. The atmosphere was pretty friendly and the menu was huge. A cheeseburger with fries and a coke ran me about $7. Paying a premium for Western food is to be expected, and when I compare that to paying close to $30 for a similar meal in Paris two years ago, it wasn’t too bad. But I won’t be eating there daily, when I can get a plate of decent food and a drink for about a dollar almost anywhere else.
That brings us to money. Being Africa, things here are usually cheap. Except Mach 3 Turbo blades. Two of them run close to ten bucks. I’m glad that I stocked up in Canada. And that I’m not overly concerned with shaving every day. Now back to the subject at hand. The largest bill here is 20,000 cedis (seedy), which is about $3 CDN. Internet costs 100 cedis a minute, a tro-tro ride to town is about 2000, a coke is 2500. Because the numbers are so high, I find myself agonizing (maybe that’s too harsh a term) over what are actually fairly insignificant amounts of money. Like asking for 300 cedis back from the tro-tro operator. Would I ask for a nickel back from a taxi driver? When in Rome, I guess. Or Kumasi. I do have to catch myself a lot of the time. Spending 20,000 in a day seems like a lot, until I realize that with that, I couldn’t even buy a pint at home. But don’t worry Mom, I am keeping my spending in check.
That seemed like a pretty poorly-written paragraph. Sorry about that—I was trying to paint a picture of my dealings with the currency here. I hope it wasn’t too bad.
Tomorrow, Ghana is playing Cape Verde. All they need is a draw to advance to the World Cup for the first time, which should be very easy. So it will be an exciting day!
Finally, if anyone has any questions or requests, email me with them and I’ll try and post about them. Au revoir, enjoy your turkey
I checked out the local tourist restaurant, Vic Baboo’s. The atmosphere was pretty friendly and the menu was huge. A cheeseburger with fries and a coke ran me about $7. Paying a premium for Western food is to be expected, and when I compare that to paying close to $30 for a similar meal in Paris two years ago, it wasn’t too bad. But I won’t be eating there daily, when I can get a plate of decent food and a drink for about a dollar almost anywhere else.
That brings us to money. Being Africa, things here are usually cheap. Except Mach 3 Turbo blades. Two of them run close to ten bucks. I’m glad that I stocked up in Canada. And that I’m not overly concerned with shaving every day. Now back to the subject at hand. The largest bill here is 20,000 cedis (seedy), which is about $3 CDN. Internet costs 100 cedis a minute, a tro-tro ride to town is about 2000, a coke is 2500. Because the numbers are so high, I find myself agonizing (maybe that’s too harsh a term) over what are actually fairly insignificant amounts of money. Like asking for 300 cedis back from the tro-tro operator. Would I ask for a nickel back from a taxi driver? When in Rome, I guess. Or Kumasi. I do have to catch myself a lot of the time. Spending 20,000 in a day seems like a lot, until I realize that with that, I couldn’t even buy a pint at home. But don’t worry Mom, I am keeping my spending in check.
That seemed like a pretty poorly-written paragraph. Sorry about that—I was trying to paint a picture of my dealings with the currency here. I hope it wasn’t too bad.
Tomorrow, Ghana is playing Cape Verde. All they need is a draw to advance to the World Cup for the first time, which should be very easy. So it will be an exciting day!
Finally, if anyone has any questions or requests, email me with them and I’ll try and post about them. Au revoir, enjoy your turkey
posted by Tony at 12:05 p.m.
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