Returning home

My return home was in stages. First i left my hideaway by the sea... that last morning the sea was quite wild. Wind whipped the shore and rain came into my window...

I had managed to get a breakfast just before the storm broke so i sat it out sipping my coffee and eating my delicious granola and fruit ... enjoying the fury of the storm in the small cell that was now my cozy room.

I set off when the rain stopped .... walking .. i wanted to say my goodbyes...

Finally after a good walk around i called a taxi ... after the usual dickering we settled on a price and off i went ..

... my first step back into another world. The hotel i had chosen was right next to the airport so the next day i would not have to battle traffic ...

After the chaos and heat, it was like stepping into a museum or church... everything was quiet, hushed and the air was deliciously cool..

my room was gigantic and there was a bath with hot water!!!

i immediately put on my bathing suit and went for a swim in the beautiful empty pool... for the first time in over a month my body was losing that feeling of being over heated... i could feel it coming down to a normal temperature..

... and i started missing the heat and chaos! i couldn't believe it!

.. so i decided on a crazy whim to go into town to eat for the last time at the restaurant Baku which has the most amazing Ghanaian food ....(and the restaurant was always full of ...Ghanaians.. so i felt that was the final stamp of approval!)

...of course leaving the hotel, the taxis tried to completely rip me off but i knew what was fair ... one taxi turned me down but another man was delighted to take me..

..once in the taxi i saw why ... the traffic was completely at a standstill so when the man said he would wait for me i said, 'Sure, of course' !!

i had a delicious lunch and another walk around before heading back... i arrived back at my oasis steaming hot and happy.

I was glad i had decided to give myself one night in a fancy hotel (at home i would have found it quite standard but after my 'cell' it was the very height of luxury!!) ... i got a chance to decompress and adjust back to the completely different world i live in in Canada...

i had time to really think about what i had seen and done before leaving. Time to give thanks.

The trip home was an adventure but it went like clockwork... everything worked out perfectly all the way home...

i actually arrived in Montreal about two hours before a major snowstorm! how amazing is that?

My son, Etienne was there to greet me and in his arms for a delicious hug ... i was home.

Tuesday

As the morning dawned the wind picked up ... storm clouds swirled in... driving rain lashed the shoreline.

I was cosily protected in my little room... and decided to wait out the storm!!

Finally it tapered off just in time for Dela's arrival at 10 am... since he had to leave tomorrow and while i still had his help i had made arrangements to move my luggage to the hotel i would be staying at out near the airport (the hotel agreed to store it for the night)... i was so glad i did this as we lugged the suitcases over to the taxi!!

After depositing the luggage we kept going out of town..

We were going to visit the University of Accra as there was a museum there in the Archeology department that is suppose to have a fine collection of old beads..

We arrived after a bumpy tro tro ride ... they are fixing the highway here... this means the whole highway is closed off and the cars are left to drive on the side which is packed earth ... and extremely bumpy!!

The museum was disappointingly small and like so many things in Ghana, neglected and abandoned.. what was there was very interesting though. It seemed like a fine finale to browse through beads i knew were the original one that had made their way to Africa so long ago...

After the museum, i wanted to visit the Botanical Garden described in the Bradt guide... it was suppose to be behind the Zoology department... we asked everyone ... no one seemed to know where it was.. but thought it was over that way... pointing vaguely in a direction...

Finally we stumbled on a large clue: 'Botanical Garden Road' ..!! We followed this road ... giggling to ourselves that if we had asked where an asphalt parking space was probably everyone would know its exact location... Nature just wasn't a precious commodity here...

.... finally we stepped into an oasis, a tiny Shangri-la ....stepped back into a time when Africa was only green... for once something in Ghana had flourished.. in fact had relished being abandoned and neglected...

The air was thick and sweet ... my lungs just couldn't get enough of it as i breathed in deeply. It was totally silent except for birds chirping and swooping around.. i stood still in one spot inhaling the scent of some flowers...

i realized my journey had taken me to the cities and that this was the first time i had found myself in Nature...

It seemed fitting that my last real day of visiting Ghana should find me here... a kind of reconciliation... there is always hope. Nature is strong and resilient.

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Kaneshie Market

The main market is housed in that big yellow building but there are vendors outside as well...
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Market Day

The girls left to get their Togo visa ... then they were off back to Ho by tro tro. Matt, a young traveller we had met was going with them.

(Matt drove a car from England to Mali. The car will be auctioned off and that money will go to charity ... now he is traveling around Africa... he has a blog on Twitter called 'Anyone for desert?" I always wanted a reason to check out Twitter :)

And i was on my own again... which i was surprised to find out.. was really ok!

I have been looking at that anger i found inside myself which seemed to come from a hard, cold place that is however such a source of strength to me. I am starting to really see that i am two halves. The one half is gentle, loving and generous. The world responds to this half. This half is so easily hurt and humiliated as it loves and feels joy. It is the part of me i protect above everything. And then there is the other half that i have always tried to reject and push away. That half is hard, strong and implacable. She is like a solid rock. It is the one i see in the Ghanaian face....

I think it is what attracts me so much to the Ghanaian people.. there is such a feeling of stoicism and a hardness in their faces yet in a split second a smile shows their other half is right there as well...

The anger is what really put me in touch with this half but there is much more than anger there... Since opening up to this side a lot of the fear, humiliation and unease i have been dogged by all my life has eased. It is like i have found that person i have always been looking for. Someone i can trust and depend on no matter what. She is there for me.. i know that now...

Today Dela and i were going to check the cargo rates... It was great to be with him again as i got to go back to using the tro tro. In the city this is so confusing i think you need a Phd to work it all out!! Dela is completely at home in this world... especially in Accra as he grew up here.

We found our way to the base where the cargo planes are. First they insisted i pay 2 ghanas to enter! .... This is the sad part... corruption is rife here so you are continuously suspicious but if you are not on your guard you will be fleeced. Then we had to get through an onslaught of 'front men' all vying for you to go to their office... awful! Finally i just jumped into the first office i could find that actually was a cargo company as i couldn't find United Airline Cargo... the one i found myself in was British Airways... After a lot of hassle i found out that for me to send just a small amount would be very expensive but it would be worthwhile if i had over 200 lbs... in other words, it would be more economical for me to bring my stuff with me this time.. i would see about 'next time' ... but now i had more information so i was content.

Now came the fun part of the day. The bead search in Accra begins! Even though i knew i couldn't buy anything i was still really keen to see what the markets here had to offer... again research for the future was my thought!

Dela was in his element. He gave me a wonderful whirlwind tour of the three main markets of Accra. We were hopping on and off tro tros and on the go all day!

The first market was the Makola Market which is in central Accra. Dela asked people as we went... there were some beads but they were all the shiny baubles from china....The real draw here seems to be gold or gold plated jewelry... there were stall after stall all crammed together filled with the cheap glitter... like plastic has replaced the woven baskets of their ancestors so their rich heritage of beads has been replaced by junk. Progress.

One thing that is still very loved is fabric... there were piles teetering to the roof of the gorgeous brightly coloured fabric Africa is reknown for... Dela used to sell fabric so he was able to point out the fabrics still made in Ghana.. i bought one piece that i could not resist that was a genuine GTP fabric (guaranteed wax printed in Ghana) A thought was percolating that fabric could be a beautiful combination with beads!! ...even without bargaining this gorgeous piece of fabric was $4/yard!! Another thought to pursue in my future endeavors!!!

Finally after chasing in one direction to some possibility after another we both decided there were no beads to be found here!!

Next we were barreling along in a bus tro tro off to the once biggest indoor market in West Africa... Dela is not sure if it still holds this title today.

We go over a bridge... the river is a horrifying sight of pollution and garbage.. i cannot help but gasp and say 'my God!' quite loud...Dela takes the moment to say in a loud voice, 'That is why we must stop using the plastic bags!' ... this started a mini revolution!!!

When Dela had said to me it was futile for him to not use plastic bags as this would make no difference i had told him about the demise of plastic bags in Canada. I said it was not long ago that my son had told me i should stop using plastic bags. I had thought the same thing as Dela but since Etienne was passionate about it i did as he asked... Now a few years later no one used plastic bags ... everyone was using cloth bags ... for me it had been one person saying to me 'Stop using plastic bags'

Dela has taken this to heart but he is now a man with a mission!! He is not going to stop at one person!!!

The commotion that broke out over this statement was both humorous and touching. The woman who adamantly defended the plastic bag said it was the europeans that had taught them to put things into a plastic bag to conserve things and they were right!!! I was so moved by her vehemence... what good intentions can do... The 'idea' sold about the plastic bag is one that swept Ghana like wild fire... now that damn plastic bag is loved and given out lovingly for every tiny thing you buy!!

'We put things into the plastic bag all right but what happens to that bag when we take those things out?' Dela demanded. 'Are the Europeans going to teach us about this too? No, we Ghanaians have to think about it for ourselves!!'

I sat there a bit dazed as the battle escalated to war ... it did not come to blows but i wonder if we had not arrived at the market at this time what could have happend??

He certainly planted a seed there!

Kaneshie Market is truly massive... it is housed inside a three story cement building... surprisingly this actually works... the cement and the fact it is all natural lighting keeps the building quite cool. It is a relief to be out of the relentless sun... we stroll around in the dimness enjoying the market. Again the only stalls of beads we come across are the gaudy chinese junk...

Next Dela takes me to Jamestown as the next market is close by here. It was such a different visit than the one the girls and i made... He took me to meet his cousin who owns and operates a sewing workshop for making choir gowns and all sorts of church finery.

The little atelier was very clean and airy ... everyone working away happily... a different spectacle than i had imagined going on behind these walls..

He discouraged Dela when he heard he was taking me to the Agboblushie Market... he said the roads were very bumpy.. as i found out this was an understatement...

..the tro tro we took to get there was covered in a kind of upholstering inside... Dela started talking casually to the conductor and i wondered what he was talking about... noticing him gesturing to the roof of the tro tro much to my horror i saw bugs darting in and out of holes in the upholstery... ooohh! my hair immediately stood on end! Once i would have screamed for them to stop and jumped out but i am 'stoic' now... tee! hee! ... my skin crawled and i asked Dela what he was talking to the guy about... he said he was suggesting a product that could kill all of these creatures!! I laughed to myself because i knew exactly which product he was talking about!!

On the tro tros Salesmen have captive audiences and in between stops they drone on and on about some product... it just goes on and on... i swear it is a kind of hypnotism ... and it works! Here was Dela telling him about this 'Zapbugs' or some such stuff like people repeat commercials from the tv back home!!! The giggles eased the shudders for a bit....

Thank god we didn't have much further to go after that..

Then I saw some sights that made me burst into tears ... there is a section there that surpasses Dantes' hell... and human beings work and live there. What kind of world is this coming too?
Dela tried to console me but i was not crying for me i was crying for this earth.

He lead me away and we found ourselves in what i think Van Gogh must have seen with all the potato farmers during their harvest. There were millions of yams... Each stall was selling yams and there were piles of yams behind them with trucks with more piles of yams...

There was something quite beautiful about this that soothed my aching heart. I couldn't take photos as i felt that was too rude.. But imagine an orange hard packed ground with piles of brown gnarly root like vegetable that are quite big ... some about 2 feet long.. with the black skin of the vendors who are wearing the very wide brimmed straw hats... a peaceful and beautiful monochromatic scene..

then we went into the market proper and with all the familiar smells and sights of colorful fruit and vegetables my equanimity was restored somewhat ... but my heart overflowed with compassion and admiration for the cheerfulness i saw there in the face of such adversity as i knew they must face living in these surroundings...

It was here in this market i found the best stash of beads yet! Ironic.. i felt i had travelled far to find them. Even the starting prices were reasonable ... but alas i could only buy a few tokens.. Dela who has found a real love for his ancestors' craft, bought a small bracelet to go with the beads he got from Kumasi. He has a real eye for the beads. He like the millifori beads.

Milifori beads are also called Trade beads... the original millifori bead was made mostly in Venice for merchants coming to do trade in Africa. The Africans were trades but had no use for european currency but loved the beads. The original beads are made with layered glass and are all unique and very colorful. These beads are being produced today in both glass and polymer clay... the antique milliforibead is very expensive and hard to find... but the newer versions are still very beautiful.

I had a wonderful time just browsing around the beads ...

Next time Agboblushie Market would be the first stop on my route....

in the meantime i hope the Ghanaian government wakes up to the terrible and urgent disaster brewing in their front yard!

Prince Charming!

I am excited about coming home ... for all kinds of reasons..

I am looking forward to adding beads and new necklaces to www.funkyFrog.ca!!

I feel a dream i have had for so long... coming to Ghana to buy beads has really been more than i dreamed.....

..and in a way the dream has just begun!

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Tourists in Accra

We woke to pouring rain!! Our idyllic getaway is suddenly more like a drowned out camping spot.... the communal bathrooms have leaky roofs... in fact the thatched roofs are all leaky!! The rain even came into the girls' room as they are not set under a porch like my room is... we all feel a bit bedraggled as we sat at wet tables to eat breakfast!

But my new adventurer spirit is not daunted for long...

We set out after breakfast for a real day of playing tourist ... we are going to visit a fort, a lighthouse and a museum...

The fort and lighthouse are in Jamestown, which is a really a shanty town in Accra... The fort is crumbling and decaying... a horrible reminder of a distant past... it had a kind of faded beauty ...

The lighthouse is still well kept... but the shanty town has grown in the five years since i last walked there...

The museum was a walk across town and was quite minimal...

The best part of our day was a wonderful discovery... a restaurant frequented by Ghanaians where we ate a delicious feast...

Our last stop as tourists was the Cultural Center. We had decided to go back... I felt they should go back because i remembered i enjoyed it much more the second time after the shock of the vendors.... so even though they felt trepidation we went..

The Center was very quiet as it was Sunday... and those vendors that were there were less aggressive. We all split up and really enjoyed ourselves... Both Kathy and Clarisse did their first bargaining bearing off their prizes quite triumphantly... i know that feeling...

I got a few beads just to keep my hand in ...

We spent the evening watching the sun go down and reading...

It had been a really nice interlude: the weekend. I had really enjoyed the time spent with Kathy and Clarisse.. we had discovered Accra together...The girls would go off on their own tomorrow and i would be starting the last leg of my adventure!


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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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