Africa: excerpt from an email. In the days long before facebook or social media!
Elmina, Ghana, 2004. Saturday morning, market day. Very hot and we were in
great spirits. We purchased a loaf of bread and meandered happily
down the street munching away. Presently, I heard Em nearly choking
on her bread. She had spied the most perfect of all the shop names
we had come across so far. You know how in the beginning of the
trip we saw 'Together as One Welding' - clever enough, and then just
random ones such as 'Jesus Almighty Plumbing Supplies' and the 'Clap
Nicely for Jesus Fashion Inn'. Well the best one lies in Elmina,
and no word of a lie it is called, proudly, the 'Fck You Champion
Barber'. (yet expletive written in full).
Yesterday, Dave, Stu and Rusell ran the Brenu School Football
tournament, held at the Sabre Trust Stadium, beside the kindergarten
shelter. It was perfect. Honestly, I almost cried when the kids
ran out in their blue and white striped football guernseys and then
huddled for some strategies. There faces were so elated... the
crowd was huge and for the next six hours the tournament ran like
clockwork (albeit Ghanaian clockwork). Aubs, I so wish you could
have been here to see it because without you/Sabre it would never
ever have happened. There were parents loving it, all the kids were
loving it and it was so professional. At penalty shoot outs or kick
outs of whatever the hell they are called (where the team takes it
in turns to kick at the goal and whoever gets the most wins) the
kids faces were SO serious and they were giving each other death
stares to out-psyche each other. Absolutely brilliant. I wondered
to myself (and I guess we'll never know) what sort of change a day
like this would make in a kid's life... as all the children from the
community were there to see several teams play and now all the
village would know who were really skilled at football and who
knows, some may have gained enormous respect now from their
classmates and from parents... very cool.
Another incident happened the other day which made me think about
how we work there and get to know the locals but will never really
know what their lives are really like... After the biggest storm I
have seen at Brenu and possibly ever.. The sky was black for a
couple of hours, the rain so hard you couldn't see more than 50m or
less in front of you and the wind awesome. The thunder so loud and
lightning etc etc... Anyway, at about four in the afternoon we saw
two boats making their way in over the rough seas, the men looking
strong as usual but you could see they were exhausted. I wondered
if these were the boats that should have come in at around 7am as
they do other mornings and if they'd been out at sea during the
storm. If so, how they must have battled in that storm not to sink,
how they would have bonded. All of them thinking of their families
back in the village, their children, why they wanted to survive.
And I wondered what it would have been like down on the shore as
their wives saw them come in... the worry that must have been in
their minds, the relief as they saw them coming in from the horizon.
I wondered what sort of affection would have been displayed when
the men got out of their boats... probably just eye glances and nods
of the head that would have said a thousand more things than a hug.
Anyway, I wished you were all sitting in the shelter of the beach
hut with me to see and talk about these things.
In the kindergarten we are having the most brilliant brilliant time.
Thursday and Friday have perhaps been the best days yet, not
really sure why. Thursday morning I spent the most part of two
hours teaching the very very small ones, with one child wedging his
head between my knees and wrapping his arms around my legs in scrum
style for about one hour. I would be teaching the others and forget
that he was there.. don't know what he found so fascinating about
that position, probably the blood rushing to his head from it being
face down for that long... I don't know, but it was very funny and I
realised that this is what it would always be like when teaching
kids this small. The second part of the morning when the little
ones were sleeping the older ones (4, 5 and 6) and I were doing
colours and numbers and ABC with songs, balloons and balls,
marching, singing, jumping, hopping and dancing and generally being
stupid. They make me laugh my head off and laugh a lot themselves
so it's great. The fighting is definitely on the decrease and they
are starting to regulate themselves as they know that fighting means
no fun stuff.
In the afternoons, Dave, Russell had finished the gates for the
kindergarten, myself and about four excellent older boys sawed up
the second coconut tree trunk for benches and the kindergarten is
near complete, the floor to be screed (or however you spell it) next
Weds. Em's mural is absolutely superb - looks brilliant - really
really really good.
