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My wife and I were just in Kumasi with our Subaru a few months ago -- amazing people. I was able to find a gentleman to run all over the markets in search of th

My wife and I were just in Kumasi with our Subaru a few months ago -- amazing people. I was able to find a gentleman to run all over the markets in search of the peculiar Japanese lugnuts that I had lost one of. He came back in an hour with 5 examples, and was stoked to get $2 from me. He helped me re-install and re-torque all of my lugnuts. I enjoyed nearly complete cell and data at 4G speed throughout Ghana, both on T-Mobile and Project Fi, who I assume use the same carrier. Phone top-up cards are sold everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE. The guy who sells airtime in a small village will also have a bank of power strips and will charge the villager's phones for them. I assume there is a small fee for this service. Many of the ones I saw had clever battery systems. There was a system to use your phone to pay with cell credits for merchandise, so it acts as a second currency. This was pretty common all over West Africa. They're not as far behind as you think, and they enjoy skipping over landline POTS infrastructure costs and just get to hoist a few towers all over their countries. Ghana's a great place. The optimism and nationalism make a great combo -- everyone's excited to see where they're headed next. It was one of our favorite stops on our road trip. $0.02 (or 0.09 Cedi :) ) - Mike

sah2ed 9y ago
Are you also circumnavigating Africa like HN user @grecy ?
- schmookeeg 9y ago
  We beat him home, I think our paths diverged at the Congo (we said nope and boated around, he went through I believe) -- we were in touch briefly last year and contemplated tackling the congo in a group. I think he's doing Asia also, and we chose to "first world" Asia instead of trekking through. We sent our car back to Portland from Cape Town and did Asia/Aus/NZ like proper tourists with rented cars. :)
SimbaOnSteroids 9y ago
>The optimism and nationalism make a great combo... What do you mean when you say nationalism? That's just a word that conjures up so many negative implications for me, even though I'm sure it's healthy to some degree. I guess can you describe what you mean in more detail.
- schmookeeg 9y ago
  I know all of the media is very POTUS-centric lately, so maybe there was a better word I could have used to describe a person who is proud of his country and its progress -- but a Ghanaian is very proud to be Ghanaian, and will positively light up to hear you compare his country favorably to his neighbors, something which is not remotely hard to do, particularly with neighbors like Burkina Faso and Guinea-Conakry. They're going places, and when an outsider can validate that belief, the swelling of pride is really nice to see. I was left with the impression that they have made sacrifices and gambles in their country, and they are relieved to be going places and seeing payoffs. They're still far from, say, South Africa -- but they're definitely the jewel of West Africa at the moment. Sorry that my word choice colored my opinion negatively for you. It's a wonderful place, they are a wonderful people, and it is well worth a visit. $0.02 - Mike

sah2ed 9y ago

Are you also circumnavigating Africa like HN user @grecy ?

schmookeeg 9y ago
We beat him home, I think our paths diverged at the Congo (we said nope and boated around, he went through I believe) -- we were in touch briefly last year and contemplated tackling the congo in a group. I think he's doing Asia also, and we chose to "first world" Asia instead of trekking through. We sent our car back to Portland from Cape Town and did Asia/Aus/NZ like proper tourists with rented cars. :)

SimbaOnSteroids 9y ago

>The optimism and nationalism make a great combo... What do you mean when you say nationalism? That's just a word that conjures up so many negative implications for me, even though I'm sure it's healthy to some degree. I guess can you describe what you mean in more detail.

schmookeeg 9y ago
I know all of the media is very POTUS-centric lately, so maybe there was a better word I could have used to describe a person who is proud of his country and its progress -- but a Ghanaian is very proud to be Ghanaian, and will positively light up to hear you compare his country favorably to his neighbors, something which is not remotely hard to do, particularly with neighbors like Burkina Faso and Guinea-Conakry. They're going places, and when an outsider can validate that belief, the swelling of pride is really nice to see. I was left with the impression that they have made sacrifices and gambles in their country, and they are relieved to be going places and seeing payoffs. They're still far from, say, South Africa -- but they're definitely the jewel of West Africa at the moment. Sorry that my word choice colored my opinion negatively for you. It's a wonderful place, they are a wonderful people, and it is well worth a visit. $0.02 - Mike