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.