Since Burkina and Ghana are neighbours, we figured the task should have been quick and easy. Ninety minutes, four banks, four exchange bureaus and a trip to the Ghanaian embassy later (all on foot at a Canadian--read: brisk--pace, I should add), I had long since been struck by how much finance in West Africa seems to be oriented towards Europe and North America. I could have changed the money into Euros, US and Canadian dollars, pounds or even Swiss francs at any one of the places I tried, but there was no African currency to be had. (Megan had the same problem when she tried to get CFA for the Central African money her home bank mistakenly gave her.)
What was even more astounding was that each time I asked bank tellers where I could find cedis, if not at their bank, I was told that I could try an exchange bureau, but I should really just go to the bus station and buy it on the black market. The Ghanaian embassy's advice was to wait and buy it at the border (from whom, I'm not quite sure), while the advice of the encadreurs at ANERSER was to walk into a grocery store when we got to Accra and try to sell our CFA there. All in all, it doesn't sound like we'll have a problem finding cedis (although we'll want to be wary of counterfeit), but it says something about the relationship between West African economies that their currencies don't seem to be in demand abroad in any official capacity, even in the closest of neighbours.
By the end of the morning, I think I was a great source of disappointment to the young boys selling packets of Lotus (Kleenex) on every street corner--they must have thought I was crazy not to want to buy their wares to wipe the rivers of sweat running down my face.
We leave tomorrow morning on the 8:30 bus and should pull into Accra at about 5:30 on Saturday morning. I'm not yet sure if or how we'll celebrate Canada Day, although I've been joking with the neighbours that the spectacular heat lightning that has been animating Ouaga nights will be my Canada Day fireworks this year. Hope the holiday goes well for everyone at home--I will be thinking of you.
posted by Emily @ 10:16 p.m.
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