In January 2002, my mom passed away. At the time, Marvelle and Clifford were on their mission in Ghana. They could not come home for the funeral. After the funeral, I said to Colleen and Lester Ann, we should go see them in Africa. They thought it was a good idea. I started to look into flights to Accra, which is the capital of Ghana and that is where you could fly into. I thought about it and thought about that again. Colleen told me she could go. At the time Heidi was working for Air Canada and she could get a fare with Air Canada as a family member of Heidi. The only thing was she had to go stand by on the flight. I wasn’t too keen on going standby. I didn’t want to get stuck in Frankfurt where I would have to change flights to Accra. I have a travel agent work for me to find a flight schedule.
I made up my mind to go by myself. I had to get my vaccinations up to date. I had to have yellow fever vaccination that ready made me sick. I had to get a visitor visa. I decided to go Calgary to Amsterdam to Accra. When I arrived at the airport in Amsterdam, I had a wait till my next flight. I had to retrieve my luggage and had time to wander around a couple of stores. I went into a flower store and I chose a small bouquet of yellow tulips for Marvelle. I have always liked tulips because of my Dutch heritage. The girl in the shop put wet paper towel on the roots of the flowers to keep them moist. Then wrapped the, in brown paper so they didn't get crushed. Then I had to run to the gate to catch my flight to Accra.
The flight from Calgary to Amsterdam was a 14 hour flight. Then another 8 hours to Accra, Ghana. When I arrived in Accra the plane stopped on the tarmac and we had to pick our luggage when they took the luggage off the plane. We had to board a bus that took the passengers to the airport. At the door of the airport, you had get off the bus, retrieve luggage again and go through customs and immigration. I had to have my passport and a Visitors Visa to enter the country of Ghana. I got a luggage carrier and a Porter when I got into the airport. He took me through customs and Immigration. Once I got through that area, the porter told me he could go no further with me. Marvelle and Clifford told me they could not enter the airport. They would be waiting for me outside. They told me to get a porter that could stay with me till I found them outside of the entrance of the airport. The porter I had told me I would have to pay for 4 porters. He found another porter that did stay with me till I found them. When Marvelle saw me coming down the ramp, she screamed to me and I found her. By that time it was getting dark, real dark. They don’t have street lights. There were small gas lanterns at the side of the roads. We put my luggage in their Toyota car and went to a hotel over night. You do no travel any distance at night. You could be ambushed, robbed and killed.
When we arrived at the hotel, I gave my tulips to Marvelle. She went to the front desk to find a vase. They gave her a mason jar. It worked. She put the flowers in water. We went to bed. It was hot but I was tired from the long flight. The next morning we got up and cleaned out the room. Marvelle remembered to take the tulips. She discovered they were silk flowers. We had babied them and they were silks. We laughed so hard our stomachs hurt.
We drove to the village of Koforidua. They had a nice house with a bathroom, shower and running water. It was very comfortable and hot with a very small window air conditioner. They had a helper about 30 years old, Eric, who looked after the yard. He planted fruit and vegetables in the whole yard. They had pineapple plants, mango tree, coconut trees, palm trees, other vegetables and fruit. I can’t remember it all. I took garden seeds for him to plant, like corn, peas, carrots, beans, etc. He was very appreciative as he had never heard of those vegetables.
The first day we went to the market to find a seamstress to make me some dresses. I bought the bright coloured material for three different dresses. The seamstress took my measurements and told me to come back In 3 days. I had bought enough of one of the patterned material to make a dress for Ashley. I went out into the street and found a little boy about Ashley’s age. I took him into the seamstress and told her about this size. So she measured him up and made Ashley a dress to match my dress. We went back and she had all the dresses made and head dresses as well. All the ladies have matching dress and headdresses.
Clifford ask me if I brought CD’s with me. I shrugged and said no, why would I bring CD’s with me. He told me no their currency was Cedi’s. We had to go to a Fed Ex office to exchange my USD to Cedi’s so I could go to the market to shop.
Charles was a retired schoolteacher and would go everywhere with Marvelle and me, as an interpreter from their language Twi to English. He was a member if the church. He was very nice to us. The first Sunday I was in Ghana, I had a new dress to wear to church. All the ladies at church came to welcome me to their country. I had one suitcase full if things fir the African children. I took as many things with the Canada emblem on it. I took small balls, flags, key chains, pencils, with Canada on them. I took candy and gum for the children. I was like the Pied Piper. I would just go out to the street and the children would flock to me. Somehow the word got out and I had children asking me for more for their brother. I told them the brother or sister had to come to me.
Before I left for Ghana, I collected about 35 pairs of used seeing glasses with me. One day we went to the village of Juno. Charles had grown up there. He showed us the school where he studied. We went in a room where girls were learning to sew. We went to see an old man in a hut. Charles told us he needed eye glasses. He was 95 years old. Charles and I climbed the ladder into his hut on stilts. We took a few pairs of glasses to him. He would try on a pair and shake his head , no that was the wrong strength. He tried a few pairs till he found he could see. He picked up a old newspaper that was yellow from the sun, and he could read his newspaper. The pair he picked was a white cat eyes frame that was women’s glasses. He cried, Charles cried and I cried too. He could SEE!!! He thanked me graciously for bringing the glasses to him.
Every day Marvelle and I would get Charles and we would go somewhere of interest. We went to a National park of trees that were the tallest trees I have ever seen. We went to the wood carvers. I bought kinta cloth there. It was yellow, orange, red and green threads weaved together. I bought book marks and a necklace in kinta cloth. Jody wanted a pair of giraffes, the largest I could find. We I bought a pair that I could just fit into my suitcase. I bought earrings, bracelets, an African mask for Garry. I bought ten sets of elephants in about 6 sizes from 2 inches down to about a half of an inch. I bought 6 sets of giraffes about 8 inches tall. All carved from wood.
It was an average of 53 degrees Fahrenheit every day. When we traveled, the car had air conditioning but when we hit outside you sweat a lot. We carried a washcloth to wipe our forehead, face and arms.
One evening after the heat of the day was cooler, Marvelle and I drove to see the big expansion bridge over the Densu river. I had my movie camera filming all across the big bridge on one side. We turned around and I filmed the other side of the river. We just got off bridge, a big man jumped from underneath a big banyan tree. He came out onto the road and stopped the car. He could see we were two white ladies. He saw me filming with my movie camera. He ask us where we were from. Marvelle told him we were from Canada. He told me to erase my camera. I ask him why? He told me I took his pictures and he was a policeman. I saw no badge to say he was police. I erased some of my film, but when I got home and looked at the film, he was still in the pictures I had on the film. Marvell said later we were lucky, he could have taken us or the car.
Another day, we went to a village where they grew Casava. It is like a big yam shaped vegetables but much longer than a yam. Charles was with us, and his daughter Mavis. He showed Marvelle where to drive. Pretty soon we were out in a field of long grass. We went down a steep hill and Marvelle could not turn around to go up the steep hill again. So she put the car in reverse and said to hang on, and gunned it to get up the steep incline. I was so afraid but she made it up the hill backwards.
More to come tomorrow....
More to come tomorrow....
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