Sunday Brunch

Sunday brunch was overall a pretty surreal experience.

It was pretty easy taking a trotro to the Movenpick. There was no traffic, because it was a Sunday morning and everyone in Accra was at church, so Sarah and I were about 45 minutes early. We walked around downtown a little bit, and then hung out in the lobby of the Movenpick, enjoying the artwork and the air conditioning.

I was very acutely aware of the white privilege that we were experiencing. We weren’t staying in the hotel, and neither Sarah nor I could really afford to do so, but we were two white girls who looked reasonably nice and put together, so we were able to walk past all the guards and other staff and sit down in the comfy chairs and loiter without anyone stopping us or asking us if we had an appointment. Thinking about that was a little bit uncomfortable. Luckily, as I expected, Carmencita was early. Unsurprisingly, Alberta (running on Ghanaian Standard Time) was late.

It was extremely luxurious. They handed us each a glass of champagne as soon as we walked in the door, and a coconut to drink (like the ones on the street, only this one was cold). There was a band playing a lot of familiar songs (mostly oldies that I grew up with, like Sitting on the Dock of the Bay) except in High Life style, with Ghanaian instruments. I really liked it. The food was absolutely delicious. I had a wonderful salad and sushi and smoked salmon with capers and chocolate croissants and really good cheese with dried apricots and crème brulée and a cream puff and some sort of berry pie. It was heavenly. We had real coffee afterward, and it was overall a great time.

The conversation was interesting, and we covered a whole range of topics. There was a little uncomfortable part where Alberta was talking about how she supported Romney in the upcoming U.S. elections because of his Christian values. I thought I was being pretty diplomatic when I said that Christian values are wonderful, but the U.S. is supposed to have separation of church and state, and I kind of put my head down and concentrated on my sushi when she retorted with, “The currency says, ‘In God We Trust.’” Other than that, though, it was all lots of fun. We talked about food and school and work, and all sorts of stuff.

What struck me as extremely surreal in our conversation was when Carmencita (Grand-High Mucky-muck at the World Bank here in Ghana) brought up the Gagnam Style video. Now, I know some of you reading this are not up to date on internet culture, so despite my thorough disapproval of the whole institution of it, you can see the video in question here, or just take my word for how painfully ridiculous it is. Basically it’s a pop song, that in and of itself is not that bad, but the music video is just completely absurd, and the dance that is performed is uncomfortably ridiculous.

Carmencita had apparently seen the video in some sort of piece on the BBC, and she was trying to explain it to Alberta, as well as asking Sarah’s and my opinion on the matter. I was honestly too shocked and amused to really provide much of an answer, as Carmencita made it sound kind of like an aerobic exercise, as opposed to the awkward pop craze that it is. It was so surreal to me, that I just had to laugh. What finally had me in pretty much hysterical laughter was Alberta (worker in the IMF liaison office) suggesting that Carmencita (Resident Advisor of the World Bank to the Central Bank of Ghana) demonstrate the dance in the grand hall of the Movenpick in Accra, Ghana. It was just too weird.

When Sarah and I recovered from our giggles and we finished our lunch, we went back to Carmencita’s house for a few hours to hang out in the air conditioning and study for a while, without the constant noises of Madina around us. Sarah was a lot better at staying on task than I was (as she usually is) but we were both fairly productive.

Exams on Monday and today went really well, though as usual I was writing until the last second. I’m just really glad to be done! Now I have a couple of days to pack and get ready to go to Tamale! I’ll have to talk to either Carmencita or my host family, and see if I can leave some of my stuff here. I won’t need everything for my month in Tamale, and when I travel afterward, I don’t want to have to lug all my belongings around. Hopefully that will work out.

I look forward to my adventures in Kumasi (for a couple of days on the way North) and Tamale to come! I’ll keep you posted!