Interesting things about Ghana (for me)

 Hello,

This is Risako, M1 student in Kawasaki group :)

We had an opportunity to visit Ghana for SATREPS project supported by JICA and  JST. It was my first time visiting Ghana, or even African continent, so not doubt the trip was full of surprise and amazement!!

Here are a list of things that I thought interesting in Ghana!

Weather☀️☔️

The weather was surprisingly very comfortable in August in Ghana! My image for Ghana or countries on the equator in general had been that it is mostly sunny and very hot. Coming from a country with crazy hot summer, (which is becoming worse and worse in recent years but anyway...) summer in Ghana was like an escape from sauna-like-summer to a lovely spring or autumn. But you can't see spring flowers or leaves changing colors like in Japan. I felt magical to experience being in a country with only dry and rainy seasons and surrounded by greenest evergreen trees.

Food 🦀

We ate a lot of Ghanian foods during our journey. 

Typical Ghanian food that most restaurants have was the beloved national dish, FUFU!! 

Fufu is the white fluffy mochi-y staple mixed with water (the white thingy on the left in the picture). It usually comes with soup or stew. The stew in the picture was fish one and this tasted the BEST!! Deep in broth, tastes just right. It must suit the taste of fish lovers :)

Another typical dish we enjoyed was fried rice (with chicken or fish)!!

Of course we love rice and while most Ghanian dish are spicy, this is the escape boat for people who don't like spicy food. But don't put that green source ever!! I can tolerate a little bit of spiciness, but this one was another level of spice...

I was surprised that in Ghana rice was one of the common staples, which makes me feel like I can live there (maybe?). Although the food portions were a little too much for me in every restaurant, I enjoyed Ghanian food a lot.

Cutest animals 🐈

For me, as an animal lover, animals in Ghana gave me much comfort in every moment. Once you walk in the streets, you can find chickens, cats, goats, cows and dogs everywhere... 

I thought most of the animals are livestock or stray, but when I asked if the dogs in a street (it was not even a street, it was in bush) are stray or not, a Ghanian friend said they were pets. To my great surprise, pets are just walking randomly in the street (or bush ;))!! That would never happen in Japan where pets are protected with most care and fat because they are fed with plenty of food and don't excercise outside like the ones in Ghana, haha :)