On 19th January we said our goodbyes to Mariam and Darligton who had looked after us so well at the villa and moved to the Hotel Byblos in central Accra. On the outside the hotel looked promising, but looks can be deceptive!
The three of us were originally shown rooms in the annex area across the road from the main hotel. Shortly after lugging my very heavy cases up the steep stairs (there is no lift) one of the hotel staff came and told me I had to move to different room in the main building! Getting the cases down the steep stairs was even more difficult than getting them up them in the first place, which resulted in them being dropped and bounced down a number of stairs more than once – fortunately there wasn’t much in them to break!
The new room I was allocated was just off the reception area – good news as it meant I would not have to carry the cases up yet more stairs. The bad news was that as soon as the door was opened there was an almost overpowering smell of damp coming from the room. Mosquitoes in the room were also a problem as the screening on the window was missing on one half and broken on the other. There were plenty of gaps in the window frame for these pesky insects to enter. That night I got no sleep due to the nauseating smell and noise from the air conditioning unit which had no control unit to turn it to the sleep setting. The next morning I had a splitting headache and felt quite nauseous. For those of you who know what I am like when I have had insufficient sleep, you can imagine what sort of mood I was in!
The shower did have hot water, but the shower curtain was useless and drainage was very poor. After a short period of time the water overflowed the shower and flooded the bathroom floor. The toilet flushed, but the seat was loose so it had to be used with care!
For breakfast there was a choice of egg and bread or bread and egg! Not good for a person who has a problem with eating eggs!
I asked to see the manager, but he wasn’t available. My colleagues in the annex had similar issues, but also had the added concern about the lack of security as the outside door to the annex did not lock so was open all night. The hotel’s annex is the building next to House of Spirits below. The pink building is a new expensive night club – Citizen Kofi.
I think it is too easy to say “What do you expect in a developing country.” The fact is that we live in an ever shrinking world and tourism is a potential source of significant foreign income for countries like Ghana. However, people will only travel to such places if the essentials are right, i.e. basic cleanliness, maintenance and an acceptable level of customer care. I also believe that organisations such as VSO have a role to play in raising standards. Businesses should only receive their custom if certain standards are met and checks should be conducted to ensure minimum standards are maintained. Businesses that fail to meet these expectations should lose their custom until deficiencies are put right. Such action would support the overall raising of standards, which can only be in everyone’s interest.
The irony of our experience at the hotel is that we calculated it would have been cheaper for VSO to have put us up at the villa than in this sub-standard hotel!
Restaurants
Our experience of restaurants in Accra was similar to that of accommodation. The Lebanese restaurant attached to the hotel had shabby furniture, tatty menus, slow service and uninspiring food – needless to say we only ate there once. A short distance away there is an Italian restaurant, Leonardo’s, that has excellent decor and some of the best service I have experienced anywhere in the world. The food was also great and very reasonably priced. As we enjoyed our first meal there so much we returned the next day to sample something else from their extensive menu and to celebrate my birthday (and the fact that I was entering my 50th year!) a few days early.
In Country Training
As there were only the three of us that needed training, we had an intensive few days to cover all the things we need to know before heading north.
Dora, who is responsible for the VSO education programme in Ghana, gave us a comprehensive overview of Ghanaian education system and the issues affecting education, whilst Eric informed us about the Tackling Education Needs Inclusively (TENI) project. We thought the UK was bad for acronyms, but I can assure you Ghanaians win hands down! Their guiding principle appears to be why use words when a string of letters will do! We also had a briefing on cultural practices from Nii and a health briefing that made us all want to return to the safety of the UK!
