Day 4 (May 22)

Contributed by: Olivia

We left Afia Beach after our luggage had been tied to the roof of our taxi by the driver and several helpers. We settled the tab with the hotel owner, Kofi, and packed into the taxi for the trip to Kumasi. We left the city in the late afternoon after we made a stop at Interplastic for the polypipe. A 150 ft-45 mm polypipe was purchased and tied atop our heap of panels. At the next stop, we purchased 6 batteries for the schoolhouse PV system. They were plastic-wrapped in case of rain during the drive. We left Accra around 4 pm in the afternoon. Oh, and just to give everybody an idea of how the shopping goes around here, it took an elapsed 4 and ½ hours to by the $90 worth of polypipe, after we had found the place that sells it.

The weight of the 12 packages of 30 kg solar panels punished the rack when the taxi dipped in the dirt potholes or swerved to miss them on the paved roads. Immediately after we'd left the city, the volunteers fell asleep when the air conditioner was turned on. We stopped on the way to have coconuts. Several young boys used their machete to cut the coconuts for us at 10 pesowas (10 cents) per coconut. We drank the water and ate the milky inside. At our next stop, pillows were bought from an Ashfoam vendor. The driver set the radio dial to news or played his tape of American R&B music artists. Beyonce was heard many times over before we arrived at our hotel in Kumasi at 9:30pm. We checked into our rooms and had a late dinner. I was very excited to watch Battlestar Galactica in an air-conditioned hotel.