Arrival in Ghana

Monday, October 02, 2017
Accra, Greater Accra Region, Ghana
The flight from Amsterdam to Accra was smooth and without any troubles. Since the flight was full the "empty middle seat trick" was able to be attempted. In our row of three seats we sat next to a white woman and introduced ourselves. She was surprised to sit next to whites - especially whites from America. She's been to Ghana many times and this was the first time she sat next to Americans on the trip from Amsterdam to Accra. She is a lawyer from New Mexico who is deeply involved in a charity that strives to provide water wells (bore-holes) in remote places in Ghana. 
So far they have drilled 30-40 wells to make clean water more accessible to rural Ghanaians. One feature we thought was especially wise, was their training of locals on how to repair a pump if it breaks down. She said that in her experience often charities provide initial funds to a drill a well, but later when the pump breaks down, the well is abandoned and simply goes unused - apparently because no one follows up to repair it or teach how to repair. To solve this dilemma, when one of their wells break down, a technician goes out to repair it, but takes locals who are shown how to fix this problem. When a breakdown later occurs in the future, the local people can get the pump up and running again. Their headquarters is in a small town called Teacher Mante located about halfway between Accra and Kumasi. She gave us her phone and invited us to visit or to call if we needed any help while in Ghana. We appreciated her experience and willingness to help us if there was a need.
When we touched down in Accra we exited the plane onto the tarmac and loaded up in buses which transport you to the terminal. Once inside you pass a thermal scanner to check you for fever, then on to customs. The process to pass through customs took quite some time - about an hour. But once we got to the passport agent things went very quickly - no questions asked. We had our picture taken, fingerprints taken (all ten!), visa checked, visa stamped and we were off to baggage claim. Our bags came quickly and we were headed for the exit. It appeared to me that there were several hawkers - probably taxi drivers - between us and the exit. So I did my best to ignore them and barrel on through. But as we approached I learned they were bag checkers and needed to see our baggage ID claim checks to be sure we were exiting with or own bags rather than someone else's. I probably appeared to be a thief as I attempted at first to avoid them!
Once outside the doors were throngs of people there to meet the incoming flight. Pam immediately spotted a sheet of paper held up with our names on it. She told me later how comforting it was to arrive in a new (and somewhat intimidating) place after dark and see your name and someone to greet you and take you to the hotel. The gentleman also had an official "Airport West Hotel" shirt on. As he walked us over to the shuttle bus, another man came alongside and greeted us. He offered to take my bag and I politely refused. I've been told that I should never let anyone touch our luggage except the hotel personnel or they will expect a tip - and argue for a larger one. I ignored him without being completely rude, but he followed us all the way to the van. The driver opened or side door for Pam and came back to put our bags in the back. The man who had followed us grabbed on of the suitcases and lifted in the van and looked to me for a tip. I'm sure I appeared quite rude when I scoffed and him, shook my head and gave a dismissive grunt of some sort. He realized immediately that nothing was coming and walked back to the terminal to try to take advantage of someone else. I hate being that way and would certainly tip someone if I genuinely needed the help and that person provided it for me. But for someone to 'trick' you and then blackmail you for a tip is unethical - just not right!
We arrived at the hotel in abut 15 minutes - about 9:30 pm local time - checked in and went up to our room. After a nice shower, it was off to bed. Tomorrow we will be driven up to Kumasi to the location of the Feast of Tabernacles site.
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