A Visit with My Momma

One of the very, very special human beings from whom my genetic material is derived and more importantly from whom I have learned so much about life came to visit me here in Ghana.

My Mom!!!!!!!

Around 7 on the morning of Thursday, March 29th, Kayla and I sluggishly rolled out of bed. Kayla made coffee, while I helped myself to a few caramel Ghirardelli chocolate squares. In just a few short hours, I would be seeing my mother at the Accra airport. After a quick stop at the Ghana Commercial Bank, we headed to the airport to welcome my Mom to Ghana. We stood patiently in the waiting area, until finally, there she was - cute wide brim sun hat, gray rolly suitcase, and all! I ran to my Mom and hugged her for the first time in almost 10 months.

We exited the airport and walked over to where we could get in a cab. Mom said the flight wasn't bad, except her toes had swollen up like little sausages. I guess that is to be expected after 11 hours across the Atlantic. As we approached the main road, a taxi driver hollered out his window, "Where are you going? I won't charge plenty!" How refreshing, an Accra cabbie who was at least claiming not to rip us off!

"Kaneshie!" I yelled back the name of the station on the west side of town. "How much?"

"Ten cedis!" he replied. I think ten is probably a little high, but not too bad. Kayla and I looked each other, shrugged, and loaded in. Before mom had even shut her door, the cabbie was already on the move! Ghanaian taxis - and actually Ghanaian drivers in general - are notorious for perilously weaving through traffic, excessive honking, and passing on the wrong side and / or at very bad times.

We dropped Kayla off in Kanda, where she was staying at the time, and continued on the Kaneshie. Kaneshie is a station / market which is constant mosh of vehicles, people, and well chaos. Following is a diagram of the station. The green bubbles are vendors' booths (shoes, clothes, food, body care, anything you could possibly want). The yellow buildings are market/ store buildings. The red boxes are all vehicles (buses, cars, taxis, tro-tro's). And the blue box is the vehicle mom and I were headed for.

So after we elbowed our way down the sidewalk, we finally found the Cape Coast tro-tro. After I put mom in a seat and our bags in the back, I went out to buy some plantain chips. Plantain chips are the closest thing we have here to potato chips, so if you know me, I'm always after some! I bought our chips at 30 pesewas per bag (18 cents or so) and got in the tro with mom. The car filled quickly and we proceeded to have a rather smooth ride to Cape Coast.

The following day Mom and I visited the Cape Coast castle. So just for a little history FYI, if I remember correctly, the castle was originally constructed by the Dutch in the 17th century as a military fort. However, over the next few decades, it passed through a number of hands before ending in possession of the Brits, who used it as a hub in the gold trade. During the 19th century, the castle was used again for trading, but not for gold. Instead, it was used to hold slaves who were driven from their homelands in the north of Ghana as well as Niger, Mali and other West African countries to be sold or traded. Thus, it is now referred to as a "slave castle." Anyway, the tour was very interesting. Our guide, Justice, showed us everything from the dungeons, to the death penalty cell, to the the governor's quarters.

The following day, David escorted us to the monkey sanctuary, which lies approximately an hour north of Cape Coast. The crazy Dutch couple who run the place - Dennis and Annette - introduced us to Ebenezer, a young Ghanaian man, who would take us around the sanctuary. We saw a number of interesting species including patas, white nose, and green monkeys, as well as several non-monkey species including civet cats, hyrax, antelope, and some weird spotted pointy-nose weasel thing. We all got to feed the monkeys bananas!

After our tour, we sat with Dennis and Annette and chatted. Auntie Nell, their newest baby monkey played with toys over by the table.

The next day, Sunday, we made the big journey up to Menji. The kids still had 4 days of finals, including my chemistry and science exams. The trip up north, although 9 hours long, wasn't too bad!

For the next week and a half we just hung out. Mom got to come to class, meet all the teachers and students, walk around the village, meet my kids club (see picture below), and enjoy my normal day-to-day. I think this was the best part of the trip, because Menji is honestly my favorite place on this entire continent. Furthermore, mom got to meet James - my counterpart. Since he is one of my best friends, it was a big deal to me! She brought him an IU ball cap.

Other things we did that week: hung out out, chatted with people, played games (gin, backgammon, cribbage), cooked, spotted a pair of African grey hornbills, went to the market, ...

went on walks,

played with Roo (we were babysitting Richie's cat),

made cheese (no joke!) and put it on salads,

visited Adila's family in Sunyani (the two moms!),

attended church and had lunch with Millicent and Grace (James's wife and daughter),

and of course, one of my students slaughtered a chicken for us...

to roast and eat with jollof!

Finally, at then end of our wonderful week at Menji, we traveled south to visit David's site. After a few sweaty tro rides, we arrived in Mokwa in the Central Region of Ghana. The next day we went to see David in action at a meeting in Twifo Praso. A lot of various group leaders (the district education director, the police chief, etc.) came together to discuss various issues in the district. David introduced himself and explained his position as a Peace Corps volunteer as well as his current projects. A lot of the people were very interested in working with David!

That evening we went out for dinner... And in Mokwa, there is one place in particular you just have to go! An older, rather severe-looking woman owns a little place on the corner of town's main junction. You might her for a fussy old bag and her building for a crappy tool shed. But nope, no way, it's a great restaurant with a kind owner, who - by the way - makes some of the best soup in Ghana!

The following morning, we traveled to Koforidua for the annual "All Volunteer Conference," a meeting which includes all of the current Peace Corps volunteers in Ghana. We went from Mokwa to Praso to Cape Coast to Accra to Koforidua to Bunso. And I must mention, the tro ride from Accra to Koforidua took a very interesting route. And by very interesting, I actually mean an uninhabited one-lane winding dirt path through a mountainous jungle. I couldn't show you how we went on a map, but two very bumpy hours later, we made it to Bunso. Although the meeting lasted nearly all day for three days, I went out to dinner with mom every night and we stayed together in a very nice little house.

Monday morning, we left Bunso and headed to Accra, where we checked into the Airport View Hotel. Mom was scheduled to leave Tuesday evening around 10PM. We spent Monday and Tuesday just walking around Accra seeing the sites. We found a cute little shop ran by an adorable lady named Amanda, where Mom and I bought some fun souvenirs! Oh, and also we went to a little cafe were Mom got tea, I had a cappuccino, and we both had croissants! It was a really nice last two days together. Janers and I were very sad to part at the airport. But hopefully I will see her next Christmas (fingers crossed)!

And most importantly, Mom has visited and gotten to know the place I will call home for the next year and a half. :)

P.S. Thank you for visiting Mom!! I love you!