From the Ground Up, From the Sky Down

When I started this blog last spring, before I knew Ghana, before I knew my EWB family, my host family, my coworkers at MoFA, I thought I should call my experience “From the ground up”, since I’d be working with farmers and would be learning all about how crops grow in Northern Ghana. And it’s true, just like seeds grow into tall stalks of millet, my knowledge and understanding of farming in Ghana grew as well. But the millet has now finished growing (early millet, that is), and is being harvested, the stalks cut down and the cobs removed – and it seems that now is also the time for me to harvest my knowledge and put it to use. So as I do that, as I try to reflect on this experience and somehow make sense of everything I think I’ve learned, I find myself thinking that maybe, in my haste to focus on growing and farming, I didn’t give the sky enough credit. The sky provides the rain for the millet to grow, the sky brought me to Ghana and back to Canada, and now, the only way that I can really see what I’ve learned from the ground up, is from the sky down.

Last Thursday morning, my last morning with my family in Wiaga, my sister Nesti randomly turned to me and asked “Sister Anne, are there roads in the sky?” My reflex reaction was to say no, but I caught myself before I spoke, and instead replied with “sort-of” – because in a way, there are roads in the sky, they’re just not marked. And you can’t buy watermelons through the window when the plane stops. We chatted about air travel for a while, I told her about the toilets on board, the free drinks and bad food. She said, “someday, I will go.”

So then the next day, when I was on the road in the sky, I thought a lot about Nesti, and how right now, this year, next year, or even in five years, it’s so unlikely that she will get on a plane. Air travel is a staple for developed countries, and is one of the many things that provides us so many opportunities that others don’t have. When I think about what I want to see in a developed Ghana, it’s not a vision of crowded airports and highways, not stores and offices. The vision I see is not material at all, it’s not things that can be bought or built; rather, what I want for Ghana, what I want for the world, is opportunity and choice, happiness and appreciation. I want Nesti to be able to save her money if she wants and take a plane somewhere; I want Nesti to be able to find answers to her questions about the world ALL the time, not just when I’m around; I want Nesti to always value the happiness and strength of her family, to be curious about the world but not think the grass is greener; and I want her to love her life in Ghana, to be able to make the choices that will make her happy.

I’m so so happy now, to have gotten a glimpse of life in Ghana, to have met all the wonderful people I met there, to have learned so much about myself, about the world in which I live, and about the world in which I want to live. Ghana has taught me so many things; it has taught me how to be patient, how to fight for some things but accept others, how to let go of the wheel sometimes. It’s taught me that hard work is the only kind of work, that you’re always part of a team, that you should accept help when it’s offered. It’s taught me that happiness is more about the who in life that the what, that everything is better shared, that a simple greeting can spread smiles like wildfire. And it’s taught me so much more, but it’s so hard to put it into words.

My last week in Ghana was full of tears, hugs, love, food, and gifts. I cried in a wide variety of places, including, but not limited to, the office, taxi, bus, on bike, in bath, in guest house, at restaurants, in internet cafe (with large group of school children staring at me), on plane. I got lots of hugs from people I was leaving, and saw my own sadness also reflected in their eyes as they goodbyed me. I enjoyed all of my favourite Ghanaian foods – my Sandema koko seller even gave me an extra big koko the morning I was leaving, as a goodbye gift. I got gifts from my family, my office people, my EWB friends, things that look nice and pretty to others but to me, these simple gifts compile a representation of all that I love about my piece of Ghana.

My return to Canada had many of the same – tears, hugs, love, food, and gifts. I cried when I saw my family at the airport, but cried later that evening because I couldn’t deal with the shock of driving in their nice car, eating a delicious variety of food, having a hot shower. So my tears were bittersweet, like my new morning drink of cocoa powder with small sugar, the drink I enjoyed every morning with my host father, never without loud exclamations from him about my small small sugar.

It’s funny though, how those five things, tears, hugs, love, food, and gifts, were on both sides of the Atlantic, and have been manifested in such different ways that the comparison is almost hidden. But in the end, these five things have shown me that my people in Ghana and my people in Canada want the same thing for me, as I want the same for them: to be happy, to feel loved. And there, I’ve found my balance.

Some of the office crew on my last day at work, me wearing the smock they gave me as a goodbye gift.
My family gave me a painted calabash, it has a picture of the house, and of a black hand holding a white hand, and it says (I quote) :"Welcome to Ghana Ms. Anne (Mr. John Ajabui's House). Have a happy stay and a safe journey home!"

Anne