The point of returning to London was to do a few administrative tasks before setting out on the next phase of my life - but an unexpected email threw me off-course. It seems that a couple of colleagues I'd worked with some years ago had recommended me to the Executive Director of a small US-based NGO as the ideal person to go to Ghana to investigate a possible fraud. Difficult not to be flattered by such an approach, I couldn't refuse. So I was off to Ghana!!
They put me in a nicer hotel than I expected, but there was so much work to get through that I only found time to use the swimming pool once and didn't even find the gym, nor turn on the TV. But I did accept an offer from one of the staff there of a two-hour tour of the highlights of Accra, having realised that on all my previous visits to the country, whilst I'd been along the coast to see the slave forts, and into the interior to see some birds, I had not properly visited the capital city. Not that Accra has any outstanding tourist sites, but I got to see Independence Square and the nearby Black Star Gate (commissioned by the first post-independence president in honour of Queen Elizabeth II), to be driven past the parliament, theatre, etc, and through the more lively and interesting neighbourhoods of Jamestown and Chorkor.
But I also had to visit some of the partners they work with, one of which was on the shores of Lake Volta - another part of the country I hadn't been to before, and a nine-hour trip including the ferry across the lake, so plenty of time to look out of the window at the countryside but also some (final?) views of the typical life of the region, as we passed through villages and towns along the route. Of course there were birds around too, and a few baboons on the road at one point.
An unexpected event took place, however, whilst I was staying out in the town beside the lake. I heard a shout outside and the sound of someone running. Through my window I saw someone run past with a fire extinguisher in their hand. I poked my head out of the door to see smoke coming from the roof of the executive rooms, a few doors down from my room, so I grabbed my camera...
Within a frighteningly short time, that smoking roof had turned into a raging inferno in the hotel room below. The fire service were called, and hotel staff also ran around throwing buckets of water at the building, but by the time the fire was out, three rooms had been gutted, the roof burnt out, and the belongings of one guest completely destroyed. It was shocking to see how quickly a fire could spread.
The colleague who'd driven me there was convinced that I must have found incriminating evidence at the partner's offices, and they were trying to burn the evidence I'd written up in my report, but in fact I'd found nothing wrong at that partner and the culprit was far more likely to have been linked to the comings and goings of the power supply during the time we were staying there.
In any case it didn't stop me completing the work - and thankfully, with all of the chaos affecting airports during this period, I was able to fly home as scheduled and my luggage arrived back in London only three hours after I did, on the next flight.
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