Volta Romps and Sad Goodbyes

So the next morning I get up and cook us breakfast.  Then my chief comes and brings us fish stew, red rice balls, and bananas.  Mom and dad tasted the red rice ball…it’s completely bland, and then I take the stew and rice balls to Francis cause even I don’t like this food, but it was really nice of NaNa to bring it.  I’ve only ever had the red rice ball at weddings.  Today we board a tro and head to Wli Waterfall.  We drop in Bakua to wait for the Wli tro and Chris goes on to HoHoe to go back to his village.  We sit and wait under a tree..and wait…and wait…and finally a Wli tro comes.  We drop and then go to waterfall.  It’s about an hours hike in and an hour out.  Wli is said to be the highest single drop waterfall in West Africa…whether that’s true or not I don’t know…they make all kinds of ridiculous claims here. It was a nice walk and the falls really are pretty, I think mom and dad enjoyed it.

After we came out we stopped at Sister Kafui’s store and to shop at the woodcarver’s shops.  I know all these people well, as Sister Kafui sells my women’s products and the days I take her products I spend the afternoon sitting around and talking with them and trying to make earrings.  So mom starts shopping and dad goes around and talks to the carvers.  Koku makes these really cool leaf trays out of wood.  A long time ago I ordered one big one, 2 mediums, and 2 smalls.  He had them finished and ended up kicking in an extra small one as a “dash” for my mother.  So I got 6 hand carved wooden leaf trays for 40 cedis…about $25 USD…eat your heart out World Market!  Mom bought some beads and carvings and Kafui threw in a carved bottle opener for dad.  We left and waited for a tro to Bakua, and then pretty quickly got a tro to Todome.  I had Confi cook us her delicious jollof rice while we were gone, and it was waiting at my house when we got home…yum!  We spent the evening hanging out at my house, the electricity went out again. “Just don’t move and you won’t be so hot.”  I liked that mom and dad got to see how it is to live here.  Lights randomly going out for undetermined amounts of time, filling water from the one spout and carrying it where needed around the house, the internet/phone not working all the time, water shutting off randomly…welcome to my life.  We settled in for sleep.  Apparently at some point in the night a pack of dogs was barking around outside and kept mom awake.  “Did you hear those animals last night? What were they?”  “I have no idea what you are talking about, I didn’t hear anything.”

Next day we went down to the school to give the headmaster the heavy duty pencil sharpener that mom and dad brought to donate to the school. After that we walked through the village to greet and I took them to the “new” reception center and griped about my problems trying to get the thing open.  On the way back we stopped by the old man who’s a blacksmith.  Dad really liked seeing his setup; “it’s like medieval times.”  I took them to our current tourism reception building and then to get beans at my bean lady’s hut.  They loved them!  It was their favorite thing they ate in Ghana.  We went back and hung out at my house and tried to start packing our stuff.  In the afternoon we went down to have my afterschool class with the kids.  Mom and dad carried over the letters from my nephew’s class; his teacher and I have been working to set up a penpal exchange with our kids.  So about 30 kids showed up and were all super excited to talk to mom and dad and get their letters.  It was chaos as expected.  Yelling, running…me screaming.  Mom and dad went around and tried to help the kids read their letters as I organized who would have who as a penpal and scheduled small groups of kids to meet me the next week so we could really work on their letters.  Questions the kids had for mom and dad: What do you like to eat?  What work do you do?  They are not overly comfortable asking questions of strangers.  They liked watching mom and dad though…seeing how they look different than people here.  I think we all had a good time.  We went back home and I made banku and groundnut soup for dinner.  Enoch, the kid who always helped Rhoda, from Mate came and had dinner with us.  After dinner we relaxed in the dark again, but the lights came back on 3 minutes before the Ghana soccer match was to begin.  Throughout the evening you could hear the village erupt in cheers whenever they scored.

“Did you hear all that drumming and singing last night? It was at like 3 in the morning and it lasted a long time.”  “Nope, I didn’t hear anything.  I’m used to hearing the animals and drumming, and loud prayer meetings.”  “Oh.  Well ask Francis what they were doing in the middle of the night.”  I forgot to ask him.  So today we jumped a tro to HoHoe to visit Auntie Felcia’s store and also Kofi and Enoch’s store.  We sat and talked with Kofi and Yao for a while and mom bought a painting.  Then we took a taxi to the silversmiths and I waved as we drove by Sister Divine’s seamstress shop.  She called me a couple days later and was very unhappy with me that we didn’t stop so she could greet my parents.  “They are old and white and they were hot and grouchy so we didn’t stop. They were ready to go back the village. Sorry-o.”  I can never keep everyone happy.  So mom picked some jewelry and then I took mom and dad to the market to get food to cook for dinner.  We came home and cooked fufu and light soup with Francis.  I showed off my cutlass chicken chopping skills and mom tried her hand at pounding fufu a lil’.  Mom strongly believes we should add salt and pepper to the fufu; dad thinks you need to turn it into dumplings instead of a big ball you eat with your fingers…yevu take on fufu.

 After this we went to say goodbye to Nana and give him his gifts.  Mom and dad got to sit on elder’s stools and take pictures with him in his fancy chief hat.  As we were walking out the door, “Don’t step on that scorpion!”  Just outside the chief’s gates mom spotted a little black scorpion.  They came and killed it, but mom was spooked for rest of the night.  We stayed up watching episodes of Modern Family since we had electricity that night.  The next day we went into the village to say goodbye and then went back to wait at my house for the driver I arranged to take us to Accra.  The bastard was over 2 hours late and we therefore did not get to go have our planned delicious burger at Honeysuckle and instead had to sit at the airport bar and have a half tard burger that cost too much.  I was mad.  Then we wheeled all their stuff (and a 50 lb bag of my crap to send home) into the airport, got them checked in and then had to say goodbye.  We did quick hugs and goodbyes to keep from tearing up.  I made it into a cab, teared up a little, and then stopped.  But once I got to the PC house I stood outside talking to Chris on the phone and just cried.  Seeing mom and dad really made me realize how much I’m looking forward to going home; things that I didn’t realize I missed so strongly.  I’m really am so happy that mom and dad came; I don’t know if they’ve ever done anything that’s meant so much to me.  This is something that they did FOR ME…not really for any other reason, and I love them for that.

So now, mom and dad are home and I’m still here.  On Monday we are having our GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) Camp in HoHoe.  I’m taking 4 junior high girls from Likpe for a week long camp that us PCV’s are putting on in HoHoe.  Hopefully I will be going to Togo and Benin in March, we have our All-Vol conference in April, and our Close of Service conference in May.  After the COS conference I should know the dates I’ll be coming home.  I have a few beach trips planned with friends.  I’m gonna try to make my projects as sustainable as possible and pass my duties on to the villagers these last 6 months; but I’m also gonna try to travel around and see people and really enjoy these last few months…I know they’ll go by fast, and man, I’m ready to come home.

Love

j

Go on and Feel the Todome Love

So it’s the day of the ceremony and Chris is coming to stay with us tonight so he can meet mom and dad.  Once we get up I make banana pancakes and then I show them how to wash their clothes in a bucket.  It was funny.  Mom and dad both opted out of hanging their undies outside to dry…wusses!  Francis and his brother were molding mud blocks out back, so dad, ever the engineer, goes down to see how they are doing it.  There’s a knock at the door.  Some of the elders from the village have come to welcome mom and dad.  A little later and there’s another knock; it’s Confidence and Peter.  “We have come to greet your parents.  Where is your mother?  We have been sent to do something.”  So they find mom and start looking at her and chattering back and forth in Sekua.  Mom is just smiling, “Jeanna what are they doing?”  “I dunno, looks like they’re gonna make you a dress.”  And sure enough the measuring tape comes out.  Their measuring mom and chattering.  “You know they’re talking about the fat white lady. How’s he gonna make a dress so fast?”  “He will.”  And then they left.  A little later, “Jeanna, call Fo Nicho and give him Sister Kafui’s number.”  “Wow, looks like you guys are gonna have a nice ceremony.  Sister Kafui is the bead lady in Wli.”  Chris arrives, we hang out at my house and talk about mom and dad’s experiences in Ghana so far.  After a while there’s another knock at my door.  It’s my chief and some guys, they have brought us palm wine!  Mom and dad take their first sips from the calabashes…dad said he liked it, mom wasn’t such a big fan.  It was fresh and super sweet, not my fav.  So we then sit around and sip palm wine…the ceremony was supposed to start at 2.  So we sit and wait.  And wait.  I drink some more palm wine and tell them that it makes you have the poops… “Well then I’m not drinking anymore!”  So around 4 Confidence comes to get us. 

We walk down my hill and start walking up to the village.  The drums start, the kids  dressed in their cultural outfits start dancing and singing down the road to get us; the villagers are gathered at the kindergarten grounds clapping and singing.  Fo Nicho, Francis, Gifty, Apolonia, Mama Victoria and others come to help us dance in.  The kids grab mom and dads’ hands and walk with them up the street.  I’m just smiling; my village is good to me.  We walk/dance into the grounds and are seated.  The chief and elders are all there in their garb; the drummers and dancers are lined up on the opposite side.  Silencer starts the ceremony speaking into the mic which is rigged up to a bullhorn powered by a car battery.  The elders come out and pour libations for mom and dad’s safe arrival and safe travel back home.  Next we get up to greet and shake hands with the elders of the village.  Then the elders get up and come to greet us.  Next I get up to introduce mom and dad to the village.  Then the Queen Mother’s linguist and another woman elder come over to present the gifts to mom and dad.  First they dress dad in a batik chief’s smock.  They give him a big strand of beads for his neck and a bracelet.  Then comes mom.  The women start pulling a batik dress over her head.  They’re yanking and pulling (“they about ripped my tits off!”) and then put a headband on her along with neck beads and a bracelet.  They have dad get up to address the community.  He thanks them for the ceremony and for taking care of me.  Then comes the cultural display.  The girls in my village do a long dance and then comes the dance with boys and girls.  I love these dances and the drumming.  After a while they start a general dance with people in the community coming up and forming a circle dance.  I love to dance, but I get tired of dancing in a circle.  But I get up and join in.  I look back and here comes mom, dad, and Chris!  We’re all in the circle dancing and laughing; I look back and Gifty has dad all hunched over trying to teach him to dance.  I WAS LAUGING SO HARD!!  First of all, my father cannot dance, bless his heart.  And Gifty always yells at me, “Bend over, bend over.”  “Gifty, if I bend over any further I’ll be on the ground!”  It’s a running joke between us.  Instead of harassing me today, she’s got dad!  He won’t be able to move tomorrow.  We danced and laughed and I was just so happy.  This is why I love Ghana.  I love that the people here dance and sing for any and every reason and it makes everyone smile and there is just a simple, unbelievable joy in it.  After the dancing is finished, Silencer announces the palm wine has arrived and talks about how much Sister Boala loves our palm wine…I do…he catches me at the palm hut quite often J  So as they dole out palm wine to the villagers from the gas jugs, I take Francis to play body guard and go to distribute the candy mom and dad brought for the kids.  After a while it turns into a malay (as I knew it would) and I’m swarmed by kids, adults, and old women.  I end up just throwing it and running away to mom and dad’s delight.  We drink some palm wine and take pictures with the chief and villagers.  It was awesome!  After that we head back to house to drop off things and then head down to Fo Nicho’s for fufu, light soup, and mom’s big black cock.  We get there and start eating.  As I’m eating the chicken I think it looks kinda small for the black one.  “Esther, is this the black cock?”  “NO!  He ran away into the bush to hide.  I had the boys look for him for 2 hours and then had to kill a different one.  He is clever.”  And sure enough a few minutes later I see the black cock emerge from the bush. “Oh, I’m glad he wasn’t killed for me.”  “Mom, they still killed a different one.” “Yeah, but I don’t know which one. I’m glad the black one got to live.”  So we sit and eat; mom and dad said they liked it, but it was spicy.  Francis came down.  “Francis, you want my bones?”  “Yes.”  Here in Ghana people eat the bones for calcium.  Mom and dad sat and watched as Francis chomped the bones…they thought it was funny.  After mom and dad finished, Chris and I really dug in. “Good Lord, you guys act like you haven’t ate for days.”  “This is how you gotta eat…fast, fast.”  After fufu we went home and relaxed.  Dad said that Gifty reminded him of my sister, Jennifer. “Always bouncing around stirring up shit!”  “You know, she does remind me of Jennifer.  She’s one of my favorite people in the village…maybe that’s why.” It was a great day!

And the Dirt Road Goes On

So after our exciting breakfast we started driving towards Tamale.  We stopped there and went to the cultural center and then continued on. I had never traveled the road from Tamale to Nkwanta (top of Volta Region).  The road is famous among PCV’s as being super shitty and bumpy and dusty and in the rainy season it is basically impassable.  We drive for 5 hours on what was in essence a dried out river bed…now a river of red dirt with large farm trucks hauling people, cows, and copious amounts of yams.  I can’t imagine doing it in public transportation.  It was super hot with the sun shining in so I had to rig up a two yard that bubbled out the window…we looked like a traveling gypsy van.  The road was beyond bumpy with “pot holes” that spanned the road and rocked the car back and forth constantly.  Small dust “tornados” would develop and go up maybe 200 or 300 feet in the air…they were actually kinda cool to look at.  The villages here were all made of circular mud huts with rounded out compound walls which reminded me of what I think the inside of beehive would look like.  We drove through many small villages with kids and adults yelling “obruni” and waving wildly at our car.  We finally arrive in Nkwanta and find a nice place to stay.  We are all dyed red from the dirt.  We go to order food.  All the things we ask for off the menu they are not having.  Mom and dad eat an omelet and I order a sort of chicken sandwich.  The next day we would finish our trip, landing in my village.  We start to talk about the trip as a whole.  Mom and dad are ready to go home.  Nothing is comfortable here; the beds, the cars, the food, the heat, the dirt, the intermittent electricity.  “We’re happy to have come and spend time with you, but I’m ready to get back. I just wish we could take you with us.”  Ain’t that sweet?  We talk for a little bit and then go back to the rooms and watch a soccer match and go to bed early so we can head to HoHoe early the next morning.

So we take our 3 hour drive to HoHoe, stop at the market to get food to take to my house, get fuel, and I take mom to the silversmith to do some first glances.  We then head to Likpe.  As we’re driving out to my village I think about the first time I traveled that road 18 months before.  I was coming to visit my village for the first time; I was loaded in a tro with Fo Nicho and Francis, both who I had just met, and was about to see my new home and community.  They were speaking some language, and it wasn’t Ewe, which I had been learning.  I was so nervous I almost felt sick.  I remember thinking how beautiful and green the land was with the mountain line looming in front of me; I remember going through Likpe Nkwanta and then Bakua, and then slowly climbing the hill and Francis saying, “This is Todome.”  We drive and I see the community meeting grounds with a cool gnarly, old tree leaning to the right, mud houses, some with concrete.  Old ladies selling at the side of the road and kids running down the street in their school uniforms.  We pass through the village and the tro stops to drop us in front of the school.  There is the sign for the guesthouse. “Up this hill is where you’ll live.  This is my house,” says Fo Nicho.  We climb out and he hollers and 4 or 5 kids come to haul all my luggage up the hill.  Francis and I start walking up the hill and I see the guesthouse…it’s not mud J  We get to the door and Francis starts to unlock it and I start getting real nervous…I have to live here for 2 years, dear Lord, please let it be ok.  And it was…and it is.  I completely lucked out.  I got a great house and phenomenal community that takes good care of me.  I’m so excited to show my parents this.  They have seen the bullshit of Ghana that still drives me crazy at some times, but now they are gonna get to see why I love Ghana…my village; people who I spend time with and eat with, the kids I play with, and the old ladies who love to greet me and give me bananas.  This community and these people have been my family for the last 18 months, and I love them.

There was a celebration in Bakua that many of my villagers were at, so there are not many people on the road in my village.  For the first time ever, I ride in a car up my road to the guesthouse.  We get out and start taking the luggage in.  We say goodbye to Ben and then settle in.  I had called Francis and had him sweep the house out before we came.  **Short story.  When I was living in KC my parents came to visit and dad was appalled at my dirty microwave, “Jeanna that’s disgusting. You’re gonna get ptomaine!”  So ever since then I never clean my microwave when I know my parents are coming to visit me, just to give dad something to gripe at me about.  Since I don’t have a microwave here, and I am indeed a lazy deep cleaner, I left my lil’ fridge dirty.  In all truth I haven’t cleaned it since I got here and it was gross, but when mom and dad said they were coming to visit I did deep clean my house, but left the fridge nasty just for sentimental reasons.  Francis cleaned my fridge while I was gone!  I guess he figured it was too disgusting for my parents and he cleaned out all nice and shiny!**

We walk back behind the house and greet Francis and then spend the afternoon relaxing in my house and trying to organize all our crap.  After a while there is a knock on the door, “Esther sent these to your parents.”  It was a big bunch of bananas and some ground nuts (peanuts).  This was the first of many gifts arriving at my door while mom and dad visited.  I believe we probably received around 70-80 bananas (no lie) while they were here.  Everyday we all had to eat at least 2 bananas…that was the rule we came up with. In the evening we walked down to Fo Nicho and Esther’s house to greet them.  We took Fo Nicho the digital camera he had given me money for…he was really happy.  Michaela (my favorite baby) was actually shy around mom and dad, Dixon and Rose were as goofy as always.  We sat and talked and then I showed mom her big, black cock that was running around the yard.  “Look mom, there’s your cock…light soup tomorrow J”  We had a good visit with them and then Fo Nicho walked with us into the village because I wanted to greet the chief.  We get into town and here comes Gifty (a woman my women’s group and one of my village favorites); she runs up and gives mom and dad each a big hug.  Then the old ladies saw them and came over greeting and bowing and shaking hands and saying stuff in Sekua.  They’re so funny.  Mom and dad were shaking hands and saying thank you’s and starting to get the feel of my village.  We went to NaNa to greet him and say we have arrived.  He said that tomorrow (Sunday) will be their welcoming ceremony where we would present them to the village.  Ok, so we walk back to the house and just chill.  The lights go out and we sit with a candle and talk.  Mom and dad both squeeze into my single bed and I flop on the couch.  Tomorrow’s the big day!

Sassy Wheels and Rowdy Critters

We woke up to a beautiful sunrise our last day at the beach.  We walked around and took pictures of our round lil’ hotbox, aka our hut, and the beautiful sky as we waited for our car and driver to pick us.  For the next 5 days we were gonna be chauffeured around like movie stars…no more tros or tro-yards; I could see the glee in mom and dad’s eyes :)  Ben our driver showed up early…in Ghana??  Yes!  So we start traveling towards Kumasi to overnight in route to Mole National Park, which is in the Northern Region of Ghana and takes forever to get to.  I went to Mole in November 2010 on public transportation and it was the worst traveling experience I’ve had…ever! Once mom told me she “wants to see elephants if I’m flying all the way to Africa,” I decided we had to do a private car.  There was no way I was taking mom and dad there using public transportation; chances are one of us would have ended up dead and the others would be beatin’ each other with the corpse’s leg.

So we drive for about 3 hours and are going through Obuasi, the gold-mining town, and dad says lets stop for a pee. Ok, so I start giggling inside because this is gonna be their first public bathroom experience and I know what usual toilet/urinal places are like in Ghana.  So Ben stops at a gas station and I ask where the urinal is…and it was toilet…but the water wasn’t working so we couldn’t use it.  So we start looking around and over a wall I see a guy coming out of a toilet room and ask if we can use it. So we start climbing around the back alley/lot place to get to this building.  It was a pay toilet.  So we get to pee after a wait, but I had left my purse in the car and mom and dad had only 5 cedi bills.  It costs 30 pesawa each to pee (30 centsish).  I try to explain that we only have 5 cedi bills and will need change to the lady and eventually she just says to go on.  “I would have paid her five cedis to take a leak. My eyeballs were floatin!”  Yes, dad.  That was so much less eventful than I had hoped it would be.

We start driving again and then stop at a kente-weaving village near Kumasi.  We go to the weaving shed and the weavers start selling to us.  Mom found a couple things she liked and I found one.  Dad was just trying to get out as fast as possible.  This one guy kept trying to drape a men’s cloth on him and dad was not interested.  I’m bartering with a guy on the stuff mom wants and I look over and dad looks so unhappy.  He hates shopping!  But then you add the high-pressure way people sell stuff here and that he can’t communicate with the guy and it just cracked me up.  So I try to sneak a picture of dad looking completely despondent and he and the guy see me at the same time, dad waves at me and the guy wraps his arm around dad and smiles real big.  It freaking cracked me up…the photo looks like they might be having fun.  Soon after I look up and dad has escaped to the car.  Next we go to Ntonso where they stamp adinkra symbols on kente cloth.  “I’m staying in the car.”  Ok, so mom and I go in.  The guy takes us around and shows us how they make the dyes from bark and leaves and then lets mom pick out a couple symbols so she can stamp her own strip of cloth.  The guys were really fun; they used to have a Peace Corps volunteer…if we do nothing else we teach our communities not to hound tourists, they come there to buy stuff and pressuring people just makes them leave.  So we go back to the car and sit in traffic on the way to PC house (I had to pick some of my women’s products from there).  When we are in the PC house mom and dad say they don’t wanna stay in the “guesthouse” that I had scheduled for us; they want AC and a hot shower.  So we ended up staying in a really nice place, eating a decent dinner, and drinking REAL whiskey :)  We were all very happy.  Next day we head to Mole.  Along the way we pass a cool old mud/stick mosque and finish the 6-7 hour drive with over an hour on red dirt road.  I dunno why, but I do love the red dirt; add in the old knobby trees and I’m a happy girl.  We get to Mole and just relax that night.  We ate and sat by the pool overlooking the watering hole.  “Oh, I’m gonna order a cheeseburger.” “Me too.” “Me too.”  “Oh we are not having bread or beef.  Sorry-o.”  Balls!  Rice again…welcome to Ghana.  By this point in the journey, mom and dad have realized that every place, even the "nice" places, have the same menu.  Now they know why I requested so much food to be brought!  We went back to the room and played cards and called it a night early so we could wake up for our morning safari. 

So at 6:30 we pile in our car with Ben and a guide and off we go.  Us three were all smashed in the back so I climbed on the roof and nearly froze to death for the first hour.  We saw a bunch of deer things, a big owl, warthogs, monkeys and baboons.  We then headed to the waterhole and there were the elephants!  It was a male group of about 6 elephants.  The big old leader guy was huge!  It was really cool to see them up close.  Then we walked to the waterhole to see the crocodiles, but “the elephants have scared them away.”  But then we heard noise in the bush and there was a lone male elephant by himself.  “Oh this is a very friendly elephant. Sometimes he comes to the house.  We can get close.”  So we got within 10-15 feet of this guy.  He was drinking and the sounds that he made were so funny.   I can't remember the exact number of liters the guide said he takes up each time with his trunk or how many in a day...it seemed like 200 liters of water a day or something ridiculous.  He was really cool.  After we left him we headed back to the camp for breakfast.  We spent the afternoon just resting and then went out for another safari around 3:30.  We all climbed back in again and went driving.  We didn’t see elephants and monkeys again, but saw everything else and it was pretty driving around at sunset.  Mom’s hair was sticking up all crazy from the wind so I started calling her pineapple head.  Also, the tsetse flies were really bad and once the guide said it was tsetse mom spent rest of the ride beating the hell out of me and dad in the back trying to whack flies…we were quite entertaining to the Ghanaians. We got back to camp at dark and Ben came and had a couple beers with us before he left to eat dinner with a friend’s family.  We ate and sat around drinking (I got some whiskey in Kumasi) and talking.  It was probably 10:30 or so and Ben came back and started hitting the whiskey with me.  We all sat there talking and laughing until midnight.

Next day, we get up and mom and I head up to the main building for breakfast.  We had bought a pineapple and I was carrying it up so we could have it with breakfast.  We start out walking and talking and then a baboon rounds the corner and keeps coming towards us.  “Oh just keep walking mom, it’ll go around.”  But it didn’t.  It kept walking straight for us.  “I’m going back Jeanna, there’s another one coming over there.  Drop the pineapple.”  “No!  He can’t have it, I’m not backing down.”  I turn around and mom’s already back at the door and this baboon is only a few feet from me and another is closing in from behind.  Shit! I started to panic and just stood there yelling at it and hugging my pineapple…and here comes Ben!  He started whooping at it and swinging a big stick; they start to go away. “Give me the pineapple.”  So Ben walks us up to the main building but not before he holds the pineapple out teasing the baboons. “Ben, stop that!”  We sit down at a table and the freaking baboons came up there!  Ben has gone off somewhere to talk to someone and the damn thing jumps on the table and starts toward us again.  Mom moves pretty fast when she’s scared.  But then one of the guys comes out with a sling shot and shoots at it and they all run away.  “Oh shit, what about Rick?”  “Oh, Lord.  Well I haven’t heard him yell yet.  Ben, did you see dad out there?”  “Yes, he is coming.”  About that time dad rounds the corner.  “What we got for breakfast?”  “We were ambushed by baboons. They tried to steal our pineapple.  Ben ran them off with a stick.”  “I didn’t see any.  Glad I had to go to the bathroom.”  Nice.

.

More Pics from Ceremony in My Village

I don't look happy at all, do I?  I loved this day.

Mom and dad joined the dance circle.  Gifty about had poor dad down on the ground trying to get him to"bend over!"

Chris and I

Just in case dad ever says he didn't have fun. 

I'm not quite sure what is happening here, but the faces are hilarious.

Dad says Gifty reminds him of my sister, Jennifer.  "Bouncing around, stirring up shit."  Gifty is one of my favorite people in the village...and now that he mentions it, she does remind me of my sister!

Fufu'n

To Da Beach We Go

So mom and dad survived their first night in Ghana just fine…and there was no critter in my mattress :)

The next morning we take a taxi with all our luggage to Kaneshi station, which is a huge tro/bus station in Accra.  We had the taxi drop us on the side of the road where could catch a nice AC tro to Elmina Beach; these tros are not in the station and that helps avoid a whole lot of hassle.  Mom and dad got to see the clusterfuck that is Accra traffic, complete with burning heat, choking exhaust, and ditches filled with funk and urine.  We get out and start to drag our luggage to a tro and a guy grabs one of the little bags.  Then he of course started to demand money.  I’m trying to talk to the tro driver about our luggage, we’ll have to buy 2 extra seats to accommodate them, and the bag guy is harassing mom.  People are pushing by on the street, announcements are screaming from the speakers, and food is being sold off people’s heads; the white people are melting in the sun.  I determine that there is not enough seats for us and our luggage, so they tell us to wait for the next tro and there is no other tros on this side heading to Elmina.  After a few minutes of trying to corral mom, dad, and our luggage, and fight off the bag guy, I tell mom and dad to stay put and not give money to anyone and I’m gonna walk down the row and see if I can find a different tro.  Low and behold there is one, yippie.  So I go back and collect mom and dad and the luggage and off we go as the tro driver and bag guy yell at us.

“Get in the first row and sit, I’ll take care of the baggage.”  So I pay our new tro guy and am still fighting with the bag guy from the first tro.  After 10 minutes or so we’re off.  We’re sitting in line to leave and the bag guy comes up, smiles, and knocks on mom’s window and waves bye…it made her laugh.  So after traffic and about 3 hours we land at Elmina junction where we have to catch a taxi to our beach huts.  I argue again and then the guy loads our bags in his taxi…but the luggage won’t fit without leaving the trunk up.  So we’re off, down the roads through the busy port town of Elmina.  The streets are crowded, fishing boats are coming in, and mom and dad have their eyes peeled for their luggage falling out the back or for someone grabbing a bag…dad’s hand was on the door handle ready to jump out the whole time :)  We keep going, pass through town, turn, go past a really nice hotel.  “Oh that’s nice.” “Yeah, not for us.”  Turn again and go past another nice looking place, “Is that for us?”  “No.”  “Where the hell are we staying?”  At about that time we pull up to a thatch building… “This is us.!” 

So we go down pulling our bags through the sand and the girls take us to our hut.  It was super cute.  Uh….no fan…that sucks!  And a composting toilet…I’m afraid now…the parents are not looking so happy.  “Look, you get to shower outside at night under the stars, it’s great!”  That didn’t brighten them up, either.

We go and sit under a thatch hut and listen to the waves.  The place is really beautiful and quiet.  There’s a couple other people there…they have a dog that keeps fighting with the dogs that live at the place…mom spent the whole 3 days worrying about getting rabies...the one shot she didn't get :)  We have a drink and just relax.  That night at dinner we meet an old lady from Germany who has been traveling around Ghana, Togo, and Benin for 2 months.  I thought it was good for her to talk to mom and dad because she has traveled extensively…then she told them how she got robbed in Ghana…dammit!  Anyway, we go to bed and it’s hot as hell in the hut.  Lights are only solar after 10 pm as the place is ran on a generator in the evening.  Mom realizes she’s not going to able to fix her hair in the morning and starts to  freak.  “Don’t worry, no one cares what anybody looks like here.” “I don’t wanna look stupid in all my vacation pictures!”  I forget that in some places people expect things of you, like make-up, deodorant, clothes that match…it’s gonna be a rude awakening for me going back to America!  I spent the night sleeping on the floor (where I got to sleep for 3 days) coughing my lungs out thanks to the great harmattan weather, trying to muffle my coughs so mom and dad could sleep.  It was a long, shitty, hot night!!!  And since the toilet was out the back door, I got to play potty partners with mom all night with our headlamps…fun stuff, eh, mom?

Next day we get a cab into Elmina to visit the slave castle there.  It was interesting and you could see the Elmina harbor…I just love their boats.  After our tour we walk down towards the market because we wanna buy some fruit.  Immediately annoying guys selling shit descend on us in the parking lot.  After we get rid of them we walk; as we’re hunting for fruit sellers, a lil boy comes up and says, “Give me money.”  I give my usual lecture, “ Can your mother not feed you?  Where is your mother? Should I tell her that you are begging from strangers.  You sound stupid.  You don’t beg, it’s rude!”  “Jeanna, shut the hell up, that girl over there has a machete!”  (everyone in Ghana has a machete…that’s how they cut stuff).  At this point, mom and dad don’t care about fruit anymore and since we don’t see any sellers, we head back to the castle area to catch a taxi.  We do find a coconut seller and have a coconut while some little annoying girl talks shit to us in Twi.  I hate going to touristy areas!  I want to beat all the bratty kids and tell them that they are hurting themselves, their community, and Ghana by being obnoxious little beggars and that tourists will quit coming and they’ll have no one to sell their bags of water to then!

So after haggling with the taxi driver, we take off and head home after maybe 3 hours away.  “I don’t care if we ever leave the hotel until our driver comes.”  Yeah, that’s kinda what I figured.  So we hang out at the huts, just relaxing by the beach, reading magazines mom and dad brought me, eating beef jerky and peanuts.  I found a lady to take my braids out…dad kept telling me how bad they smelled…and they did, so that took 3.5 hours in the evening.  We spent the evening talking to the German lady again.  Our last day was just relaxing; reading magazines and dozing under the huts listening to waves.  I got caught up on the happenings of Jefferson City :)  It was nice!

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??? :)