The Joys Of Accra Apartment Living

Ghana - pronounced in this case with an exaggerated first a - sort of elongated and exhaled - Ghaaaana. To be accompanied by a shaking of one's head in resignation.

This is an exclamation I here often driving here with my long-time driver F (met within the first 20 minutes of my stepping outside the terminal on day one of trip one in February 2019) and my longest tenured VA whom I've known almost as long. The expression is typically used when we encounter any of the myriad inanities or frustrations that crop up in a lean economy like Ghana. It is sort of like when you bitch and bitch about something. Then you use this as the catch-all term for 'What can you do? That's the way it is?"

I feel that way about renting short-stay apartments here.

 I have now made 10 trips to Ghana and have stayed in apartments in all but the first two trips. To be charitable, let's just say that the standard for workmanship and maintenance in short-term rental units is a bit lacking. There is literally always something not working. The apartment I have been in on this trip and the last, has a refrigerator that sort of keeps food cold, a fan/light hood over the stove that doesn't seem to be connected to any electrical power, an ironing board with no cover, a washing machine with no rack or lines for hanging clothes to dry. The internet modem was on its last legs and would go down at least once a day (It was replaced.) All these are kind of...well...what you expect. But I had an experience that was totally novel during the trip. 

Last Sunday, I was eating lunch when there was a knock at my door. It is my next neighbor. Their air conditioning unit is not working. The unit is on the roof. The only way to reach the unit is by placing a ladder on the balcony of my unit! Of course, I said it was okay, I didn't want people to go without A/C. Through out the afternoon, people are going up and down, in and out, bringing new A/C units up and old one's down. All the while trying to not destroy my apartment and looking sheepishly at me.

Sunday evening arrives and they are not done. They want to come back on Monday but I will be in the office all day. It is not until Thursday that I am in the apartment and they can finish. 

Now I am thinking...Who designs the utilities of a building so they can only be reached by going through a 3rd party's unit? There is no other way to get to the roof of this apartment complex? Seems weird.

Ghana.