Operation Ghana

January 23, 2008

We’re Not In Kansas Anymore

How did I lose an entire day? Yesterday was close to indescribable. We arrived at the airport in Accra, Ghana.
(You can enlarge the photos by clicking on them)
We collected our bags. Went through immigration and customs without incident. Although everyone in the airport spoke English, I had a hard time figuring out what was being said, because of the accents. Robi and Heidi were waiting right outside the airport door with Sammy and Marco. Sammy and Marco are both deaf and both work at the deaf school in Mampong. We got to the school bus, which is more like an open-air cargo vehicle.

We sat on padded slats in the back. Alex and Leah could not believe we were going for an hour drive without seatbelts.

Turns out, the bus wasn’t even running the day before our arrival. (EEK) They said it wouldn’t start and it had sat unused for so long that the grass had grown up all around it. They did get it working and cut it out of the grass just for us.

The drive to Mampong was truly unlike anything I have ever seen in my life. The street is lined with shops… more like shacks, shanties and lean-tos. Shops you can’t even imagine. A goat butcher, cinder blocks, (We saw them bringing out wet blocks to dry in the sun. The blocks had twigs sticking out of them.) Hair salons, melon stands and yams the size of a baby. Taverns, churches, canned goods shops and schools. We saw half finished homes with full laundry lines out front. Are people living there? Goats, ducks, chickens and dogs everywhere!

The road was paved last year. I can’t imagine that drive on a red dirt road. Every mile or so, a plume of black smoke rises up in the air as the people burn their trash. And every mile or so the stench of smoldering trash hits you in the face and burns in your lungs. The burning garbage leaves a smoggy haze over Accra. The sun appears reddish purple. You can look right at the sun because the smoke is such a thick filter.

Leah kept asking is that the sun or the moon? The moon appears bright orange. All along the street women carry babies on their backs and huge platters, bags or boxes or a dozen flats of eggs on top of their heads.

Many of the stores have names with “Lord”, “God” or “Jesus”. I will take some pictures and hopefully I can list some of them for you.

Marco and Sammy filled us in on many details. They were both surprised at Leah’s sign language level, commenting, “Wow! She is very bright!”

Here everyone honks. I asked if they are honking because they are mad or if they are happy? Mostly they just honk as a form of expression.
Coming through!
Outa my way!
Hello pedestrian I am a car!
Sometimes they honk to accentuate something they are saying to passengers. Curry, Robi and Heidi had a taxi driver who would laugh and honk every time they asked him a question. It seemed that he could not understand what they were asking him, so he just laughed and honked as an answer. They turned it into a game to see how many times they could get him to honk. I think I use my horn about 15 times per year. It is completely under used!

When we arrived at our cottage we were exhausted.

Aaron had a headache from the travel the exhaust from the bus and the fumes and smoke. Now, I travel a lot and usually when I arrive after being on planes and at airports my first instinct is to wash my hands. This is when I realized, as Dorothy puts it so perfectly in the Wizard of Oz, “We aren’t in Kansas anymore!” There was no running water. There were buckets of grey well water, but does it really do any good to wash your hands in water that is potentially full of micro organisms? That’s why we wash our hands, to get those things off! I didn’t quite know what to do. I brought out the hand sanitizers we had brought and a box of baby wipes. It’s going to be a long 9 days! We drank some bottles of water and then slept…. for hours.

Curry woke us up around 4PM to meet the headmaster of the Primary and Secondary School. Her name is Agnes. Here they have Primary Schools like we have elementary schools. Junior Secondary Schools are like our Junior High Schools. High schools are self-explanatory. We headed down the street and up a dirt road toward the school.

On our way we met Sammy’s wife Dora. Dora is also deaf.

As we walked up the road we could see children at a water pump in the distance. “Here they come!”, whispered Curry, “You’ve been spotted!” The children dropped whatever they were doing and began running toward us with their arms out. When they reached us they gave hugs and put their arms over or shoulders to walk toward the school. If you didn’t put your arm around them, they would reach back and put your arm over there shoulder.

They asked (in sign) what’s your name? I fingerspelled “R-A-C-H-E-L” and showed them my name sign “Rachel”. I probably answered this same question 50 or more times. Aaron, Derek, Alex and Leah were having the same experience. At least 50 children surrounded each of us. They were signing and asking questions. Leah was by my side. Aaron was filming. Alex stayed close to his dad. Curry told us, “You have to keep walking or we will never get to Agnes’ home.” We pushed forward through the crowd of children and answered their many questions. As Leah introduced herself, fingerspelling her name and then showing her name sign, many asked “Leah? Like on TV?” Then they asked, “Where is the boy, Alex?” I couldn’t believe it!

The children are beautiful! I got teary. There are some who want your undivided attention and others that are content to simply sit close to you and I mean RIGHT next to you, just happy to share your space without saying a word.

As we continued through the school grounds toward Agnes’ home we were stepping over concrete canals, like gutters that surrounded each building. Every time we crossed one the smell of urine stung our noses. As I crossed and cringed Curry said, “Be sure not to step IN there.” Yep, that’s where everyone pees. I looked around and asked hesitantly, “Well if that is where they pee, where do they poop?”  Mostly I didn’t want to step in any. He answered, “They just go in the bushes. Stay out of the bushes and you’ll be fine!”

I am embarrassed to admit that all day I was plagued by the thought that I could not wash my hands. As hundreds of hands touched mine, shook mine and held mine I continually counseled myself to “Get over it!”

We met Agnes. She welcomed us and showed Alex and Leah her pet monkey Jo-Jo Boy. (Remember, the travel nurse at the University of Utah had warned us all about mammals, including monkeys. Mammals carry and can pass rabies on to you if you receive a bite.)

Leah was concerned because she thought Robi was sticking his fingers in the monkey cage. “Mom, Robi was going to touch the monkey and we aren’t allowed to touch the monkey! We might get sick and die!” I tried to shush her so we didn’t offend Agnes. Agnes told us she also has three dogs: Liberty, Hope and Blessed. (FYI dogs are mammals too!) Every other dog we have seen looks like it just gave birth to a litter. They are everywhere!

We came back to our cottage around 5PM for dinner. On the way back we saw termite mounds that were taller than anything we had ever seen.

Just before dinner time Alex was complaining of hunger. Derek said, “Hang on buddy, dinner is almost here.” Alex said, “Oh did they order out for us? Are we having pizza?” Don’t we all wish!

You may remember, that we were advised by the travel nurse not to eat thin-skinned fruits like apples. Vegetables are also off the list unless they are well cooked. Dinner is brought in each night by what they consider a caterer. It costs about $2 per person each night. Tonight our dinner was a chicken thigh and about 4 cups of red rice and salad.

The salad looked so good, but if you could see the grey water in our well, you wouldn’t eat it either. The gal who brought dinner served up each plate and handed them out. I made the mistake of giving Alex and Leah their plates first. When I sat down Leah had devoured the cucumbers in her salad. Cucumber = thin skinned vegetable! I whispered to Alex and Leah, so the cook in the next room wouldn’t hear us. “Don’t Eat Your Vegetables! Remember?” Leah’s eyes widened, “I already did!”

I answered sharply, “Well, don’t eat any more!” I had better remember to tell her she CAN eat vegetables again once we are home. Every time we eat dinner we all take our Malarone Pills, you can see the bottles in the photo. These pills are to keep us from getting Malaria. Some of the Malaria meds have side effects like stomach bleeds and night terrors. Can you imagine night terrors in Africa? Our Malarone just warns of dizziness.

After dinner we went back to the school. I saw the “Machete Men”!!

The children at the school had also finished their dinner and were gathered in a large recreation/cafeteria room. They crowded tight around us. Right up against us. It was a little overwhelming for Alex and Leah to be surrounded tight with so many children.

They told us they had never seen oburuni children who could sign. Oburuni means white. I told them that Alex and Leah had never seen so many obibinis before. Obibini means black. I explained that at Leah’s school of around 300 children they are all white except for maybe 3 or 4 black children. The students could not imagine that and they laughed at the thought.

One of the students held a toddler on her waist. She said it was one of the teacher’s children. I smiled and came close to this adorable little girl. She hid her face and started whimpering. “She is scared of you!” they signed to me. I couldn’t imagine why! Where they kidding? I am one of the nicest people I know “Really?” I asked, “Why is she scared of me?”
“Because you are white! You look so different she is scared.” They answered. This hardly seemed plausible, at least to me.

We talked and played with the kids. We did different “playground games” you know, hand games and dances.

Alex busted out a bunch of silly hand tricks and shapes. The kids were very impressed and perhaps more than a little confused. They would ask me, “What does that mean?” and I said, “It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just for fun!”

We came back to the cottage and hit the sack!

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