Monday

I have four full days in Accra before I board a flight to London. I will go from eight months in Ghana to twelve days in England – a country that much of my family is from, yet this will be my first visit.

On my way to Ghana, the flight had a six hour stop-over in Heathrow Airport. While there, I envisioned the time that I would return and get a chance to exit the airport premises, even though I still had nearly a year in Ghana ahead of me.

With that said, I am not getting ahead of myself. I am here.

This morning, I headed to Labone junction to meet with an author named Pam Handa. She is proudly Indian and has been living in Ghana for thirty five years. We sat on her patio drinking tea and discussing the four books that she recently self-published. Three of the books are poetry and one is a novel. I sat at her table and listened for about two hours as she detailed the story of her and her husband in Ghana, and the contents of each book.

It was a pleasant morning, and with complimentary copies of the books in my bag, I headed over to the campus. On my way though, I enjoy some sun warmed sugar cane, and fresh coconut.

Once at the campus, I had a few errands to run which brought me by the Legon Hall and the campus bookstore, after which I took a lunch of banku, fish and pepper.

The day at work was mostly focused on making arrangements for stories and interviews to take place after I leave.

By 4pm, I was off. A friend and her sister came by the station and dropped me part of the way to dinner at Layata’s sisters place, with another of her sisters and two cousins (Rhiana). I had jolof rice with fish and chicken, and it was delicious. More interesting than what I ate was our long discussion what love really is and what it isn’t.

On the way to the taxi round, I met up with another friend that lives in the same area (it’s called Abelenpe). We didn’t get to speak long before I jumped in a taxi and headed back to Sakumono.

Of the weekend that just passed, my highlight was going to Bojo Beach Resort on Saturday. I had sent out a text message to about two dozen people inviting them to come, but I was determined to be there with or without the crowd. I am not sure when I will be this close to a warm ocean again. After similar plans not working out on the national holiday that followed independence, I was not going to depend on others to get out there.

While I intended to get there by 11am, we got there by 12:30pm (which was not bad at all). The crew was Christina (from Nebraska), Bella, Felix (a film student) and Hilda (met her and her cousin in a tro tro on independence day). Also meeting us there was Tugz (he’s a poet from England that I met in Toronto who I found out was in Ghana through Kamau) his girlfriend, and a few other friends/family from the UK.

The day consisted of football on the beach, lunch, sunshine and swimming.

On Sunday, I had wanted to go to church in the morning, but that didn’t happen. Instead, I used the morning planning my week and holding a devotion at home. I then met up with my friend Shelia to go to the final day of the trade fair. The crafts and art on display was really beautiful, and if space in my luggage and finances were not concerns, I would have bought a quarter of the place…not that much, but enough to furnish a very large home.

From the trade fair, I went over to the Sunday afternoon youth service that I have been attending for the past few weeks. I was initially invited by a friend that I met at the university (Karen), and I have come to make attending a part of my weekly schedule.

As for schedules, the rest of the week is feeling exciting and full. Tomorrow I go back to Ghana Immigration to get my passport. That is a story to itself…they are nuts over there. Oh, Kamau is now back in Toronto…that is another story to itself, though it is not a crazy story like ‘Ghana Immigration’. And there is my last trip to Tamale that I want to write about. Of course, really looking at what it means to be at the end of my eight months in Ghana and heading back to Toronto.

So much to do, so much to write. I need to complete my packing, do one last workshop at Radio Univers, ensure some stories get covered, organize my handover note, lots of meetings, and saying ‘bye for now’ to so many friends. There is quite a list of things to do, but I have to say that I can feel God’s grace in it all – it’s amazing.