Guest Post: Ghana and I Reunited

Two weeks ago, I told my sister K’Chie that upon my arrival to Ghana, I will give her an all access viewing to my experiences by blogging in real-time. My father had assured the family that we would have Wi-Fi — plus internet — so everything was all set. Two weeks later, here I am sitting on my bed, back in the States after a safe flight from Accra, asking K’Chie for her account information so I can write a post. So much for promptness, right? I’ll address the reason for this delay later, but let me just start sharing my experience in the “Gold Coast”.

Of course, I was the last of the sisters to read K’Chie’s “advice” post on what to bring and expect — which by the way was a little too late since I was en-route to the airport (how helpful is it to know what Deet level my mosquito repellent needed to contain or the specific immunization shots I needed when I’m literally minutes from John F. Kennedy International Airport? Really?). “Oh well,” I said. “Ghana will just have to give me all that she has.” She sure did. My time in Ghana was well spent. I enjoyed seeing family members again, and some, for the very first time. I laughed at and with the people around me who gave me reasons to burn off the extra calories from the delicious food I devoured. I cursed at the internet gods who deprived me of cyber life, and praised them when I was able to get access every now and then. 

Since a detailed post about everything I loved and disliked would be too much, I have decided to write bullet paragraphs of the highlights of my time in Ghana. Enjoy!

Highlights

• Going back. Duh! Excited would be an understatement of the way I felt during the months, weeks and days leading up to my departure. Would I actually like what I saw? Would I feel at home? What drama would await? Of all my sisters, I had the least amount of memory of my former home before stationing in the U.S. 20 years ago at age 7 so I had no idea what to expect.

• Food! OMG, if I remembered anything from my three years living in Ghana as a child, it was the taste of kebabs, fish from our father’s pond, shellfish and a particular kind of yogurt (Fan Yogurt) my family always ate. On this trip, my father made sure that whatever cravings that N’ku, M’sa and I had and longed for, we got. Our cousins even helped — on many occasions, they would greet us with new batches of kebabs, and they would be eaten in a matter of minutes. Yum! Yum! And I can happily speak for my sisters and I that we didn’t need to fearfully visit the “John” like we thought we would.

• Family Reunions. It was nice to see family I hadn’t seen in years, and also those for the first time. There were some, like my father’s mother and brothers, who repeatedly told us that they remembered us from when we were really young.  How adorable was my Grandma?! Aw. I only wished I had seen a few family members on my mother’s side, but I guess not doing so gives me a reason to go back to Ghana soon. I think I’m safe to guess that one of N’ku’s highlights was seeing her baby pictures in the various albums that my father shared with us. And of our parents when they were younger! OMG, they looked so much like us now. And Daddy’s skinnier self without his stomach. LOL, the pictures were so funny!

• Sassy Attitudes! I don’t know why Africans have such harsh tones. When conversing with one, you might believe they have an attitude, but it’s really how we just speak. I should be used to this since I’ve been made aware my whole life, but seeing it from other Ghanaians was just too funny. Here are two incidents in particular that are worthy of mention: 

• Daddy’s Run-in With a Policeman. Poor little tink-tink. So after a pit-stop at a gas station, and in the process of pulling out to merge back onto a highway, a young cop approached the car and proceeded to let my father know that he made an illegal U-turn earlier, and for that, had to be detained. “ABBA!!!,” my father exclaimed. “With what eyes did you see me do this?!” When I tell you that this young cop was startled … He was speechless for a minute. LOL. Even after stupidly telling my father that someone had told him that he was the culprit, everyone in the car knew that this man had already lost the fight. After a few minutes of my parents tag-teaming rant, all the cop could reply was, “But ah! Old man. Is this how you talk to me?” To which my father responded, “You too. Is this the way you speak to an old man?! You should learn how to speak to one ::sucks teeth::” So funny. We drove off making fun of the policeman’s unfortunate encounter saying that he would think twice before approaching someone else and telling them what someone else had told him they saw. “With what eyes did you see me do this?” Who says this?! LOL.

• Vodofone’s representative vs. N’ku, M and I. Earlier, I mentioned that we weren’t able to access the internet or have Wi-Fi and that’s why I’m blogging so late. Well, after more than a week of the server not working at home, a trip to the internet company’s office by N’ku, a cousin of ours, M, and myself, we were pretty much sick of their crap. So when we returned home to one of their workers “working,” we wasted no time in asking him what the issue was. He happened to fix it, but a few minutes larter, the internet cut off again. Long story short, I eventually became fed up, N’ku followed suit and then eventually, it was just left with M and the guy. I’m guessing the conversation between the two didn’t go so well, because right before the guy was leaving, M asked me to collect the guy’s name and contact information. Well. Apparently, this wasn’t something the guy was initially willing to do and as he hesitantly wrote a series of numbers down, M glanced over them and stated that the numbers were wrong. “But who is this man to challenge me?!,”said the Vodofone representative to me. “Who is he?” “Why is he talking to me?” Are we as Africans that prideful?! I don’t know why I got a kick out of the man’s outburst but it was so random and funny. ‘Who is this man to challenge me?” Needless to say, the server never worked after that. WELP!

• Honorary Mention Flagged Under ‘We Should Have Known Better.”Note to self: When my father mentions that we are going to do something, I should understand that we are going to do just a fraction of it. Case in point: attending a beach party on Christmas day/night. Before our arrival, this was one thing he said we were going to do. He mentioned that it happens every year and we would enjoy it very much. Come that day, he wanted to take us there around two in the afternoon. “But Daddy,” I started to ask. “Is this when it starts? Are people there now?”  This man tells us that no, he is too old to stay out past a certain time because he doesn’t like to drive at night, so he wanted to drive us to where the party would happen. OMG, you should have seen the expressions on mine and N’ku’s faces, with my mother chuckling to herself nearby. I was soo sick. Who does this?! Who goes to an empty beach party? LOL. I was so over it at that point. ABBA! ‘With and in what atmosphere would you like me to witness a beach party with, Daddy?”

   
In a nutshell, good times Ghana, good times. Until next time!

T’ni