Ed's Visit- Part 1

I’m trying to get back into the swing of school so it’s taken me longer to get back to blogging than I wanted. Vacation was wonderful. Ed flew into Accra a couple of days after Christmas but unfortunately got stuck there a night since his flight to Tamale was cancelled. It actually worked out since his flight from America was late getting in so he would’ve missed it anyway. But it was disappointing that he was in the same country as me but just not the same place! The next afternoon he flew into Tamale and I was able to sneak into the baggage claim area (non-passengers are supposed to wait outside- it’s a tiny airport) and greet him with a big ole hug. The next day I subjected him to the travel torture that often happens in Ghana on the way to Bolga. Thankfully once we reached Bolga my language trainer PP met us with his sweet SUV ride and carried us the rest of the way to my house, with a few stops on the way of course. Ed arrived in my village in style and a small welcoming party was waiting for us at my house.

Mostly in my village we rested a lot and watched movies which gave Ed time to adjust to Ghana time, food, weather, etc. It was surreal for me to have him in my house and really his coming to my village was more for my sake. I wanted him to see where I’ve been living and working and have a frame of reference for my time here. Plus I think it’ll be a big help to me once I come home. I also took him to all my favorite places like the nearby dam where I snapped this awesome photo of him with my ‘fan club’ as I call these kids. It’s funny to me after all this time these kids are still so excited to see me though I think Ed provided an extra draw. He also met a bunch of people in my village including students, teachers, my headmaster, parents of my students, kids, etc. Another evening I took him to Madam Diana’s house to greet her family. Her son Nathan now says ‘Maa-dam’ every time he sees me and it’s pretty cute. My friend Chris killed a chicken for Ed and made us light soup- yum. Unfortunately Ed’s stomach wasn’t super happy so he only tasted a little bit but liked it. For New Year’s Eve we did a game night, playing Battleship and Boggle before we watched a movie. I had to set my alarm for us to get up and light the sparklers I bought in Tamale at midnight. Some churches were also having church so at midnight they loudly drummed and made noise. A few people were walking home while we were doing our sparklers and greeted us ‘Happy New Year’ in Buli and English. The next day my friend Joseph asked me what we were doing the night before because he saw the fire. He thought I had an ant problem we were trying to take care of! So I had to try and explain the use of fire in a celebratory manner. The last night we biked to the farther away dam which was Ed’s favorite thing we did in my village. It’s so peaceful and beautiful there. The four nights we spent in my village flew by and the next thing we knew it was time to get packed up and ready to move to our next stop on his tour of Northern Ghana: the Tongo Oasis.

We were fortunate once again to get a private vehicle out of my village to Sandema (more on that in a future post). On the way to Bolga, we took a short side trip to the Paga Crocodile Pond to do the 15 minute tourist attraction. It was my third and hopefully final time there! The Tongo Oasis was amazing as usual and Ed loved it there. It’s so serene there and the house is gorgeous. I always enjoy going there for our volunteer meetings so I was excited to share it with Ed. Plus it felt more like a vacation than being in my village did where there are always people knocking on my door or making noise. We took walks, did some wedding planning while we had the time and ate lots of amazing food (American and Ghanaian). On one walk we watched some kids throw rocks at a duck in a pond and before hitting one of the ducks a kid was hit so was wailing. But the other kids were able to fell a duck, drag it to shore, and continuously beat it on the ground. That was something I’d never seen in Ghana; goes to show there’s always something new (though not always pleasant) to see. It was really nice to stay at the Oasis two nights and just have time to relax.  Our next stop was Tamale again before heading to Mole Park, which I'll write about in Part II.