Week 2: The Reality of It All Sets In

Saturday, February 20, we finally left the hotel for our new digs. We were all very excited to see and settle into our new “home away from home”.

The apartment is spacious, well furnished, bright and in a relatively quiet family neighborhood compared to where we were at the hotel. We are on the second floor with a great view of palm trees and get a daily breeze on the balcony.

It has lots of fans and we live close to a pedestrian walkway beside what I call the canal. It is actually an open sewer with little bridges over it, but we all have very good imaginations for seeing the canals of Venice on these walks and we are becoming proficient at breathing through our mouths. It is actually quite nice because it is an “unofficial pedestrian zone” without traffic and there are plenty of chickens, goats and dogs (which the kids stay away from). We walked along it to get to Church last Sunday. Church here is done in English and Twi so it is 2 hours long. We made up for missing on Sunday the 14th and this Sunday we will make up for Ash Wednesday. Then I guess we only need to go every second week…..just kidding.

We have spent this past week settling into our place. That first Saturday we were lucky to have a dinner invite as we were not even close to being set up yet. The woman who hosted us is Ghanaian and her name is Anna. WE LOVE ANNA!!!!!!! We are so blessed to have her as our friend. She is a physiotherapist who worked in Edmonton with a Mom, Audrey, from Holyrood whose son has play dates with our boys. Sight unseen she responded to an e-mail I sent her the night before we left, inviting us to stay at her place if we need to and then Saturday’s dinner invite. She lives far from us, but picked us up, fed us an amazing meal, then dropped us off with lots of leftovers. She is easy to get along with and has been immensely helpful as we get on our feet here. She picked us up on Sunday in order to take us to the mall to get groceries and supplies. Then she got her hired driver to pick us up after he dropped her at work, so that he could take us to the market and accompany us for some good bargaining, then he took us shopping for more household items. She has also supplied us with an extra single bed so that Riley and Dez don’t have to share a single bed, some extra dishes, a huge fry pan, a microwave, towels and pillow cases. She is away this weekend, but has talked of taking us to the beach next weekend. What an amazingly kind and generous woman. There is no awkwardness only good intentions. We met her niece at dinner last Saturday and this niece was studying in Edmonton having only recently returned. Now talk about a small world, she recognized me from a Bikram Yoga class last October. WOW. Another coincidence is that in this huge city, we are living in an apartment about 2 blocks from the home Anna grew up in. Her parents have passed away (her mother only last year) and she now rents out the house. She has a young man named Hameed looking after it while she looks for renters. She has tasked him with looking out for us, which he has been doing with things like finding us an electrician to fix 2 of our fans, finding us someone to help with laundry and cleaning (a story in itself), and tomorrow he will walk with me and the kids to a store that sells toasters in our price range, and to the station where we can fill our propane tanks (we have a propane stove top).

We are learning how to live in this strange new world. Terry has been at work all week and I have been cleaning out more dust then I ever thought possible…..thus the hired help. Hameed’s girlfriend Abigail came for 3 hours yesterday. I had her wipe down all the windows (there are 8 slats of glass that remain open always protected from the wind and dust only by a screen), doors and light switches, while I swept and washed the floors of all the rooms, banged all the cushions on our furniture, swept underneath the cushions and wiped with a rag. You can imagine all the wiping down I have been doing in cupboards, shelves and closets. Yesterday me and the kids had a stay home day and got it finished, even wiping down the balcony floor and furniture. During all the cleaning, the kids have kept busy with games, reading (Josie has become the new bookworm of the family), journal writing and playing with the local kids. We have had to stop inviting the local kids in as the landlords don’t like it. It is a difficult dilemma, because you invite 3 inside and there are 20 yelling up to the balcony creating havoc on our street. Once our kids are in school we will have to pick and choose their friends based on who they can trust the most and whose company they enjoy the most. It is so hard though. I had to turn a young girl away today who I know was sweet and had a baby on her back, but we have to respect the law of our apartment mates who I know are giving us sensible advice.

Speaking of schools, we have now checked out 4 schools and have narrowed it down to two. It is a difficult decision. One is a 10 minute walk over the canal from us and is far more affordable. Many of their new friends in the neighborhood attend this school. Hard to tell how good the education would be, but it would be the experience of a lifetime. The other school is still within our budget although much more expensive. They would have to travel through busy traffic each day to get there, but it is Catholic with a Church on site (we will go to this Church on Sunday this week), and clearly a higher standard of education. Both schools are filled with Ghanaians, but from 2 different worlds, lower class versus middle class. The Catholic School would start in May and the local one would begin as soon as we are ready with a month of holidays in April. Both schools’ terms finish at the end of July, then the new school year resumes in September. I have written a letter to the headmistress (a nun) at the Catholic School asking permission to enter. We may be refused or they may not have space for us until Sept, so we might end up having no choice in the matter. Now that the house is clean though, I want to get into the habit (until they are in school) of leaving the house with the kids when Terry goes to work to run errands like the market, the grocery store or just general exploring, then come home in the heat of the day for journal writing, French and maybe eventually Math (I’m not prepared yet for Math).

One of the schools I checked out is a Swiss German small international school very close to us. They have a playground and a café, which welcomes visitors like us. I had a good talk with the administrator early Tuesday morning and she mentioned that they are looking for volunteer Kindergarten teachers. They would pay for your accommodation if you made your own way here. Anyone interested????? She got me thinking about opportunities and I am going to see if they want to hire me to teach a Drama class in their next term to help cover our expenses. I won’t get my hopes up, but it might be a nice in for a place to hang out and do my writing once he kids are in school.

So here we are nearing the end of our first real week in Accra feeling extremely blessed. The kids are amazing at adapting, more than I ever imagined. They just go with the Ghanaian flow. Their toughest moments have been car sick rides in various modes of transport, our first night in the apartment (mosquito nets that were like heated tents with no air circulation and were sprayed with poison which got on their skin and burned). I was the only one to get any sleep that night with the heat. All have diarrhea but me. I am actually fairly regular surprise surprise (I think I was meant to be in the tropics). Time sometimes stands still here in Ghana, but although I thought this would bother me, it seems to wash over us all. The kids and I sat in a warm vehicle waiting for Hameed to find Abigail parked on a busy street in central Accra for about ½ an hour after having driven ½ an hour to get to this place that without traffic would have taken 10 minutes to drive to. But we were all lost in thought watching the world go by taken by the Ghanaian transcendence of time. They control time here, it does not control them and we are finding our way within this.

We allow ourselves special treats because we are in a big noisy smelly city. We have found a hotel across from the Swiss School with a pool we can use (for a cost – can’t make it a habit), we made it to the Alliance Francaise Cultural Center last Wednesday where we saw an amazing performance of dance, singing and drumming from a group from Burkina Faso (the country north of us). They have performances from various groups every Wednesday evening plus an artist exhibiting their work (we have an artist living below us, Henry who will have a show in May. Dezmond and Riley had a sneak preview of his work today and said it is amazing). Terry and I have cold beers each night on our balconey. It is the only drink I really crave besides water. It goes well with the sweet bananas. We hope to get away as many weekends as we can. We will stay close to home this weekend, but will go to the “tourist beach” for the day on Saturday. Can’t wait. I think I get to join some of the VSO gals for a girls only wine tasting on Saturday night – lucky me. The kids really appreciate the little things here like cereal (cornflakes and bran flakes – the only ones affordable for us), cucumbers and sandwiches, which they were so sick of at home, now they can’t get enough of them. They loved setting up their rooms. We have wonderful talks when we walk. Soccer is the God of all sports here. The kids are rock stars in the neighborhood (not sure if this is a good thing, but for now it boosts their ego). Each of the kids is quietly finding their way (with a few ear pulls and discipline here and there – the heat can make everyone a little stir crazy at times). I was in heaven today when we found a street of “Greenhouses”. I bought 3 small tropical plants, 2 that flower purple and orange. I managed to bargain about $5 Canadian for 3 plants, 3 broken pots, and 2 bags of dirt for our balcony. The kids were as excited as I was. Mirrors, shelves, baskets and tables have so much value to us here. I am so glad I threw in a small photo album, felts, paper, tape, and scissors.

Our First Week Feb. 13 - 20, 2010

So where to start……..

Life here is moment to moment, in the street and with an easy pace to match the weather. The humidity is so beautiful along with the people, the palm trees and the sweetest mangoes I have ever tasted. As Terry said, we were spoiled that first week at the hotel with all our meals cooked for us and a pool to jump into to keep cool. I became Dezmond’s swimming teacher and by week’s end he was able to keep up with the other kids in the pool, even swimming and jumping into the deep end unassisted.

One of the VSO volunteers from India got me then to teach her the Breast stroke (quite hilarious, me a swim instructor, hee, hee). I did manage to improve my stroke though. I have decided that hotel pools are definitely the right size for my style of swimming.

Our first Sunday (Feb 14) was overcast which was a blessing and it allowed us to leave “the compound”/the hotel and venture on a tro tro (public transport here – rickety old, run down mini vans) to central Accra for an eye opening look at the beach the locals use downtown. Everywhere we went people smiled and practiced their English on us. A group of beautiful young girls (one carrying her baby nephew on her back) engaged with us and toured us through a shanty town which led to their beach. Since it was our first day, we were unsure whether or not we could trust these girls in this extremely unfamiliar and dodgy part of town. A young man joined the girls and tried to entice us into a little bar where they have “drumming and dancing lessons” for Canadians and Americans. We went with our gut instincts following the girls, leaving him behind. The girls then informed us that he was a “thief” and to stay away from him. We never felt threatened, but it was good to have this experience early on to remind us to remain aware.. All our subsequent experiences with locals have been nothing but positive, proving that what the books say about safety and friendly welcome in Ghana/Accra is true. The beach was packed with locals, cows, horses, goats, and garbage. In spite of this it was a beautiful sight. They were all so happy to be there each in their own way. These were the shanty dwellers and we stood out like sore thumbs. We thanked the girls and found our own way back, happy to get a taxi back to the hotel for some air con and pool action.

We had amazing Ghanaian food paid for by VSO while we stayed at the hotel. It was always a buffet with many choices some western, but mostly some spicy local cuisine – yummy.

Our week at the hotel also consisted of language lessons with Terry, which was great. The locals love it when we practice our Twi on them. Lilianna especially gets the smiles. Josephine was super proficient at writing all our new language down. Besides the pool, Terry and I managed to do some early morning runs which were a great way to explore and get a workout. The humidity makes it nice, so that the heat is bearable to run in………….it helps too that I love to sweat. Got lost a couple times coming very close to having to grab a taxi after 1 hour of running, but managed to find my way back by asking many people for directions. One thing about Ghanaians we have learned is that they don’t like to admit that they don’t know something and they have no concept of distance, so you can get many different answers when asking for directions.

Our Journey Begins

I am writing this on March 24^th one day shy of the six weeks since our Journey began. Truly though our Journey began on a beach somewhere in Thailand as Terry and I mused that some day if and hopefully when we have children, we would like to take a similar year off to travel, but to try and set down roots in one place. That was in 1996 and over the years as we had our children, we began to talk of going to work and live in a developing country.

We realized how important it would be for us and our children to learn the value of what we have and be able to discern between needs and wants in our attempt to become better global citizens, educating ourselves in a place completely foreign to the world we know in Canada.

Then in the fall of 2007, I was blessed to be able to work on the play Rabbit Hole at ATP in Calgary. We picked up our family and lived in a wee bungalow in Hilhurst, near Kensington where all four kids shared 1 bedroom and we used our camping dishes along with borrowed odds and ends like a microwave from Katelyn, a kitchen table and chairs from Vanessa, a bed from Kevin, a TV from Lyle and Heather etc. - all supportive, generous family and friends.

We loved our time in Calgary! It opened up a whole new world for the kids and we spent more time together as a family away from the usual hustle and bustle. One day we were driving towards Bragg Creek, looking at the monstrous homes in some of the new developments. They were beautiful, but living in our little love shack, we saw all too clearly how unnecessary it was to work towards buying the perfect home or the dream car or the biggest and latest in plasma TV’s. Terry and I made a pact then and there that we would work towards our dream trip instead and set a departure deadline of either September 2009 or January 2010.

We came pretty close to our goal by leaving on February 11, 2010. The morning was a flurry of activity. We needed to leave town by 2:00 PM in order to get to the Calgary airport by 5:00 for a 7:30 PM flight. All of mine and the kids’ things were packed, and our closets emptied to make room for Katelyn, so I thought it would be easy to wash sheets and towels and get the house cleaned. I even treated myself to a run that morning before the kids got up. The kids were beside themselves with excitement and Terry had a lot of packing and finishing of odds and ends with his work.

Time disappeared as we had Skype calls from Greg and Dave Coyes, then Papa Coyes over for lunch and finally a last farewell to Rhea, Sebastien and Georgia. Many smiles and happy tears later we were in the rental van late by ½ an hour with the vacuum literally in the middle of the living room, the belt having come off (the one thing I was unable to finish cleaning for Katelyn – among other things like unorganized crumby cupboards and closets).I love the start of journeys!!! We were finally on our way after weeks and weeks of 18 hour days working through every detail of our journey while we were finishing up our work and tying up all loose ends in Edmonton. Hitting the highway for Calgary with our small lives packed into 9 suitcases and 8 carry on bags, was the best feeling ever. I remember saying bye to Rhea that morning and trying to express in words this feeling I had of having no idea what the next few months would bring, but not feeling worried or anxious, only aware of some impending life that we would find and embrace. We got to Calgary and said our final goodbye to Joel and Eve who met us at the airport and took our car seats off our hands. We were on our way!

Our kids are in love with British Airways. Each of us received a little bag with a travel toothbrush and paste, an eye cover, and socks. Riley still talks about the food and drink and his own personal TV to watch Home Alone. We arrived in Heathrow at 12:30 PM London time and got on the tube for central London. The kids handled the jet lag very well falling asleep any time we sat for more then 5 minutes then springing to action when we needed to move.

After dropping off our things at our charming little hole in the wall bed and breakfast, we walked to Buckingham Palace and played British Bulldog in St James’ Park.

Then we were lucky enough to meet up with our good friends Jessica and Neve at the pub for dinner. Jessica is a colleague of mine in Edmonton who is an actor and drama instructor, and is currently getting her masters in London then back to Canada to become a director. She is inspiring with her hard work, ambition, talent and the ability to do all this while raising her beautiful daughter Neve, who is almost 3 years old.

The kids got to know Jessica and Neve when she watched them one year while I rehearsed Christmas Carol. We all love Jessica and Neve and felt so privileged to be able to visit them in the midst of their big adventure in London. The kids were also pretty thrilled to be able to hang out in a pub.

We went back to our digs where the kids slept through the night some on the floor and some on beds all in one tiny room, while Terry and I lied awake with jet lag from about 4 to 6 AM. Next thing we all knew there was a knock at the door at 8:15 AM for our “Proper English Breakfast” of fried eggs, coffee/hot chocolate, bacon and stacks of white toast (the kids favorite – they never get it at home). We walked to see Big Ben, the Thames, the London Eye and Westminster Abbey. Then back to our B&B for bags and off to the airport on the Tube again.

We flew off to Ghana at 3:00 PM once again taking full advantage of the free food, drink and movies (thank you British Airways). This time the kids each got a zip up pouch (perfect for pencil cases now), filled with an activity book, crayons, playing cards and more eye patches, socks and toothbrush/paste combos. I think Riley plans to buy stock in British Airways. We stepped off the airplane in Ghana and the moist evening air embraced us. We made it, and that funny feeling of having no idea what comes next started to play out.