Back to Awisa

We(my host family) went back to Awisa this weekend. That's the village we traveled to for the funeral. It looks like they go there a lot. I already know of the next trip they'll make. It will be in three weeks for a one year anniversary of an uncles death. This week's trip was more celebratory, though. It was for Easter and the confirmation of three of my brothers(Bediako, Omega and Kwame).

It started on Thursday. We wanted to be there for as long as possible, so Rihanna and I skipped our afternoon classes. I still had to go to my internship. We had a staff meeting and I did some typing for the business editor. Because of those things, I returned home a bit late. I was agonizing about my tardiness on the tro-tro ride home. Plus, it was a swelteringly hot ride of the stop and go nature, which didn't help in the least.

I guess this is a good time to discuss an aspect of Ghana that is unique to the country... in Ghana, you can buy anything you want on the street. They sell everything on the street(other than pharmaceuticals, although I'm sure you can find herbal remedies and illicit drugs). So much of their economy is street based, that it is actually harder to find objects in brick and mortar establishments. This is important because it allows you to do some shopping while your stuck in traffic. Need a new dress shirt? No problem, roll down your window and start bartering with the man standing at the intersection. Thirsty? Why pull into a convenient store(or Quick-E-Mart) when there are women(and some times young girls) carrying baskets filled with ice cold water walking between the cars. I hadn't ever partaken in this street economy, I wanted to get a feel for their prices before I bought anything. They always try to rip off obrunies, with high prices. Well, today I was hot. I was thirsty. I was hungry. And my water bottle only had warm water in it. So I looked around between the cars and found a man selling ice cream. I bought FanIce(that's the vanilla flavor) and it was divine. It was so good. It hit the spot perfectly. So much so that I stopped worrying about being late.

Which was good because when I finally arrived, my family was sitting around watching Pirates of the Caribbean. That wasn't at all what I was expecting. They told me that my brother Micky had been diagnosed with malaria and was at the hospital on an IV drip. They postponed the trip to the next morning. No problem, I sat down and ate lunch. Your probably reading this thinking that its horrible, I should be more concerned for Micky. But its cool. Malaria in Ghana is like the flu in the US. Everyone gets it. Typically once or twice a year. They go to the doctor, get some medication and are sent on their way. Most people heal in about 3 days.

So the next day we headed out.

We spent most of the weekend swimming. I guess I should mention that Easter is a national holiday and the University canceled classes on Friday and Monday to allow students to go home and visit their families. We swam three out of the four days we were there. I've been teaching my brothers to swim and they've gotten pretty good. The only things their missing are endurance and confidence. Both of which go hand in hand. They didn't improve too much this weekend because the pool we went to operates as more of a party in the water then an actual pool. Most Ghanaians can't swim, so I think they use the pool as nothing more than an excuse to hang out with friends and a way to stay cool. There was loud music and dancing(in and out of the pool). Then in the midst of it all was me teaching lesson. It wasn't too hard to do so the first two times we went. But on the third day, the place was packed. You really couldn't move without running into someone. That is everywhere except for the deep end and when I was tired of teaching people, that's where I hung out. I taught a lot. Teaching your siblings is one thing, but others kept coming over for lessons and my brothers kept finding friends who they thought needed to learn a thing or two. I was glad to help, I think basic knowledge of swimming skills is necessary for everyday life. But on Monday, I totally burned out. I had taught at least something to about 1/5 of the pool and everywhere I looked was someone looking up at me to critique their stroke or show me the next step and since the pool was so hopelessly full(as to be impossible for me to effectively show them anything useful), I just stopped all together.

I guess it didn't help that I had almost been robbed and was a bit perturbed at the time. It happened when Rihana(obruni sister) walked away to meet up with some brothers who had arrived late. Well, it was her job to look after our stuff and when Bernard(youngest brother), told me that she wasn't around, I rushed over to our stuff to make sure everything was still there. Everything of mine was, save for my cell phone. I searched all over and when she returned with our brothers, they helped out. Eventually(like 15-20 minutes later), I accepted the loss and dove back in the pool(at least the water has never betrayed my trust). While I was swimming my brothers found some boy outside of the pool who had 'found' my phone. We don't know if he was the one who took it or if we were just really lucky and he found it after it had fallen out of my pocket. Either way i ended up paying him a $1 out of gratitude(and because my bro's said they boy had insisted on a reward). 'Boo' to that.

The rest of the weekend.....

we had to awake at 3:30 am to go get my brothers confirmed on Sunday. I don't know if this was because of Easter Sunday and the rest of the day as booked with services... or they just do all their confirmations really early. who knows.

Service was alright. There was a lot of dancing and I wore a traditional wrap, so that was fun. But they didn't speak in English and it lasted 3 hours... so that was bad.

I'm really tired of typing and must be going home so i guess I'll have to cut this short. My sister just told me I have to go.


peace and love -tamu