Goodbye for Now!

I could not possibly sum up all that I feel about my experience in Ghana, so here are a bunch of lists instead!

RANDOM TID BITS ABOUT MY EXPERIENCE IN GHANA SO FAR

I thought I would give you small glimpses of what my life is like here in Ghana by stating random facts :)

- Most transportation vehicles (taxis, buses, tro tros), as well as some stores, have some sort of proclamation of faith on the back window, such as God is the way, Jesus is light, Ps 39, or the Lord is our shepherd meat deli. Things of that nature. However most of the letters are falling off of them so you end up with fragments strewn across the windows such as no God, or is answer. Nonetheless its pretty cool that everyone is so open about their faith.

- I eat out a bag for the a decent amount of my meals (no utensils necessary)

- Vehicles will not stop for pedestrians. Please move quickly.

- Our drinking water is actually meant for ice pacs, so we drink out of bags (also no utensils necessary)

-The term “clean” is very relative

- People here are very blunt. They see nothing wrong with calling people “the one with the flat ass”, or “the one with the big nose” or even “the fat one” its just a statement of your appearance and they don’t mean it to be rude. In fact Ghanaians see it as a compliment if they are called fat because it means they are eating well. I once had a guy tell me and some other American girls that we were “very pretty, but we didn’t have enough curves.” I was ok with it.

- Nothing is on time… it simply doesn’t happen.

- Vehicles honk constantly. The roads in general are a controlled chaos and I think its just a way of communicating so there are less crashes. We joke around that we will give one less pesewa to the taxi driver for every honk. Some of them would lose all of there money if that were the case.

- My feet are never clean. I once swam for 2 hours and then showered, alas, they were still dirty.

- There is no toilet paper in the bathrooms here. Come prepared.

- A majority of the streets in Ghana are not named, so people go by landmarks. If you ask for directions people will tell you to keep walking until you see the green sign, or more likely they will take time out of their day to walk you where you need to go.

- Ghanaians want to represent their country well, so when they meet foreigners, they will do everything they can to be kind and help you. They have hospitality down.

- Girls are often called “Auntie” or even “Mama”. Ghanaians believe being a mother is a woman’s greatest role in life, and being called auntie or mama is a sign of respect. I know several kids at the nearby school, or at the orphanage who call me “Auntie Taylor”, everyone is ISH calls the lady at the front desk “Auntie Adali” and I have met a few Ghanaians who will introduce multiple women as “Mama”. So you never really know who is actually blood related here.

- Ghanaians will say sorry, even if it is not their fault. If you are sick, if you didn’t get what you wanted, or if you trip, you can be certain that every Ghanaian within a 5 mile radius will say, “sorry”.

 - To get peoples attention, Ghanaians will either make a kissing noise, hiss, or say “pssst!”. This is something I had to get used to, but it actually works much better that trying to catch someone’s eye, or shouting.

- I’m not sure if I have ever had my own seat in a taxi. We normally fit 5-7 people in a four passenger taxi. Its uncomfortable, but oh so cheap.

- Burning trash has become a familiar, and almost enjoyable, smell here.

THINGS I WILL MISS WHEN I GO BACK HOME

-       Hawkers

-       Yoryi (African black cherry)

-       Fresh coconut, pineapple, mango and papaya

-       The reactions Ghanians have. The way the say “sorry” for things that are nobodies fault. The fact that they say “wow” after the most mundane information you give them. All of the sharp sound effects they make. From “Eh!” to “Ah!” to “Aye!”

-       Pigeon English

-       The music. The traditional stuff as well as hip life. Not to mention the fact that wherever you are, there is music playing

-       The dancing. Again traditional or in a club. Africans can dance and I LOVE it

-       Going into the bathroom at any time of the day and hearing someone singing worship songs in the shower

-       Being roommates with, or down the hall from my closest friends here

-       Having a knock on my door followed by Ophe’s eyes peeping around my door. Its time for coffee!

-       Thunder storms

-       Mango trees

-       The night market

-       The people.

FAVORITE MOMENTS IN GHANA

Granted some of these probably wont seem funny or cool, but I just wanted to write them down so I could remember them.

-       When a little boy ran up to Gus, looked up at him and said “God?”

-       Having a baby strapped to my back by a Ghanaian!

-       Having the tension in my neck pounded out by a waterfall.

-       I woke up to my alarm at 6:30 still very tired and was preparing to get up. All of a sudden I heard a load clap of thunder and shot out of bed. I ran to my balcony to the sight of POURING rain. I realized that I no longer had to be anywhere for a very long time, so I sat on my balcony watching the lightning storm and spent time with God. After an hour I crawled back into bed and took a nap.

-       In Ada Foah we were listening to drummers and watching dancers at night by the bonfire, when the largest comet I have ever seen flew across the sky! I thought it was a firework at first because it was so big, bright and colorful, with blues and greens in its tail. It couldn’t have been a firework though because of the angle it was falling at and where it disappeared. It was the coolest sight to see!

-       Walking along a brightly moonlit beach, looking at the stars and listening to the waves.

-       Waking up for the sunrise in Ada Foah, sitting by the water in the pink light next to Kendra spending time with God. Then walking along the beach collecting shells with Kendra, talking about faith as the sun began to peak out over the clouds of fog.

-       Dancing and singing at a 7 hour praise concert

-       Riding on the back of motorcycles in Togo, stopping at a stoplight and feeling like a very lame obroni biker gang

-       Having a lady selling oranges steal my cheese because I didn’t speak French.

-       I was upset that we didn’t get to paraglide and just the whole trip in general, when a little girl, no older than 2, came up to me hugged my legs for a full 30 seconds, waved and walked away. How great is our God

-       Signing and dancing to Motown on Kendra’s balcony during a rain storm.

-       I mentioned I wanted a mango while sitting next to a random guy by Lake Volta and he immediately got up and bought me a bag full of like 30 mangos!

-       Challe Horse

-       Explaining to Julia what the “struggle bus” was. “its like the soul train. It’s not really a train”

-       Ophe, Tessa, Kendra and I were looking for a taxi to the Madina market. We walked down to the security checkpoint, where a lot of taxi’s hang out, and one very large, stout man waddled across the street to us like a body guard. The man barked out “where are you going”

Ophe replied, “Madina Market”

“Seven Cedi”

“ Four”

Then he just gestured for us to come and waddled back across the street. No bartering or anything and we feel like this guy is our very own bodyguard. Then some unintelligible man starts jabbering at us saying something about how we can’t get in this mans car. We look up to see our bodyguard has just walked off and left us! After someone else pushes the man away we get in the car and bust out laughing. We gave our driver a hard time about it too, but he thought it was hilarious as well.

-       Ophe yelling “PURE!” out the window of our taxi to get the pure water lady’s attention.

-       Our taxi driver proposed to Julia and asked for her number. Instead she gave him her mother’s and told him he had to ask permission first. He left multiple voice mails telling her that her daughter was “exciting” and he wanted to marry her.

-       Coming back from London, we were greeted by our handsome flight attendants. We were very tired, so everything was funny, Kendra struggled quite a bit with our luggage cart, only to be told to release the break on the front wheels. She then walks up to the area for people to declare things, leans over and says with her southern drawl “we have nothing to declare”. The woman looked at us like we were crazy and just asked for our passports.

-       When Ben’s Uncle gave us a guinea fowl and told us to marry Ben because he already paid part of our dowry. Then watching Julia carry this guinea fowl in one hand and hold on to the back of the motorcycle with the other in her bright red helmet, which was hilarious.

-       Learning about the slave caves and climbing on top of lookout rock.

-       Dancing at Kahuna until the sun came up

-       Encouragement and good conversations with Rhoda in the hallway

-       All of the moments spent with so many of the people here, especially  “the fab five” my sisters; Ophe, Kendra, Tessa and Julia :)

It's been real Ghana! This has been one of the greatest experiences of my life and one of the hardest to leave. I hope to come back some day.

 

Intermission in Foggy London

            So it would be very difficult to cram a whole week in London into a short blog post, therefore I will just give a brief overview and then some highlights!

I was able to bear wearing jeans for the short ride to the airport, and it’s a good thing I did! It was roughly 45 degrees when we landed in London Thursday morning and I was wearing jeans, Birkenstocks and a light button up shirt. Needless to say I was cold. So after we checked into our hostel we walked across the street to the mall (not without being stopped by 4 different people selling things) and got warm clothes from H&M.

From there we did all of the touristy things. Our first day we did a bus tour, saw the tower of London, the crown jewels, did a jack the ripper walking tour (creepy) and went on the London Eye. The next day we saw Westminster, Big Ben (where Peter Pan himself stood), went on a cruise along the Thames and landed in Greenwich. There we wandered around the market and had coffee in an adorable café to escape the rain. We came back early and got ready to see none other than the Lion King! Connecting Africa to London in a lovely setting.

Day three we started our day with our first big breakfast in months (it was delicious). We followed it up with a walk through Harrods, admiring all of the things we would never be able to buy. Made an appointment for tea on the terrace (so very fancy) and went to the Victoria and Albert museum. The museum was incredible and much larger than any museum I have been to before. I loved every minute of it and wish my dad was with me or it! We went back and had extremely expensive tea and soup. Normally I would never pay $40 for a bowl of soup and a pot of tea, but hey, it’s the experience right? It was a bank holiday on Monday, so that Sunday night we went downstairs where the bar we lived over was having a full moon party. We met some nice Australians, danced and realized we really missed the good dancing back in Accra.

The following day we took the train all the way to Windsor. It was so incredibly beautiful there. We asked the man at the train station to direct us to the castle, he kindly told us to turn right and walk up the hill. It wasn’t until we stepped outside that we realized how silly the question was because as soon as you walked outside, there’s no way you could miss the giant castle right in front of you. We walked to a nearby café and had fish and chips before we headed for the castle. We took the walking tour and I was so amazed at how incredibly beautiful this castle was. It was like a dream. When we were leaving the castle we saw the changing of the guards and they walked right by us and yelled at a lady for being in the way. Very entertaining and, in my opinion, cooler than the one at Buckingham. We walked around Windsor for a while before we got back on the train and went home.

Our final day we decided to go to Buckingham palace and see part of the changing of the guard. Though it was incredible crowded and after seeing it in Windsor we decided to walk through the park instead. We went to china town and got short massages (MUCH needed), then went to Notting Hill for the market. We got dressed up and went to a jazz club for our final dinner.

Favorite moments:

-       Getting off the river ferry in Greenwich and stumbling upon a market. Then getting a free sample of lemon ginger tea before escaping the rain and finding a perfect little café and enjoying hot coffee and warm soup.

-       Finding my family crest in a gift shop

-       Getting ready for the lion king. I put on my dress only to have the zipper break. Kendra comes in to see me trying to fix it, with no luck and offers to lend me her dress, which is of course to small. I barely fit into it and when I bend over to put stockings on it rips. We are both dying laughing, but Kendra is determined to make it work. She helps me get stockings on like I’m a toddler; she then irons the dress while its still on me. I’m freaking out because it is so short, but Kendra assures me it will work. We finally walk downstairs and I get a glimpse in a full-length mirror. I freak out because it is MUCH too short, run back upstairs and put a skirt and blouse on instead. It was all hysterical.

-       Seeing the lights come on and looking over the Thames at Big Ben and the city all lit up.

-       All of the Windsor tour. The rooms were breathtaking. Especially the Banquet room, and the room with all of the portraits.

-       We were walking around Windsor talking about how perfect it would be to sit in a park with a view of the river and the castle, only to turn the corner and find the most beautiful field imaginable with a view of the river and the castle.

-       All the little things God did to humor us on the trip. Like When we said “all we want is a full English breakfast God” only to immediately see a chalkboard sign in the window of a restaurant reading “Full English Breakfast with Coffee”. Or in Windsor when we said, “Fish and Chips would be perfect right now”, and then when we looked across the street there was a restaurant called Fish and Chips. There were tons of moments like that, and God continued to bless us throughout the trip, making it more enjoyable than I could have hoped for!

Tour Bus

London Eye

Greenwich

Lion King Outfits

Windsor

Beacon House

I started working at the Beacon House orphanage the first week of February and have gone nearly every Wednesday since. I showed up my first day not knowing what to expect or what to do. I had only met the volunteer coordinator once before, and she isn’t around the orphanage too much due to her busy schedule. She said a quick hello and told me to have one on one time with Stevie.

            Stevie is an adorable young man at his ripe old age of three. He is almost completely blind and doesn’t talk quite yet, however he is very vocal! He loves to sing, whether he is making up his own tunes or copying someone else’s. He spends most of his days in the playpen with the babies, while the other kids are in school. Most of the days I volunteered I hung out with Stevie and the other babies, Emmanuel, Samuel and Daniela. I often built blocks, played a tiny piano with the babies while I cheered Stevie on as he spun in circles on his hands and knees. One of Stevie’s favorite things to do is find items around the playpen that he could then throw out of the playpen. I would often play fetch and put things back in, only to have them thrown out again. Stevie was certainly determined to have his place tidy and rid of any toys!

            When there were no more toys to throw, he would find Emmanuel and bash heads with him or knock him over. Never a dull moment with this boy! I learned a few weeks in that Stevie was actually a twin, and that he was about Emmanuel’s age when he was sent to Beacon House. I guess he thought Emmanuel was his brother, which is why he often tried to play with him as siblings do.

            It’s not common to give a child up for adoption in Ghana. Being a mother is considered a woman’s greatest privilege here and many women are looked down upon if they don’t have any children. If a mother is unable to care for her child, he or she is given to a close family member, or other members of the village to look after. Even those with disabilities are often given roles in the community that suit their abilities. However, because Stevie had a twin to, in a way, “replace” him, he was sent to Beacon House.

            When I wasn’t with Stevie and the gang, I was helping out in pre-school or helping the older kids with homework. I had the privilege of hanging out with 7 little pre-schoolers and watching 4 of them head off to new homes. Gifty and Atule were the first to go. Gifty is one of the happiest kids I have ever seen with a laugh that would make the hardest of hearts melt. Atule is rambunctious and adventurous to say the least. I can imagine he will be a famous football player one day because can kick that ball around like nobody’s business. They are now in the wondrous land of Denver, Colorado. I can only imagine how exciting and nerve-racking it must be to leave everything you’ve known for a new life in a new place. I pray that it is everything they dream.

            Shortly after Gifty and Atule were adopted, a nice family from the states picked up Sarah and Kofi. Sadly I can’t remember which state they are now in! I had known before hand that Gifty and Atule were being adopted, so I had time to say my goodbyes and wish them luck. Sarah and Kofi were gone in a blink of an eye. I showed up one week and there were only 3 pre-schoolers left. It was an odd feeling, having 2 kids I love taken away without so much as a wave goodbye. I am sure, wherever they are, they are having a blast and enjoying a life with their new family. I am also very thankful that they have each other, to share in this experience and adjust together.

            So then there were three: Mary, Kwasi, and Michael. I love them all too much to describe. Most days I would come around 8:00 AM and play with Stevie and the babies for about an hour. Then the pre-schoolers would have their time outside and I would bring Stevie out to play. Some days we would play more educational games, such as finding things that are blue, or drawing triangles with sidewalk chalk. Other days we would play red rover or race just to tire them out.

            More recently I have been able to spend time with the older kids. School is out of session now, but Beacon House still wants the kids learning to some degree. Some days I help with spelling, others I help with math, but my favorite is reading. Not only do I get to really see them learn, but I also get to hear a story!

            Helen and Afia seem to stick close to me and I love their company. They are lively, funny and cuddly all of which I love. Helen is actually Mary’s sister, though their personalities could not be more different. I can imagine this makes it more difficult for them to be adopted, but it must also be nice for them to always have each other and to have a real piece of their original family. 

 I have loved my time at Beacon House and I am sad to let it go, but I know the kids are in good hands!

Samuel

Racing

Helen and Mary

Afia

Michael

Stevie

Kpando: A Short Story

            I had wanted to see the Kpando Potters for weeks now, and I finally decided to make a weekend out of it! Most people backed out, so it ended up being Jenny and I leaving mid morning Saturday, with little to no plans of what we were doing. After waiting an hour in Madina for the trotro to fill up, we finally left for the Volta. We got there around 4:30 and spent some time walking around the small town. It was not very touristy, which was really nice for a change. People were fairly friendly and generally left us alone, which is also a welcomed change from Accra. We checked out the beautifully built church and some of the stands before checking into the hotel. It had its own bathroom and a nice fan! Living the high life.

The guidebook said the restaurant at the hotel we were in was the best in town, so we decided to grab dinner there. They didn’t have a menu, so the lady mumbled the 2 things on the menu (I found most people in Kpando mumbled, my dad would have disapproved). Fufu and groundnut soup or rice and chicken. Gives an idea of the restaurants in Kpando. Though to be fair, most of the food was sold at stands, not restaurants. We sat outside and waited for our food for a few minutes before an older drunk man asked if he could join us.

He was fun to chat with as he mumbled (yes mumbled) stories of his childhood, his experience with white people, and how the handyman’s journey begins with the first step. He repeated this quote almost 20 times in the hour we spent with him. It took us a while to realize he was saying “handyman”. Jenny kept fairly quiet and this guy spent a good portion of the conversation telling her she was quiet and didn’t talk. Thanks dude, we realize she was quiet, now maybe give her a chance to talk?

It was an entertaining dinner and he ended up paying for us, which was an added bonus! I didn’t realize he was staying at the same hotel until the end of dinner and he kept asking if we wanted to go hangout, but we politely (and firmly) declined. As we were trying to get into our room (the key was ridiculous) we turned around to see him smiling at us through a window in the hallway. It would have been scary if it wasn’t so funny.

We were pretty tired and crashed by like 10:00 pm only to wake up at 11:00 pm to this guy knocking on our door! It started as tapping and mumbling, followed by banging. I woke up Jenny before asking who was there. Then it stopped and I guess he walked away. Luckily we had locked the door, and looking back its just ridiculous, but at the time it was a little frightening!

We woke up early the next day to go see some pottery. We asked a cab driver that didn’t speak much English if he could take us there and we nodded and showed us to his car. Once in the car he asked, “Wait, where are we going?” I then proceeded to play charades with this man as I tried to explain pottery to him. He then drove around an asked multiple people in Ewe before taking us 200 meters outside of town and getting out of the car. Some lady then walked up to our car and with a solemn face asked us where we were from. We told her and she barked out “welcome. Come”. So we got out of the car, not knowing what was going on, only to have her open up a metal shed to a bunch of pottery. Not exactly what I expected, but ok!

They weren’t making anything that day because it was Sunday, so we bought a piece or two and walked back to the town center. On our walk back we looked for a stand that might be selling Nescafe (the closest thing to coffee we get). There were a few selling the packets, but no one had hot water. I never feel more grossly American than when I’m looking for coffee, but sometimes you just know your going to need it.

We settling for a Nescafe packet and a cold water sachet to mix it with and caught a shared taxi to go see the lake. A large woman with a big bag practically sat on me when I couldn’t scoot over fast enough and started yelling at the cab driver in Ewe. It made for a fun ride down the hill to the water.

I’m not sure what we were expecting, because it was really just a fishing market. Plenty of stands selling fish and other goods while fishermen fixed their boats and nets for the day. We were obviously out of place, but we had just gotten there, so why not walk around!

We settled on a log by the water, drank our makeshift coffee and enjoyed the view and the breeze. A few people passed and said hello, one man introduced his kid to us (adorable of course), but most people left us alone. We were considering leaving when a young man sat down with us. We exchanged name (his is Mohammed) and he wrote down his number on my arm. When I asked him if he worked he told us he was a footballer… Like for the black stars?  No. He doesn’t get paid for it. Right, moving on.

I mentioned that I might get a mango and he quickly jumped on that, saying he would get me one. How could I refuse? Literally, he left before I could refuse.

He came back with, not one or two or even three, but a whole bag filled with at least 25 mangos. Oh I love Ghana.

He ran off to go bring someone some fish (I didn’t catch who) and right before we were going to get in a taxi to go see a meditation center, he ran back and hopped in the cab with us. Looks like we made a new friend for the day!

As we were driving back up, he pointed out his house to us, which I guess is where he ran too (dang he’s fast…must be all the football).

We did not go to the meditation center, but instead passed through the northern part of the town. We passed a sign for the real pottery shed! Looked much more legitimate. This guy took us to another part of the lake that didn’t have fisherman on it. He then talked to the canoe ferry and took us on a short canoe ride. I’m not sure why, but it was fun! He even made Jenny row for a while, which was rather entertaining.

We got back in the cab after our excursion and on our way back through the town I asked if we could stop at the pottery shed. Overall it was fairly similar to the other shed experience. We drove up a hill, the cab driver asked some kids a question, a lady who seemed in charge got in the cab, we drove through some bush to another shed, got out and looked at pottery. The shed was bigger and actually had pottery wheels and things outside of it, but it was basically the same thing.

We headed out yet again to find this meditation place, but our new friend told us we needed to eat first. So of course we go back to his house. He introduces us to his entire family and friends and we awkwardly say our hellos. We walked over and met his sister, who was making lunch for us, and I offered to help, but I don’t think they understood me.

We walked back to his house and he told us that after lunch we could have a bath. I politely declined and told him we were still trying to see the meditation center and go home! So he took a bath instead and when he came back out the food was ready! Banku and tilapia. It was truly delicious. Of course all of his brother/ friends wanted pictures of white girls eating Ghanaian food, so they all had their phones out snapping away. I’m sure there are tons of random pictures of me floating around Ghana.

We finally got back to the town center and tried again to look for this meditation center. None of the taxi drivers knew what we were talking about and Mohammed had never been there before, so he couldn’t help much. Jenny suggested pulling out the map in the guidebook. By then I had a crowd of taxi drivers around all fighting to look at the map so they could prove themselves. I put it away shortly after people started pulling at it and an older gentleman said he would take us. I trusted him more than the rest, so we hopped in his cab and got away.

We got there with no trouble (I knew I could trust this guy) and stepped out of the cab into a bushy area. We spoke with a man and a woman playing checkers, who were in charge I guess.

The story goes that a man followed a falling star until it landed in this field.

The mother Mary proceeded to tell him that she wanted this field to be a place of meditation, prayer and tourism in her name. And so this place came to be. Supposedly there is a cult like group of people that live around there and have ceremonies on the first Friday of the month. On this lovely Sunday, however it was simple a beautiful garden, with cool statues around every corner.

We headed back, got on a trotro (with our friend who was going to his moms house on the way) and headed home. But not before e bought some cool elvish bread!

The Town

The Church

The Lake

Substitute Coffee

SCORE!

Mohammed

Jenny Rowing Away

Things Went Much Faster with Him

Pottery Shed Number 2

Mohammed's Home

Avoid Sexy Appearances

And Look! More Lembas Bread

You Win Some You Lose Some: Easter Edition

            Some friends and I had been hearing about a big easter paragliding festival held in Kwahu for a while, but couldn’t find much information on it. We finally asked our program director to help us and she informed us that all of the hotels were booked, but we might be able to go and just find a place to stay. I was considering doing this, but others were not so enthused. I gave up after someone else told us transportation would be difficult. I was ready to forget about it completely when we saw a group of girls from ISH return Friday night. They just got back from the festival (no pre-planned transportation) and were able to paraglide that day.

After hearing their awesome story, Tessa, Kendra and I decided to give it a shot and go ourselves. We woke up at 4:00 AM the next morning and were on a trotro to Madina by 5:00 AM. As soon as we got there we got into a very nice trotro to Kwahu and even got some instant coffee! Off to a very good start if I do say so myself.

I slept for most of the ride there, so the 3 hour drive went by quickly. We took a taxi up the mountain and were signing up for paragliding by 10:00 AM. The lady at the registration booth that was so precariously placed on the side of the cliff told us that we would go in about 2 hours. Knowing what we do about timing here, we assumed it would be around 4 hours. Still that gave us plenty of time to get home if we needed to! So we walked about 100 meters to the camping grounds restaurant. The paragliding festival was hosted by a radio station, so they were blasting music as loud as they could (not very relaxing). We ate some rice (the only thing on the menu they were actually serving) and headed back to the cliff to watch people take off into the sky.

We sat at a very awkward angle on the steep slope enjoying the view and chatting with some friends who came to the festival as well. I guess we just kept thinking we would be next. We asked the lady calling out names if we could see the list she had, but we weren’t on it yet. We then went back to the registration table and asked where our names were on the list. She huffed and reluctantly flipped through about 30 forms until she found ours. Apparently they were still on people who had signed up the previous day who hadn’t gone.

            By 5:00 PM they were still on people from the previous day, so we called it a day. A bit discouraged, but still determined to paraglide we decided to spend the night. We were talking to our friends at the festival earlier that day and they told us they had gotten in the night before. All of the hotels they checked were booked, but a family offered to house them for the weekend. They had a 3 person tent they had brought just in case and told us that if we needed to we could borrow it. However as we hitched a ride in the back of a truck down the mountain, we were confidant we would find a place to stay, no problem.

Yes problem. We hopped off the truck in an extremely busy town filled with people ready to party for the festival. A young couple was trying to help us find a hotel or guest house to stay in. They kept asking where we were going and we kept answering WE DON’T KNOW. They just looked at us like we were crazy (which we were), but they tried to help us anyway. All the hotels were booked (which we already knew) and we finally decided to call our friends and ask for the tent.

We walked about a half an hour to the house they were currently residing in and Josh brought out his tent for us. It was 6:00 PM by then and starting to get dark quickly. He apologized for being unable to offer more help because this small family was already hosting 6 of them in their living room. Even though I sort of wanted to cry, I was somehow able to pull myself together and keep praying that God would take care of us.

We walked around for about 45 minutes asking people (mostly women) on the street if they knew of a place we could stay/ safe place to pitch our tent. They all responded with “No. I don’t know of a place” or “try the police station”. Now the police in Ghana are a tad corrupt, and we didn’t feel like dealing with that so we pressed on.

I couldn’t help thinking about Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem, looking for a place to stay in such a crowded place. Obviously I knew it was nothing like this, but I still like to make connections to keep my mind off the situation at hand.

Just when I was starting to give up hope all together, a man in a Tigo (phone company) shirt offered me half of his sachet of gin. I refused in a somewhat irritable tone and he asked me why. After explaining our situation to now 3 Tigo guys listening in, they brought their boss over. A Man named Michael (like the angel!).

I re-explained the situation and he told us that MTN (another big phone company) was hosting a large event for the Easter weekend. They were all workers from Accra just there for the weekend and were staying in a boys secondary school. He told us he would talk to the headmaster for us to see if we could stay the night there.

Seeing we had no other option and it was starting to rain pretty hard, we gladly excepted and hopped in the mini bus painted with the Tigo logo. We all collapsed in the back of the bus and waited for the workers to get in. They were calling a fellow worker who had the key to their dorm, and was apparently in the hospital (we found out later he had been in a fight). There was some loud yelling on the phone, followed by a ride to the hospital and more loud yelling outside the bus. This might be scary in the states, but here, yelling is just a part of life. I have never once felt threatened while around what seems to be a fight, because if you actually listen (and can understand) they are usually being incredibly respectful. Just loud.

            We sat in the bus with a few of the guys who were asking us the usual questions.  “Where are you from?” “How old are you?” “How long have you been in Ghana?” “How do you like it here?” “Is it better in the states?”. We answer as nicely as possible given our current moods and soon we see Michael break through the chaos onto the bus. He explains to us that they have to wait a while for the key, but he would take us to the school.

We follow our guide to the street, where he grabs us a taxi and buys us a loaf of bread. Being Easter weekend, and considering all of the other bible references of the weekend, it seemed only fitting to break bread together.

Michael drove with us in the taxi and gave us some lessons in Twi while we waited in traffic. Eventually we just got out and walked to the secondary school, which was about 45 minutes away. The MTN event, which I had assumed would be small, was actually a huge concert on the grounds of the school. We walked by in our dirty clothes with our backpacks and tent while Michael found a place for us to pitch our tent. There were actual campgrounds for the event, but we would have had to pay a lot of money. So after searching and asking and waiting we finally pitched our tiny tent right in front of the Tigo guys dorm room.

Michael led us to the washroom (cement walls with a few stalls) and got us all buckets of water. Did I mention how nice he was?

Kendra was going crazy because she is not exactly the outdoorsy type, and Tessa and I were close to delirium, taking pictures with Kendra’s camera. All in all, there was a lot of crazy to go around.

The guys invited us out, but we were so very tired that we just crawled into our tent. The ground was hard and slanted, we had no blankets or pillows and the concert was about 300 meters away blasting music into the wee hours of the morning, but all in all I was just thankful to have a place to lie down and feel safe. God had brought me through a lot that day and as a fell asleep I could only send up thanks for all the kindness that had been shown to us throughout the day. Some of the guys even offered to sleep on the floor and let us sleep on their bunks, but we felt much more comfortable being separated. I mean we’re trusting, but we only just met these people.

We woke up early the next morning for church and stepped outside our tent. We had arrived late the night before and hadn’t really noticed our surrounding, but as we looked around this morning, we saw we were smack dab in the middle of all of the boys dorms, which were now occupied by various phone company workers. I’m in my tie-dye T-shirt and purple running shorts with a bun on top of my head rubbing the sleep out of my eyes while I look around at all of these men coming to and from the washroom and working out outside there rooms. What a start to the day.

Michael kicks some of the guys outside of one side of the washroom and gets us more buckets of water. We are ready for church rather quickly, take down our tent and then wait for a good 45 minutes for the guys to get ready. Ghana: where the women wait on the men to get ready.

While we are waiting Kendra mentions that she really wants juice and how we should stop for food on the way to church. One of the guys walks away, only to come back 20 minutes late with juice and hot rolls of bread for us. It was truly the sweetest thing.

We walked around for a very long time looking for a church, which is so weird considering how many churches we always see in Ghana, yet now on Easter Sunday, none are in sight.

We finally settle into a small underground Baptist church. I thought it would be more crowded than it was, but it was still very lively. We awkwardly stood up when the pastor asked if there were new visitors and we passed around the microphone saying our names and explaining what we were doing in Ghana. Most of the message was in Twi, and running off of 10 hours of sleep in the last 2 nights, it was hard for me to stay awake.

In the middle of church, Josh texted us saying we should come save our spots for paragliding. We rushed out of the church, said quick goodbyes and thank you’s and headed up the mountain. The registration lady the previous day had told us we would have our place in line, yet Josh was now telling us this was not the case. We get there and run to the registration, only to find that we are now much farther down the list and will probably not get to go that day.

At this point I was about ready to cry. The entire trip I had been trying so hard to be optimistic and keep the spirits up, but now I felt like it had finally crumbled.

I stepped away and found a somewhat quiet spot to read my bible for a while. I didn’t really get much out of the church service that morning and I need some quality time with God after all that had happened. I figured, because it as Easter, I should read about the reason we were celebrating. Even though I was still a little sad, I felt much better. There are far worse things than not getting to paraglide while studying abroad in a beautiful country. “Is my resurrection enough for you?” was the question lingering in my head. Though this weekend was not at all what I had hoped for, God came through in more ways than I can explain and I will continue to choose to be grateful for that.

And if anything, it made for a good story :)

The Mountain

Our driver's cool hair

View from the take off spot

One of the lucky ones

Free hat and shirt for buying 2 Pepsis. We got something out of the trip!

Boy and his sister doing traditional Ghanaian dance

The road back down in the back of a truck

The tent