Ghana Make You Sweat

Ghanaian entrepreneurs are fun people to chat with. They have seen enough movies to know that some people in this world are unbelievably wealthy, and when they compare themselves to Americans, they know that their resources and opportunities are limited. And yet they’re cheerful, optimistic, and driven. Focused. The resources that are available to our clients are used with a precision that I’m not used to seeing in America: expenditures need to maximize human capital (through nutrition or education) and financial capital (through their micro-businesses). The hyper-efficient-entrepreneur-of-the-week award goes to Koopa.

Koopa runs one of the most successful farms in our district. In fact, his farm is large enough that he was never interested in the $100-$600 microloans that Lumana offers. All the work on his 20 acre farm is done with a hoe, and he has a strict schedule of walking to the field at 5am every morning, stopping for a long lunch and nap, and then working all evening, when the temperature has cooled down enough for the back-breaking work. He is 33 years old, with a wife, five kids, and big plans for growing his business.

When Chris and I arrived at Koopa’s farm to say hi, he was very eager to ask for updates about Lumana’s upcoming investment in Mr Sena’s tomato processing plant. Koopa told us that he is working on a contract with Sena to sell a specified amount of tomatoes at a low price. Every year both parties would be able to predict price and quantities. With Ghana’s volatile produce markets, this would be the first time that Koopa could make reliable plans about cash flow, so the increased production of tomato puree will create almost as many tangible effects in his life as it will for Sena.

Koopa is also excited about the fish farm system that is coming to his village. Since he was a child, he wanted to develop a large fish farm.  So since Lumana’s partner, Solve Farms, started talking about setting up an aquaponics business with a tilapia farm, Koopa has been trying to learn every detail about starting the farm and preparing for the fish. As Solve begins building the pond in the next few months, Koopa will be studying each step of the process.

But he knows that his fish farm will have to wait: first he needs to finish developing a 500-bird chicken farm, and finish construction on his restaurant. He’s working off of an impressive business model where he cuts out middle-men at every step. He knows that he needs more composted manure for his crops, so instead of buying from the ranches that are over a hundred kilometers from his fields, he is developing the chicken coup to access their dung as fertilizer for his produce. Since he already grows corn, he doesn’t need to buy very much chicken food—just a vitamin/mineral supplement. So he can sell eggs and meat at a higher profit. And the simple restaurant he’s building will eventually be able to sell food that primarily comes from his chicken farm, produce farm, or corn farm. One day, his fish farm will also supply the restaurant. In each of these side-businesses, Koopa will capture all the income from the farm field to the restaurant plate.

Today I spent six hours talking with Koopa about strategies for his business. After crunching numbers about chickens, loans and savings, Koopa went home to mull over the benefits of saving for several months before starting the chicken farm, as well as putting his other business expansions on hold until after he starts seeing egg revenues. I think our plans today will save him over $1,000 in interest charges (compared to plans he once had to get a loan from a formal bank).  That means today is a good day in Ghana.

I have been back in the US for about a week and am only now really getting used to the swing of things. The pace of life back here is much different than in Ghana but it has been very nice to connect back up with family and friends. My time in Ghana was filled to the brim with amazing experiences, hard work, some of the nicest people I have ever met and, yes, uncomfortably high temperatures. Yet, as life goes, some things must come to an end, but I will continue to hold onto everything I have learned in my ten weeks in Ghana. I do already miss the food, the market days, the trips to the beach, and the work. However, what I do miss the most, are the people. Ghanaian people are so welcoming and truly make you feel so much a part of their community. As well, even though I know I will see them soon, I miss the US staff there in Ghana who taught me so much and made my experience so exhilarating and enjoyable.

In looking back on the time that I spent in Ghana, it truly was an amazing experience for me in which I learned so much, both in terms of practical skills and about my future career plans. This primarily came about through my work with Sena and his business Tip Top Foods Inc. Although I have never taken an accounting course in college, my work with Tip Top Foods really opened up the accounting world to me and gave me a good basis to build on for future learning and application. To work on compiling a financial statement and balance sheet from scratch was both an exhilarating and frustrating experience. It really made me realize the complex process of tracking a business’ financials as well as the importance of such information for investment acquisition. I also had the opportunity to develop a strong, familial relationship with Sena who is such an inspiring individual to learn from and spend time with. I already have plans to continue working with him when I travel back to Ghana in the near future.

My work with Blossom Farms also taught me a lot in terms of the complex process of land acquisition and leasing agreements in Ghana. Although I did have to leave before we were able to come to an official agreement over the lease, it was a very rewarding experience to work with Nancy, the landowner, and Blossom Farms to help bring about a sustainable farming system in the south of Ghana. I definitely learned much about patience in the whole process and how all of the time invested in a project can really be worth it all in the end. Although I am presently not looking at a possible future in agricultural development, my work in both of these projects has really spurred an interest in social investment that I plan to follow in my future career. Beyond microfinance, social investment proves to be a very promising method by which to further develop a nation’s economy. As I have learned from Sena and Tip Top Foods, small to medium-sized enterprises have the potential to really make a positive impact on their community’s economic development.

It really feels as though I have been away from Ghana for such a long time even though it has only been a week. It really feels like an entirely different world, back here in the US, but I will always be able to hold onto everything I learned from my work in Ghana and all the relationships I made with the wonderful people there. Although I still have about a year and a half left of college, I know that in the near future I will be going back to Ghana. If not to work then at least to visit. Also, Lumana has proven to be a very impactful and effective organization that I am proud to have had the opportunity to work for. Even though it was only for a few months, I have truly enjoyed every minute I was able to work with Lumana and hope to continue my involvement with them long into the future.

With only two more days left in Ghana, I’m starting to feel extremely sad about leaving, but still excited about going home. It’s a very bitter sweet time. I just had my last day at the Atorkor office, and spent some quality time with the staff. Richard got me a very nice kente cloth, which is an intricately woven cloth worn on special occasions, as a going away present and another strip of kente that said “Truly Treasured Goodbye Halla.” I was very touched. These past months have flown by and I know that I will remember these memorable times forever. I have loved working with the staff; they put a smile on my face every day at the office and are a very enthusiastic bunch. I’m really going to miss them. Bridget is still trying to convince me to marry Richard so that I’ll stay in Ghana forever, but
I’m not so sure about that arrangement.  I’m also going to miss living with Chris, Justine, David, and Bridget, who have become my substitute family while I’ve been here. We’ve had some fun times together, going to the beach on Sundays, watching movies together at night, traveling through Ghana, and sharing many laughs.

I just had my last market day on Sunday, and had my last Togo sandwich, which I will miss as well. My procrastination habits left me to do the entire souvenir shopping until the end of my trip, but I’ve gotten some very nice fabrics from the market and gotten them sewn into bags, and blouses. I also bought some jewelry and a talking drum recently. I’m excited to give my gifts to people back home and share my many stories.

As the days get hotter, and the electricity and water keep going out, it will be nice to go back to Seattle weather and finally feel truly clean. Even though living here has been a great experience for me, I will probably not miss standing out as a Yevu or receiving the many awkward marriage proposals. However, the friendliness and welcoming atmosphere that I’ve witnessed here, I’ve never seen anywhere else. People are very honest and genuine. Everyone wants to be your friend as soon as they meet you. A lot of people just ask me my name, and tell me that they want to be my friend and after I say yes, they immediately want to know my number, where I live and discuss where to meet next. It’s always flattering to see their eagerness to be friends, and that is something I won’t find in the US either.  I’m really looking forward to eating when I get back, even though I did enjoy Ghanaian food. I especially loved the incredibly flavorful fruits. I had tilapia for the last time for dinner last night, and today, Bridget is going to cook me some groundnut soup. I was sick with malaria when she made it the last time and was unable to have any;
I hear it’s really good. Tomorrow morning, I head out to Accra from where I will catch my flight back to Seattle. I’m looking forward to having one last night in Anloga before I leave.

I am just now halfway through my time here in Ghana and I could not be enjoying myself more. Even though work has definitely picked up, and I am finding myself busier by the week, I love every minute of it. I am also becoming so much more accustomed to life here in the village of Anloga. I have even started to accept the increasingly more frequent power and water outages as a part of daily life. Either way, it is amazing to think that I have less than five weeks left here; I really do not want any of it to end and am looking forward to what is yet to come.

Like I said above, the work has definitely increased and sometimes it feels like there simply is not enough time in a day. As the field project lead for Lumana’s pilot investment project, I am working simultaneously with a client of ours, Sena Ahiabor, and with our implementation partner company, Blossom Farms. I’m working with Sena to prepare him for investment money that will greatly expand his business, and with Blossom Farms to start up an aquaponics farm in Atorkor. With Sena’s help, I am organizing all of his financials and preparing a balance sheet and financial statement for the past two years that can be sent to potential investors in the US. I also am working on a project proposal that will outline his intended machinery and inventory purchases with the investment money, as well as a market analysis and company overview for his tomato processing business Tip Top Foods. I travel out to Sena’s house, which his business is located next to, multiple times a week and really enjoy getting to learn from him. I am also learning so much, through my work, about financial statements and the necessary steps for investment acquisition.

My involvement with the Blossom Farms project is to be the primary connection with their leadership and head up all work on Lumana’s side of things here in Ghana. In my time here, I will be able to help find and secure land for the aquaponics system, aid in establishing our official partnership with Blossom Farms, and hopefully put in a good amount of work on the actually construction of the system. An aquaponics farm is a sustainable farming method in which crops grow with their roots in troughs of water, rather than soil, which is pumped to them from a fish pond. The compost and nutrients from the fish acts as fertilizer for the plants, and then the nutrients from the crops are pumped back to the fish pond to feed the fish. This closed system is very efficient because the only water lost in the process is through evaporation. So far, we have established the partnership with Blossom Farms, and have a general understanding of our roles. We have also found the land that we are going to use for the project.

It has been rather hard to establish a normal routine here but I am beginning to enjoy a constantly changing day-to-day schedule. I often have not even figured out said schedule until each day begins. Other than the days when I have very early morning meetings, I usually wake up around 8 and spend the first hour or two of my day reading. This is a rather nice way to start out the day, if I do say so myself. Some days I just work on my computer, organizing financial statements and line item documents, but most days I am traveling around to different meetings, working at Sena’s place, or visiting the farmland. As well, every four days is the market day in Anloga in which I often walk around and do the house shopping for food and supplies. It is a very exciting and crowded market that I have grown to really enjoy. I find time to go running everyday around 5 PM and am getting more and more used to the high temperatures and humidity. Nights are usually spent cooking, hanging out, and watching movies with everyone in the house.

All in all, I am really enjoying my time here in Ghana. There is so much that I am learning, not only about investment and financial statements but also about the culture here. The language is becoming easier to use in basic interaction and the food has really grown on me. Though I only have five weeks left, I look forward to the coming weeks with great anticipation.

A little over three weeks ago, I landed in Accra, Ghana’s capital city. I was pretty nervous, because this was my first time going to live away from my family and on top of that it was in Africa. It was a long three hour ride in a crowded tro tro (a van, bus-like transportation system) to get to the village of Anloga, where I am now staying as well as doing my internship for the microfinance organization, Lumana. The first few days were pretty hard for me because I did miss home, but I’ve adjusted to my new environment and I am really enjoying being immersed in a new culture and a completely different society. I’ve gotten used to the staring and people constantly referring and calling out to me as a Yavu (white person). It’s really strange being referred to as a white person since I have never considered myself to be white as I’m ethnically Pakistani. They even have a little song about white people that children love singing every time they see a light skinned person. The Ghanaians are one of the friendliest and welcoming people I have ever met though, and they love it when you attempt to say anything in Ewe, it gets them laughing every time. While walking on the street, or buying something at a store, I’ve been stopped to chat with people many times, because people truly enjoy getting to know you. Sometimes, they can be a little too friendly; I’ve already gotten a number of marriage proposals. My name is impossibly hard for people to say, because they’ve never heard such a name before. I’ve gotten an Ewe name; it depends on the day of the week you were born. After looking up that I was born on a Sunday, I was given the name Akos. The atmosphere seems very relaxed here, sometimes, when passing shops, you see people just lying down and resting.

The local staff is great; they are a very energetic group who are always making me laugh. They love to have a good time and they make the office an enjoyable place to be. I really like working with them and answering their many questions or trying to understand their interesting sense of humor. The days go by pretty fast here, and before you know it, its dinner time. The food choices are pretty limited here, but the food is pretty good and I like the spiciness of it. Usually for lunch, I get this rice and beans dish with a spicy pepe sauce on it or sweet potatoes with pepe sauce on it. It’s given to you in a small plastic bag. You get everything in a bag here and people selling things to you make sure you have a bag for it; they even have little packets of filtered water. There are a lot of stews that are usually eaten with different doughs, so far I’ve tried bonku and abolo. People eat this dough and stew with their hands, and it gets really messy, but I have to admit, it is a fun experience. We’ve only gotten meat from the city, because the meat here is just sitting out all day long and not very appetizing or good quality either. I love the fruit though, especially the mangos and the pineapples which are delicious. I see coconut trees everywhere as well. It’s a very beautiful place, with all the palm trees and red sand on the ground. A couple weekends ago, we went on a boat ride that took us to a beach side corner. It was really beautiful, the sand was so white, soft and fine and the water was a pretty greenish color. The Ghanaians played the drums and sang songs along the way, it was quite an experience. I hope to make the most out of my trip here and see more of Ghana and its culture.

The Anloga yevu population has officially grown from two to four. The arrival of Halla and David on Monday and Wednesday, respectively, brings a fresh spin to la casa de Lumana. Along with the new shipments of American chocolate, coffee and television series DVDs, we’ve got twice the brainpower to unleash upon the Volta Region.

Halla’s trip into Anloga was rather seamless. Other than a quick bout of haggling with an airport taxi driver, we made our way home in good time and without many surprises. David’s trip back from the airport, however, was a bit more obstacle-ridden. After picking him up from his late-evening landing, we spent the night at our new Accra haunt, the GILLBT (an acronym for something I would rather not Google right now), with the plan of waking the next morning to start our return trek to Anloga. We had a few stops to make, including the purchase of our new office whiteboards, negotiated down from 450 Cedis to 25. As it turns out, whiteboards in Ghana are much more valuable than anywhere else in the world, but I got a very special deal. After that we had more stops to make: going to Melcom for the dry-erase markers we called ahead to make sure they had, going back to the Accra Mall to look for dry-erase markers since Melcom didn’t have them, and several other quick stops within the Mall walls. Traveling with a 3×5 whiteboard in Ghana is harder than it sounds, but we eventually found our way into a trotro to the Tema Roundabout. The driver insisted we continue with him all the way to Anloga instead of boarding a different trotro as we normally would. We’d just have to wait for ten minutes so he could have a quick look at the brakes before we continued along. David soon learned about Ghana time the hard way. Over an hour later, after being instructed to have a seat on the station mechanic’s “bench,” A.K.A. previous backseat of a deceased vehicle to watch all four brake pads be tediously replaced, we were on the road and just barely home before dark.

With over a week under their belts, between spending time with our Ghana staff in both the Atorkor and Anloga offices for free Ewe lessons, grocery and fabric shopping on the two market days they’ve both been present for so far, hitting the beach for a Sunday swim and even taking a shot at the local dish, tilapia and banku at Happy Corner, Halla and David are both certainly soaking it all in. You can look forward to hearing about their experiences first hand, coming soon to a Ghana Make You Sweat near you.

This Saturday is the all-Ghana-staff boat trip in the lagoon/river (bit hard to tell where one ends and the other begins) organized by our friends at the Meet Me There eco-lodge. It should make for magical moments in Lumanaian history…

The Lumana house has cleared out and within it resides only Bridget,
Justine and I. The departure of Sammie and Martina has left a void in
our hearts, but it will soon be filled by the arrival of new friends
and Fellows. Boxing Day marks the beginning of a new chapter, for our
honored guest Conor arrives. Only a few weeks following his arrival,
the newest additions to the Lumana team will land to begin their
fellowship projects (looking forward to meeting you all and a
preemptive welcome!).

Now that the current state of affairs has been declared, please allow
for a moment of reflection while I rewind to play from the beginning
of Martina’s eventful stay. Over the course of the past three weeks,
following our Ghanaian Staff Retreat, we hosted the “Meet Me There”
Brits for a delicious Indian feast, crossed the Togo Border by foot, a
feat in itself here on this continent of Africa, fought off Togolese
muggers (sort of), toured the nearby Keta Slave Castle (where we also
witnessed a man defecating on the beach adjacent to where we casually
soaked up some sun), bode farewell to Sammie over coconut-mango
Smoothies at Melting Moments in Accra, traveled west to Elmina and
Cape Coast (and then back to Elmina) to stay at Stumble Inn and the
Oasis Beach Resort, braved the Kakum National Park Canopy Walk and,
finally, ventured back into Accra where Martina set off for the U.S.
of A.

Our recent excursion to Elmina and Cape Coast proved to be a very
relaxing and indulgent experience. The “eco-lodge” is apparently a
trend in Ghana and Stumble Inn, located in Elmina, was yet another
experience with accommodation of this fashion (power runs only from
6-9 PM, the huts have composting toilets… you get the idea). After we
sat in a crammed bus in Accra traffic for over 3 hours without moving
and pondered how the socio-political structure of our newfound bus
civilization would look should we never make it out of the jam, we
came to our stop in Elmina. A round of suspicious questions from our
cab driver at the bus stop had us paranoid that the ride down the
long, dirt path could lead us to our demise, but indeed ended up being
the driveway to our sleeping quarters for the evening. The security
guard from Stumble Inn “greeted” us by appearing out of the bushes
somewhere along this dark and deserted road, then showed us the way to
our room with a flashlight. After eating some apple pie cookies for
dinner, we crawled into our respective bunks and slumbered.

The morning cast a brand new light on our weekend abode. What seemed
like something out of “Nightmare on Elm Street” only 8 hours before
now looked like a tropical paradise. Serving up delicious breakfast to
our own personal, beachfront dining room set, Justine, Martina and I
sat and enjoyed the pampering from the Stumble Inn staff, overlooking
fishermen paddling their colorful canoes out across the Atlantic.
After receiving directions to avoid “toilet beach” on the way to the
slave castle by our hospitable Dutch hostess, Sitska, we ventured off
on a sandy stroll to explore the oldest and largest slave castle in
all of West Africa: Elmina Castle.

Touring the slave chambers, the old officers’ quarters and the “door
of no return,” made for some eerie, exceptionally disturbing
sightseeing. The Castle, built in 1482 by the Portuguese, exchanged
hands in 1637 when captured by the Dutch and was later purchased by
the English in 1872. Originally used for the ivory and gold trade, it
shifted to slave trade as demand increased. The more history I
absorbed, the more unsettling standing within the castle walls became.

Once we finished our tour, we took a little down time for lunch at a
nearby restaurant across the canal, which runs through Elmina, across
from the castle. This canal is packed full of fishing boats painted
brightly in blues, greens, yellows and reds with biblical terms such
as “The Blood” and “God is King” written along their wooden hulls, a
vivid collage cluttered with the hustle and bustle of the market
undulating at the bank of the canal. We made sure to suck down the
water from some freshly cracked coconuts here before a quick stop back
at Stumble Inn to gather our things and set off for Cape Coast.
Although we had a nice evening at the Oasis Beach Resort playing cards
over a few drinks, it didn’t end up being the crazy nightlife we’d
anticipated. This worked out just fine since we were geared up and
ready to roll for the Kakum National Park Canopy Walk early in the
morning after sleeping in our converted bathhouse of a room.

George, our private driver who had dropped us off at the Oasis the
evening before, came back, without request mind you, to give us a lift
to the canopy walk in the morning. We made our way up the road that
served as a means for holding the potholes together and we all buckled
our seatbelts, perhaps for the first time in Ghana. Along the way,
young men were shoveling dirt into the potholes of the damaged roadway
motioning for cars to stop and pay them for their services, which no
one asked them to perform. George blew by them, laughing.  Once we
arrived, we made sure George had a few Cedi to buy himself a
refreshment and made our way to join the canopy walk tour that had
already gotten a head start on us. In a series of seven rope bridges
constructed by Canadian engineers from Vancouver, well above the
ground and extremely rocky, we not-so-gracefully passed from one to
the next until we were back on solid ground and ready for another
freshly machete-chopped coconut served just down the path. We even
tried fresh cocoa, which tasted extremely sour and semi-sweet, far
from any chocolate I’ve ever experienced. When our mini-hike was all
said and done, we made our way all the way back to Stumble Inn for one
more night of tropical, hippie bliss.

The next morning after breakfast on the beach, we had good old George
give us ride back to Cape Coast, where we saw what would be the most
eventful thing we saw all day: an aggressive old drunk man getting
slapped silly by a cocky young sober man at the trotro station. We
laughed, but only since he deserved it. Then we made the long journey
home to our splendid little town of Anloga.

A whirlwind of a week has just passed us Ghana-based Lumanaians.
Eventful indeed, we did the GBC, hosted a client party, celebrated
Farmer’s Day and retreated to the local “eco-lodge,” Meet Me There, to
talk about future goals… and our feelings.

A little over a week ago, Sammie, Justine and I headed north to Ho for
a GBC radio interview, which broadcast out to the Volta Region. This
all went off without a hitch, although Justine may have another
version of the story since it was her mobile phone digits that were
distributed out across the airwaves for all of the Voltarians to jot
down and begin dialing non-stop. This didn’t cease for several days.
At least she’s got a sweet ring tone that I take pleasure in singing
along to, thoroughly annoying those poor, unfortunate souls within
earshot.

As a follow up to this radio interview, the GBC decided they wanted to
send a crew out for our big client party blowout in the Atorkor L.A.
Basic School courtyard to film interviews with some of our feature
clients (Lumana recently instituted the “Cooperative of the Quarter
Award”) and capture footage of the soiree itself. The four
cooperatives selected, one from each of the villages Atorkor, Dzita,
Anloga and Whuti, began arriving for the interviews hours before the
GTV crew was to arrive, in their Sunday best on Tuesday. Once the crew
arrived, they had their own vision for how they wanted the interviews
to go over, so they chose a few of the clients to film in their
homes/places of work, staging their day-to-day tasks for all of Ghana
to see.

The crew continued to film the presentations made by our loyal Lumana
advisors and partners, Madaam Beaula, Mr. Seth, Mr. Tettey, our own
Eric Fiazorli, loan officer extraordinaire, and none other than the
head honcho herself, Executive Director, Sammie, to the 200 or so
clients in attendance. Included in the ceremony was the Atorkor
school’s cultural group pounding traditional drumbeats and providing a
copious display of youngsters dancing throughout. The event concluded
as everyone filled their bellies with food served up in one of the
open-air school classrooms.

The following day, Justin and Mark from Tilapiana, a fish pond
development project, came out on the Atorkor town for field tests and
feasibility assessment for bringing their project to this area.
Walking from one local farm to another throughout the day, I learned a
lot about tilapia farming and gained further confirmation that Ghana
does indeed make you sweat.

All that eventfulness was not even the half of it. Ok, roughly half.
But the following day, our Lumana retreat facilitator, Martina,
arrived from the Emerald City. Once we’d settled our things at the
Pink Hostel in Asylum Down, we ate a bit of Ghanaian stew in the
pulsing Accra night, subject to rather vulgar dancing all around us.
It was time to get back to the innocence of the rural Anloga. Friday
was Farmer’s Day, a national holiday here in Ghana, so the wait for a
trotro became slightly daunting. After about 3 hours of standing under
the African sun, we were Volta-bound to return in time for our staff
bonding retreat the next morning.

My only complaint about the Lumana “Meet Me There” Retreat was the
lack of a trust fall session, but at least we got to untangle
ourselves from the human knot (if you haven’t tried it, it’s a real
hoot; highly recommended). We took great leaps and bounds to identify
new initiatives for expansion and ate pizza. As it so happens, eating
a bunch of cheesy goodness can inspire and motivate those suffering
from the lactose drought that plagues this region.

In the wake of the festival, Anloga has calmed significantly and everything has returned to the normal, leisurely pace of daily life. The streets are filled with the usual suspects and the pulsing Hip Life beats are far more faint. Allow me to divulge a bit about our first-hand experience with the Anlo Hogbetsotso Festival, a “Festival of the Exodus.”

To pay homage to the tradition, I’ll explain the reason we were so fortunate to celebrate this event amongst our Anlo-area neighbors. The Anlo Ewe people migrated to this area of the Volta Region from Notsie in Togo, as legend has it, walking backwards. While under the oppression of a tyrannical ruler for many years within the kingdom contained by a clay wall, the Ewe people needed a strategy for escape. The wise elders instructed them to pour every last drop of water they could throughout their day of labor onto the clay wall that trapped them. They even urinated on the wall, allegedly. This practice continues even today. People pretty much pee anywhere here, unless specified by the phrase seen painted or etched on the wall or sign, “Do Not Urinate Here.” Anyway, back to the legend. When the wall finally collapsed, the Ewe people migrated away by dancing backward, so the ruler’s guards would see from a distance that they were facing them and so their footsteps appeared to be toward the kingdom, so they would not be followed. (Yeah! Damn the man!)

A common theme of this festival, therefore, was this very form of backward dancing, along with all the music; the beating of traditional drums and singing. Saturday morning, the durbar of chiefs and their families, seated under festival tents to watch the display being put on across the festival grounds before them, donned colorful regalia, along with most others in attendance from infant to elder.

Another common theme seemed to be the incredibly delayed event start times, which meant they didn’t conclude until around 3:30 AM on both Friday and Saturday evenings. After a lot of standing around and waiting on the festival grounds for something to happen Friday evening, Justine, Sayra and I met up with the Lumana staff/our Ghanaian posse and their brothers and sisters (not really, just what everyone here calls friends). On the walk home after spending a couple hours at a local bar, we happened upon a reenactment of this exodus legend; a play, if you will. We decided to indulge and Mr. Eric Fiazorli’s friend Kenneth was so kind as to translate much of the entertainment for me, which began at around midnight. I might have misread the situation, but I’m pretty sure he and I also agreed to begin working on the screenplay for a Braveheart-esque, Hollywood epic based on the Anlo Ewe Exodus. I soaked up as much legend as my mind could take, but coming up on 2 AM, I couldn’t hack it any longer and had to call it a night.

After the daytime Saturday festivities at the Anloga festival grounds concluded and evening was upon us, Lumana trustee and advisor Emma(nuel) stopped in to pay us a visit on his way to Keta for the Mama Hogbe Beauty Pageant, as he mentioned he would a few days earlier when I met him in Accra. After catching wind of a few details earlier and pondering whether or not to attend, I decided to blatantly invite myself to tag along with him.

Emma is a saint of a man. Upon meeting him about a week ago in Accra (for a moment he posed as a fabric vendor and I told him I wasn’t interested… I didn’t put it together that he was dressed to the nines, far from any fabric vendor, until after Sayra who had met him once before greeted him). He came to us at Tudu Station once we arrived, told us tons of information about Accra, took us out to lunch at none other than KFC in the Osu area, patiently strolled behind us through the Art Center while Sayra and I sauntered around looking at fabric, drums and other random knick-knacks for at least an hour, escorted us to the Post Office and got us into a trotro home, all during a very extended lunch break from work. When he mentioned his intentions to come to Anloga for the Festival on Saturday, we certainly encouraged him to pay us a visit.

Once Emma and I arrived at Mama Hogbe a bit “late”, we purchased our tickets with the start time of “7:00 PM Prompt,” pushed our way through the gates and proceeded to wait for another 3 hours until the event began, just before midnight. After the 15 contestants introduced themselves individually, then came back to perform their talent based on how they epitomized the morally-sound Ewe Woman, they narrowed it down to 5 contestants. Already I was beginning to fade. Interjected with two separate Hip Life musical performances, they asked the remaining pageant contestants two rounds of Ewe trivia questions, each time the announcers repeating “show some love, show some love” and “who will take the crown?” Finally, at 3:30 AM, after experiencing what felt more like a game show than a beauty pageant, contestant number nine took the grand prize, “A BRAND NEW CAR!” and Emma and I were already halfway out the door. He’d called a taxi that we found waiting for us outside the venue in Keta and made the trip home. Emma dropped me at my gate at 4 AM and we said good evening/morning.

Long story short, everything in Ghana, including the events, “will come with time,” as they say. Note to self: next time, bring Red Bull.

The Lumanaians now reside right in the heart of Anloga (a 5 minute walk from where we previously lived)! The afe yeye (new house) separates a family compound of sorts, and in true Ghanaian form, the neighbors have already extended their gracious welcome. From the first load I delivered by hired cart with the help of 2 locals, Joseph and Kobla, I was greeted enthusiastically by William, A.K.A. Tiger (there’s gotta be a story in there somewhere… I’m still digging). The following day, a woman balancing what appeared to be a rather heavy object on her head, as per the norm, stopped to introduce herself as the neighbor to the opposite side of Tiger. She (Mielo, I believe) grabbed Lumana’s lovely new Director of Operations, Justine Levesque, by the hand, asked me to follow as well, then took off with excitement around the corner, dragging Justine along. When I entered the gate to the neighboring home, I found Justine already being introduced to an elderly woman sitting in the courtyard near their mango tree whose name is apparently not important, for I was introduced by Mielo to “Mother” shortly after Justine. It turns out Mielo, Tiger, Mother and Mr. Tettey, our new landlord, are all related. The mango doesn’t fall far from the tree.

The information Justine and I walked away with, almost certainly due to a total communication breakdown, is that there are apparently some 40 siblings birthed by Mother, Mielo’s name means “Fetish Princess” (also symbolized by the markings she pointed out on her shoulders) and we are welcome to mangos anytime. I hope one of the three is correct; I have a thing for mangos.

The next day, Mielo and Tiger gave me an Ewe lesson, something fairly easy to come upon for the willing yavu, right by the cold store literally outside our door (oh the joys of convenience) where they had set up to sell some dish I haven’t yet determined. Mielo made me follow her again to offer my currency wisdom on what she called “your money.” It turns out, she had a 5 Euro-Cent coin. I think I took the wind out of her sails a bit when I explained that it was only worth about 20 pesewas, but at least she got a mini-EU lesson from me. Basically, our new neighbors are uber friendly.

I suppose I should address how we arrived to this new residence, as moving from one place to another in rural Ghana doesn’t exactly happen by heading on down to your local Uhaul for a truck rental. I think our Loan Officer, Eric Fiazorli, said it best: “Ghanaians move in the night because we do not want anyone to see us.” We all thought he was joking. He wasn’t.

Eric’s entourage arrived at 8:30 PM to BEGIN moving, including at least 6 pairs of hands to lend assistance. Among these kind folks, his wife, Rosemary, baby Collins mounted on back (and she wasn’t just carrying the light stuff) as well as his friend with a large van. Ghanaian “safety standards” for the moving van meant our one and only van run carried a very methodically packed, structurally questionable load (think Beverly Hillbillies minus the Beverly Hills… and the Billies are African… too late, I’m sticking with it). Why make two five-minute trips when you can make one? Perfectly logical, if you ask me.

The move went off without a single hitch (Okay, 3 hitches: 1. We won’t have any furniture for another week although we were told by the carpenter it would be ready the day we moved… it’s fine, it’s no surprise, it’s Ghana. It will happen when it happens. 2. Our refrigerator fan, which was somehow nailed into the concrete floor at our previous house, needed to be removed and “re-mounted” in the brand new, tile-floor kitchen. My attempts at this, although quite clever in my own humble opinion, failed miserably, so we were saved yet again by Eric, who had his friend Prosper sort us out a couple days later. 3. One of the four stove burners fell off while in transport and the darkness forced us to leave that soldier on the field of battle (Night Moves)… no sign of him the next day. RIP Stove Burner Number 4- June 7th, 1953- November 1st, 2011. Your light will shine down upon us from the heavens.)

The Anlo Hogbetsoso Festival began Wednesday, with an excellent display of children parading down the main street performing a traditional dance number and men in warrior garb doing their own version of tribal dance, which looked more like a Pilates workout if you ask me. However, the real celebrating begins tonight. People come from far and wide for these long-awaited festivities, especially this time around. The Festival hasn’t happened in this capacity for some 13 years due to a long-term chief dispute… time to make it rain. Excitement is in the air and, rest assured, updates of its bounties will follow.