New stuff

Another month has passed, where does this all time go? Anyway as usual there is plenty to write about, hard to decide what to write about first…

Let’s start from – news from Ghana:) – New Cedis have arrived. Yup – we have re-denomination of local currency. Since July 1^st banks introduce new currency (notes and coins) by exchanging old one to new.

With new currency we now have old 10 000 Cedis = 1 Ghana Cedi, 5000 Cedis = 50 Ghana Pesewas (Pesewas are new coins). New Cedis are smaller and somehow I find them better looking than old ones.

Anyway below you will find pictures of new notes and coins (so far I have only seen 1 Cedi note – see third picture).

“Value is the same” (name of the campaign under which new Cedis are being introduced):

BTW I figured out I have not posted pics of now old currency (I have some packed to give out to my friends) – I took pictures of all old notes:) and I’m posting them too!

What else – since we are here since beginning of February we decided to take short break from work – yes! Holidays are coming – from August 17^th till September 7^th we are resting in Poland!

Returning to recent events – weather lately is not that bad. We managed to adopt to temperatures and we hardly ever use air condition now (we kept only one fan – but this even local people use). Anyway rain season brought several heavy storms, which turned out to be, well not that friendly – below you will find pictures of how our courtyard looked like after one of this storms.

Many parts of Accra were flooded and several people have died. It’s worth mentioning that from what we heard and learned not many people here can swim! Way all is build here also does not help during such situations – many shops were simply carried away by water and goods were destroyed. I have read in newspaper article presenting comments of person responsible for city construction plans (development, etc.) complaining about lack of responsibility taken in building. In many occasions flood could be avoided if new buildings were constructed in proper way

Also as most of sewers system is open here (usually going along the roads with covers only by main streets and in town center) lots of filth got out… you could see many different things (mainly garbage) being carried by water…

Water did not only damage shops or warehouses, but also many, many houses – just to show you an example. By our wall there is small, what I would normally call shed – which we found out was a house, habited by family of 5-6 people (husband, wife, 3 kids and sometimes grandmother). They were lucky that during storm someone was inside to put more valuable stuff higher to prevent flooding.

I think that will be all for today. I have problem with site counter (one on the right sidebar) it’s not working like it should – if anyone knows good site with free counters plz leave me a comment. Anyway site has over 1000 visitors so far – thank you all who came here to read what I write! I hope you enjoyed it.

What’s coming new? For sure new food of the week, than I have 2 big reports to write for you – one from opening of chop bar we’ve been invited too, second from our trip to Kakum National Park and Elumina where we saw old fort and learned about slave trading.

See you next time!