I promised you a quick peak back to our supper.. We went over to Dela’s where we met his beautiful wife, Martina and his delightful sons. He has three boys … the littlest one was barely a toddler last time i saw him staggering around on his chubby little legs and now he is a tall, thin boy of three and a half!! i showed him a small movie of Lili singing to her dolly, TiTi … he was mesmerized! One day i will have to get them together :) We had Martina’s great cooking of one of my favourite Ghanaian dishes: red red and plantain .. Red red is beans and a nice spicy sauce .. and the plantain is boiled … usually you have meat with it but for the vegetarian she served boiled eggs instead. It was delicious! Next time i have promised to take them all out for pizza ….
… this is Dela’s littlest son, Horla, who was mesmerized by you, Lili !!!
…. a great shot of Dela teaching Lisa the ‘snap’ that goes with the handshake here !!
We ended up having breakfast at a great little restaurant along the roadside …. it is amazing how if you count on the locals with their suggestions you end up finding the greatest places. It was a restaurant that was in the middle of renovations … and there were windows looking out at the mountains all along one wall … and we were fortunate enough to arrive before they had managed to put the windows in … So it was like being on a covered balconey with the breeze from the mountains wafting in… Another marvelous omlette went down nicely with nescafé …
We walked over to the Village Exchange to wait while Dela updated his license … they have to wait here for the very last day before it expires ! We chatted with everyone and before you know it Dela was there to pick us up…
We were headed to the Agamanya Market which has one area dedicated to beads in amongst a teaming market selling everything you could imagine … Getting there is quite something as the road has been all but washed away by rain and even though this is an extremely busy throughfare there hasn’t been a spec of roadwork done there …. and this will be the fourth year that i have come here to visit the market.. So you will have a car coming toward you swerving completely in front of you to miss a huge pothole …. At one point the traffic came to a complete standstill for who knows what .. For us it is ok cause there is a whole teeming, vibrant world to inspect!
What a luxury it is to have a car as this trip to Agamanya by tro tro has always been an exhausting trip as you have to change tro tros so this means waiting while the tro tro fills up … to bad for you if you just missed a tro tro cause the next one could take hours to fill up.. This morning it felt almost sinfully easy to get there…
Dela dropped us off at the front of the market while he went off to park the car. It was fun to see how quickly i could find my way .. well i did ask at the end because i knew it was a bit of a maneuveur to get from the main market into the bead area as you need to go behind the stalls lining the road.. but as soon as she pointed i could see the beads hanging there..
… the entrance to the market … as well as all the people just to the left is the tro tro station and i just manage to snap the picture in between all the tro tros barreling out …
… i never tire of the beautiful way the people carry everything on their heads …
… this captures quite a number :)
Again we had an amazing time poring over the beads… For sure i have met my match in Lisa as she is totally mesmerized by all the different beads.. and I must say i kinda envy her as she is gleefully buying all the beads that she falls in love with whereas i am trying to keep a tight rein on myself and buying beads that people have asked for or those beads that i use in my jewelry and that i am out of!! So i feel very businesslike … I remember when my friend, Caroline, (who has a bead shop) came with me and she was quite strict with herself buying only what she knew her clients would like… I remember thinking wow! She is a real pro and now here i am … so that part feels really great!!
…. oh, beads, beads, glorious beads!
Today was a real scorcher with the sun blazing down … I thought the rains yesterday would have freshened the skies but the heat was out with the sun coming up this morning… Come to think of it rain wasn’t even mentioned in my blog yesterday .. You know why?? Cause it came in like a whirling dervish quite early in morning as we were going to the hospital, poured hard for a couple hours and then went like it was never there.. So when i came to write the blog the rain had completely disappeared from my memory!!
After the market we went to Cedi Beads .. Cedi Beads is the most famous of Ghana’s recycled glass bead makers. Nomoda Djaba or as he is better know Mr. Cedi has turned making Ghana’s famous recycled glass beads into a successful business doing business world wide. This was the first place i visited and was so impressed by the guided tour they give: they show you from start to finish how the beads are made with enthusiasm and love. Now each time i come to Ghana it is a pilgrimage for me. Taking Lisa there was a real pleasure.
… beads are good for everyone!!
… it is always a pleasure to come and visit Cedi Beads. Their pride and pleasure in their work is immediately visible!!
Finding food in this area has always been a real challenge as there are not many restaurants .. But Dela rose to the challenge and we went off in the Car (we are looking for a name for her …) After stopping and asking many people finally one lady offered to show us the way to a good restaurant in exchange for a ride! Great deal … and for sure we would never have found it without her… We sat around drinking water and beer while they made us supper that we would take to our hotel to eat … The dish is actually a Ghanaian street food called Indomie. Indomie is named after the package of noodles that forms the main part of the dish and then fresh veggies and scrambled eggs and something spicy is added … mmm, it smelled good!
At our hotel we outside under one of the little huts in the garden … it was great! And the Indomie just hit the spot!