Hot Pepper

One last thing about the market...

Each section has its specialty..

There are rows and rows of shoemakers looking more like a sprawling outdoor factory than anything... the glue they are using is very potent and harsh... then there are the tailors and the seamstresses... rows of sewing machines whirring away with fabric everywhere.. there are sections where the potters are selling their ware, they don't actually make it here as it would entail a hug oven.. the fish and meat sellers.... the vegetable section... and somewhere in there i stumbled on them selling hot, red pepper in vast quantities! People selling it were continuously coughing... some had handkerchiefs across their noses! I could immediately feel it in my nose and throat... people urged me to away pointing to the lethal redness!! i snapped one quick photo and was glad to escape!!!

Market Vignettes

You will not find anything aesthetic in Ghana's cities... there is no symmetry, rhyme or reason in the city planning... the buildings are ugly cement fortresses, they are usually dingy and dirty.... half of them are unfinished eysores...

No, Ghana's beauty is certainly not skin deep. You need to look past all the dirt and decay to the individual person and the world they have fashioned in this madness...

It continually amazes me to see people calm and cool dressed beautifully in crisp colourful garments ...

To see people calmly going about their work amidst all the calamity...

Above all to see that resilience and patience in these people's faces that i only now have found ... even though i have had all the advantages.

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More of the Market

I am now really trying to respect the individual person and avoid taking photos without their express permission ... but i held the camera high just to get the impression of the overwhelming aspect of it all.... but the photo of course does not come close...

Add heat, grit in your throat, people shouting and laughter, music being blared from dueling radios, babies crying, the incessant beeping of horns, whistles blowing... people jostling you from all sides.. no sense of taking one's turn .... just full charge ahead... people pushing you form behind and muttering if you are politely waiting for a young girl to go by with a box that must have a small fridge in it .. add sweat dripping down your forehead!!!

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Kejetia Market, Kumasi

This market is suppose to be the largest open market in west Africa. Apparently it burnt down both in 1995 and 2009 but it is back to "its gloriously hectic former self"... now that the Bradt guide got right!!

And the Bradt guide continues: 'Incredibly, some 10,000 traders operate within a 12 ha market with many more stalls spilling out along the surrounding streets.

On the inside, the market takes on a labyrinth aspect, confusing at first, but in fact quite orderly.'

---- in the photos below yo can see the market from above... under those roofs teems life! -----

Will you be my valentine?

The doves are cooing all around me! what more lovely symbol of Valentine's Day can there be?

It is very breezy and cool this morning.. i am sitting out under the mango trees having just finished my breakfast of omlette, toast and nescafe coffee... i added my own mango as well!!

I am feeling a bit sluggish because last night my cold had reached a bit of a crescendo... it is hard to dramatize a cold, i mean, get over it right? But that awful feeling of your head full of cotton batting and that there is this mean Genie in your throat tickling you with a feather .... and you have left the cough mixture and tylanol you had brought all the way from Canada back in Ho ....
and you are far from home ....trust me.. you are feeling pretty miserable!!

But with the light of day and the front desk waking you up at the crack of dawn to come and eat your breakfast everything rights itself again!!

Yesterday Dela and i checked out the bus situation to Ho... it leaves at this seeming random spot by the road at 5 am in the morning ... so we will need to be there around 4am !!! Wow! worse than an airplane... this will not be a greyhound bus but something in between...

Then we set off to investigate the Bead Market... We got lost a bit but slowly we were getting orientated ... Amazingly enough the whole market is on a grid with main lanes running parallel to the big roads and then tiny alleys running perpendicular to the main lanes.... so if you kept straight either way you would end up eventually coming out onto a main road....

We arrived at the Bead area only to find that there were not many more vendors than yesterday ... My 'friend' Abraham was there to greet me ...

It was nice in that even though he had a lot of beautiful beads all the pressure to buy was gone ...

I had already managed to purchase a beautiful assortment of the most exciting beads ... It was an assortment that would be a very good start to my small online business.

Also of course was the restriction of weight ... i was right on the cusp and so this curbed a lot of enthusiasm.

Nevertheless i sat in Abraham's small Ali Baba's cave and drank in all he could tell me about the beads... He obviously loves the beads and knows a lot about them....

I had met Abraham at the other market... i had bought some strands of really nice brass beads and in exchange he let me choose a brass symbol ... i chose ' love and relationships' ... it seems fitting to wear it today on Valentine's Day in celebration of young love!!!

Abraham is a very good salesman with no oiliness or pressure ... He told me he would like to see me come back for beads again and again...

And that is what it felt like ... that he was establishing a business relationship...

He brought out some strands of small beads that i knew were the ones that are broken up and restrung with filler, cheaper beads ... i don't know i thought that was a good move .... :)

Finally i had a small pile of interesting beads ... we negotiated, i sitting on my small bench and him sitting easily on his heels...

i reflected how far i had come... there i was negotiating calmly with a good certainty of what the beads were worth ... feeling quite at home.

... a far cry from that red faced person whose heart pounded and who was so clumsy and humiliated by the whole ordeal!!!

I went off feeling like i had passed an exam or something...

In one way Kumasi was extremely disappointing bead-wise... Abraham's stall turned out to be the only one that was interesting...

Later Dela left me on my own to wander around... and i crisscrossed that market ... wandering for hours ... and didn't find any other beads...

I was not disappointed however, in that, it meant that if there were future Bead Hunts, i now knew the area to concentrate on...

I still had the Accra markets to check out, of course ...

I feel my trip to Kumasi has been good for reasons that i had not expected. I found out that i can be sick and feeling sorry for myself far, far away from home But still be allright!! I found out that i can find my way around and look after myself ...

And that i had a much more in depth and real understanding of Ghana because of this .....

As much as i have felt like people treat me as an 'Idea' (rich, white person) rather than a person in her own right so have i fallen into this same trap...

Yesterday afternoon, when i left Dela and wandered I 'went into' myself and tried to be a part of what was going on... instead of seeing people with all sorts of impossible things on their heads ... i realized that young girls earn their living transporting goods from point a to point b using their big silver trays they can balance so expertly on their heads... The weight creates permanent wrinkles in their young foreheads so they look worried and anxious but you can see a patience and resilience that i now recognize.

All around me were people living a life as complete with troubles, accomplishments, excitements, expectations as mine!

I think my honeymoon with Ghana is over and the real work on the relationship must now start ....

and i made a start when i walked into the neighbourhood near my hotel and bought some mangos and a pineapple a woman running a small stand just sitting on the side of the road... she treated me like a person buying mangos and a pineapple and i had the right change....

On my own

When we arrived Saturday we found that several of the places suggested to me were booked... Finally the last one had a room... i decided to take it even though it was quite far out..

Knoks Hotel is very pretty from the outside ...for a change! ...completely covered in vines with a courtyard.

The room looked beaten up ... is the best way to describe it... The blinds were all broken, the walls very grubby, the doors of the closet not closing ... but the bed was clean and very smartly made...

My cold had really developed with sneezing, sore throat and stuffy nose so i was glad to jump into that smart bed quite early!!

The next day was Sunday so Dela and i had made arrangements that we would meet around noon... i still was really under the weather with this cold and wanted to just take it easy for the morning...

Also i had decide to move to a more central hotel ... and i had made a reservation at the Sanborn Hotel that got very good reviews in the Bradt guide.

So at noon off we went .. upon arriving at the hotel i was told to come back in two hours as the rooms had not been vacated...

i left my luggage there and we went wandering in the Market.. The Market was quite empty but I wanted to orientate myself for Monday...

Eventually we found our way to the Bead Stalls..

The Market is this sprawling, seemingly chaotic area ... after awhile you could sense there was a kind of order. Apparently each vendor had a spot that he returned to each day (and apparently paid rent!!)... some had permanent stalls.. Along the main roads were the vendors who set up for the day ... with all kinds of contraptions in front of buildings.. then in behind the buildings in narrow alleyways are the permanent stalls.. Outside it is hot and sunny but in there it is almost covered making it cool and dim..

The Bead Market is in an area like this .. with small wooden huts ... the walls are laden with beads. Since it was Sunday only two or three stalls were open...

I told everyone that it was my first day and that i was orientating myself... the vendors here were the most laid back i have encountered. One of the men recognized me from Kofarudia Market..... I had bought a few beads from him and he gave me a brass pendant. They have symbols that mean something ... for example there is one for 'humility and strength' ... (i thought that was a very beautiful combination) , another that meant 'fortitude' .. but i got the one for 'love and relationships'. It is my symbol for renewed life...

It was fun to connect up with someone i had already met... i promised him i would find him again ... His stall is An10 ....

After wandering around a bit more... we tried our luck at the hotel again.. This time they were able to show me to my room ... oh my goodness! ...suddenly my last room looked like paradise...

The bed was dirty and looked like someone had slept on top of the covers... There were dirty, heavy curtains covering windows on two sides of the room but when you looked out it was into garbage ... it was tiny, dirty, dingy and dark!

After standing in it for awhile, i knew i would be claustrophobic with no escape... i wouldn't be able to go outside as there was no yard just road on all sides.. i couldn't even open the windows...

It was not the first time the Bradt Guide had really let me down. The information in it is invariably wrong.

That morning at Knoks Hotel as i was leaving i had noticed other rooms being cleaned and had checked them out... They were very clean and recently painted with new blinds. It was then i realized that the hotel was being upgraded and i had gotten one of the rooms that hadn't been finished yet... in fact the desk in my room was in the middle of being refinished as i arrived.. the guy was working on it in the hall with all the windows closed!! If someone had ignited a match i think the whole place would have exploded the fumes were so intense... i demanded that he open a window so that he and i would live to see another day... He looked at me all puzzled!! ... but i got him to open the window!!

All that to say, i got Dela to phone and ask that if i came back could i have one of the rooms that were already fixed... it seems i could come back and choose my room!! ... I guess Saturday night is the busy night and everyone was leaving today...

So we returned back to Knoks and this time i felt like i was coming home!! What a relief .... to wrestle open my door (i guess all the rooms have these doors that you practically have to break down!!! :) ... and see that immaculate, pristine bed!! ...boy! everything is relative!!

Something that was sinking in is the difference it makes whether you are a volunteer as opposed to an ordinary tourist here ... It is something i am going to think about but it is disconcerting how different people's attitudes are towards you ... It gives the world a feeling of an unreality again... who do people see? .. i become not a person to be discovered in her own right but an idea ... Another opportunity to be very honest with oneself.

I am very glad that i decided to go off on my own ... and i have work to do!! Investigate this new world of beads!!

A journey into the unknown

So the day dawned when i would be setting forth on my own... granted Dela would be accompanying me but i would really be responsible for myself in a very new way... i must confess there had been some anxiety about it when i first dreamed up the idea ... but as the time approached i was actually ready to test my new mettle!

When i woke up around 5 it was into pitch blackness and a silence... the electricity was off ... this has become so commonplace now that i just grabbed my flashlight and started finishing my packing with its light... it gave the whole endeavour one of mystery and stealing away!!

I could have my breakfast as the stove was gas... brewed my last yummy coffee.. chopped a banana into my cereal ...

Soon i was ready to set off... putting on my backpack; which is the one i used on all the hikes through Europe, brought wonderful memories of all the other times of setting forth on a brand new day into a brand new world.... there just isn't a feeling like it!! I sent up thanks for those wonderful memories and looked forward to the new ones i was going to create today!!

Dela was at the tro tro station and like old hands we got into our tro tro... which was already half way full... We were off shortly after that..

The first leg of the journey to Koforidua was now so familiar.

Nature here has this eternal hopefulness... I had thought about it when i went to bed the night before: the frogs were making a cacaphony and then this morning i woke up to 'silence' that was filled with the happy chatter of a million birds...

And the flowers here are frilly and flamboyant and colourful ... they all have that same nature as lilies or orchids... There is a tree with not a leaf on it but it is covered in pink orchid like flowers...

There is a feeling that Nature is biding her time and smiling at the frantic nature of the human who tries to tame her... people hack down plants, burn whole swatches of fields... all in a frantic mission to claim the land as their own. The area that they manage to hack out is all dusty orange earth with dilapidated buildlings and shacks placed haphazardly around.

Yet right next door is Nature. In all her glory and majesty. Huge trees, lush green vegetation, delicate flowers, birds, lizards, chickens and their chicks, goats and their cavorting babies, herds of puzzled sheep!!! You have the feeling she is just biding her time and waiting....

And puny man with his stands of fruit and vegetables all beautifully organized ... with the area around the stand pristine and swept clean... pretending they are in control...

There is a no man's land between the human world and Nature which is all the endless trash which is mainly black plastic bags and the small plastic bags water is sold in. ( i will try and take a photo of these bags ...)

Never are you so aware of this dichotomy as when travelling distances ... in between the villages is Nature, lushly green and gorgeous looking more mysterious than anything in the thick dusty air...

Then you start to have the garbage and you know a village is looming ... Now that my eye is acclimatized i see the care and organization these villages have... The red dirt around the houses are all swept clean... There is order in the area around the pump where people are filling up basins with water.. washing is laid out to dry... the firewood in organized piles ... the stands by the side of the road always a colourful feast of bananas, papaya, mangos, okra, tomatoes ... Now as we approach Kumasi there are also clay pots piled impossibly high .. in darker oranges and blacks.. People make baskets here out of grasses as well ... they are out for sale as well... But despite all the grueling work the villages look dusty and folorn ...

That contradiction i find so prevalent here is shown up in this constant dance of Nature and the Human being, beauty and ugliness, strength and fragility, permanence and change .. here the people are the visitors.....

We are in a tro tro that is well kept... since it is used for long distances ... our trip will be about 4 hours..

I have come to think tro tro drivers must be the best drivers in the world!! As we careened down the highway i was praying... we passed 3 major accidents involving small vehicles and these impossibly big trucks ... i kept my eyes averted and continued my mantra!!

And all the while the radio is on and the Ghanaian radio announcer shouts like the most fervent evangelist you can ever imagine! oh, my!

To top it all off i was starting a cold.. at first i thought it was the dust ... my throat really hurt and i was sneezing all the time... but slowly it started to be apparent this was a real cold. There had been a cold going through the office, starting with the babies and then moved on to Bernice ... Pricilla was coming down with it as i left..

The other thing is the tro tro... this is a mini van with 4 rows of seats placed into it ... so far i had been lucky to have always sat next to a slight woman... well.. this time on my longest journey yet.. i was sandwiched between this enormous man and the window!! And there is no such thing as personal space in a tro tro!! I am convinced the tro tro is a conspiracy to tame the masses ... for four hours 15 people were wedged in together in a hot tincan that was hurtling down a highway! There was not one word of complaint or angry word... it was a study of utter patience and resiliance. I keep saying to Dela that this is where Ghana's beauty lies: in her people who have grace under such difficult cicumstances. God! back in Canada there would have been Mutiny on the Bounty in about 5 minutes flat... This Canadian tried to start a rebellion by asking her neighbor if he liked the person screaming on tthe radio? 'Yes, he is very good.' he said to me and then nodded back off!!! Defeated, i sat in my tiny corner and practiced patience!!

Fianally it was apparent we were getting closer to Kumasi ... the villages were closer and closer together and there were a lot of larger buildings (all mostly unfinished, of course)

And then we were there!

The tro tro station is very close to the market... and it was Saturday! We were caught in a traffic jam so i was treated to a close up view of a teaming mass of humanity the likes of which i had never seen before! My jaw literally dropped open! .. i know it was open because i caught my neighbour smiling at my increduality...i quickly closed my mouth :0 ... :)

Then we were out in amongst it all... it was chaotic, frenetic and disorientating... i kept my eye on Dela's quickly receding back and hustled my way through the crowd feeling a bit nonplussed..

Very soon though, it came through that though there were more of them, these were the same people i have come to know and respect...

I will try and describe a moment that sums it up for me.... After orientating ourselves with everyone's help we jumped into a shared taxi ... a person jumped in just a little bit later to share our taxi and then left before we did giving the driver a 5 ghana bill... The driver didn't have change but even though he was on a traffic roundabout surrounded by a bewildering array of cars he managed to reach out his hand with the bill , gave it to a nearby conductor of a passing trotro who then passed back the change ... all in the matter of seconds!!!...

this is Ghana...

Belinda

I think Belinda deserves a post all of her own. She is the one who looks after the babies all day long... on a good day there are 6 of them! They are all under a year old ... with all the ailments and grievances of that age: teething, afraid of strangers, cranky if they don't get the breast when They want it, needing constant attention and surveillance... some can stagger around, others are crawling and others are still immobile ... often much to their frustration!!

Belinda sings to them, bounces them on her back (sometimes she is jiggling around three at once!!) and plays with them .... and she is always smiling and loving them!!!

my hat goes off to her...

and a few more Birthday Guests!!!

More Birthday Guests...

Everyone except Kofi and Felix showed up..

Maggie and Kafui (the amazing cook!) came in from the house..

Luki, Precious and Lucie and her baby, the Batikers were there almost unrecognizable out of their workclothes that are usually spotted with wax and colourful dye..

The seamstresses and their babies were all there ... i didn't manage to really get to know them all very personally as they need to concentrate while sewing ... But we always exchanged greetings and smiles... And i saw them working... they chatted, laughed, sang and listened to the radio all the while their hands were busy...

Shoko, the designer from Japan, who has a desk just outside the seamstresses room... she is always working with them coming up with new ideas ... the latest one is a patchwork ipad holder that is just exquisite... the patchwork is miniature ...

There was Rita and Yayra and her baby, who are the Beaders with whom i sat for many peaceful hours making necklaces..

There is Belinda, who with patience and love looks after the babies like they are her own!!

Cecilia who is the manager of the Beads and Batik.. She is bustling everywhere making sure the orders are being fulfilled.. Her baby was born prematurely but has lungs that can break glass!!

There is Sika and her baby, Kofi and Felix who between them manage the other side of organization, the Village Exchange which is Micro-financing and Life skills and Reproduction Teaching.. Unfortunately there just wasn't time to get as familiar with this side of the organization ...

And Albert is at the head and oversees everything when Christianne is not there.

Lastly but not leastly there were the volunteers, Cathy: an accountant from England, Clarisse: a marketing/business student from France and Shoko (who you already know!!)

It was a great way to end my weeks of volunteering ... at a party where everyone was together in one place ... I was pleased everyone was focussed on this happy event and not really aware that it was my last day...

I had made no secret about leaving this weekend and the people i had really gotten close to showed me how sad they would be not to see me again ... but they all brightened when i said i would be coming back..

Even if it is just for the afternoon next Thursday to pick up my order..

Anyways who knows what this world will bring... i am continuously surprised!!

All that to say in the excitement of the moment everyone just wished me a good weekend ...

i liked that... goodbyes really suck.