Leaving Ghana

Well, those last three weeks disappeared in front of my eyes! I was so busy, trying to get everything all wrapped up before I flew home...PLUS, my mom came to visit! We spent a week traveling around the Eastern part of Ghana, which is beautiful - very lush, breathtaking waterfalls, and a very peaceful, quiet contrast to the bustle of Elmina. I flew back to California yesterday, so I'm typing up this blog from home -- I wrote it in Ghana but ran out of time to go to an internet cafe!

When I returned to Elmina with only a week remaining, I wondered how I would possibly get everything done -- especially when it came to meeting with a long list of people. The process of getting a message to someone in Ghana is a tad different than here in the US...let me explain. Normally, if I needed to meet with someone, the first variable to consider if they have a phone. Most of the administrators and people in important positions have phones, but most of the students or parents that I needed to contact do not. Assuming they had a phone, I'd call them up, and the conversation would go something like this:

Contact: Hello?
SHawna: Good morning, this is Shawna!
Contact: Oh, good morning! How are you? How is everything?
Shawna: I'm fine, thank you. How are you?
Contact: I am also fine. How are you finding Ghana?
Shawna: It's very nice, thank you. I am hoping we--
Contact: How is your mother.
Shawna: She is fine, thank you. Now I want to know if--
Contact: This is Janet?
Shawna: No, this is SHAW-NA.
Contact: OH! Sorry-o. Good morning! How are you and how is everything?
(repeat entire above conversation)
Shawna: Now, I was wonderi--
Contact: And how are the children? Are they learning hard?
Shawna: Yes, everyone at the school is fine.
Contact: Oh, good. By God's grace.
Shawna: Yes. Ok. So I would like to meet with you to discuss the school.
Contact: Yes, I will be happy to meet with you.
Shawna: Can you meet today?
Contact: Unless tomorrow.
Shawna: Ok, tomorrow. Where can we meet?
Contact: I will find you.
Shawna: Creepy, but okay. See you tomorrow.

Skip to "tomorrow," when the contact would show up wherever I was -- be that the school, in town buying some spring rolls, taking a walk...somehow the person would know my exact whereabouts at all times. This is a result of the "drum line." Some of you, who have lived on islands, may be familiar with this concept as the "coconut wireless." In any case, it's the fact that everyone knows everything that everyone is doing exactly 2.5 seconds after they've done it, sometimes sooner. SOMETIMES, actually, they could predict my actions - like one incident when I had a lull in my day and took the opportunity to flag down a share-taxi to go to the post office. About halfway there, the cab driver pulled over at some random dirt road along the way, honked, causing a familiar face to peer out of a mud hut, smile, wave, and then approach the cab and say "I heard you would go to the Post office today. May I escort you?" I understand that HE heard about my plans for the day, that's easy enough to follow, but did this mean that EVERY possible cab driver (and that's a LOT of drivers) ALSO knew?

Once I had actually made contact with the person I was supposed to see, I inevitably had to set up another appointment for the following day, because it usually took between three and five meetings to actually discuss what I had called the meeting for in the first place.

Remember, this was assuming the person had a phone. If they did not, I would simply try to locate a family member or good friend, and ask them to spread the word that I was looking for, say, Joseph, which usually resulted in Joseph finding me within an hour or two. If I knew that "Joseph" was in a certain general vicinity, I wouldn't bother looking for friends or family, I'd just go to that part of town, and begin informing anyone I saw that I was looking for him, and then, after a sufficient number had been dispatched (5 or 6 was usually enough), I'd sit myself down somewhere and wait for Joseph to come jogging up to me fifteen minutes later. If I didn't know where to start (ie, couldn't find friends or family, and didn't know their location) I'd just bring up my quest in every single conversation that I had all day long, and somehow word would spread to an adjacent village and then to the next town and then by carrier pigeon or small child relay team or something to the house two hours away where Joseph was visiting his mother's sister's husband's friend (aka his "brother"). Then Joseph would either dispatch the messenger crickets to click out a message that would be delivered to me an impossibly quick fifteen minutes later, or he would cut his visit short and unexpectedly show up at my side, interrupting the conversation that I was still having about his whereabouts.

It really was an incredibly efficient system.

Well, unfortunately, the adventure has come to an end. When I look over these stories, I realize what an incomplete picture they paint...but I suppose I can't expect to describe it all (though I would like to). There are so many stories left untold...daily cultural nuances left unshared. Some of them seemed so minute in comparison to some of the larger conceptual differences, that I didn't even think about describing them here, but now, as usually happens upon returning home, I'm being confronted with them again one-by-one. For example, I'm sure it will take me a while to readjust to "normal" English again - just today I was happy to note that when said that I would be "running" in the morning, no one handed me anti-diarrheals.

Thanks again to all of you for your support, monetary or otherwise -- all of the words of encouragement were priceless and the random emails from home meant the world to me! In the next few days, I'll post a few last pictures, because I finally have a fast connection again!! I want to wish everyone a very happy holiday season, and good luck in the New Year!!!

Stay tuned for the next adventure... :-)