Dream Trip 2008: September

Great Travel Moment

Jamestown is an area of Accra that is very poor, yet very vibrant. Street vendors line the streets below crumbling buildings from the colonial area, and children amuse themselves easily with found objects. I was in the area looking for the place where the letter typists sit and take dictations from people: letters, official correspondence, and even poetry. I became happily lost and happened upon these girls, who were pretending to be pregnant with balloons under their shirts. The whole row of water bag, CD, and phone service vendors chuckled as the girls passed, acting exhausted from the heat and laughing with delight. That universally pure, simple joy and camaraderie of girlfriends in childhood comes back to me every time I look at this photo. But it's not just that: Accra won me over for street scenes like this. Ghana is a country full of people eager to laugh: what could be more fun?