A DAY IN AGBOGBA AND TRAVELING AROUND ACCRA

THESE DAYS…THIS DAZE
TYPICAL PRESENTATION AND TRAVEL DAYS IN FEBRUARY
A cock crows loudly and I realize that daybreak has arrived. The sound rings in my ears as the proud bird repeats its call a half dozen times. My eyes strain to get used to the rays of sunshine piercing through the windows. The weather is already warming up but compared to later in the day, this feels cool. Almost comfortable. The warmth of the room has not hit me yet. The fan is still blowing a cool current directly towards me, just as it was all night.

I could sleep more. Oh yes, I could sleep a few more hours. But there is no way to fall asleep again. The incessant cock crows put an end to that. I’m grateful God has given me another day here. This planet. This continent. This country. This home. This family. I can hear K.B calling Zazu and Rosemond is telling Nana to get the table ready for breakfast.

Afiriye runs into my room wearing his dark blue pants, a light blue shirt with a tie and tugs on my feet. “Uncle Barnabas, are you sleeping?...Uncle Barnabas, are you sleeping?” I pretend to be sleeping and he walks over and opens my eyelids. I’m caught. I step off the bed and tell him I am going to take a bath. He walks out of my room and goes to eat his weetabix cereal. I take my towel and walk to the bathroom.

The water is cold and I shiver as I pour some over my face and neck. Ten minutes later after splashing about like a cub in a pond I am fully awake and I rush to my room as the clock strikes half past six. Breakfast energizes me as I eat the four slices of bread and drink the hot chocolate in a hurry. K.B. starts the minivan and at seven we are all piled in and buckled in. I am seated in the front and Rosemond is seated behind me with Zazu beside her. Nana and Afiriye are in the back seat but Afiriye can barely sit still. I wave at Helen (who lives with the family) as we drive past the red gate she is holding open and head out towards Accra.

There isn’t much traffic on the road from the house to the first main junction. We overtake some tro-tros and taxis marshalling in their morning customers. The young tout shouts, “Legon, Legon, Legon”, another is calling out, “Accra, Accra, Accra” (but it sounds more like KRA-KRA-KRA) and handfuls of people run and congregate around the doors of the vehicles they are hoping to enter.

We drive through rough and dusty neighborhood roads and streets and a half hour later, K.B. drops of the three children at school. K.B., Rosemond and I travel on towards Accra and approach the city center. The highway towards Accra that goes past the University of Ghana at Legon has a long convoy of cars. It’s a steady motion but it still seems like a slow traffic jam because no one is going at a ‘normal’ highway speed. When we get close to the Accra mall, K.B. stops the car and I alight at a bus stop. I wave goodbye and K.B. and Rosemond drive on towards the central part of the city as I cross the road with about ten people and walk to the Accra Mall.

The shopping edifice is quiet and sparsely populated. Only a few maintenance workers and cleaning staff are hard at work as most shops are still unopened. I try to use a restroom but I am told that since the stores don’t open until nine or nine-thirty, I will have to wait until then to use the toilets. (Thank God I am a potty-trained adult. A half hour of incontinence might be disastrous.) To distract myself, I walk around and stare into the store windows and their ostentatious displays of clothes, electronics and jewelry.

Perplexed by the presence of a Nike store, a Puma store and a Mac store in the mall, I walk to the entrance to continue my vigil. Five minutes later, Lee, David, Bee-Jai, Peter, Beth, and Armeley are driven towards me by Immanuel. I get into the Ford Van and we drive off towards “La Wireless” cluster of schools. We are received by the headmistress and she directs us to the room where we will make the presentation.

We set up the video camera and the program booklets explaining the presentations just as dozens of teachers stream into the classroom and sit in the chairs facing the front of the room. Bee-Jai, David, Peter and Lee sit at the front of the room and I sit to the side with the video camera. The headmistress welcomes us and introduces Peter who then invites us to introduce ourselves to the teachers.
For the next hour, Bee Jai and Peter explain the details of the program to the thirty five teachers gathered in the room. Four fans are blowing overhead but the room is still very hot and several people are fanning their faces with the program booklets. After the presentations, numerous questions are posed and Bee Jai and Peter strive to answer them as clearly as possible before we all walk to the van to go to the next school.

We arrive fifteen minutes late and some teachers are already seated in the room. We set up the video camera and distribute the booklets, then individually introduce ourselves and describe our roles in the PSU and NAPE collaboration. An hour and a half later, Bee Jai and Peter have presented the program details and then David has also spoken while Lee has described the scholarship fund and the application deadlines.

Hot and tired, we pile into the van and express appreciation for the air conditioned interior as we drive off to get some lunch.
In the afternoon, we begin some errands that cannot be avoided. We drive to a Forex Bureau and change some of our U.S. dollars into Ghanaian cedis. We then drive to a Shell gas station and fill up the van, which seems to guzzle a full tank every seventy two hours. The day is now unbearably hot and everyone is wiping off sweat from their brows almost as often as they blink. We drive through Accra and the hustle and bustle of the city is amazing in light of the energy-sapping heat and humidity. Market stalls selling food and clothing line the streets, vendors walk on the road weaving in between the cars. Some vendors call out the names of what they are carrying and selling, some simply walk up to the windows and doors of the cars and stare at us inviting us, asking us, daring us to buy. What a convenient way to shop. The drive-thru comes to the car.

Peter buys a multi-plug for his laptop and two handkerchiefs, Bee Jai buys some jewelry and Beth buys a snack. Immanuel buys a small plastic bag of water that looks very tempting in the heat, but I am barely able to listen to the prices as my eyelids collapse and I start dozing off in the back seat…
Our errands take up a greater portion of the afternoon but our day is not done at five o’clock. We take a break and then re-converge to travel to Ashesi University. It is refreshing to be in an air-conditioned classroom with the Scholarship Recipients. The inspirational stories of what the Lee Nusich scholarship award has meant to them are tear-jerking. Some were literally on the verge of dropping out of school and others had dropped out then came back when they got the financial aid from NAPE foundation.

At around 7 p.m. we ride to the Chez Afrique restaurant on the outskirts of Accra’s central business district. The meals are good and affordable. $3 to $4 dollars will get you a main course ranging from rice, fries, banku, kenkey or fufu with a choice of meat or vegetables. Under some of the dimly lit canopies, Accra’s young professionals gather around the tables ‘unwinding’ with drinks and lots of storytelling and laughter.
I look up at the skies and the stars are shining brightly with a half moon watching over them. It has been a long day and its been a very hot day, but it has ended well and for that I am thankful.