In the Company of Women

Hello my precious,

Well, 'tis Day of the Blog again today, and as seems to be the case every single time I add a new chapter to this thing, I must begin with an exclamatory sentence: What a week! A wonderful week, an inspiring week, a moving week, a week spent mostly in the company of women, which I must admit (and no offense to the male-identifying readers out there) feels pretty damn good after all the male attention I have been being granted as of late! Now where do I begin...

Upon my last post, I was lamenting my early morning start the next day, which indeed ended up taking place (4:30!!!!!), and which I ended up traversing unharmed (though a tad bit baggy under the eyes). It's certainly not something I would repeat too often, but it was more than worth it. Before sunrise, Tim and I hopped on a trotro, and headed towards a small village by the name of EkumfieAkra, where his mother is from and where her family was burying one of their uncles that Saturday. The journey was not very long, two hours at most, but allowed me to enjoy some of Ghana's beautiful scenery, its lush greenery and little villages of straw-roofed huts. We met up with Tim's father at one of the highway's intersections, to grab the second trotro for the day, an experience that I will never forget.

Though trotros are seldom in a very good state, with cracks in the windshield, pieces of metal held into place by string, and the seats often revealing more stuffing than upholstery, never have I seen, let alone embarked, upon the trotro we took to get to EkumpfieAkra. Decrepit doesn't even begin to describe it. Everything --from the ceilings, to the floors, to the benches (and they were'nt even metal)-- was covered in flakes and bubbles of crispy auburn rust. The exhaust pipe seemed to emerge into the vehicle itself, such that a thick blueish smoke filled the suffering car, even moreso when the poor thing struggled to climb a hill, coughing and stalling a fair share along the way. I still don't understand how we made it to the village. Everyone seemed quite amused by the process, laughing and mocking the driver along the way, which only contributed to making the experience that much more amusing. After our journey on this cadavre of a car, we arrived in the village, to be greeted by Tim's mother and her family. We did the rounds, going to salute everyone, including the uncle-who-is-no-more, housed in one of the most colorfully decorated rooms I have ever seen, walls covered in shiny material and bright plastic flowers. After a delicious lunch of Auntie Elizabeth's (Tim's mother) delicious Banku and fried fish, we (and the hundred other guest attending the event) headed to the cemetary to pay our final respects. The cemetary is located under the palm trees, right next to the ocean, so we stopped along the way to dip our feet into the salty water and drink a freshly macheted conconut. Disrespectful, you may exclaim...not at all! I had been told that funerals are quite the festive occasion, and indeed this one only but confirmed the strange rumor (strange for a Westerner, that is, where death is approached in such a different manner).

The remainder of the afternoon was spent relaxing, chatting, and then hitting the dance floor, set up especially for the event. As seems to be customary at these functions, the poor obroni that I am was not spared a chance at public ridicule, and was invited to come and dance (alone) in front of everyone...which I did wholeheartedly, because after all, if you can't laugh at yourself, and have a hundred Ghanaians laughing at you...life just isn't as much fun! I arrived back home at 9 and headed straight to bed (after a good shower, of course...lots of dust and sweat and exhaust fumes to rinse off), delighted with my day. What an adventure and spent in the company of the loveliest of people...Tim, his mother and father and all the rest, such kind and friendly folks!

On Sunday, I woke up late (I had a four-hour night to make up for!), did some reading, and then proceeded to head over to Mrs. Field's house, to deliver some books on behalf of my friend Linda (who was staying with Mrs Field when she was doing her PhD research in Accra.) Linda had spoken fondly of her host, but frankly, I never even imagined that she would end up being such a character! An incredibly feisty, funny and foul-mouthed seventy-eight year old Ghanaian woman, happy to share her incredible stories, her pictures, her jokes, her swearwords and her beers with this newest visitor. I had planned to stay an hour at most, and ended up leaving in the early evening, rather tipsy and absolutely amazed at the mere existence of this rambunctious and lively little creature. Such a precious and unique woman! Needless to say that I look forward to visiting Mrs. Field again sooner than later, and will also take this occasion to thank Linda for asking me to deliver her these books!

Monday brought about the start of a new work week...not at SWAA though. Instead, and as had been agreed upon with the president and other members of SWAA when I arrived, I headed over to my old hood (around Madina market), to one of their partner organizations. The latter provides women who are living with or affected by HIV with a place to get together, chat, and work on different income-generating projects, like beaded pin making and mushroom production. Lucy, the president and founder of this group is one of the kindest and most thoughtful souls I have ever had the privilege to meet, so dedicated and passionate. The other women proved to be just as kind, welcoming me into their group and making sure that I was well fed, occupied and looked after during my time with them. The timing proved most wonderful too, because they were preparing for a (slightly delayed, but who cares!) World AIDS Day walk on Friday (today). So my week was spent taking part in the various organizational activities, accompanying Lucy on endless trotro rides (as you know from my first posts, Madina is faaar, especially when you add Accra traffic to the equation) to go deliver this, visit this person, pick up this letter, so on and so forth. I savored every minute spent in the company of this woman, and sometimes wished for even more traffic just so we could sit and chat, or even just sit in silence, a little bit longer.

I was also given the task of making forty placards to be carried during the march, a job I was more than happy to accept seeing my love of all things drawing-related. So I spent a good portion of the week inhaling permanent marker fumes, while writing "Spread Love, not HIV," "Use Condoms Always," "Talk to your friends about HIV" and other lovely little HIV/AIDS jingles, while the women worked away at their pins, chatting, laughing and gossiping along the way (I understood only a fraction of it but feel confident in making these claims...if gossip isn't universal than I don't know what is!).

Today was another early day for me, waking up at 5:30 to go help with the set up for the march. It started about two hours late (pretty much everything starts two hours late here, so not a suprise, really) and proved to be an immense success. We gathered a crowd of 70 people or so, and proudly carried our banners, distributed condoms (male and female) and raised awareness to the sounds of our brass band escorts. We covered quite a bit of ground, and this in the heavy late-morning sun, but I didn't even see time go by, dancing away and enjoying every minute of yet another festive and fun-filled event spent in the company of wonderful people.
(I took lots of pictures and will make sure to add a few to the blog as soon as I can.)

It was feeling very inspired, moved and so very blessed and fortunate that I grabbed my Friday trotro and headed home...to change into my weekend attire (and out of my gross "I've been dancing on a busy street in the sun and sand for four hours"-clothes) and make my way to Sharpnet, where every Friday I have a date with Blogger, and the family and friends who take the time to read about my incredible adventures in Ghana. Though I did not want this week to end, and look forward to going to visit my new friends next week, and the week after, and the week after that, I must admit I need a bit of rest! And again, the weekend promises to deliver it, with no big plans other than the customary laundry, cooking and an evening out tomorrow, most probably a girl's night with Lidvina, her roomie Eliizabeth and Laurence (to conclude my own personal women's week!)

Oh no, I have run out of time! Wow, I was particularly chatty this week. Well, I guess it figures, with all the inspiring people I met and experiences I took part in over the past seven days.

I will thus have to put an end to this newest chapter in my Ghanain adventures, not even taking the time to proofread (so pardon any mistakes or grammatical blunders), but certainly taking the time to tell you that I miss you all very much, and send you much love from sunny and oh-so-lovely Ghana.

A big big hug
Sophie