Stayed at H's house last night, had a very quiet night, just chatting about everything mostly with Akinyi and Ruby. Didn't sleep until 1.30 and woke up around 5. At midday Ruby picked me up in Tema and we went to Prampram to view the beach house for Saturday's party. The drive, as always, was lovely and shorter than I imagined. Got to the beach house and realised that the neighbour, who seemed to be having a party for over two hundred people was using uncle F's house too and the neighbour on the other side as well to spread out the noise and mess they were causing.
We ended up walking quite a bit away from the house to find a more peaceful place to swim and talk. The idea of swimming was so appealing, that was, however, until we were met by the wrath of the sea. It seems the sea at Prampram has it in for every human being. As I stood in the water, only about 7 meters into it, the first wave slapped hard against my legs leading me to wobble a bit. At this point, the undercurrent saw its opportunity to tackle me by pulling away the sand I was standing on. As a final blow, the sea then maliciously hit me with another heavy wave, ensuring I would fall to my knees and crawl up shore to safety. A WWF wrestler could not have tackled me in a more impressive way.
As a keen and strong swimmer there is not much that can discourage me from getting into water, But after this sadomasochistic game continued upon each of my attempts to enter the water, I finally gave up and sat down for a chat with Ruby about the potential business opportunities.
The most disturbing thing about the water though, was not its obvious hatred of human beings but the amount of rubbish in the water. Labadi beach is known to be dirty, but one would expect that after driving 45 minutes out of Accra, the beach would be slightly cleaner. But as we fought a losing battle against the abusive sea, we also had to continuously brush away bits of rubbish that kept floating towards us. At one point I thought my hand had hooked on to a condom (!) but later on I realised there were a lot of clear, long plastic bags. I can only hope, but intend to believe that that was what I actually touched.
It seems the people of Prampram and Ningo (along with the rest of Ghana) have found the ultimate cheap waste management system: dump everything in the sea.
Why else would empty toothpaste tubes and plastic bags be found in the water? It saddens me that we do not cherish the beautiful land (because, oh, it is really beautiful) we have been given. I wish the children in schools today would be informed in a similar way as i was when i was younger, with stickers and informational seminars and activities on "Var radd om Goteborg" (loosely translated as "Take good care of Gothenburg"). When will we in Ghana start recycling and caring about the energy we use (and waste), what happens to our waste and how and what to recycle our used products to preserve our environment?
I had a very interesting (but short) discussion on this with Gloria's mancunian husband who's about to relocate to Ghana and is interested in establishing an organisation that deals with environmental issues. It is a topic that needs to be highlighted and taught around the country before our destruction reaches a point of no return. Hm, may have to invite the newlyweds to Ruby's party so I can continue the discussion.
On that note...goodnight.
