I may have had the time to write more if I wasn’t spending my spare moments at the airport in a futile search for my missing luggage (technically it’s just delayed). We are entering The Great Luggage Crisis of 2006, Day 6.
A guide book on Ghana said to bring bug spray but I didn’t think it was in anticipation of six days without clean shorts -- although the stench is now beginning to drive the flies away so I don’t really need the bug spray anymore. The only remaining interest I have in my miss-directed luggage is whether or not it will arrive before I leave. The over/under in Ghana is tilting toward my bag arriving after my departure. However, bets on it not arriving at all are picking up steam.
The calls with Northwest Airlines – tell you friends and family not to fly them – are so far beyond frustrating that they are comical. My missing bag has become folklore here as people in various government departments start their conversation by asking if I have found it yet. I am not kidding. I had one minister who had read the pleading e-mail I had sent to Northwest to have them help me find my bag. I think I wouldn’t have whined so much if I knew the letter was going to be spread around.
Despite my one-trick-pony of attire, we are making good progress here and I actually like the country. The people are incredibly friendly and are very kind to each other. Crime is virtually non-existent in Accra and you would be hard-pressed to find a piece of trash along the road. People take great pride in their country and have a very personal respect for everyone, including refugees from their warring neighbors and us white folk.
Much of the population is strongly Christian; almost evangelical. You see many public busses with essentially “Praise the Lord” stickers on them. I did see one that carried a bit stronger message than the others, but it would nevertheless be difficult to argue its point. It simply said “God is God.” The author may have been vowel-challenged or he may have thought he really figured something out, like when you first learn that "Dog" spelled backwards is "God."
Ghana is a combination of many tribes and although they all think of themselves as Ghanaians, they still tend to speak tribal languages and maintain ancient customs. One such custom that is very charming is how they greet old friends. They will reach out for a traditional handshake and then walk off holding hands for 20 or 30 seconds. I asked one of my many new friends at the airport why they do this and he just said, “It is their way.”
I met the Ghanaian president here yesterday; a most impressive man. He exudes what one might think is ancient African tribal wisdom. He is known here as the “Gentle Giant,” in part because he is at least 6’5” and has a booming, deep voice. And, for you ladies, he wears shoes the size of canoes. He is going to the U.S. on Tuesday to accept $547 million of your hard-earned tax dollars as part of the first grant given out in a new program called the Millennium Fund.
The purpose is to give it to countries that have demonstrated the responsibility to spend the money on something other than numbered bank accounts and they actually apply for the money with minute specifics on where and how it will be spent. Ghana is the first to get these funds and it is an interesting experiment as the grant seeks to cut out the U.S. bureaucrats that eat up more than 50 percent of all foreign aid. It says a lot about the president of Ghana that he has earned such trust, especially when you consider that Kofi Annan is Ghanaian and the likely winner of the largest Swiss Bank Account of Other People’s Money Award.
We went to a restaurant at the beach today and stuck our toes in the water. It seems weird to know that we were on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. I think I once dipped a toe off the coast of Galway, Ireland but it didn’t seem to be as much of a big deal as it does here in Africa. Maybe it’s because, and I am paraphrasing Dave Chappelle here, that Africa is the cradle of m….fing Civilization. Just a guess.
1 comment:
THIS seems to be a worthwhile expenditure of tax payer money to aid people and a country such as this. I hope that it is, anyway.
As I said when we were I.M.ing (NOT individual medley-ing), it's interesting to hear about some place I don't know much about, from someone I know, from someone who, you know, knows how to, like, express themselves in, like, written form? Ya know?
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