Some things have been quite challenging and some things have been quite a blessing and that's a lot of ups and downs for less than 7 days' worth of experiences. In all fairness, though, most of my "downs" have to do with my own emotional low rather than things here in Accra, so I imagine I'd have been just as down in Toronto.
On Tuesday my missionary friends advised me that a good place to find excellent fellowship was the Elim International Family Church in the Labone neighbourhood. I found out that they have a prayer meeting on Wednesday nights so, since I was sorely missing the Wednesday night fellowship at AGH, I thought I would see if I could get there for the meeting. I only had 20 Cedi notes in my wallet unfortunately.... I didn't have any small money as they say here. I knew the trip should only cost about 5 or 6 Cedis, but because I had no change, when the driver told me it would cost 10 Cedis I just agreed, even though I knew he was fleecing me... but it was worth it. The prayer meeting was small, but sincere and Elim is a great name for the place because it was a real "oasis" for me to be there that night and I needed it. I'm looking forward to going back in the coming weeks.
Earlier on Wednesday, I set out to try and find a place to live. I can't stay here at the guesthouse because they have made it quite clear that it is a shortterm place for missionaries to stay and since I am neither a missionary nor am I staying in Accra shortterm, I need to move on. So, like I said in my last post, I had a couple contacts here in Accra through a colleague of my sister's and I was hoping that it would work out for me to live with one of them for the duration of my stay here in Accra.
The first acquaintance was Mrs. Baisie who lives in North Kaneshie -- an industrial neighbourhood quite a ways away from where I am working. She is my sister's colleague's mother-in-law and she is 84 years old. I wanted to visit her house yesterday but she was quite worried about me taking a taxi by myself so she would not give me directions to her place. Instead, she told me to have the taxi driver take me to the Police Hospital where she would send her "boy" to find me and escort me the rest of the way. Well, I thought that the Police Hospital must be a landmark that was close to her place and that, like with everyone else so far here, I would receive further instructions to her actual house once there. So when I asked her how much it should cost to pay the taxi driver to get there (I ask so that I can negotiate fairly with the driver; otherwise they go nuts with the prices) and she said about 5 Cedis, I was surprised because I thought she lived very far away. But I took her advice and flagged down a taxi. Unfortunately, none of the first few taxis seemed to know where Police Hospital was in North Kaneshie! There was, of course, the one right beside us in Osu, but none that they knew of in North Kaneshie. No problemo! I just called Mrs. Baisie up again and had her talk directly to my taxi driver and he assured me he knew where he was going. So I hoped in the taxi and, to my great surprise, about 3 minutes later he stops at the Police Hospital in Osu and insists that this was the place that Mrs. Baisie told him to drive to. Sigh... that was a trip that was worth about 50 pesewas (25 cents) as opposed to 5 Cedis! Especially since I could have walked there in less time. Oh well... I had no chioce but to pay the guy 5 Cedis since that was the deal we had agreed on.
Once at the police hospital, I called Mrs. Baisie again to try and figure out why she had sent me here. Apparently it was not because it was any where near to where she lived, it was so that I would be in a safe central location for her boy, Foster, to find me. She said he would be right there so I waited there for him for about an hour and a half...Sigh again. While waiting I saw many people entering and exiting the hospital. At one point they brought a corpse out in a metal box which was interesting. But what I found neat was the women leaving the hospital with their babies. Apparently it is a big day the day a woman goes home from the hospital with her new baby here. The women came out escorted by their mothers and they would be wearing a new fancy dress of white fabric with the baby wrap made of matching fabric and the baby either strapped to their back with the wrap or else in the arms of the proud grandmother. Some of these white dresses were just amazing! And they all looked quite uncomfortable given the heat. But it was neat to see. I snapped a few inconspicuous shots here and there (I'm learning to shoot from the hip with my iPhone, its nice to be able to take pictures without people always feeling like they're on display).
Women dressed up in white leaving the hospital with their new babies
Proud Gramma
Eventually Foster found me and we got into yet another cab which insisted on charging us 12 Cedis for the trip to Mrs. Basie's house (should have cost 10 8 or 9 at the very most, but Foster wasn't into negotiating) this visit was starting to get a little costly! But it was worth it. Mrs. Baisie's house is a lovely estate on a beautiful piece of land. She has fruit trees and vegetables growing all over her back yard:
Plaintains
Cassava
Pawpaws (Papaya)
Pears (Avocados)
Coconuts
Mangoes (none on the tree today...)
and Oranges (which are green in Ghana, but are still called Oranges)
and Oranges (which are green in Ghana, but are still called Oranges)
Her house is large, bright and cool and she has both a house boy (good ol'Foster) and a house girl who take care of the various tasks associated with maintaining a house that large. Everything except the cooking, which Mrs. Baisie likes to do herself. She fried us up some Samosas while we were there, which were quite spicy! I didn't expect to get Samosas in Ghana! Mrs. Baisie and I had a lovely visit and I have promised to come again, but it doesn't look like it will be practical for me to stay there longterm. The commute would be both expensive and long and that's just not going to work.
This is Mrs Baisie and my friend Gen from work:
And this is the "house girl" who helps Mrs. Baisie
The second place I went to see was Mrs. Kyei's house in Labadi/Labone which is very close to Osu where I work. Mrs. Kyei is also an older lady. She has a nice little house behind a tall grey gate, which was very hard to find, so, again, I had to have the taxi driver take me to the nearest landmark and then have him speak directly to Mrs. Kyei on my phone for further directions. My visit with Mrs. Kyei was quite nice and I have decided to stay with her. I will no longer have wireless internet there, but other than that, I will have everything I need! A small room, access to a shared bathroom and kitchen with Mrs. Kyei and her other tenants (when there are other tenants), and easy access to my office by tro-tro (local rundown minibus/vans that take locals along the main routes through town -- they cost a fraction of the taxi fare). Mrs. Kyei says I will be her adopted daughter while I am here and she intends to teach me how to cook Ghanaian fare -- should be interesting!
Actually, today I went back to Mrs. Kyei's house in order to pick up something I'd accidentally left there the day before and she took me on a tour of her neighbourhood after which she put me on a tro-tro and told me to get off at Danquah Circle. Well, I had a first day of kindergarten flashback as I sat on this minibus full of people naively waiting to get to wherever Danquah Circle happened to be so I could get my shopping done and then return to my guesthouse... unfortunately I had no idea where Danquah Circle was and the mate (the guy who takes the money) did not know I did not know. So 20 minutes later (way after we'd been and left Danquah Circle unfortunately) when the mate announced that we'd arrived at the last stop and everyone had to get off, I was quite disoriented and had no idea where I was. Well, that was 50 pesewas wasted. Ah well, I hailed a taxi and had him take me back to my familiar old guesthouse and that was that.
Tomorrow I will be boarding a bus to take the 5 hour trip to Kumasi, where there is an assembly of believers. I am really looking forward to spending the weekend with them and regenerating before I start work on Tuesday (Monday is a holiday :)! Will report on that excursion very soon!
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