Welcome to Ghana

Akwaaba, woezo, you are welcome. These are expressions you hear often in Ghana.  The first words you hear on arrival, used before greeting; be it in the home, at the airport, entering a store, anywhere.  Words of welcome are obligatory, they are used to show respect, they are a representation of the Ghana culture, the hospitality and the kind nature of the Ghanaian people.

Ghanaians make you feel welcome by offering something to drink, then comes the food.  The students' first meal was jollof rice with chicken, salad and fried plantains.  Jollof rice is flavored with tomato, a combination of onion, garlic, curry, special jollof seasoning and sometimes diced veg.  Ghanaians take pride in their jollof rice being the best in all of West Africa.  After a good night's rest they were presented a breakfast buffet in the outdoor courtyard of their university hostel.  It was packed with protein, eggs and sausage, along with bread, pancakes, oats and fresh mangoes, pineapples and watermelon.  The introduction to Ghanaian cuisine continued with a lunch of groundnut (peanut butter) soup with chicken and rice balls as well as Red Red.  Red Red is a staple dish consisting of black-eyed beans in a tomato sauce with palm oil and fried plantains.  The base of all Ghanaian cuisine is ginger, onion, chili and tomato.  It creates an aroma that fills the air and food that fills our students up with healthy energy to continue discovering Ghana.