“To lovers of adventure and novelty, Africa displays a most ample field.”
And the heat goes on! Today is just a bit better than yesterday, and tonight is supposed to be cool. We did have some rain last night around 11:30. I don’t know how long it lasted. I know it was small rain as I was outside on the deck watching Gracie and barely got wet.
A large fly was inside the house yesterday. I hate flies. I suspect this one was logy from the cold because when it landed I was able to sneak attack and whack it with my hand. No more fly!
I wish I could describe the excitement I had when I was flying over the Sahara on my way to Ghana. It was like seeing my geography book come alive. I almost couldn’t believe it was the Sahara below the plane. It seemed more like a dream. Seeing it got me even more excited because it meant we were getting closer to Ghana. I had no idea what to expect from Ghana. The books I read had described the country, but then it was my imagination, my mind’s eye, which conjured the way I thought it might look. Exotic came to mind. A place different in every way from the familiar was the overwhelming thought. In many ways I wasn’t wrong.
The first few days were filled with eye-opening sights. The compounds, not houses but compounds, had tin roofs rusted by the rain. My whiteness was an attraction. Everywhere I went a parade followed. I met a chief, a real African chief. All the sights, sounds and smells overwhelmed me. I couldn’t process fast enough. I almost needed to pinch myself. I was really in Africa.
One of the first lessons I learned in Ghana was not to have expectations but rather to take everything as it came. I didn’t grouse about what I didn’t have. That was the key to living happily. I didn’t like the flies and I wasn’t thrilled about peeing in a hole, but they were part of life for me. I swatted the flies and aimed well at the hole. I came to love Ghanaian food and wore dresses of Ghanaian cloth. My sandals had soles made of tire rubber by the man in the market, sort of an outdoor cobbler. I rode in crowded lorries and buses and ate food sold along the roadside. I never gave any of it a second thought. I was home.
Sometimes even now I am amazed I went to Africa. I can’t remember what made me at twenty-one willing to go, to leave everyone and everything behind me. Whatever it was, I am forever thankful.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: African chief, compounds, desert, expectations, flies, Ghana, heat, humidity, Sahara, sights, unfamiliar, whiteness
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
July 31, 2015 at 2:10 pm
Quite the opposite weather here, rather chilly (except for the few times the sun manages to shine through a hole in thye clouds), rainy and quite high humidity. I haven’t even taken one walk with the dogs today, I just couldn’t stand the flies 🙂 I understood later on why they were so bad today, a thunder storm passed by and they are usually nasty before that happens. They say we’ll have a sunny day tomorrow and I do hope the morning is cold so I can enjoy it without any flies.
I have actually seen the Sahara desert, it was when I flew to the Canary Islands. I could only see it from a great distance but it is hard to miss 🙂 So to be honest, I have been to Africa too, the Canary Islands is a part of Africa even if it is very European. It’s almost possible to manage there only talking Swedish because it is the place to go for Swedes. We had to go to the police when I was there because they stole the hotelsafe with all our money and passports 🙂 The first person we met at the police station was a man speaking perfect Swedish 🙂
I wish we had something like the Peace Corps, I would without a doubt joined them!
Have a great day!
Christer.
July 31, 2015 at 2:25 pm
Christer,
I would love a cool day and some rain, but you can keep your flies. We have black flies only in the early summer. The rest of the summer we have common house flies.
I once went came riding in the Sahara on a camel owned by a Toureg. It was an amazing adventure high atop that camel-one rein for control and your feet go on the camel’s neck. We rode into the desert.
My friends stopped at the Canary Islands on their way back to Ghana after a vacation at home. They thought it was very expensive and on Peace Corps salary it probably was.
You would have loved the Peace Corps.