A Tiger’s Stripes….and other such tales

08/18/09

It is midnight here and I have already written part of this blog once tonight. Just as I was close to posting it from the internet café that I was in just a few short hours ago...tick, tick, BOOM….my browser crashed and there went all of that hard work. Alas, the fight must go on. However, now I am sitting under a fan in Kofi’s house and working my way through a delicious Ghanaian chocolate bar. I had very little idea that the cocoa culture here was so HUGE. Apparently, the cocoa bean was brought here by the Spanish for favorable growing conditions, and the rest is history. You know… subjugation of indigenous peoples, deprivation of fair wages and labor standards, human slavery, and 400 years later….a delightful way to ruin 7 months worth of Weight Watchers.

Moving on…I should round out the trip a little here. There have been so few chances to actually write at length that I have skipped several key moments of the trip. On arrival at Kofi’s house, our van and Tro Tro (taxi) were greeted by three feet and forty pounds of young Ghanaian boy that I would come to know as Na Na. I still am not sure where it comes from, because he tells me that his name is Jason….but Na Na persists and when in Rome…

Na Na held his head high and carried his small hands as tightly clenched fists at his sides. He saw the car and immediately sized all of us (and the car) up as if to say, “Who are you?” in a bellowing tone reminiscent of the Great Oz at the Emerald Palace upon meeting Dorothy for the first time. I introduced myself right away and we were quick friends (I know…weird, right?). As I settled in he and I were playing and I took out my camera. After the 1^st picture he exclaimed, “Capture me as a tiger! A giraffe! A Spider-Man!!!” and so it was. I began to grow tired and I told him that he could stay in my room but that I needed a nap. I asked him to nap with me and he crawled up beside me, laid his head down and we were among the clouds in minutes.

When I woke up almost three hours later, he was sleeping next to me still. Um yeah….killing me with the cute (thanks for the borrowed vernacular Mr. Landis and by the way…Lolcats don’t have shit on this kid!) Shortly after the nap I presented Na Na with some of the donated school supplies that I had brought along, and was promised a return gift of a picture of “Tiger with stripe!!!”. Each day upon my return to the home, Na Na runs out of the house and throws his arms around me and inquires as to what I might have brought him. I have informed him that I really would not like to give him anything, as my picture of a tiger with stripes has not materialized. I have also informed his father Kojo that his son is a very shrewd business man. So far he is up one pad, a box of crayons, a pencil, a package of colored pencils, a sharpener, most of my granola bars, and several baggies full of sugar cane.

I still have no tiger.

By the way, we went to the Ghanaian Cultural History Museum in Accra today and it was very moving. Truly a peaceful and beautiful people and there is so much to say about this…I will write another separate entry…needless to say, most of us were O.K. until we got to the room about the slave trade and the display of fetters and chains and shackles was enough to move us to tears….especially the child’s set. I just can’t imagine the sorrow and fear that a child in that situation must have felt.

Insert uncomfortable moment of silence.