In episode two of The Amazing Race, the ten remaining teams set out from Eastnor Castle, where they spent the night in the English countryside, to the city of Accra, which is in Ghana. Jill and Thomas leave first, having come in first in the preceding week, thereby earning the new Express Pass which will enable them to skip any task (up to week eight) on this year’s race. They quickly discover, however, that there is only one plane leaving for Ghana each day, erasing their current lead.
Once they arrive, each team on The Amazing Race must snag a taxi and make their way to Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, which honors the Ghanian Father of Independence. Each team has $137 for this leg of the race. Connor and Jonathan wait for Brooke and Claire, as Brooke teases Claire about getting hit in the face by a catapulted watermelon in last week’s episode. The teams can’t find the way to go to the airport, until an English “tractor guy” succumbs to Brooke’s promise of a “big, sloppy kiss from an American.”
“I just kissed an Englishman in a tractor,” exults Brooke, deciding right there and then on her future race strategy of kissing strangers to get ahead. Mallory is looking forward to kissing African babies, while Kevin worries that his father, Michael, will slow him down; Kevin is even more worried about this possibility.
But once they all arrive they are just stunned by the reality of Ghana and overwhelmed by the traffic, wild driving, trash, bustling crowds and persistent beggars. Brooke and Claire are the first team to arrive at the target spot, Makola Market. Andie and Jenna arrive last. Makola Market is teaming with humanity. A million people, and it stinks,” observes one team member, but Michael is familiar with such markets, having grown up in Taiwan, and volunteers to do the roadblock of selling sunglasses to earn $15 cedi.
Gary and Mallory once again experience car trouble as their taxi with the cracked windshield stops running. They finally switch to another taxi, also with a cracked windshield, but it starts right up and off they go. Other teams try their luck at selling, and Brooke shows her Home Shopping Network chops. Whether it was the flattery or the hugs and kisses, she quickly sold her quota. A lot of others encounter people eager to have their fifteen minutes of fame, but not always as eager to actually buy the glasses. Mallory had an offer to buy all the glasses, but after she counted up all 200, the fellow decided to buy only one pair after all. Another woman sang and danced for her glasses, after wards walking casually off blowing kisses without paying. Jill, conscious of the hardships around her, refused to sell a pair of glasses that were scratched, helping the gentleman find another pair, while Kat, a doctor, decided she would not soon be quitting her “day job” for the chance to be a “Ghanian professional sunglass seller!” Michael, however, does the job quickly and easily, impressing Kevin.
The next stop is Peace Motor Spare Parts, a tiny place where the teams must detour, or decide between two tasks, Tune In or Check Out. If they choose Tune In, they must find an electrical supply store, Adom’s Electrical, and collect supplies for installing a t.v. antenna. Then they must find a marked house, install the antenna outside and inside the house, and get the television tuned in properly to receive their next clue. Or they can Check Out, which involves making their way to Emmanuel’s Woodshop and choosing one of the uniquely carved coffins that reflect the lifestyle of the future occupant, maneuver it on a small cart to a shop, and tote it up the stairs.
Brooke and Claire, the first to arrive, choose the television antenna installation. Brooke gets to work, at one point perching precariously on the top of a lime green refrigerator, but it is hard for her to get the t.v. tuned. Michael, however, after finally recognizing the Peace Motor shop, easily completes the task, prompting his son, Kevin, to admit that his dad is “no longer just the guy in the back, running, but is a valuable team member.”
Other teams chose coffins shaped like a camera, fish, or piano, and laboriously carted them across town and through killer traffic to the shop. Connor and Jonathan, who tried and failed at the television antenna installation, switch to the coffin task, but keep running it in to everything they pass. Kat gets run over by her lobster shaped coffin, but jumps up unhurt.
Many teams’ taxis have trouble finding places, causing some nerves, but the real fear is experienced by teams Nat and Kat, whose taxi invents a third lane down the middle to navigate the massive traffic jam, and Connor and Jonathan, whose taxi driver tries to keep up. Jenna tells her Mom they have to give it their all, “even if we pass out on the mat.”
Brooke and Claire are the first team trying to find the pit stop at the huge, bewildering Kaneshie Market, under the foot bridge, and In the end, Brooke and Claire, the “ditzy la-la girls,” come in first at the pit stop on The Amazing Race, winning a ten-day trip for two to Hawaii from Travelocity. Katie and Rachel are second, Michael and Kevin make third, and Chad and Stephanie come in fourth. Jill and Thomas arrive fifth, Connor and Jonathan are sixth, Nat and Kat, seventh and Nick and Vicki come in eighth. Mallory and Gary squeak in at ninth, but mother-daughter team Andie and Jenna are the last team to arrive, and are eliminated from The Amazing Race.
Andie tells Jenna that giving her up for adoption was a gift, and while she wished it could have been her, she knows the family that raised Jenna have made her who she is today. They both are grateful for this special time to get to know one another better after twenty one years apart.
Tune in next week when the remaining nine teams will experience Africa and heat exhaustion!
Source:
Personal Experience watching The Amazing Race on CBS
