The Follow-Up

So I've realized that I'm not yet totally prepared to write a post about my feelings upon returning home to Canada from Ghana, but what I can do is tell you about my last days in Accra, which ended up being pretty amazing.

As it turned out I wasn't alone at the Crystal Hostel, I was just the only one staying in the main house with Seth and Auntie (the couple that owns the hostel). Outside were two other guest houses, one of which had a rooftop pavilion overlooking Accra where I spent a lot of time journaling, doing beadwork, and hanging out with the "vicious" guard dogs. Some really cool people were also staying at the hostel including a musician who was collaborating with locals artists on an album, a film-maker, a student writing his thesis on the evolution of childhood in Ghana, and a group of girls from London who were trekking across Ghana to learn leadership skills and build self-confidence. I ended up eating breakfast with the English girls both mornings and helping them plan different excursions around Accra. They were spending 28 days in Ghana and had already travelled through 11 villages and worked on various community projects and participated in a number of cultural activities. What I thought was really cool about their trip was that these girls were only 15-18 years old and were in total control of everything that happened. They had 3 adult chaperones but they were responsible for managing their budget, finding transportation, planning activities, and looking for food and lodging. They took everything one day at a time and would wake up each morning to decide where they would go that day. I was really impressed with how mature they all seemed!

On the Monday I spent my morning doing beadwork and then caught a tro tro through Kaneshie Station to Osu. I met up with Sophia and her roommate Marine and we headed to a new Thai Restaurant called Zion. The restaurant is owned by a legit Thai woman and her cooking is SUPERB! If you plan on heading to Accra I would highly recommend this place, especially if you're vegetarian (she had real tofu!!). After lunch I browsed around Global Mamas and got some shea butter products, wrote an extensive apology email to Ms. Francois at New Horizon Special School and then grabbed a massive salad from Frankie's for dinner before heading back to Darkuman. This fellow named Delight (the names in Ghana are wonderful!) helped me catch the right tro tro back to Kaneshie and was definitely one of the nicer guys I met during my time in Ghana. He was really disappointed to hear that I was leaving the next day and made sure to give me three different phone numbers where I could reach him the next time I came back to Accra. Even though I have held onto these numbers most Ghanaians change their phone numbers on a regular basis so I'm not going to hold out too much hope that they will still be valid two or three years from now!
I got lost after reaching Kaneshie Station and picking a cab to Darkuman because the streets have no names in the neighbourhood I was staying in and I had not memorized my way around the complex maze of roads and back alleys overnight. I ended up calling Seth who directed my cabbie to a filling station and sent his buddy NaNa over to meet me. NaNa is this really friendly guy who owns a craft shop behind the Crystal Hostel. Apparently Auntie and Seth really helped him get back on his feet after a difficult time and he's become very close friends with them, helping them out whenever he can. Aside from leading me back to the hostel in one piece he also called one of his buddies and organized a ride to the airport for me for the following night. I was so grateful for his help! That night I called mom and dad to let them know the cockroaches were the biggest threat at Crystal Hostel and I would be able to happily stay there for another night. I slept like a friggin' log.

Tuesday got off to a crazy start. The English girls talked to me over breakfast about costs for chartering vans and were disappointed to hear that the driver they had been using for the last three days had been hugely ripping them off and lying to them left, right, and centre about the costs of driving in Ghana. I told them they should definitely re-negotiate prices for the next leg of their journey so when their driver arrived that morning four of the girls approached him about bringing down his price. The driver was not happy and was definitely the rudest and most aggressive business person I ever encountered while in Ghana. The girls offered him more than necessary for a 3 hour drive to their next destination considering he was driving a rusted out box with no luggage room, broken windows, no A/C, and broken signal lights, but he wouldn't budge on his initial price. First he tried to guilt trip them explaining how he was a poor man just trying to scrape by in this awful world. When that didn't work he accused them of being racist, which was amusing considering the group consisted of three white girls, two black girls, and about 10 brown girls. His next move was to tell them that they were being horrible Christians and God would smite them for their greed and meanness. At this point he was screaming at them and Daryl (the girls' male chaperone) got involved. The driver began outright insulting Daryl calling him every name under the sun and making very aggressive gestures towards him. I told the other girls to forget this driver, even if he came down in price he couldn't be trusted and didn't deserve their business after being so rude. I sent them over to NaNa to find a new driver with a better vehicle and fairer pricing. NaNa came over a few moments later to try and calm this guy down. The driver then ran inside the hostel to tattle to Seth and look for back-up. An intense debate ensued and the driver lunged at NaNa and Daryl repeatedly while Seth tried to calm everybody down. NaNa was just laughing at the foolishness of this driver and then left to bring the girls' new driver over. It took almost an hour to get this disgruntled driver off the property but the girls were then placed in much better hands, which made me happy. I said goodbye to them and wished them luck on the rest of their journey before hopping on a tro tro to the University of Accra at Legon.

My plan was to spend the day wandering through the botanical garden where I could spend time reflecting on my trip and collect some of my thoughts before leaving. I also wanted to check out the library (the largest and oldest in West Africa), the bookstore, and the Museum of Archaeology, which houses some of the skeletons of pre-human species and has been heavily involved in the human genome project. As usual, my plan quickly fell apart (all a part of some greater power trying to teach me the benefits of being flexible)! I arrived on campus and headed in the direction the Bradt Guide indicated the Botanical Gardens should be. Along the way I stopped students to double check I was headed the right way (this campus is huge and really stunningly beautiful). One of these students happened to be Gideon who decided not only would he show me the way but, like a helpful Ghanaian should, he would give me a full-fledged guided tour of the Gardens. At first this really ticked me off because I had come here specifically for alone time, but I had been reading "Me to We" and decided to embrace their reminder about the importance of gratitude and be thankful for the company. Gideon spent most of our walk grilling me on Canadian culture, politics, and my personal life--he was extremely interested in learning about a foreign country. What I found amusing was he frequently spoke as though he knew Canada saying things like "It is such a beautiful country", "the people are so friendly", and "I love Toronto". When I asked if he had traveled there he said "Yes, somehow." He hadn't of course, but in general Ghanaians do not like to admit to not knowing things, so he acted as though he had been to Canada and knew the country. He also pretended he knew his way around the Gardens and managed to get us lost 3 times. His third strike was asking about my favourite kind of pet, to which I replied "Chinchillas". He said he also loved chinchillas, but when asked what they looked like he said he had forgotten so I laughed and explained what they were. I then decided it would be a good time to tell him that he didn't have to pretend to know everything--nobody knows everything! I felt bad that Ghanaians were always so afraid of being judged if they got something wrong or didn't have an answer. I was constantly reassuring people that admitting to a gap in knowledge or asking questions wouldn't cost them our friendship! After our walk, which included seeing the experimental farm, the fish breeding grounds in the man-made lake, and the donkeys and horses in the orchard, I bought Gideon lunch to thank him for his kindness and help. After lunch he insisted on taking me to the internet cafe so I could see his family. I was hesitant because my time was almost up and I hadn't done half of what I had planned but he insisted so off we went. After looking at hundreds of photos of his mother, father, nieces, nephews, and 6 sisters and being told repeatedly that I would "know them very well soon" and "meet them in the near future" we finally signed off and headed out. He then wanted me to meet his friends so he took me over to the boys' dormitory, which by the way reeked of urine. He took me into this one room where two of his friends were standing in their underwear to introduce me. Out in the hall boys were cat-calling at me and Gideon was happily accepting the high-fives and suggestive comments from them. I was very uncomfortable and told him I was leaving. We said our goodbyes and I quickly ran off to the bookstore where I indulged my obsession with classic literature at half the price I can pull off in Canada. I never made it to the library or the museum.

Back at the tro tro stop I stood around for 45 minutes while tro tro after tro tro passed by me full of people. I was getting anxious because it was after 3 PM and I knew the tro tro ride back to the hostel would take over an hour. My ride to the airport was going to be picking me up at 6 PM and before then I had to finish packing, shower, eat dinner, and settle my bill. In desperation I sent out a prayer and to my astonishment it was answered only moments later! A taxi pulled up with two young guys and a girl in it. They asked where I was going and told me they could take me to Achimota Station. I kept asking how much because if you don't negotiate a price BEFORE getting in the vehicle cab drivers will frequently rip you off. They just laughed and said "Don't worry, it's free"! I found this hard to believe but didn't have much choice at that point so I took a leap of faith and hopped in. To my surprise the guy in the front passenger's seat was listening to an iPhone and when he started up a conversation used North American sarcasm and humour. He introduced himself as Mol and told me the driver, Selorm, was his buddy and the girl in the back seat, Karen, was his daughter, which confused the hell out of me because she was so close to his age! I just assumed he meant he had a young daughter with the same name as this girl (Ghanaians frequently refer to those around them with family titles if they have the same name as one of their family members despite lacking any biological relation--for example a man in Hohoe had a sister named Jessica so he always referred to me as his "little sister" and he became my "big brother"). This assumption turned out to be very wrong. Mol realized I was confused and explained that the three of them had grown up in a Christian Community just beyond Achimota. In essence this community was a squatter's settlement where everyone lived in complete poverty. Mol had grown up working odd jobs to put himself through school and was so passionate about the people in his community that at 20 years of age he founded an NGO called Global Ghana Youth Network to assist the kids who struggled so much. Mol provided schooling to these kids 5 days a week, gave them clothing and shoes to wear, and provided them with two meals a day. He referred to Karen as his daughter because he had literally raised her over the past 5 years. Today his organization supports more than 75 street children in Accra and has attracted volunteers and sponsors from around the globe. Most of Mol's support came from the U.S. where he used to travel to frequently to give educational seminars on poverty in Accra and raise funds for his project. Unfortunately much of this support has ceased following the economic crisis and Mol is struggling to keep the program together while jumping through hoops to gain registered charity status under the 501 (C) Bill in the U.S. Soon we were talking about the possibility of him traveling to Canada in the coming year to give presentations to various community and University organizations I had connections to and he was giving me advice on how to proceed in starting up a Vocational Training Foundation for the students at Gbi Special School. I could not believe my good fortune at having been the one to climb into this cab! We exchanged contact information and when I tried to hand Mol gas money for the ride he refused saying "What goes around will come around" and climbed out of the cab to hug me goodbye and wish me a safe journey home. Mol, Selorm, and Karen were each so inspirational and so incredibly self-less. I'm blessed to have been able to stay in touch with them since arriving home and we email back and forth almost every other day. I would highly encourage everyone following this blog to take a moment to check out Global Ghana Youth Network's website because they are doing amazing things in Accra!
Global Ghana Youth Network:
http://www.ggyn.org/

I didn't get back to the hostel until after 5 PM and quickly scarfed dinner, showered, and packed. I was pretty impressed that I managed to fit everything into one suitcase (minus my drum)! I settled my bill (only $40GH for two nights, three meals, and bottled water! I would highly recommend the Crystal Hostel to anyone traveling to Accra on a tight budget!) and ran out to say goodbye to NaNa and catch my cab. The drive to the airport took an hour and a half including a ten minute stop at the grocery store for airplane snacks. Check-in was pretty quick, thank goodness, but I had to laugh as I watched a bunch of Ghanaians cutting lines and the reactions of disgruntled diplomats and ex-pats waiting patiently to enter our flight gate!

The flight to Frankfurt was an interesting one, mostly due to my seat partner, a Ghanaian guy who looked at least 25 and who was traveling with his sister and mother seated in front of us. His concept of personal space was non-existent. To go to sleep he constructed a tent using his blanket, swung his legs over the arm rest between us, and settled his elbow into my ribs. To top it all off he would occasionally peak out of his tent and glare at me as though my presence were preventing him from getting his beauty rest. At meal times (despite having only a six hour flight we managed to have supper and breakfast!) he would trade food items over the seats with his mother and sister, frequently spilling. His most glorious moment arrived when the plane hit turbulence. His response was to undo his seat belt, stand, jump up and down, hit the seats, and shout at his mother in excited Twi. I swear every eye in economy class seating was trained on him and I got a few pitying looks from the elderly ladies across the aisle from me. For his sake I hope it was his first time on an airplane and he was just overexcited about the novelty of hitting air pockets.

During my 7 1/2 hour layover in Frankfurt I played some sudoku, read a mac magazine, and spent almost three hours spilling my guts into my journal. I realized that I had a lot of pent up emotion from my trip and now that I was finally alone and in an environment separate from my experiences all of the emotions were swelling and tearing through me.

To be honest I still haven't been able to sort out how I feel, so until I do I will avoid posting about it. I was overwhelmed with happiness to be back on Canadian soil where I understand the people better and can function within the culture without making a million misjudgements or mistakes every time I turn around. Since getting back home I have spent a lot of time talking with friends and family about my experiences and I am often upset to discover that I tend to dwell on the more challenging things I confronted in Ghana, rather than the pleasant things. The pleasant things are just so easy to accept and I never needed to come to terms with them, whereas the negative experiences I had currently lie in a grey area and I was never given an opportunity to reflect on them or attempt to deal with them while in Ghana. One thing I can say is this trip opened my eyes in ways I never anticipated. I saw both the beauty and the darkness of Ghana, which I am so thankful for. My views on development and westernization have become much more complex and I am now sure that my life is headed in the right direction.

The question I am always asked is "Will you go back?" My simple answer is "Yes". I fell in love with the kids at Gbi Special School and made some really amazing friends in Ghana--I can't imagine having to go through life without seeing them again. My more complicated answer is "No". Because the person I am right now won't go back. The next time I travel to Ghana I hope that the person I am will have grown into something better. I will have to make sure to mentally and emotionally prepare myself for being completely unprepared for what I am about to walk into. I will have to figure out better ways of coping with my frustrations and my failures. I will have to accept how little I know about the world around me, and I will have to be okay with it. I will have to drop my judgmental attitude and take more time to stand in the shoes of those I meet.

In conclusion, I have a lot of traveling to do to places within myself before I will be ready to travel to places outside of myself again.