Family Visits
During my placement, I have had family visits evenly spaced throughout the year which has allowed me to stay connected to home, which I so love, and has allowed me to share my experience with those I love. This post is about experiences with family in Africa.
Best Practices and Lessons Learned
- If you plan on visiting someone in Ghana, don’t send a care package 4 months before. You’ll arrive before the package.
- Sarcasm is a great coping mechanism for +40 degree temperatures.
- When bringing supplies of chocolate to Ghana, select the small Cadbury eggs with the hard shell.
- Beer does not hydrate you.
- If you’re an animal lover, don’t agree to help slaughter a goat, which happens to have the cutest laugh.
- Bug nets don’t help with bed bugs.
- 120V appliances don’t work on a 240V line.
- Never worry about getting ripped off on a tro (minibus), everyone on the tro has your back.
- When you go to a secondary school expecting to speak to a classroom of 30 students, plan to speak to the entire school of 800.
- When you visit a village for the first time, you’re an outsider. When you visit a village for the second time, you’re family.
- Always take the path less traveled. It may not seem the best idea at the time, but it always makes for better adventures.
- Take people outside their comfort zone. It’s scary but exciting and a great way to learn about yourself.
Hottest Night – Geoff and Christine – February 09
Near the end of Geoff and Christine’s trip, we headed off to stay with a community near Damango in the West Gonja District. I was living in Buipe at the time, and the Buipe Wura (chief of Buipe) had relayed a message to the Damango Wura, that three aubruni (white people) were on their way. Upon entering Damango we went to greet the chief who graciously offered us rice with fish stew. He loaded us up in his truck with lots of food and off we went to the community. In the afternoon we mastered the art of sitting around and hanging out. The kids were really curious about our guitars so we started playing music familiar to all. No, not Celine Dion, we played Bob Marley. That night we ate some T-Zed and palm nut soap with our host family before retiring to our quarters. Throughout the day, the scorching sun had relentlessly penetrated the metal roof of our room, turning it into a sauna. It was the hottest night I had experienced so far in Ghana. The three of us were in one room, Geoff and Christine on a double mattress and I on a cushioned chair. Half way through the night I woke to find myself on a sweat soaked cushion with my back twisted in ways it had never before experienced. Looking across the room I noticed that Geoff and Christine were enjoying the nights sleep just as much as I was. We all decided to take a couple of prayer mats outside to escape the heat. We hung our bug nets to anything we could find. The bug nets were draped more like a bed sheet rather than a protective covering. We made it through the night, and were more proactive the following night in setting up our bug nets outside in the light.
Hardest Working – Dave and Sara – March 09
Right when Dave and Sara arrived in Ghana, I put them to work helping me make the big move from the District office in Buipe to the Regional office in Tamale. The work didn’t stop there. My two friends from Buipe, Daniel and Yakubu, took Dave, Sara, my parents and I to their village for a couple of days. While the rest of us had fun, Dave and Sarah ploughed the fields and made yam mounds from dusk till dawn. When they arrived back at the village, they had to fetch water for the rest of us who were very thirsty. While at the village, we celebrated my 30th birthday, and what better way to celebrate than with fresh goat. Yakubu found someone in town that was selling goats. Unfortunately for us, the demand was high and the supply was low. He gave Dave and me a price of 45 cedis and we wanted it for 35. Unlike a typical aggressive bartering interaction, we ended up sitting for 10 minutes in silence staring at each other, waiting for the other to budge. Finally we settled on GHc 40. Dave and I helped to slaughter the goat while Sara looked on. After slaughtering, Yakubu took a stick and entered the goat’s skin from the hoof, loosening the skin around the body. He then blew air into the goat between the skin and body, inflating it like a balloon. With the inflated goat over hot flames, it was relatively easy to remove the hair. That night, many in the community enjoyed a small piece of goat with fufu and light soup. What more could I ask for on my 30th birthday.
Biggest Following – Mom and Dad – April 09
After 3 days in Mole National Park visiting elephants, crocodiles, and monkeys, my family headed to Yakubu’s village. With my mom’s spirit and my dad’s size, they attracted every kid in the village. My mom relived her childhood by getting a group of 15 kids to play ‘Simon Says’. She got every child to follow her directions without speaking a word of Gonja. Now that’s non-verbal communication at its finest! Standing 6 feet 5 inches, my dad was easily 1 foot higher than most Gonja men. The kids were curious and amazed by his height. They followed him around wherever he went, to the soccer match, to the borehole, to the shower, to the bathroom, to sleep. My parents had to close the doors and windows to get some privacy. Unfortunately that didn’t make for comfortable sleeping. Now my parents can rough it out with the best of them, but reaching 60 years and sleeping on a thin prayer mat with no pillow in +40 degree temperatures, wasn’t the most comfortable environment.
Most Exciting Ride – Luisa – July 09
During Luisa’s first week in Ghana, we decided to take the path less travelled between Accra and Tamale, on the east side of the Volta. After a week of beaches, mountains, and waterfalls, we had a day and a half to make it back to Tamale before I started back at work. On the map it appeared we were half way to Tamale, so we thought we were safe. Little did we know that the paved road soon turned into gravel, which soon turned into mud, which soon turned into one big adventure. Starting at 7am, we made our way from Hohoe to Bimbilla on shared taxi, two tro tros (mini-buses), and one pick-up truck with 15 people crammed in the back. We landed in a small village called Damanko at 7pm hoping to catch the last tro, but we were out of luck. With no guest house in the village, our only option would have been to kindly knock on the door of one of the thatch houses with a big smile, hoping for the best. Fortunately, it was market day in Damanko, and there was a big yam truck heading back to Bimbilla. We hopped on the top of this massive beast and sat on the metal frame that covered the back. Below us were bags of yams and other produce that had not been sold at market. The women sellers were sitting on the bags, pleasantly sharing stories and offering us bananas. It was a beautiful ride. We crawled along at a snails pace with maize crops and Baobab trees gracing the land. It was a full moon that night which illuminated the path, lighting up all of Ghana’s beauty. A trip I’ll never forget. The picture doesn’t do it justice.
