Arriving In Ghana

AKWAABA, You are welcome! This is the greeting I have heard many times since arriving in Ghana. It is a very warm, friendly greeting. When I reply thank-you all is good. When I reply medase (spelling?), everyone laughs. Medase is Twi for thank-you.

I’ll try to tell you what has been happening. I left Tucson for Phoenix Monday afternoon 6 August around 1:00. I arrived in London with time to catch my flight to Ghana. However, after the plane sat on the tarmac for over an hour, I missed my connection. I then waited 7 hours and flew to Nairobi, Kenya. Then another 2 hour wait and I flew to Ghana arriving 8 August Wednesday around 1:00 in the afternoon. YEAH! I made it to Ghana. Big Bummer, 3 of my 4 bags did not. I had 3 checked bags and 2 carry on bags. In Nairobi one of my carry ons went into the storage area. It was the only one I got back. On 12 August Sunday one of my bags arrived. Today is 14 August Tuesday and still the other two have not come. They will turn up it’s just a matter of time. So, the promised picture of the items in Ghana will have to come another time.

There are some important things I have learned in this my first week back that follow:
1) Carryon luggage MUST have wheels! 7 hours in London lugging around two heavy bags was more than I could do. Since they didn’t have any luggage carts around, I found an unused wheelchair and used that for my bags.
2) Nairobi is in Kenya. Kenya is on the other side of Africa from Ghana. It is not the best way to get to Accra from London.
3) Ensure at least 3 hours between planes in London. Otherwise you may end up traveling for another 20 hours and going through Nairobi.
4) Never, Never, Never turn down a bath. They feel so very wonderful and if you try to go to bed without one you’ll wish you hadn’t!
5) The smallest amount of milk with my malaria pills makes me puke. Yes, I learned this the hard way a second time now. Hopefully, next time I come to Ghana I’ll remember.
6) You can wear an outfit for 2 days but on day 3 Ma Jane will tell you to change your clothes. It’s bad enough she has to train the children now she has to train me too.
7) Even in a village in the rain forest in Ghana you will hear electronic game noises. A volunteer gave the children a game that does all the beepy annoying things electronic games do.
8) Doing laundry in a rain forest is not an easy task. The washing by hand is the same. Three big bowls are used one for the first wash, another the second wash and finally for the rinse. When the rinse gets too soapy or the first wash too dirty, the first wash water is thrown out, the second wash becomes the first wash, the rinse becomes the second wash and fresh water is now used to rinse. That is no problem (especially since I sit and watch the mothers and the children do it!) The difficulty comes in getting the clothes dry. It will rain in the afternoon for sure. You leave the wash out for a small sprinkle and if a large rain comes you run out and take it all down. During the evening you bring in all the laundry. In the morning you put everything back out on the line and hope it will dry before the rains comes.
9) In Ghana to honor a welcomed guest extra oil is used in cooking their food. Ma Jane gave me about a cup of oil in my beans. I drained as much off as I could. She asked me if the oil was “spoiled” (gone bad or rotten). I told her it was very good but much more than I can have. I am still working on convincing her that I don’t need as much oil in my food as she keeps providing. This trip I may come back with 50 more pounds if I don’t get this quickly changed!
10) Almonds grow on trees and some are planted by the Junior Secondary School (JSS). The pod that is around the almond is huge. The pod is at least 10 times larger than the yellow shell I am used to seeing. Regina and Patricia found the pods, used rocks to pound off the outside pod portion and then finally cracked the final almond shell. All of that work for one small almond which would then be shared with everyone sitting there (5 of us). It was delicious. Don’t worry, there is plenty of food in the home. Finding an almond on the playground is a treat to be enjoyed and shared.

When I arrived the children sang me a song and presented me with flowers. It was very nice.

Kweku is our youngest. He is 2.5 years old and is fluent in Twi. Anything that is not Twi he will nod his head and answer yes. Luckily, he is not afraid of white people. He sat on my lap the very first day. When he gets tired he goes and lies down in the boys’ room. He puts himself down for a nap when he is tired usually in the morning but sometimes in the afternoon too. One day I thought he was asleep in the boys’ room. I looked on all the beds and didn’t see him. I started to panic until I saw he was sleeping on a mat on the floor between the beds. He can sleep through anything. The roof is corrugated metal. There was a huge storm so you had to shout to hear each other. He slept through it just fine. However, one day when his grandmother came to visit he immediately awoke. She just said hello and was talking to the Ma Jane and Grandma Emelia in a normal voice. It is Kweku’s favorite voice so he jumped up to see her. It was very cute. She visited for about an hour. He didn’t cry when she left, he just said bye-bye. He knows she’ll be back for anther visit.

One day a little girl came walking into the yard. Kweku ran over and greeted her with a hug. They were so cute. We were all going to the school yard to play. The little girl held Kweku’s hand and was coming along. I said, “Wait, wait, who is her mother? We can’t take her with us without permission.” “Don’t worry Madam Florence, it is OK. She is Grandma’s daughter’s child,” replied Patience. Emelia smiled and said that it was fine for her to go with us. Thus started our trip to the school where the almonds were found, football (soccer) was played and two young children made me laugh.

Kweku and Mami were like kids anywhere. They saw all the open grass and ran, fell down and laughed. Mami called me Obruni (white person), she’d run and fall. I thought it was hysterical to hear such a small girl call me Obruni that I laughed. Big mistake. Now both Mami and Kweku would say Obruni and I’d watch them run and fall or roll around or jump and do all the things 2.5 year old children do. The mistake was in encouraging them to call me Obruni. That is fine for people who don’t know me but when you know me I should be either Madam Florence or Ma or Auntie (to someone of my same generation I would be sister). So I told the kids to call me Ma and when they said Obruni I wouldn’t look. When they said Ma I would. Kweku and Mami kept calling Obruni, Obruni, Obruni and I kept ignoring them. Finally Mami said, “Ma Twi Twi Twi Twi” and I responded. Patience was laughing. She told me what Mami said was “Ma we’ve been calling you.” It was hysterical. This little girl getting frustrated because I am too stupid to realize that I am the only Obruni around.

The older children have now gone to visit their extended families in their hometowns. Kelvin who is 6.5 (not 5.5) started crying. He was upset that his brothers and sisters were going away and that he had to stay. Evans told him that they would return in time for school and that Kelvin would get a trip to Accra. This made things a little better, not a lot better but a little.

Kelvin speaks English very, very well. He is a very sweet young boy with a big smile. His whole face lights up with his smile. The only thing missing is his two front teeth. I’ll get a picture posted one of these days. I have invited him to sit on my lap and he has shyly declined. But, when hugs are being given out he is ready for his also. When Anne-Christien had visited Kelvin was still adjusting to his new environment. He now is doing very well. He laughs and plays and acts like any other happy child.

That is all for this time around. It’s mostly about Kweku and Kelvin because these are the 2 I have just met. Also, the other kids were only with me for 2 days before they traveled to their hometowns. I have a whole list of pictures that I plan to take that I will place on this blog later.

Thanks for reading. Love to all my family and friends.