For Shege Reasons: 2009

When I moved back from B.C. this September, the plan was to take at least a month off, doing absolutely nothing. I was so burnt out from my job in Vancouver and that was all I thought about as I prepared to come to Ghana. But once I got here, reality soon set in. I needed to earn a living ...fast! For 2 main reasons: Ghana was more expensive than I had remembered it being and I had spent almost all my savings on video production equipment. The 2nd reason was that I had to find my own place. It had been over a decade since I lived with my folks and it was tougher than I thought it would be, because my parents have not become wiser with age in certain regards. There's still constant tension in the house between them, so much unnecessary and petty bickering... I wasn't prepared for this. I lived through their dramas my whole childhood and it's probably one of the reasons I have no intention of getting married, but I somehow assumed they would treat each other better with age...but they don't. It's hard for me to understand why they still live together. Anyways, I digress. I've been pretty much working since I got back, trying to save money, somehow. I keep telling my friends, I'll rest when I die.

On impulse I decided to go to Anomabo with some friends for Christmas. I wanted to be out of the house by all means. Growing up, Christmas had almost always been a tense time at home. Christmas and birthdays. Don't ask me why. That's just the way it has been. So I was grateful to get out of town if only for a few days.

We didn't get the (more expensive) resort we wanted right on the beach, which we expected since we didn't book in advance. But we got a decent enough place within walking distance to the beach. Decent enough meaning, not filthy, but not as clean as it could be. I wish smaller resort and hotel staff could try to pay more attention to detail. Like making sure the fridge is cleaned out in a room, cobwebs and gecko droppings removed etc. I guess I've stayed in worse places, so these things don't make my stomach turn like they used to and to be more comfortable I always bring my own towel and bedsheets and I clean the room a little myself, before I settle in.

To be able to swim in the beach in front of the more expensive resort, we each had to pay 5 GHC, but we managed to evade that the whole time we were there. We had to use the off the beaten track around the resort, which was an eyesore, to get to the outside boundaries of the resort's beach. My friends decided to swim at night the first day we were there... I declined and just waded in the water. It looked like fun for a while, but my overly cautious self took over and I started to get concerned about the high tides and the fact that we could barely see each other. But my daring companions were as happy as pig in mud, frolicking about in their birthday suits under the partial moonlight. Mercifully, after about half an hour they came to their senses and called it a night.

On the last day we decided to have another dip before we headed back for Accra. We'd been swimming out of bounds our whole time there in defiance of the resort's policy of paying a gate fee before swimming, even when we bought our meals there. The sea was especially rough and so I called out to my friends that I was heading back to shore. I started swimming back to dry land and noticed our clothes and bags were much further away than before. I also noticed that although I was swimming, I really wasn't moving much. I seemed to be caught in a giant washing machine spin cycle that seemed to take me further away as I swam. I started to panic and got pushed down by a huge wave. I panicked even more as I swallowed a lot of sea water and span around so that I was disoriented.

This is how so-called experienced swimmers drown

I heard a voice in my head say,

Just relax, Yinka...relax.

And so I did, and slowly I got pushed out of the spin by the waves, until I could swim to shore. The scary part was that my friends were totally oblivious to what had happened to me.

Despite my very real scare, it was a great 3 days and with all the swimming in the ocean, walking around the village and practicing karate with a friend early in the morning, I actually lost weight for a change instead of gaining during the Christmas season. And that, for me is a great Christmas!

The little village in Anomabo

The view from the lodge we stayed in

Curious kids in the village

The church that drew us into the village. Turned out to look more spectacular from afar, than it did up close.

This pleasant woman wanted me to take her picture as she smoked her fish

I attended an engagement ceremony this weekend. My first one ever, and I found it quite fascinating. From the back and forth banter between the 2 family reps to their stand up comedy routines. It was almost like watching a live local theater show. I had heard about how theatrical some of these engagement ceremonies were, especially among certain tribes but I'd never witnessed it because I was never remotely interested in anything to do with marriage. But with age and an increasing open mindedness, I've decided to try and experience more...

The engagement ceremony I atttended was not super exciting, but it had its moments. This was a union between a Ga and Ewe family.