January 11, 2002—
The alarms are set for 6:00 a.m. allowing three hours of sleep. The continental breakfast at Mensvic Palace consists of “Ghana Toast,” (thickly sliced bread, lightly toasted) Laughing Cow cheese, jam and the ubiquitous instant coffee. (does anyone in Ghana actually brew coffee?) It is complimentary with the room.
Ewuraesi, Onyameba’s wife, is to “pick” me at 7:00 a.m., but it turns out to be 8:00 and is not a surprise. (In future journal entries, GMT, Ghana Maybe Time, will be explained.) However, Ewuraesi, Resi for short, is a delightful surprise. If she were not seven months with child, and if beauty pageants would allow pregnant women to compete, she would easily win the “Miss Ghana” title! She is beautiful! No... stunning would be a better description! She is soft spoken, born and raised in the United Kingdom and the most gracious host Doug has had the pleasure of meeting in a long time.
She is the registrar at Lincoln School, a private American school in Accra, the same school where Ben & Julie teach. Now, Ben is Doug’s wife’s first cousin, once removed, and Doug promised if he got to Accra he would look them up. Little did he know the wife of his tour guide would be bringing him to their social studies, team-taught classroom.
We barely have time to say hello (one at a time) outside the door to their room and to take a picture. Even though this is Ghana, and people here have a wonderful sense of what is important and how to spend time with one another, this is after all... an American school, and so we must rush along.
Ewuraesi gives Doug a complete tour of the campus, which includes two computer labs (one with Compaq computers and monitors below table top, facing 45 degrees up to the operator, and the other, a new I-Mac lab). Kids are very engaged. There are two new science labs and of course beautiful Physical Education facilities. Doug speaks with the drama teacher, a gentleman in his 50’s from Pennsylvania. He recommends a book for use with children learning theater. (Doug formerly directed children’s plays at his community theater.)
Good-byes are said—perhaps Ben & Julie will meet up with the group in Kumasi on the weekend. “Driver” (Francis, the family driver for Onyameba and ‘Resi) takes Doug back to the hotel where the others are packing and/or waiting.
Ralph and Ellen are packing a small car to the roof line with gear in readiness for their trip to Ada, a village in eastern Ghana within the Greater Accra Region. Onyameba has a driver arranged for them and their eastward trip, while he accompanies Harold, Jo and Doug west toward Takoradi in the Western Region. After the usual Ghanaian business discussions, both groups depart and good-byes are said to Ralph & Ellen until we re-unite in Takoradi on the weekend.
The first stop is at the Ghana headquarters of World Vision, a Christian based, non-denominational, NGO working to better the social and economic conditions of the peoples they serve. Doug had met a World Vision geologist on an earlier visit and wanted to tour his work area near Tamale on this trip, so according to Ghana protocol, a stop at headquarters to visit with the director, Bismark, was in order. He has arranged for us to tour the bore well drilling sites north of Tamale in the Northern Region of Ghana where 300 meter wells are slowly replacing “water holes.”
We drive through several diverse Accra neighborhoods with Onyameba explaining who lives and does what in each. Soon we head for the main road to Takoradi. To the uninitiated visitor, Accra is a maze of traffic circles and thoroughfares with no semblance of order or direction. The little group enjoys the sights and ask our tour guide many questions until he nods off. Onyameba has had very little sleep in the last three days, as have his clients.
Since the big Ford van has a high clearance it poses a difficult entry for the older Americans. The quiet, cautious driver, Amos, spots a hand-made wooden stool for sale beside the road which will help passengers with the long step up. But wait, the carpenter is taking a siesta. (Is that what a nap after lunch is called in Ghana?) He is sleeping, bent over from the waist, on his work table. It calls for a quiet approach and photographs! Upon awakening him, the selling price is determined to be ¢5,000 (Cedis), or $.75 U.S. The stool performs admirably for the rest of the trip.
Stops are made for kenke (which is never explained other than it is edible), oranges to suck and wall maps depicting the 10 regions of Ghana. With each purchase, either Amos or Onyameba bargain skillfully, sometimes bringing the price to 1/3 its original quotation. Doug is feeling smug now with the cost of his own personal tour guide justified. White skinned Americans (Obroni) could never produce such low prices. For our new black skinned Ghanaian friends (Obibini) it is child’s play.
The day’s lunch stop is in beautiful Elmina at the Coconut Grove Beach Hotel. We dine on groundnut soup, Red-Red and Jollif rice with plenty of Star beer to wash it all down. The food is excellent and the only iners present are this split-up group from Accra & Minnesota. Of course, it is 2:30 in the afternoon, but there is no one on the golf course or the beach and only one person in the swimming pool. This becomes the norm for tourist facilities all across the country.
Onyameba immediately meets a buddy from high school days, and so we are joined by Franklin for a very enjoyable meal. The visitors are entertained by colorful little lizards skittering across the floor in the restaurant with no walls. Surely the species has been named, but the Star beer erases all desire to ask any more questions on day one of the tour... especially after only three hours of sleep!
The Elmina fish market bustles, as do all the small town markets along the way to Takoradi. People are drying chili peppers on the tarred shoulders of the highway—also some kind of grain. Pedestrians continue to urinate along the highway, never bothering to face the ditch. The garbage heaps seem to keep growing, although disposal company containers were spotted in the more plush neighborhoods of Accra—the kind where most homes are behind high walls and gates. People swarm the highways carrying long wooden sticks, pots full of water and all manner of produce on their heads. Onyameba assures the group that those piles of sticks are less now that the new government is encouraging more cooking by propane. Much wood is still collected and turned into charcoal, however. Rusting hulks of wrecked cars are standing on edge in the ditches. It turns out that one of them contained a Catholic bishop, reportedly from Sunyani.
Doug recognizes the bell tower of Star of the Sea Cathedral, our first day’s destination. Amos pulls into the compound and Fr. Francis is awakened from a long overdue nap. Arrival was expected at 2:00 p.m. and it is now 5:30! Fr. Francis is not amused, as several people have given up and gone home, rather than wait for tardy Americans.
Star of the Sea Cathedral was built in 1910 and is the center of the Takoradi/Sekondi Diocese of the Catholic Church in Ghana. Fr. Francis is a friend of Doug’s, a native Ghanaian priest and now the cathedral administrator, and his legendary hard work has built miraculous things in western Ghana. Doug’s church back in Minnesota has been supporting Fr. Francis’ endeavors for nearly 15 years. Harold and Jo are here to see what Doug and his wife Mary have been talking about for all these years. More about the Fr. Francis connection later.
A quick, perfunctory tour of the cathedral complex, including the construction area which will double the cathedral’s size is accomplished while driver Amos goes off to find a service station that will repair the van's very flat tire.
Accommodations for the next few days have been arranged by Fr. Francis and Onyameba, and are located on the west side of Takoradi in Apowa, a few miles from the cathedral over a pot-hole-littered road. The facilities are minimal, but very clean and comfortable—they are part of a catechetical retreat center called St. Kizito's and owned by the church. Complete with food services, the complex is managed by Aggie, our friendly host.
After a quick check-in supper is served in the dining room and consists of a cucumber salad, fried chicken and chips (French fries). Dessert is fresh pineapple and Fanta to drink. Everyone collapses and retires early.
It is premature to evaluate a tour guide and his services so early, but so far the group is extremely pleased. Onyameba is 30 and like many Ghanaians, loves to have fun, loves to laugh and loves to be with people. Basically he is charming on day one and appears to know exactly what he is doing. Between Christmas and New Years Day he completed this entire trip that will take us nearly three weeks, just to be sure everything was in order... just to check out arrangements he had made via the telephone. Wow, these Americans are not used to that kind of dedication!
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