Beach Bums

We set off early from our rooms and walked into Osu... this is an area of Accra where foreigners seem to congregate...

Breakfast at Frankie's... the same Frankie's we had gone to back when i was here with CCS.. Frankie's hasn't changed at all but everything around it has! Whereas Frankie's was this clean, shining beacon, now it has become a slightly shabby place amongst many newer gaudier places.... Pancakes and maple syrup... my system seems to have a craving for that kind of food... all the vegetables and fruit i have eaten something nice and stodgy seemed just the thing! ....

Downtown Accra is a hodge podge of buildings along side the shacks .... there is not any rhyme or reason to the place except the roads are straight! The open sewers add to the already potent mix of exhaust fumes and Harmattan winds!! Everyone is selling something somehow somewhere... How many sunglasses can the world need?

The continual onslaught of noise and harassment chases us on... we finally jump into a taxi in search of a beach..

The beach is in a million dollar surroundings... white sand, perfectly frothy waves ... dotted with black plastic bags .. the thorn in the side.

It is not so bad here though ... Clarisse, a sailor and water baby, is determined to go swimming... i am game as the water feels cool and refreshing... i just won't put my head in the water!!

It was quite wonderful to swim in the sea...

The beach is busy.. there are horses, wind surfers, swimmers, people playing football ... and of coarse, the vendors...

You cannot escape the people who want to be your friend so they can sell you something.... so you need to simply have creative answers and ways to get them to move on!!!

One needs to keep firmly in the front of one's mind that these people are simply trying to eke out a living...

There are a lot of kids in Accra who come up to you and touch you and look imploringly at you in silence... it is very eerie and disturbing...apparently these kids have been taught how to beg by their parents.. they are not from Ghana but neighboring countries in trouble... the contrast between these kids and the bright young people selling water or mangos or sunglasses is night and day.... The vendors are an irritant for 'us' but they work hard and honestly...

A lot of our irritation and frustration comes from feeling the contrast between 'us' and 'them'. There we are enjoying our day as beach bums ... just hanging out.. and they are working so hard....

We bought bananas and peanuts which they sell together... the peanuts are slightly warmed! we bought water ... and plantain chips ... so even as beach bums we helped the economy go round!!

We spent the afternoon under our umbrella just enjoying all the action.. the windsurfers were quite amazing... acrobats in the water!!

Finally we were starting to feel the sun so we decided to push on to our next destination.. the Artist Alliance.

This was in a large, elegant old building that had a decayed, abandoned air... but it was fun and quite blissful to wander around looking at everything... It felt more like an abandoned museum than anything else... but we could poke around and touch everything.. really fun. There were some beads ... i was tempted but decided to hold off in case the markets yielded anything...

Beads are everywhere in Accra it seems ... yesterday we had visited the Cultural Center which is just down the road from us. There seems to be even more vendors than the last time i was in Ghana and so who are even more aggressive in their desperate attempt to get you to see that their stock was unique! It makes for a very heavy atmosphere... but one man with beautiful beads was laid back so i got to check out what he had...

It makes me realize i did very well in my shopping. My stash is very interesting and varied... The prices so far in Accra are much higher as well....

We ended the day at a restaurant Christianne had recommended called Tribes...

Well, the day was rounded off completely back at our funny, little hotel ... Kathy went off to bed leaving Clarisse and i sharing a beer and yakking a bit longer....

The crashing lull of the waves sent me off to sleep....

Accra

The next morning Christianne drove Kathy, Clarisse, Shoko and i to Accra... what a difference it makes travelling in a car!! We just had to say we want to pee and Christianne was whizzing off the road ... all the girls spread out to pee behind a bush and off we went again.... aaahhh!

Arriving in Accra was a bit of a shock for me as the traffic here has more the tripled! ... also it was Friday so the whole of Accra was on the move.

We eventually found our way to our hotel down this most sketchy dirt road but which led all the way to the sea!

I got some men to help me disgorge my luggage ... and gladly gave out cedis for their efforts! ..oh my, the bags are heavy!

I was totally captivated by our funny little hotel on the sea! Our rooms are small cement cells but the surroundings more than make up for them...

That afternoon we went off for our first 'getting to know' Accra walk... we found ourselves on a beach and delighted to wade in the cool water!!

That evening we ate at the vegetarian restaurant in our hotel and had a most delicious supper!!

It was then that we found out what the fly in the ointment was (there always is one, right?) ... the place is a hang out for Rastas smoking Ganga... and constantly trying to befriend us... for me this is a tiny issue but Kathy finds this very trying...

I am just looking forward to sleeping with the sound of the waves that i can hear even without the hearing aide!!! ...

..one thing Etienne was very present here... and i realized it is because the restaurant reminds me a lot of the place we went for his birthday in Panama!! ... i had to skype him to let him know...

... the conversation with him sounding like he was down the street!! was a wonderful closing of my day...

Ho

I am back in Ho and it really feels like home. Everything is so familiar.. It is interesting because now i am 'back in' the landscape... instead of separated and peering out at it!!

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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Hitting the road again!

I am awake when Dela phones me telling me he is on his way... A mad dash and i am ready...

I had asked the front desk to wake me at 4 am .. She had seem quite pleased to wake me up but not a peep from her...

I lumber down the stairs.. my backpack has gained a few pounds ... even a small stash of beads weighs a ton... oh my luggage!! (i will think of that tomorrow.. Scarlet always was my role model for these things!!)

I arrive at the reception only to find my way out of the hotel locked!! I peer in ... the receptionist is fast asleep on the sofa... Sorry but i had no remorse about pounding on the door to wake her up .. (we did have history.. :) ..and i had a date with a bus!

Dela was there and the gatekeeper let us out of the ground... it was still very dark but with a cool breeze it was actually a nice time to be out...

I was feeling much better that morning .. it made me realize how awful i had been feeling... for the first time my head was clear..

We found a taxi quite easily .. and Dela said, 'To the Metro bus stop, please.' ..at least that is what i imagine he said..

Now this is another huge mystery to me... this Metro Bus stop.... There are three categories of travel here... the tro-tro, the Metro bus and the luxury Voyageurs. Now the tro-tros have their station but these other buses stop on the side of the road at some spot that everyone just knows... no signs... just ancestral knowledge or something!!

I was still very skeptical about the whole thing... and even more so when we arrived and no one was there ...

Dela was positive so i settled in to wait ... soon enough a couple arrived looking for the bus to Ho! ..and after that people started trickling over ... some looking for Ho and others other places that people seem to be able to direct them to no problem! All very mystifying to me... we were just on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere...

Finally the bus shows up... i am first in line to buy a ticket..Dela gets me on the bus tucking my backpack under the seat..

He is staying to do some work for another client that is coming in next week.. so i am going on my own... it is just a bus ride straight back so i will be all right , i assure him... so off he went.

The bus slowly fills up ... the conductor tells us we will leave in half an hour... and hour later she says the same thing....

I get out of the bus to stretch my legs... this bus is like a big tro tro ... the seats are as squished together and as uncomfortable as a tro tro!!

4 hours later!!!! ... the bus pulls out into the morning traffic! So we take a long time to get out of Kumasi... but we are on our way!

All morning long even though i feel much better my cough is quite persistent so i have been sucking the strepsils continuously...

We stop at the first village about an hour later... from what i can gather it is simply a pit stop... there is a washroom there but it is simply a low cement wall that people go into.. i think it is simply troughs ... i need to pee but not enough to brave this unknown..

We start off again... and this is when i start to have severe cramps... really severe... i think i was on the verge of passing out... there was a window just in front of me that sent reviving cool air into my face... i am sure it is the only thing that kept me from passing out... a man tried to shut it, i fiercely held it open... he shouted at me but the others could see i was in trouble and told him to leave it... for ages i passed through this awful time where the world was like an over exposed photograph ... very white.. and i couldn't see well... but i knew there was absolutely nothing to be done.. that i had to go through these cramps....

It was my nightmare that i would be really ill all by myself... Here i was in a bus in the middle of nowhere surrounded by strangers... But it is amazing how that inner self looked after me... i remembered to simply breathe the cramps in and out.. even though i would start to panic , i would resolutely go back to the breathing...

But finally i knew there was only one solution.. I stood up and directing my shout at the conductor said 'I need a toilet!' There was a burst of commotion as they all processed what the crazy white woman had said....(i laugh now!!)

One man came to my rescue and nodded to me ... i just knew he would take care of it ... funny that...

Finally after what seemed like an endless time .. they stopped outside a real Rest Stop with a real washroom... My saviour led me outside and showed me the way ... he even paid the 20 pesawas to the attendant...

I took my time .. and then washed my face with cool water ... and felt so much better having gotten rid of whatever had been so disliked by my body!!

I was a different woman coming on the bus... i thanked everyone for stopping and said i was sorry i had made them wait... They were no longer strangers .. they smiled at me and told me not to worry!!

And we set off again... the whole effort had wiped me out so i actually dozed for quite awhile...

Then we started dropping people ... apparently you could get dropped wherever... we dropped a young man of at a small village where his smart city getup looked so out of place.. we dropped a couple that must have been moving they had so much baggage.. even a fufu pounding stick.. i keep wanting to take a picture of these.. they are really quite beautiful and obviously quite an essential tool here!

Of course every time we stopped we would be swarmed by people selling food.. and as people were starting to get hungry lots of transactions were taking place... which also took time..

Now that i was feeling better (i had wondered if i had simply had too many strepsils!!) ... life just felt so good again.

Even though i was coated in a layer of sweat and squished i was enjoying the ride again.. It had come to me that this bus's only aim was to go from Kumasi to HO with a full load of passengers... there was no timetable to fulfill, no other obligation except to get us to where we wanted to go...

and , you know what, in Ghana that is quite a feat!!

They say it is a 4 hr trip but i left my hotel at 4 am and arrived at Ho at 3:30 pm but i was all in one piece..

...after a quick shower i was back to myself!!

I met everyone at the Office... it was the end of the day but everyone was delighted to see me... i heard Welcome! from every direction..

It was really like coming home!

I walked home with Clarisse and Cathy..

Christianne and Shoko arrived just after i had done the beer run to see my bootlegger (i was there, i wan't there.. i could see in the old woman's eyes that either way was normal.. humbling but good somehow)

We all sat down to a delicious cold beer ... and then supper!

I was so hungry!! i hadn't eaten all day.. nor had i eaten much in Kumasi really.. but i feasted that night..

Kafui had surpassed herself .. i had soya kabobs that were super spicy and a vegetable mix... it was heavenly and i ate and ate....

It was wonderful to be back among friends.


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the bus that brought me back to HO... in the station at Ho...
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Tuesday

A VISIT TO KOFOFRUM

Tuesday morning i was glad to simply sit under the Mango trees in the garden ... do some blogging and reading... my cold need some time out!

i hadn't been allowed to loll around in bed though... the hotel staff had rung me at 6:45 am demanding to know what i would like for breakfast!! ... and no lollygagging either!! ... a little while later they phoned to tell me in a no nonsense voice that it was ready!! ..in other word get your bum down here!! ... i always giggle to myself that people say we in Quebec are terrible with service: Well, everything is relative! ..i for one will appreciate even decent service after here.... hee! hee!!

Earlier i had connected with Karen, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Kumasi, who i had met during my last time volunteering. She had brought donated computers to the high school in which several of our volunteers were working. Volunteers with any computer skills were encouraged to pitch in with teaching basic computer skills once the computers had been set up .... this was five years ago... and i had been pleased to pitch in!

She had been delighted to hear from me ... and we worked out an afternoon that the both of us would enjoy..

We decided to visit a small village called Kofofrum... Ghana is famous for two types of beads ... the recycled glass beads which are mainly made in the Volta Region and the brass beads, which are made more in this area.

Kofofrum is a village very close to Kumasi and there is a brass-moulding co-operative here...

We set out in luxury as Karen has a car ... (which she can't drive!!! It is a standard like all cars here....i totally sympathize... but one of her students, Saviour drove for us)

Dela was able to direct him and we were there in no time... Karen was very pleased as she had been looking for this village for ages!!

It was tiny scruffy village with a small sign and yet it housed some real craftsmen that are carrying on a tradition learned from their fathers who learnt it from their fathers ...

The lost wax method has been around for centuries... their ancestors used gold but now they use mainly brass... and recycled brass at that ... they showed us something that looked like a kitchen sink pipe!! ...

They were pleased to demonstrate the very intricate and painstaking process using wax, clay, charcoal and even dung got in there somehow..

i tried to take photos but they don't explain much...but I found a very good photo essay explaining the process here: http://eshopafrica.com/gallery/process/lostwax.html

The village depicted in the photos i found on the internet is a much more organized and successful looking place than Kofofrum... but Karen says now that she knows where it is she will spread the word.. and she will bring visiting students there...

Afterwards, i spent some time sifting through their beads and pendants picking out a few for the funkyFrog hord!!!

On the way to lunch we stopped at a pharmacy so i could see if i could buy some throat lozenges as my cold had gotten to the scratchy cough phase and i was running out.. at the second place we found strepsils!! yeah!

Over lunch we caught up on news. I found out Saviour had been one of the students at the Keta High School and he would be going back to the states to do a Masters in Education... the best part was he would be coming back to Ghana to teach...

Also it turned out the Saviour was a real fan of Dela's music.. Dela has produced two albums... Saviour was really happy to learn that Dela was making another one! Dela was quite stunned to hear that Saviour had found the second album while in the States... music seems to be Dela's real passion.

Karen mentioned something that i found disturbing... Apparently the Chinese are building the roads here in Ghana and generally taking a serious interest in Africa generally... you know why? .. their work force is starting to demand more money so they are looking to out source in the future!! It made my heart sink hearing this... The world is a very strange place....

That evening i turned in very early as tomorrow i had a 4 am date with a bus!!

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....