Beauty

I have decided to name this post ‘beauty’, it is fair to say that so many thoughts have been running through my mind since I have been in Ghana, many questions have been raised, situations contemplated in fact it is a challenge to even collect my thoughts but for now I will focus on beauty. Ghana is a beautiful country on that I am certain, at first glance Accra is nothing but another developing African capital city, the hustle and bustle, the pollution, noise, extreme poverty, erratic power and water supply but as you begin to look below the surface you find a city and a country full of treasures at every corner. Ghana’s beauty is found in its people. Not a day goes by when my socks aren’t knocked off by a Ghanaian’s generosity, hospitality and joy. I have lost count of the times people I have just met have paid my fare on the tro tro for me, invited me to share their meal with them and gone out of their way to give me lifts. In fact the following 2 particular examples have stuck in my mind:
It was a Friday night, the night that Ghana’s Black Satellites (under 20’s national football team) won the world cup – Ghana went crazy! It got me really excited for the world cup next year!!! I was going to meet my friend Jude (a VSO who came over with me who is working for Ghana Education Service) at the other end of town near his home to find somewhere to watch the football. After work I headed to my usual tro tro (bus) stop to catch a tro to meet him. The traffic in Accra makes London look like Lincolnshire and this particular night was much much worse as everyone was heading back to watch the football. To say I wasn’t entirely sure of where I was going was an understatement, the tro’s do not have numbers or anything to distinguish one from another, just a guy who is always known as ‘MATE’ hanging out the window gesturing with his hand to show which location the tro is headed to, different gestures mean different things and I am just getting the hang of what is what. Normally I ask the guy when he stops, this night I had no chance though as people were just cramming into the tros in desperation to get home. Just as I was thinking, ‘Oh dear, I haven’t really thought this through very well’, I decided to ask a nice young lady next to me which direction the next tro was going in. She asked me where I was heading and I told her, it was I think somewhere near where she was going as she told me to come with her, we hopped into a cab, she negotiated with the driver and paid the full fare for the whole cab, she insisted! On my living allowance there is no way I can take cabs in the day, I only do it at night when I figure it may not be so safe to take the tro tro, I was so so grateful to that lady – can you imagine that happening in London!
Another example of the generosity of spirit was found when I met this fantastically matronly like lady called Angie a senior fire official here in Ghana. As I came out of the VSO office last week after a meeting, my intention was to walk to a main shopping area called Osu, she greeted me out of her car, ‘where are you going’, so I said, she told me to get in and that she would give me a lift. We talked, her daughter lives in London, she told me all about Ghanaian foods and insisted in driving me to the places in my neighborhood where you can buy this and that (I have eaten there since and she was right, the Kwelewele and Boarfruit have been fantastic!). She then took me to the main fire offices and showed me around, before taking me to the market and helping me buy some great fabric. She insisted that I should get a lift back to my house in the fire truck!!!
It is not only the people, but the geography which lifts your spirits here in Ghana. At the weekend a number of us decided it was time to head out of the city to the coast for a long weekend break at a place called Ko Sa, a very small, basic beach resort (just a number of huts really) about 2 hrs out of Accra. The place was fantastic, owned and managed by a Dutch couple, plenty of sun, sea and sand, lots of walks to tiny fishing villages, lobster and beer for supper and great company – it was just what I needed to feel energized for another week of work without electricity and water!
I apologize for the lack of email contact at the moment, the power is erratic to say the least, it keeps coming on and off all the time – it fact there was no surge protector in the office here so the power surges have blown up the internet router!!! ERROR!
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