Madina Merriness: Mobile Phone Repair by Mobile Max

I was in Madina this afternoon to take my phone for repairs. You might remember Madina a while back, where I featured the Madina Police station and the market.

This is the placard of "Mobile Max", one of the largest Mobile phone retailers in the country, with many branches dotted around the capital. It has a penchant for giving people clocks, radios, and irons around festive seasons--with a caveat: buy something beyond, say, cedis500,000 ($uS50.00);-)

Whilst we are on Metro Mass Transport

This is a picture, taken last year, of me holding a ticket for the Metro Mass Transport bus I took. If you are interested, you can read more on this here, about how it began to upstage the tro-tros, that are the soul and life of many a foreigner travelling througout Ghana.

In any event, the 1000 cedis you see is so cheap it's not funny;-) $US1=cedis 9000, so that's, what, 1/9th of a dollar, or 9 cents? to travel from inside the capital to the airport area, which is about twenty minutes.

Going to the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange

That orange bus there is one of our many Metro Mass Transport buses, which have been providing free transport for pupils to school during school period, and offering very low prices within the city (ç1,500-2000)-- around 15 to 22 cents.. More of these to come!

good to be back!

This is where I was last week for a conference:

Cresta Royale--a plush, 4* South African hotel that has won the award this year for the best hospitality in Accra. You can visit their website here.

Just a small note...

...I will be away from my desk/office for next few days for an organisational conference, but will post when I can. I am STILL here in the capital, and will be sure to bring you some juicy pictures. Right now, blogger is refusing to accept photos. PLease accept my apologies:-)

Welcome to West Africa's ICT Powerhouse

Though I took this picture last year, I don't want to re-invent the wheel, so I'm copying what the website says about West Africa's biggest ICT centre:

The Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE), Ghana's first Advanced Information Technology Institute works to stimulate the growth of the ICT Sector in ECOWAS. Established in 2003, through a partnership between the Government of Ghana and the Government of India, this state-of the-art facility provides a dynamic environment for innovation, teaching and learning as well as practical research on the application of ICT4D in Africa.

The Centre houses West Africa's first supercomputer as well as top-of-the line desktops and laptops. The spacious meeting and lecture rooms as well as the 802.11 wireless network guarantee that the AITI-KACE can host close to a 1000 IT professionals, researchers, visitors and trainees at any given time.

from: http://www.aiti-kace.com.gh/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26&Itemid=32

On that note, I'd like to wish you a very relaxing and stress-free weekend!

PS.pour tous mes amis francais, j'aimerais leur souhaiter une agreable journee du fete pour le 14 juillet!

A Glimpse of CITI-97.3FM's weekly free Salsa Mania event

So there I was on Wednesday evening around 9.30pm at the Coconut Grove Regency Hotel, located "within 3-6 minutes drive of USAID, the World Bank Office, Danish, Canadian, German, Swiss, Nigerian and American Diplomatic Missions, Ghana Immigration Service and National Theatre, Government Ministries and the Accra Intentional Center, all on “traffic free” routes."(from: http://www.coconutgrovehotels.com.gh/Regency/regency_index.htm on private business with my parents when I heard feedback from the car's radio as we approached.

It was CITI-97.3FM--the Accra-based English speaking private radio station, which you can listen to in crystal-clear quality wherever you are in the world (I know, cos people from Germany and the UK have been calling in the 8.45am regular phone-ins to the CITI Breakfast Show; and listeners send emls from South Africa and the US!)--hosting its weekly Wednesday Salsa Mania event, where Latin American tunes are played, and people get FREE Salsa lessons.

Guess you never thought Salsa was big in Accra. Now you know;-)

Oh yeah, you see the guy on the left of this picture wearing a tie, and holding his mobile phone, with a document, or so, under his left arm?

Definitely middle class!

for more on teh CITI-FM Salsa page, click here

Welcome to the Biggest Internet Cafe in (West) Africa!

Here's a popular view of it, which I captured in April when I was there for a three-day training...

...and this is a view from one of the BusyInternet eateries, where you get some nice, juicy kebabs

Check the website out:Busy Internet. It's owned by a New Yorker. I'm not about to do any premature advertising for it--it's rich enough--so I exhort you all to check the website out for yourselves:-))

The Substitute

In Ghana, given the mostly clement weather, when your mower breaks down, this is what you do:

Mow the lawn...

...with a wonky cutlass:-))

Liberation Circle, Accra

I took this picture, as the date suggests, last May. To the immediate right is the road that leads to the Accra International Conference Centre. Wondering why there is so much blue? Well, that's from the taxi from which I took this picture.

Another thing you might notice about this picture are the trees in the middle, which is the Liberation circle. It is an interesting area in the sense that that the routes that lead from the circle go to our Public Utilities Regulatory Commission, which ought to regulate our utilities, but doesn't always do so effectively;-); many banks, such as SG-SSB, which is a merger between Ghana's Social Security Bank, and the worldwide Societe Generale, which also operates in Belgium (in fact one of the biggest there).

It also leads to downtown Accra, including the Electricity Company of Ghana, which I featured earlier in these series of pictures.

Silver Star Tower, Airport 'City'

Located just minutes drive from Ghana's airport, you will find Silver Star Tower, which is a huge edifice that hosts Ghana International Airlines; South African Stanbic Bank, regional West African bank ECOBANK.