JUST A JOG IN THE PARK---WELL, NO PARKS

What IS it like to jog in Kumasi??
Well, the weather is always fine. We do not have a thermometer, but listening to some weather forecasts on the T.V. we gather that it may drop to 22-23 degreees Celsius overnight. Those of you who jog will know that runners have a special mind that makes up excuses for why one must not jog today. Ghana takes away all the excuses for rain, sleet, hail, snow, mud, wind, cold etc. and every morning is ‘fine’.
At my age my legs talk to me. They say “Oh no! not again, don’t your remember you are supposed to REST! We just did this run yesterday!! We are old parts and we might break”. My heart on the other hand is more concise and says “exercise or die”. And so I live in a constant state of cognitive dissidence, knowing I must and wishing I didn’t have to.
So when I leave the house about 6AM it is just turning light enough to see where to put the feet. Down the walkway I turn left and head up the hill. Immediately the legs begin a new protest because the hill is pretty steep, but the mind says it is a short way to the top and an excellent warm up when done slowly. It is Saturday today and fewer people about than most weekdays. I turn left on Kwadaso Road and head toward Agrec Junction.
I make it a habit to greet everyone that I meet. Although English is the official language of Ghana, most of the population converses in their native tongue, which in our area is Twi. I have met young people who don’t speak Twi and older folks who don’t speak English, so I use both official and unofficial languages, greeting most of the older folks with “ma chin” and younger folks with ‘good morning’. And then ‘eta zen ‘ and ‘how are you’ follow.
The responses fall into 3 main categories. The first is the shy or sullen response, and it is hard to tell which is which, but many very young persons are just shy to speak to “o bruni” the white man and so they quietly say “ay ye”—I am fine. Very few in this category are actually mute, but even some of those may be of old English tradition and we have not been ‘properly introduced’.
The second group is the typical responsive happy Ghanaian reply with a broad grin and a cheerful “Good morning, how are you?”, to which I may usually reply “ni me y’adoum meh hoy ya”—by the grace of God I am fine! When I ask, I will usually get the same grace of God answer. I get 4 replies to my question: ay ye—I am fine, ay yo which seems a bit better, bo koar—better still and the religious reply by the grace of God.
The third group I call the slave group, which is mostly older folks who appear to have an attitude of subservience and reply ‘good morning, Sir’ or simply comment on the weather and reply ‘fine morning!’, accompanied by a small bowing action or head nodding. Replying to THEM in their native tongue usually gets broad smiles and a welcoming attitude, frequently with Akwaaba—you are welcome.
Plodding up the pavement to the junction, I turn left and go down the hill towards Wamase, and have twice caught other runners on this long downhill stretch. Trudging up the hill, having crossed the bridge, I turn left onto the dirt road leading over to Apres. There is a bore hole (well) here on the corner and I always greet the group that are hand-pumping the water and as they get accustomed to me some will even greet me. Initial contact is almost never made by the Ghanains.
To prove my point, I raise my head to see a man walking toward me and looking right into my face but says nothing. I hold his gaze for a few steps and just as he passes I say good morning and he replies to my back as we have passed. All along this residential route, children will call out to me “o bruni” or ‘eta zen’ and want to be greeted and waved to.
I keep my eyes peeled through here because this is where the scruffy dog bit me last year. I haven’t seen him this year even once. Perhaps his bad behaviour led to his demise. Another dirt coloured cur is lying on the roadside and watches me watching him. As I pass he doesn’t move his head, only following with his eyes, and appearing to give me the “evil eye”. I feel guilty and don’t know why. Perhaps he knows that just ahead two of his friends fall in behind me and begin to follow my steps. I turn around to face them just as a bellow from their master causes them to stop in their tracks and allow me to continue.
I have reached the main crossroad into Apres, and last year would have turned left and gone up to the Samaritan Villa, but this year I turn around and begin to retrace my steps because the hill out of Apres is way too dusty with early morning tro-tros and taxi traffic. I can get the same distance by cutting down a cross-country trail and through ‘frog hollow’ across the creek on a one-board bridge and up past where we used to live toward the Opoku Ware school. Every morning I greet Helena at her roadside stand and each day she asks after my wife. Frequently I see old friends along this route, and I slow and chat briefly without stopping. Having taken over 4000 steps now I look like the old man that I am, plodding up to the pavement on Victory Drive.
Turning left I start down towards the El Shaddai school and for the second time I see Jennifer, the daughter of one of my neighbours last year, and she and her family go to Pastor Turkson’s church! She has been teaching Eunice, Pastor’s daughter, with whom we live. This time I stop to chat and learn that she has stopped teaching and has applied for nursing school. She thought she would get straight in, but must wait a year, and so looks for work at this time.
About 6000 steps I turn up the long hill that goes past my house. The steepest part is right outside my door and my heart rate climbs to 90% as I pass our walkway and head for the crest. My calfs begin to bellow complaining that they have done this section already and that I am definitely overdoing it and with CAD I shouldn’t push my heart so hard and I am over the top into my cool down phase. When you are as slow as I am, the African sun has now had time to begin to raise the temperature. Cool down is not so easy and I have taken over 8000 steps by the time my heart rate has dropped below 100 and I call it a day.

Wednesday, 28th

After 6 consecutive days of running, being a good Christian, I plan to rest tomorrow.

Many Ghanaians have no electricity and are governed by the light of day from 6AM to about 6:30 PM.  Many others, like ourselves, rise before 6AM and begin in the cool or the day.  Most businesses like the Internet café that I needed this morning do not open until 9 o’clock.  And like this morning we frequently have a bit of time after breakfast for a wee bit of reading before catching the businesses at opening.

At the Internet café I sent my emails and had a copy printed of the draft contract that I had drawn up last night.  I then went to TIDD (Timber Industry Development Division of the Ministry of Forests). As I was climbing the stairs 1/2 way up I heard the Official call out "Mr. SquareLog, welcome".  He shook my hand and ushered me straight into his office.  He seemed pleased that I had brought him a draft copy for correction before submitting the contract for approval. I think he shook my hand 4 times before I left.  He said he would call me Mr. Campbell now instead of Mr. SquareLog, and I said I liked Mr. SquareLog just fine.  Short of a hug, I think that went about as well as it could have!  J

            I have corrected the document and taken it to the internet café for them to make 6 2-sided copies (1.80 GHC) and to send another couple of emails.

Hello everyone,

            We have been in Ghana 2 weeks now and it feels like we never left.  All the same ladies are manning the same vegetable booths and they remember us.  We have gotten hugs from the bread girl, and hand shakes from the old lady we buy tomatoes from.  Huge smiles greet us at each reunion, and all say 'you are welcome'.  We have never had so many hand shakes.

            I have purchased 2 lengths of material to be made into sun dresses.  I somehow brought only 1 pair of shorts.  The one pair that I thought were my capris were long pants of the same color so I need to add to my useable wardrobe.

            Fred has been very busy with his meetings and drawing up contracts etc. on the computer and I have enjoyed staying at the house more than normal just getting used to the heat.  Once everything is signed then we will have some free time. I have a small list of places I want to go to.  I am sure thankful for a car of our own this trip.  It is sure a bonus.

            The internet place we used last year has closed, and we do not know where Emmanuel is now.  He would open up his shop for us early in the morning and we would use Skype while Africa slept.  But this year we do not have that option yet, and during regular business hours the internet is too slow to support it.  I sure miss the personal touch that the camera brings to a conversation when we are so far from our family.

            We are doing 'very fine' here, as the Ghanaians would say.  Fred is very pleased with his progress already and I have reconnected with my friend, Elizabeth. Last night Elizabeth and I went to visit her daughter and family and I got to hold Elizabeth's 3 mo. old granddaughter for a long time while she cooed and smiled.  And every time the baby smiled at me her older sister, aged 5, would laugh and hide behind the door.  What a treat that was! I intend to go back during day hours with my camera.  The girls are so cute.

Monday 26/Tuesday 27

We did the usual “exercise” thing this morning, but today, Monday, was spent mostly on business and with phone calls. We had set up a tentative deal with one of our timber suppliers and I closed the deal this morning by phone.  Some details need to be worked out still and a contract drawn up and signed, but we are on our way!  Trees may be falling as I write.  To celebrate Marlayne will make a kind of hot Italian sausage minestrone/stew to be served over a bed of rice.  Mmm-mm fat content enough for the whole week!  God is Good.

Today, after the deal was closed, we went to Adum and bought an eight-inch rechargeable fan that runs on A/C power from the wall socket and at the same time charges a lead-acid battery to run it on D/C when the power goes out and hopefully will allow us to get some rest during those dark, hot nights. 

I have been at the computer to work out the A/M details over the ‘net with Paul, and then will draw up the Ghana Hardwood Contract, and head for a café to send out the documents to home and the blog.  Pray that things will come to a successful conclusion this time, God willing.

 

Sunday Jan. 25

I was out by 6 AM for my jog this morning—trotting as they call it here in Africa.  As I went through Agrec, I was passed by a young man and we shared a greeting, but around the corner I passed him on the downhill.  With my long legs I am much better at downhills.  In fact, I’ve always liked downhill better, right Sue?  I got 6300 steps before cool down and felt only very slight heart pain at the top of the Apres hill which I am sure climbs steadily for about a kilometer.  God is Good.

         As we prepared for church, Eunice, seven, wanted to come with us, and Georgina, who keeps house on the weekends, assured us that it was alright even though we were headed to a different church from Pastor Turkson.  We thought Georgina would go to his church and explain.  When we got home it seems he had been looking for her.  I seem to have a knack for getting into small small trouble with Pastor.  Fortunately I know about apology and asking forgiveness.  God is Good.

         Here’s another little “God story”:

         Last year while jogging a lady who was carrying water in a bowl on her head to supply blockmakers, asked if she could come to our house to do laundry in exchange for learning English.  We paid her to do the laundry and taught English only by talking and visiting with her.  She became a good friend.  Marlayne is especially fond of her.  She was living with her sister in Wamase, but moved back to her village about 60 KM. away sometime after we had left Ghana.  She doesn’t own a cell phone and we would have little chance of finding her upon our return this year.

         Friday after our arrival, I traveled by bus to Kumasi to meet Pastor Frank Osei and arrange accommodations for our stay.  After we had come to this house and met Pastor Turkson, Frank seemed to want me to NOT stay there right away as it was dinnertime and since Pastor Turkson was going out.  I complied saying that I had friends in Agrec that I wanted to visit.  What I had in mind was to visit my friend David at “King David’s” fast food kiosk, and buy some rice and chicken!! (A good meal for 1.5 GHC)  God is Good.

         Wouldn’t you know I turned up the wrong street and his kiosk wasn’t there?  So I stopped to ask a vendor where to find his kiosk, and was he still in business?  While we talked, a delighted squeal preceded Elizabeth’s arms encircling me.  Marlayne and I couldn’t figure out why I had to take the time and bear the expense of traveling to Kumasi just to meet Pastor Turkson in his house where we had stayed last year when Pastor was in the UK.  And this was the very Friday that Elizabeth had returned to Kumasi and was walking from Wamase to her aunt’s house in Patasi.

And she happened to pass by THAT corner where I had stopped, my being there on a day trip from Accra walking around Agrec looking for King David.  God IS indeed Good.

         God has shown His love to us by restoring a relationship separated only by time and geography.  I am soooo glad to be a Christ’s one!!

P.S. We stopped at King David’s along the way and got some rice and chicken and then walked to her cousin’s house to sit and eat and visit.  God is Good.

 

Saturday Jan. 24

I am trying the picture again today as this internet cafe is not giving me any grief.

Here is a short story:

Driving in Adum is a nightmare, and parking is even worse.  Imagine a 12 theater Cineplex all getting out at 9 PM and all the cars arriving for a 9 PM start.  As it happens, there is a fair taking up ½ the lot spaces and 100,000 people going to and from the fair at the same time, and they have used up all the theater parking spaces.  This gives you a picture of cars butting in from everywhere and pedestrians barging in and out between all the cars, and most of them carrying the equivalent of airline luggage on their heads.

None of the intersection traffic lights work.  They didn’t work last year.  Perhaps the new system seems to work better: everyone just drives into the intersection and honks his horn.  Because Ghanaians practice “close tolerance driving” (2 inches is enough), amazingly the traffic sorts itself out and keeps moving.  By early morning both curbs have a buffer zone of headlight to taillight parked cars.  Because the streets are narrow this leaves about the width of a single lane in Canada.  It’s a two way street in Ghana until a taxi (which make up about 75% of the vehicles) drops off a fare and double parks.  You simply pull into opposing traffic and drive on unless there IS opposing traffic (which there always is) so you sit on your horn instead.  This horn blaring assists the taxi driver in soliciting the correct fare and quickly dispensing his client to nudge between parked cars—I think.

I know I will find a parking spot because I know that 0.01% of the parked cars are there on temporary business and will leave their parking space just ahead of my arrival.  I have dropped Marlayne at Melcom’s Dept. Store and will meet her upstairs she says.  She meant at Melcom’s, but one look at traffic and I thought she meant the afterlife!

I began circling the block deftly dodging pedestrians and potholes alike.  Only twice around the block and I am convinced that Marlayne is finished shopping and worried about where I am.  Mournfully I wish we had brought walkie-talkies.  This will be my last circle of the block.  I will drive to Patasi to park and take a taxi back to fetch Marlayne.  Wait, wait, wait, I see back-up lights ahead.  There is a meter-maid backing out a parked car and only 3 taxis between us.  Praise the Lord, I am only a block and a half from Melcom’s!  There are no meters. The ‘meter-maid’ puts a time slip under my windshield wiper and will extract payment before stopping traffic to allow me to reverse out of the angle parking spot.

Hurrying back to Melcom’s is like trying to get into the Coliseum, after the game is over and against the patrons leaving.  Seeing a woman with about sixty 2-cup bags of water on her head, I give her 10 pesewas for a 5 pesewa bag, and she thanks me.  I know by now Marlayne will need water also.  Indeed, she is upstairs at Melcom’s and nearly finished shopping.  As we are about to leave I realize that I have insufficient GHC funds.  I inquired at one of the checkouts if they took USD and she needed GHC, but promptly rose from her chair, left her post, walked me outside the building and about 2 blocks up the street to the door of the Foreign Exchange Bureau!  Again, a rather typical response consistent with the way we are treated in Ghana.  I changed USD for GHC at a rate of 1 USD to 1.3 GHC and paid Melcom’s 34.75 GHC for a Sanyo toaster and miscellaneous plastic ware.

Large narrow wagons with car-sized tires are used extensively in Adum to move goods from marshalling areas to specific stores.  One such wagon was being unloaded by two women, and its’ rear tire was close to my door making it a very narrow entry to the driver’s seat.  I couldn’t help acting the comic.  I opened the door against the tire and stood there looking puzzled and scratching my head to the obvious amusement of my audience.  Turning sideways, back to the car, I put the first foot inside and stopped with a distressed look on my face.  Every time I squiggled to get farther in I changed expression on my face from being hurt to relieved to surprise, enough to make even Jim Carrey envious, and much encouraged by the gales of laughter from my audience.  I hung my chin over the top of the door as if being hanged and with such a distressed look they nearly tried to move the cart on my behalf.  I turned my face sideways and slumped into the car with a big grin on my jib. 

I am certain that such foolish antics would not be so well received in Canada.

Friday Jan. 23

In Canada the car we decided upon on Sat. would have wheeled us into Kumasi on Monday night.  In Ghana (and all my Ghanaian friends won't mind me saying this because they know) we arrived late Thursday night and still without some of the papers which will follow by bus today, Friday.
Chris, the car salesman, advised us to go through Afuri and Koforidua instead of the main bus route in order to miss a long section of bad road.  It was a bit longer and he lead us out through Legon to where the route was straight forward.  A typical nice and helpful Ghanaian.  Little did he know that the route past Koforidua was all torn up just like the main road.
We arrived at our new digs to be warmly greeted by Pastor Turkson.  Widowed two years ago he lives here with his two daughters, Lois, eleven and Eunice, seven.
Here (I hope) is a photo of my makeshift desk.  The small drawers in the dresser have no pulls and they stick a bit so are unusable as drawers, but inverted make a place for the little Macbook.  The bag on the side of the chair is the dirty laundry hamper.  Just like home! lol
Time to forage for food so I will sign off now.

Trouble connecting at the internet. (what else?) Will try to upload the pic. next time.

Thursday 22nd

here is a picture of our Carina:

Today is a rest day from running so I have learned how to add a picture to the blog.  I will try to add another to see how 2 are added.

Well it looks like we really might leave for Kumasi today.  We bought the car yesterday but the dealer said it takes several hours to transfer vehicles and the office closes at 3 pm.  Can you imagine in Canada taking several hours to put insurance on a car?  So we had to stay one more night in Accra even though we had checked out of our guesthouse and packed our bags. 

Sally, our guesthouse host, didn't have anyone in our room for today so we were fortunate to be able to just camp here for the night again.

I hope the paperwork gets all done this morning, but the dealer said he would phone when he was ready for us and it is almost 10 am already and we are still here at the guesthouse.  Fred has taken our bags out to the car and all that is left is me and the computer.  

Everything in Ghana takes longer than you would ever think!

Wednesday, 21st

We had a marvelous time with the Owusu's last night at their home in Abelemkpe, near us.  They both have a great sense of humour and we talked family, police response, and politics USA and Ghanaian, and had lots of laughs.  Not to mention samosas, spring rolls and BBQ chicken!!  Joyce is back on board to get us shipping if we are able to send a container out this time.

We await the phone call that the car is fixed, and expect to leave for Kumasi later today. 

Editors note added in the evening:

The car was fixed too late in the day to accomplish the change of ownership.  Alan and Sally have given us another night at the guesthouse.  We are pulling things out of our suitcases again.  Late morning is our new ETD.  We are anxious to get on with it.

Tuesday

What do you know?  We went to bed at 8:30-9:00 and arose at 5:30 to walk and exercise.  Our first normal day!  I can no longer blame my mistakes on jet lag.

As expected, the car is NOT ready today and will be tomorrow, they say.

Our Ghanaian friends, Philip and Joyce Owusu are coming around at 7 to take us to their house for drinks and snacks.  Looking forward to the visit and the snacks.

Monday

I called Philip this morning and his mechanic had not found anything suitable, but he thought the Carina was a good idea.  I wrote out a simple sales agreement and expect to close the deal after repairs to the car are finished tomorrow.  We are planning to spend one more night here because in Ghana everything takes longer than you expect and I will be surprised if we can register and insure the vehicle tomorrow.

I felt quite elated at having closed the deal and so bought lettuce, green onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggs, brown bread, and mayonnaise for a celebration salad!

Sunday

We travelled out to the Legon Interdenominational Church at the Legon University with Alan and Sally Lee this morning.  It turns out Alan and Sally belong to a Presbyterian Church of America congregation in Philadelphia.  Someone asked if we were catching up on the real Jim Flom; and it turns out he IS the real thing! LOL

Alan turned in at the Fiesta Royale Hotel near the airport and we had lunch together.  What a joy to spend time with like minded Christians and share a time of laughter and refreshment together!

The bad news is jet lag.  We fell asleep well before the evening meeting at the SIM Guesthouse.

The good news is that I didn't have to walk out and forage for food for dinner!

We have housing.

I went to Kumasi on the bus early on Friday.  I arranged with Pastor Frank Osei of the Victory Chapel to install an air conditioner in the Church's 2nd manse in exchange for using that bedroom for our stay.  It is in the opposite end of the house from the main house area and we should be no bother to Pastor Texan and his family with whom we will share the kitchen.

There is no wardrobe or closet nor a chest of drawers or table, so we will need to be creative.  We will have our own bathroom with a tub, although there is no running water, but buckets of water are supplied for bathing and flushing. 

We seem to be struggling somewhat more with jet lag this time.  Today I awoke about 2:45 and decided to arise and catch the early bus back to Accra.  Marlayne slept in until 3 AM and arose at that time in Accra.  However as we compared notes later, this was the first day that either of us felt somewhat normal and had some energy.

I used my energy to walk a mile or so up Achimota Rd. to visit about 8 used car dealers and find that Toyotas are very expensive here.   We are looking at dealing on a 1998 Toyota Carinae.  (or is it a Carina E ?) 

Church tomorrow and I forgot to pack my good clothes.  Oh well!  It can't be worse than 2000 when I showed up in shorts!

Duhhhh!

Just a blog to say no blog today.  Our heads don't seem to work today!

Our plane in Amsterdam had brake problems that caused more than 4 hours delay.  The rows on the MD11 are so close that when the person ahead of me put his seat back I could not sit straight but had to slope my legs to get my knees on each side of his seat.  He kept his seat back for the entire trip.  The screen on the back of his seat was so close I couldn't get far enough away from it to see it.

I went for a walk today into "Pig Farm" and got lost.  A 1/2 hour trip to forage for food turned into 2 hours!  I hope jet-lag doesn't leave permanent damage.

Only 2 days left in this location!

Most of our belongings are boxed and stacked in the spare bedroom ready to be moved to wherever we will be living when we return. A bit of a scary thought. Today and Saturday we will finish that process and Sunday travel to Surrey to stay overnight with our son Mark.

Brother Hugh will take us to the airport and our next blog will likely be from Ghana, "apres 'jet lag'".

Fred

Less than 2 weeks to ETD.

Happy New Year!!
As I type, Marlayne is packing up my office around me.
Our flights have changed to leaving on Jan. 12, and returning Apr. 12.

Fred