Arrival November 11th (Was in Washington DC; Capital of the USA the day before remembrance day, visiting the veteran memorial , seeing all their preparations and seeing vets taking solemn pictures of one another in front of the commemorative statues, an anticipatory hum in the air. It seemed fitting to be flying out on its eve to one of Britain’s former colonies…again, steeped in a ravaged history for freedom and independence.
Nov. 11, 2010:
Met the most interesting, warm people on the flight. Even as we began gathering at the gate, I got the sense I was on the brink of intrepid travel, as I soon became a minority as a Caucasian, amid families with young children, middle-aged couples, single well off looking men, all fashionably dressed, even if casual, especially the women, with an air of culture and eloquence, with gorgeous black-sheen skin that began to make me feel anemic. The other Caucasians on the flight were travelers, on their way backpacking across West Africa. I spoke at length to an American, Raphael, born in Haiti, who has undergone a similar life shift as me recently- left his job, been researching NGOs and other aid organizations or individuals out there making a positive difference; his focus is work cooperatives and how he might get involved with those. He just came back from India visiting a women’s textile cooperative and now off to northern Ghana to visit a women’s coop making shea butter.
My seat-“mate” was Ghanian, Emanuel or Kwaku (Ghanaian name as was born on a Wednesday), a medical resident, having lived in Germany and now Denver, coming back to visit brother and sister in Kumasi. He gave me all sorts of information and started me on my vocabulary (to follow). He also gave me his brother and sister’s cell phone numbers so I might visit with them in Kumasi while he is till here (2 weeks). He suggest I check out Bosomtwe Lake (crater created by massive meter) and Elmina Castle in Cape Coast (British Fort/slave outpost).
Flight from Washington to Accra took 12 hours; United is not my favourite airline; seems kind of run-down, can’t choose your own movies, basically have to watch what’s on, really cramped seats. Environmental note: It uses plastic utensils like Air Canada used to as well as plastic, no.2 drinking cups which they, of course, don’t recycle, only pitch out only to be offering you another an hour later; when I tried to reuse mine it seemed like a supreme hassle and confusing for the stewardess to grasp.
On that happy note and to the other extreme, I arrive in Africa! It smelled like the tropics as soon as the plan doors opened; that humid acridness that pervaded these countries, along with the extremes of attitudes, from scarily glowering military uniform clad soldiers (in this case, unarmed)making sure you don’t hover too long in one place, and the pushy in-your-face-all-too-eager young men wanting to take your bags, get you a cab, talk to you (reminiscent of India and reminded me how rusty I am in all of this).
Prince was there waiting for me than and we quickly got a cab to the bus depot. That was a drive like many in our world’s hot, humid developing country urban areas, horns honking, a cacophony of noisy vehicles, buses spewing black smoke and arms, loaded beyond capacity, mangy dogs skulking, dirty children, running around, working or on blankets or backs of their mothers, women, heads stacked with an impossibly balanced load, walking in the lanes between the stalls, or alongside the idling cars stuck in traffic amid the market ,one hand on their change purse the other on a sample of their wares, ready to be handed out to an interested passerby, even those from cars driving by, stalls as far as the eye can see, along with well-dressed business people (a real contrast to Washington DC however), clean and tidy school children in their uniforms. The construction or poor urban planning, slows traffic for us to become easy prey for boys and men alike sticking their heads or hands into the car, trying to sell videos, a back massager, you name it. I made the mistake of taking a picture of a woman sitting on the sidewalk with her 4 children, and then being almost accosted by her, I assume, husband, for money for having taken the picture (again, so I assume). A block from here I was basically “cat called” from the sidewalk by 4 giggly school girls, in their neat (how do they do it in the heat and red dust?) and crisp white school shirts, snidely saying “abruni, abruni..over and over again…” basically white person, kind of like you would hear someone throw out any racist slur or label, feeling like I should be somehow ashamed, and, oddly, after the 20 or so minutes of driving with the window open and feeling eyes bore into mine in the starkly, conspicuous foreign pale face.
I think a young man (working the toilet facilities at the bus depot) whose English I complemented him on, (he said, I am a student, and I said, well, I am a teacher, to which he replied” then you are my master” as I laughed and gave him a cool handshake) wanted to get my address to move to Canada with me, but I am not certain. I was relieved to be on board the bus, with its privacy (the windows are tinted so I could look out with impunity). They played a “wholesome”? Ghanaian video which is what is most popular here (kind of like the Indian pop videos when I was there so long ago), which was basically about a woman who can’t get pregnant, visits a prophet who tells her to find the person in the family who is cursing her, she proceeds to blame her mother in law and own mother for being witches etc… finally gets pregnant, has to be forced by her husband to allow his mother to touch the baby as she still believes she’s a witch, then a Christian reverend warns his congregation against listening to these false prophets (according to Prince these exist, guys setting up shop and spewing nonsense to those who will listen) about witchcraft and such… the husband becomes so tired of his angry ignorant wife that he takes a new wife behind her back (apparently polygamy is accepted practice here for non-christians).. That was a culturally educational experience in and of itself. Oh yes, and beside us was am Indian couple who spoke barely any English and not sure how they had gotten that far. They were going on to another remote village for business, having come from New Dehil the day before. The woman blared East Indian music on her cell phone the whole ride, really. The ride was almost 7 hours to Kumansi (largely due to ½ the highway being down to just about a single dirt lane, still under construction) and, from there, Prince drove me to Adumasa on a washed out road with the massive residual pockets made by the earlier day’s rain puddles.
Julianna the head teacher met us with a hug and warm smile and a wonderful, simple meal of rice and fish-vegetable dish. I even got a cold fanta orange for dessert and knew I’d arrived. Prince left with our plans set to meet at noon tomorrow to sit down with Julianna to discuss what classes I might teach, after which he and I will head back to Kumasi to get a cell phone for me and other odds and ends (maybe an aircard/modem for wireless pickup?). I am thankful it is Friday so I can get my bearings, visit the school, look at their resources and prepare some lessons for Monday. Prince also wants to ensure we take time to visit 3 other Adumasa Link projects as well as for me to see a bit of the country. He says that there are 2 sanctuaries worth seeing- one with thousands of butterflies and another, although a considerable distance, with monkeys (I thought instantly of Sheridan).
What I’ve learned:
Asante (or Twi) is the most commonly spoken Ghanaian language and is the one understood by all, even of different languages or dialects.
Vocab:
Hi/Hello= hello
Me daa se= thank you
Wo hoto sen = how are you? Response: Mo ho ye
Ete sen= how are things? How is it? Response: Eye (ehyeah)
Ye fre me… = my name is
Ye fre wo sen= what is your name?
Sukuu= school
Days of the week and names (affiliated with day were born)
| Male | Day of week | Female |
| Kojo | Monday= Edwoada | Adwoa |
| Kwabena | Tuesday= Ebenada | Abenaa |
| Kwaku | Wed= wokuada | Akua |
| Yaw | Trs= Yowoada | Yaa |
| Kofi | Fri= efiade | Afua |
| Kwame | Sat= memenda | Ama |
| Akwasi | Sun= kwasiada | Akosua |
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