the search continues...

I know I whinged about this before... but today it has been intense! Sometimes we manage to avoid getting these questions for an entire day, but rarely. I have to confess I sometimes give people the 'wrong' address because I am so tragically precious about my email privacy. Apparently people rarely contact you anyway - although we just had an email from a guy we met about 30 minutes ago!

Still, we are right on the tourist trail - in Kumasi, home of the culture- and gold-rich Asante people (though of course the gold is mostly owned by the kings). We went to a couple of museums and there is some fairly interesting history here. Having already heard a lot about Asante culture before we got here, though, the best thing is really the huge market. I didn't believe it would be *that* impressive as markets here all seem to be the same and are usually crowded and yes, hot. Our first expedition there was a bit of a let down, because we somehow ended up in the dried fish section - which must be about a quarter of the entire market, I swear there were thousands of stalls and the smell was dire. But we persevered and actually managed to find some stuff we wanted.

Funny little interactions with people happen all the time here - apart from the predictable address requests, people often just want to say hello and how are you, and I've finally worked out how to say a few things in Twi so that is fun. Little kids always yell out 'hello Obruni (white person)!' and sometimes just run up and squeal and hug us - one of them grabbed my sunglasses but she just wanted to try them on, which she thought was hiarious. They love pictures too; they are quite entertained if I show them the photos in my guide book or if I'm really stuck, The Economist (our erstwhile source of print news here due to its surprisingly good distribution - it's great for world news, but watch out if I start sprouting the merits of flat tax). Why do kids here so much more lively than kids at home? Being a journalist, I have to attribute it to the lack of Playstations.

I think I've mentioned before that Ghana (at least in the southern & Ashanti regions) is relatively affluent for West Africa; demonstrated by the sheer number of cars on the road, mobile phones and internet cafes. Ghana also gets a lot of aid because it is held up as a great example of African democracy, which is true only in a relative sense. There is still lots of corruption here, though, which seems to be the number one gripe of aspirant Ghanaians.

The pursuit of education is the number one priority for most children and young people here. A lot of people somehow manage to get to the UK or the US or Germany (at least a lot of the people we get into long conversations with have relatives overseas, or have studied there), but apparently they're not big on sending remittances. There are very few beggers (mind you there were even less in Benin; the extended family works well I guess), but it's very sad seeing the kids who wander around the streets and motor parks selling sachets of purified water, which is the main occupation for those who can't afford school. Those ones aren't too exhuberant.

Tomorrow morning we are heading off to Tamale and it is all going to be different there - it's much further north, drier, dustier and very Islamic (so earplugs will be required - all the mosques have amplification these days!).

Today I spotted a men's hairdressers called "Dr Jesus". And found out that Lil' Kim may be jailed - is there no justice in this world?