There is less of a traffic jam...both cars and human.. yesterday the streets had been jammed packed as it had been market day... but still oranges spill over the sidewalk in a hug pile.. their delicious pungent scent cutting through the exhaust fumes... a relief to my senses! I am always amazed to find that perfume in amongst this thick air...
the dance of vendor and seller has already begun..there is one young woman selling bread .. her eye is caught by some fancy high heels a young man is showing around.. he gives her one to try on... and brings down a few more so she can compare from the box on his head. He has the shoes hooked over the side of the box by their heels making the box into a window front!!
She prances around in the shoes ..her dusty flip flops abandoned...showing them off to her fellow lady vendors ... they all smile approvingly... a sale is made!!
Going in to the office that morning feels right.. all the ladies say 'welcome!' and we chat... The place is its usual beehive of activities..
I am a tiny bit uptight as today is the day i am going to try and pack...so rather than put off the inevitable i decide to take the bull by the horns...
i nip out to the road where i can flag a taxi back to the house (i am now staying in town as my room has been taken over by Clarisse...) Arriving at the house Kafui and Maggie greet me...
I borrow the scales from Shoko's room and start to work. It is hot work as i have to weigh everything individually and then altogether in the suitcase as i want to be able to change around the parcels in case... trying to divide it up so the space and weight make a good balance is quite tricky!! Finally i have managed and there is still room for around 10 pounds or so ...
In Accra i will have to be very careful!!
That afternoon i had a lunch date with Martina, Dela's wife. I was really delighted that she had asked me to come over and eat as she was the first Ghanaian who had actually invited me home.
Being a vegetarian in Ghana is very much an oddity. When Martina had first asked me to come home, Dela had told her i was a vegetarian and this really threw her... She felt that she could not make something tasty enough for me to enjoy without meat or fish!! She was truly perplexed .. and i could see disconcerted as well that i would be judging her ability as a cook with her having such a hindrance!! Teeeee hee! It was just too much of a mind twister to try and explain to her that i would not judge her for not putting something in that i didn't enjoy.... so i just said i was sure it would be fine!
And it was! It was a delicious vegetable stew with mushrooms and boiled plantain... and the inevitable boiled egg.... I was delighted that i truly thought it was delicious ... she was a real 'Jewish Mama' ( like my good friend Robin!! :) ... she really was feeling i didn't like her food unless i was eating it!!! and to be able to eat 'enough' so she felt good was actually not a big problem!!
The whole experience was so moving for me... They live in what i would call a compound ... Six families live there in rooms that make the three sides of the square with a wall and gate on the fourth side... A family has a kitchen that is separate from the other rooms (this is actually a a good idea as the heat from the stove will not heat up the living rooms)... I helped her bring the food from this tiny kitchen over to a porch where we sat on low benches with a low table.
She asked me if i needed a knife and fork because, of course, the Ghanaian eats with her right hand. ... I made a joke of it saying that for us we had been trained NOT to touch the food with our hands ... that was playing with our food!! She found that very intriguing... but she brought a water basin... and she went through a ritual of washing that right hand very well before the meal..
We ate on the porch because it was so hot... while we were eating a woman came into the compound and up through the porch to her door... saying that 'i was invited!' ... i looked with puzzlement at Martina...they had been chatting and laughing and she smiled and said that this was her porch!! ..as i said personal space is not the same as at home!!! ... the neighbor really meant it!!
We polished off our plates and both of us were nice and full... it had been Martina's first vegetarian meal!! and she said she had really enjoyed it!!! I laughed and said, 'See! you don't need meat and fish to make it taste good!' She said she was going to try it again...
During the meal she had asked me about Canada ... once again i tried to explain how there were goods and bads about everything... She was dismayed by the fact that we need so much clothing in the winter!! and that we could freeze to death if we didn't have houses with windows and furnaces... I said we could buy just about any fruit or vegetable but that most of the time this produce has travelled far... In Ghana everything is grown and harvested here so the fruits and vegetables are so tasty and good... she could understand this... She told me that people who have been always tell them that it is not so great over there... but they never believe them!!! I laughed and said, 'Oh, you should!'
But then Ghanaians are not the only ones who think it is greener on the other side of the fence....
After lunch she swung the baby, who had conveniently fallen asleep during lunch, onto her back and we set off for her little shop...
I had asked her to make me a couple of dresses out of some batik i had bought... She was shyly proud to show me her work... They were both designs she had made ....very well done! to think she had done it without a pattern was quite amazing...
She would like to go back to school so she could learn how to teach design and sewing... she is only 35 years old so i encouraged her to go for her dream! She has a very young baby right now but when he is older she is going to try to follow her dream...
In the meantime she is going to visit VEG ..... I talked to Christianne and Shoko about her... she is so interested in learning new things.. when she had picked me up i had shown her around the shop... she had immediately wanted to learn how to make the earrings as well... perhaps she will be able to attend some workshops at VEG...
Then i had to head back to the Office for a party... It was Kafui's birthday .... and a good bye to me (that part was a surprise!!)
It was a perfect way to end my sojourn in Ho... all the women were there with their babies having soft drinks and cake ... laughing and chatting...
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Martina is fixing a little something on my dress... and singing to her baby!!
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