The Origins of the Parental Expedition

 

 

 

I like this pic of them on safari.

So the journey of Rick and Lola coming to Ghana started back in February 2010.   Once I got my official Peace Corps assignment to Ghana, I started talking to them about coming to visit me at some point in my 2 years of service.  The “oh, we’ll see’s” and the “maybe’s” were abundant.  By the time I flew out on June 4, 2010, I figured I had at least a year to widdle them down. Many phone calls involved pleading with them saying that Ghana would be a big part of me and they should come and see my village and my people that would be such a big part of my life.  The arguments ensued; they suggested we meet in Europe instead. I finally said, “Fine.  I want you guys to come to Ghana, if you don’t want to, I understand. F’ it!”  And within a few weeks (August 2011) they booked their tickets!  Happy!!!!

Now came the shots: Tetanus, Hepatitis A&B, Yellow Fever, Meningitis, and malaria pills.  They started gathering gifts for my villagers and copious amounts of American food for me  :)

Now if you know my parents, you know they do not travel abroad.  They have been to the Bahamas and Mexico.  They had to get their passports and visas to come to Ghana.  This was no small feat for them and that made it mean even more to me.  Mom doesn’t like to fly, and Ghana is an 11-hour flight from D.C.  My parents love me!!!

So, I booked our hotels and a car and driver to take us around.  On Thursday (they flew in on Friday), I call them and check up on everything.  Mom tells me that I should call the place we are staying at the beach to see if I could get a room with a private bathroom…she doesn’t want to go wandering around Africa at night to pee.  So I call.  “Oh, we do not have your reservation.  All the rooms are booked.”  “So, I called and you took my reservation on the 28^th of December, but did not put it in the book?  So when my shiny, white parents, who have traveled for 20 hours from the land of snow to come and see me after 20 month, arrive in Ghana, I have no place for them to sleep?  This is not ok!”  After a couple hours of scrambling I find a hut for us to stay at in a close-by beach village (with a private bath).  Ok. Fine.

So, at 2 pm Friday I’m standing at the airport in Accra and get to see mom and dad in the flesh for the first time in 20 months!  We hug and I start tearing up a lil’, “Jeanna, don’t start blubbering!”  Damn…bite lip…ok, ok. I’m good.  We walk out and the airport taxi guys tell us it will be 30 cedis to get to our hotel…a complete and total rip off by at least 300%.  So we start wheeling our luggage out to the round about (as I do when I go to the airport because you can get real price taxis 200 yards from the airport exit) and flag a taxi.  He stops, then starts, then stops, then starts. He is trying to get out of eye-shot of the airport guys because they have started cracking down so that you have to take expensive airport approved taxis (bullshit!).  So we finally get in and start going…and are promptly pulled over by a jeep toting 6-armed guards and their machine guns.  Geeze… so the driver gets out and starts arguing.  Mom and dad are sitting in the back wondering what the hell is going on.  I’m trying to talk to the police guy.  The driver gets back in after 5 minutes or so and tells me that I should “give him small” as he will have to “give the police small.” Dad yells, “NO.”  And I’m like, “Brother, daabi.  I’m not giving you anything except what we agreed on.”  We go back to the round about.  Driver gets out to talk to another official guy.  I call bullshit and tell mom and dad to get out of the car, grab our bags and have the official guy hail us another cab.  After 20 minutes of guns and bullshit we are finally on our way.  We drive through Accra and I point out some points of interest.  We get to our hotel, which is nice with AC, hot water, and is on the beach.

So, mom and dad brought a bunch of US dollars and we were gonna take it to the bank and have it deposited into my Ghana bank account so we didn’t have to carry so much cash on us throughout the 2 weeks.  Banks close at 4:30 on Friday and don’t open again until Monday.  So, we leave mom in the hotel room, and dad and I hail a cab in rush hour to get to the bank downtown in time.  We sit in traffic for forever, sucking in exhaust fumes, hawkers coming up to sell their stuff at the car windows (this is normal in Ghana, but shocking to new comers). Finally we get to the bank after about 40 minutes of sucking fumes from the jankity tros next to us.  I go to the counter, am sent to a seat, and we wait…this is Ghana.  We wait, and wait.  Dad and I talk while we wait.  “You know what mom’s doing right now, don’t you?  ‘They left me all alone in Africa after only 20 minutes.  I have no money, no way to find them…what if they don’t come back?’”  “Yeah, she’s probably not happy.  But this sucks too and I’m not sending you out here by yourself carrying all this cash. WTF is taking so long?”  Welcome to Ghana, dad.  After about an hour and a half we got our money taken care of and caught a cab back.  I picked some water sachets before going back to the room.  Dad and I are just about to walk up the steps to the room when mom comes out.  She must have heard us… “It’s about damn time! I was about to go to the bar and beg them to put a beer on the room.  Where have you been?  You left me alone here…no water…I don’t know how to find you?  What if you didn’t come back?  I was starting to panic!  Dammit, you’re not ever leaving me alone in Ghana again!!!”  Nostrils flaring, blue eyes burning.  “I called that one!”…she was not amused.  “And there was something gnawing in the wall or in that mattress…Jeanna you’re sleeping there.  I’ve spent the last hour with me feet up on the bed afraid something was gonna crawl out and bite me.”  Ghana….

So back together again, the three musketeers head up to the restaurant for food, beer, and some long talks…it was great!!!

This was just the first few hours…bet you can’t wait for the next installment, huh??? :)