More on traveling to Ghana

How is the food in Ghana for a picky eater?



Ohh, Ghana for the picky eater... I had this same questions about Ethiopia. Let me give you the hard core answer, then I'll give you the friendly American answer.



You are traveling to a third world country. Some of the people don't even get to eat 3 meals a day. You don't get to be "picky" you just eat foods that you think or know won't make you sick. Eat rice and if you are worried about any food, pack a box of protien bars. Unless you have some medical reason this won't work, I am pretty sure you'll live on the protient bars just fine. Seriously you will rethink this kind of question after your trip.



Ohh, okay. Here's my nice answer. As the mother of a traveling 9 year old, the above answer would have resulted in some serious drama. It will take a little effort but you'll do fine. If you can't eat spicy food you'll be a bit more limited. But There is chicken fish and rice at most places, local or more American. Not too far from EH you will find some more "American" type foods. You can get Pizza, Fried Rice, French Fries, Chicken and Fish. You can also find ice cream if you look around.



There are a couple of more American markets and you can buy pasta and sauce and cook it at your guest house. There are plenty of breads around. Ramen and Mac n Cheese can be made too. Remeber that you only want to eat fruit that you can peel. I did see apples, but I didn't want to go through the work of peeling them. I personally really, really liked fried/grilled plantains. I wish I would have tried these earlier, they could have helped me through a few moments of hunger.



There is bread everywhere, if you are a peanut butter eater, you might just bring a jar along. I also did bring protien bars, they are a good back-up if you are served food you are pretty sure would make you sick, or if you fail to access food before dark.



One other point, some days it is so hot, you won't be very hungry. Just be sure you are getting enough water. If you like bananas those are easy to find too. I think worst case scenario is if you get ill and you need to find something you can eat... bread and rice and bananas should get you through.







How did you handle the weather/heat? I am very pale and
sunburn easily. I also am very sensitive to
the heat and humidity.



My father is Mediteratanian. At a glace and I have that white, pasty, burn in a second kind of skin. But my skin responded really well to the sun in Ghana, some of his DNA passed on and saved me on this trip. I didn't need very much sunscreen and I never did burn.



However, it took my husband's Norweigan pink skin about 10 minutes to start to look pretty red. My daughter shares his pale sensitive skin, in less than 24 hours she was covered in a heat rash.



A few recommendations:

Take cortizone CREAM along. Not a gel-type, apparently thoe gel can irritate heat rash. If you get the rash, start to apply cream immediately and repeatedly. It only provides relief, but it can help you feel more comfortable.

Take cream/lotion-type sunscreen. My own non-scientific experienment showed that the heat rash did not like the oily sprays, but were much less reactive to the lotion (maybe even nutrogena which was what we happened to have with)

The humidity is intense and you have to prepare to drink water. Bring along a handerchief/bandana of sorts to wipe the constantly dripping sweat. Angelisa was much more pleasant once we implemented this simple tool.

If you are staying at a place with a/c, go and cool down after lunch when it is the hottest. Give your skin a chance to dry.

Having any kind of fan gives you a little relief. Even if this means folding up a paper fan. I bought one that was weaved while I was there, it was very nice to have when the power went out.



Or save yourself some time and just Google "prickly heat" and you can find more scientific answers :-)







We are planning on taking our 7 & 8 year olds with us when we go. I know everyone has different opinions on taking children. We have several different people who are very interested in going with us. We are considering inviting one other close friend to go to help us with the boys while we are there. Thoughts? We had actually planned on taking our boys this next coming year to Africa to visit our friends in Accra prior to realizing we wanted to adopt this year!!



Since I have a running reputation for long answers, I won't even apologize in advance for this long one. You'll note I have a couple of strong yet conflicting opinions on this.

Watch for an update to this post with my complete answer!



*another question:
How do I know if my child understands me, is there a language barrier even though they speak english.