Elephants and one more 'Na' for the chief...

Dear all, I miss you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you are enjoying Spring time, Liberation day etc
In this country, where sweat and tiredness are constant companions, I find it hard to make time and energy to write you all the strange, funny things that happen here, besides from my struggles. And when I do, there usually is no internet ;-)
But this morning, waiting for an interview with an ICCO-sponsored NGO here in Tamale that work on rural development, both the spirit and the internet is there. So just as much for you as for me, these are the things that make me smile in Ghana:
- Seeing the impressive elephants, rude baboon monkeys (keep your bags closed or they'll steel everything away) and antilopes closeby while doing a walking safari in Mole national park where we went last week.
- Thinking that hiring a bicycle to go for a nice ride around the nature reserve during mid-day is a good idea. When we finally have a bike that more or less has two wheels, steering wheel, saddle and pedales, we do not come much further than the first shade-providing tree anyhow...
- Trying to put up an 'interesting' conversation in broken french with a medicine man who has come walking all the way from the north of Burkina Faso. Asking him about his background, showing interest in his profesion and culture... Taking pictures from his medicinal plants. To find out afterwards he only staid around to watch Sister Bianca asleep. As soon as she gets up he flungs himself around her. "Couchez, couchez" he utters happily. Local boys superfluously gave us the translation and said we'd better bike on...
- Talking to the park ranger who cannot believe there are people that do not believe in God. He starts laughing "How can you not believe in God? He just exists!". For him it is not even necessary to convince anyone. How are you going to argue with someone on whether he believes the grass is green, when it is so obvious!
- Every Sunday again saying hopefully: "Bianca, there must be a nice place in town we can go and listen some music or see some dancing or whatever, don't you think?" To receive the reply "You say that every Sunday, dear, but there is only one place we can go and it is always closed on when we are not working." So, I make up other big plans instead, determined to enjoy myself. "You know we could go to the market, see some weavers, take a walk in another neighbourhood, ask them to teach us owari (a game) " In the end, after biking to the market and staying there for half an hour, we can only think of cold water and a fan...
Still, it is an adventure: dodging not to be splashed with blood from the butcher that just sells his meat next to the tomatoes. Seeing the beautiful wax cloth. Probing the market women to find out the market chain for their products, but through the language barrier not coming much further than 'the farm' or 'it is for eating'.. And ofcourse acquiring many new friends again.
- All the many greeting rituals, which I only know more or less. "Just follow the translator" has become my device. So that involves a whole lot of kneeling to all the elder, afterwards asking them or they asking you "How did you sleep?", "How is the cold?" (yes they think it is cold in the mornings...), "How is your work?", "How is your husband?", all in the difficult Dagbani.. ofcourse and trying to guess the answers write - mostly Na or Alaafe.
- But ... to the chief it is different again: to some you are not even supposed to adress directly, and you cannot inform on the health of the chief, but only by asking "How is the chief's horse?", which is used as a metaphor. You see all the chiefs are supposed to have a horse, and no-one else can own horses. They are very expensive any how.
- Seeing this ancient traditions and traditional huts and then all of a sudden hear the ringtones from several mobiles and seeing them coming out of the dirty, torn clothes. Or a chief that rides away on his motorbike. It is like moving from 'stone-age' to 'modern times' in a split second.
- Hearing how one village has started a tree nursery of nitrogen-fixing trees Moringa and I being all happy that they start to think of something else than the 'sacred' fertilizer-fertilizer (the chemical one). When a farmer says: "Yes, you know the seeds are medicinal and they are very expensive. If you could only plant an acre with them, you will become rich!" Whatever, if it is for another reason that they adopt it. It was wonderful to see some initiative instead of passive waiting for outside assitance..!