Market Trip...

Earlier today I headed to the Ghanaian border to drop off my good friends Phil and Ali. They are celebrating their first wedding anniversary and are taking a well-deserved week-long vacation in Ghana. The border is a few kilometres past the main market and so a few friends and I decided to take the opportunity to go to the market after dropping off Phil and Ali.

Visits to the market are always interesting experiences that add to the adventure of living in West Africa. Today my friend Liz was offered an adorable baby. It's a sad reality that some young mothers do not want their little babies, and so they offer them to any young female 'yovo' (white person) who they think would give the child a better future. Liz declined the offer.

Another person we came across asked me what my nationality was, and so I said "I'm from South Africa." This created a scene of incredulous laughter as the man argued with me, implying that because I am white, I could not be African. I told him I was a 'yovo' African. He then maintained that I could not have been born in Africa, but must just 'live' there. I was unwavering. "No, I was born and raised my whole life in South Africa. I am an African!" We both parted our ways in laughter - him in disbelief and me just laughing at the hilarity of it all. Really, I can be white and African! A few minutes later and a few stalls down another man asked me if I was from Ghana, which was also rather entertaining.

Anyway, what is there to buy at the market? Well, pretty-much anything you can think of, from chickens to sandals, football (soccer) shirts to bottles of salted peanuts and everything in-between. Always good times browsing through an African market!