i fell down a manhole

when i finished writing my last post it was dark out and i had to catch a cab. i was at the german technical corporation building in Accra's "financial district", which is near where i work everyday but i had never seen it at night before. this city has no streetlights and so everything is dark at night except for the lights from buildings. the area was pretty much deserted on a saturday night at eight pm so no buildings had lights on (the sun sets in Ghana at around 6pm every night, because we're so close to the equator). It was like a blackout except for the occasional lights of a passing car. so i was at an intersection trying to flag down a cab when all of sudden i fall down a hole that i couldnt see because it was so dark. i managed to catch myself with my arms before i fell all the way into the sewer or whatever it was, but it was pretty close. there was a trotro full of people that saw me half-disappear and there was a gasp from its direction so im sure they wouldve helped me if i had gone all the way in. i can see the headlines "Obruni Falls in Hole, Tro Tro to the Rescue".
anyway so i pulled myself out of the hole and limped into a taxi and got home before realising that i was bleeding from my shin. considering i had fallen into an open sewer, the girls at home were pretty worried i was gonna get an infection because of the open wound so they disinfected me and wrapped me up in bandages and all that and ive been taking antibiotics. so i dont think im gonna lose my leg. its just a funny story that a lot of people can relate to for some reason. apparently people fall into holes a lot here. its the mixture of open sewers and no streetlights that does it i guess.

On Monday, Ghana played their first World Cup game against Italy. This is Ghana's first ever world cup appearance and everyone here had been excited for weeks leading up to Monday. A big group of us went to independence square to watch the game. Independence square is a massive soviet style meeting place that can hold up to 30000 people at a time. Some businessmen had set up huge screens and sound systems so that people could watch the game there. and it was crazy. there were maybe 1 or 2 thousand people watching and most of them were chanting and singing and dancing and yelling. the obruni population was high which kind of took away from the atmosphere but the Ghanaians were definitely making themselves heard. anyway the game wasnt great. ghana played well but they couldnt score and the final as 2-0 italy. people left pretty deflated but people are still hopeful for next game which is on saturday.

my boss is taking me to Kumasi, ghana's second biggest city tommorow and friday for a workshop on something or other which is cool because i get to travel for free. apparently kumasi has the biggest open market in west africa which is supposed to be terrifying and incredible at the same time. i think i might stay in kumasi for the weekend so ill write about it next week.