#15 Shopping Without Slowing
Depending upon who you ask, it's a curse, a time waster, an excuse for being late, sign of a city gone wrong, the scourge of modern society, or alternately a thriving business opportunity.
Traffic; love it or hate it, it's something you can't avoid - unless you are an office worker who rises before dawn in order to slip into the office early enough so as to drive for one hour instead of three. For those caught up in the slow digestive system of the city, however, time spent in traffic can be used productively. If you have money, your purchase can be sourced, sampled and bought without ever getting out from behind the wheel. Described as the longest shopping centre on the planet, Accra's roads are filled with hawkers hustling for just one more sale who dodge between cars, swerving to avoid lane-splitting motorbikes, military motorcades, ambulances doubling as hearses leading funeral processions and beggars on skateboards. And when you start keeping a list, the range of goods is really quite incredible.
While women are not well catered for, a casual outfit for men is no problem. Shirts, tshirts and polo shirts, trousers, socks, belts, handkerchiefs and even shoes - flip flops (playboy ones with naked women, plain rubber or leather with recycled tyre tread soles) are available as are leather laceups. Slow far enough away from the traffic lights and you can try them on before the next change. Pick up a new wallet to go in your new trousers, and a new key ring while you're at it. For good measure perhaps accessorise with a cowboy or baseball cap and a pair of sunglasses (displayed on a metre square board) that would make Paris Hilton proud (spectacles also available if you want something more practical).If you need a new look to go with your new outfit, hairclippers (Nyani picked up a good set near the airport for around $30), electric shavers and hairbrushes are available. If you're worried the pants might not fit you can buy a skipping rope, thigh master, or exercise kit. Make sure you get a set of scales to keep track of your progress.
If weight is not an issue then perhaps at the next traffic light you could sample some of the food on offer. So far we've seen coconuts, meat pies, pineapples, crackers, chocolate bars, mints, bubble gum, donuts, sugar cane, potato chips, fish, lobsters, ground nuts, cashews, apples, grapes, onions, plantain chips (pronounced 'prantain chiiiiisss') and my favourite, the walking sandwich bar - a lady with a huge wooden platter on her head piled high with loaves of bread, margarine and groundnut paste. Pick up some water or a coke to wash it down. You might also want to consider buying a tooth cleaning stick before you get where you're going.
Perhaps though traffic's a bit slow and you need something to while away the hours. Newspapers and magazines are aplenty, ranging from fashion mags to Time, Newsweek and the Economist or National Geographic. Dictionaries are common fare, pens easy to come by and oddly enough, the Complete Works of Shakespeare are so common you should be able to negotiate a good price. Maps and posters of the times tables are a handy addition to your car if you think the kids are going to be late for school (and they're done reading Shakespeare).
Maybe though it's Friday afternoon and your thoughts are turning to something a bit more domestic, still there's plenty to choose from - you may want to pick up a mouse trap or rat poison from the man toting a hook full of hapless victims, a clock, torch, calculator, DVD (porn or otherwise), adaptor, power bar, car adaptor, lantern, binoculars, coat hangers, garden shears, a tool set, cushion, tablecloth, dinner plates, lap top bag, paint brush, lint roller, multi tool, walking stick, coffee mug, car air freshener, windscreen wiper, steering wheel cover, nametag holder or one of the myriad styles of washcloths.
If the kids were not placated by the maps, foam jigsaws are available, as are soccer balls and countless other soccer accessories (flags, shirts, horns), a multitude of cheap plastic junk (it would take a whole other blog to expand this category - but think crappy plastic toy motorcycles or penguin-shaped skittles) and for the girl in your life with a penchant for music, Hannah Montana merchandise is very popular on many street corners - last week I noticed life size stickers had been added to the inventory.
Perhaps you might want to get the kids a pet. Yes, from the comfort of your car you can buy puppies, (dog leads also widely available), kittens, chickens or parrots. If you're after something a bit more unusual you might consider a
grasscutter (dead or alive) and yesterday I even discovered that you can buy
pangolins at the roundabout near the Accra Mall. (If it wasn't a pangolin I don't know what it was, but if it was a lizard I don't want to run into it in the dark).
For the tourist in your life there are cheap and nasty carvings of all descriptions, and for the more religiously inclined, at the roundabout near the Polo Grounds you can pick up a metal embossed picture of the Last Supper (if you can pass up the framed hologram eagle of course) or at 37th lights on Friday we saw glow in the dark crucixes on key chains (hurry before they're all snapped up!).
And last but not least there are those few more mundane purchases - a mobile phone recharge card, a box of tissues, or perhaps a twelve pack of toilet paper.
What more could you want?
