Today was an amazing day! We started off the morning with our 3-year old neighbor. He wanted a chocolate chunk cookie that I had made yesterday. Once he had that, he came in and sat at the kitchen table. Frank and I were having coffee, so I put some water in a small teacup for him. Then we had toast, so I gave him some bread and jam. We looked at some books together and then he was off.

Frank and I went to the Interfaith church service on campus. It was a send-off, of sorts, for the current Vice Chancellor (similar to/same as a university president in the US). We started out to get a taxi. As we walked a gentleman who looked like a Reverend, passed us. Frank greeted him. When a taxi arrived, all three of us stopped. We got in and it turned out we were going to the same place! He ended up paying the fare for all three of us. Very sweet. Once we were inside, we found ourselves on the stage with all of the other invited guests, including the Reverend we rode in the cab with! He gave the opening prayer. He is the reverend for the Ghana police department! I was sitting next to the female commander of the Ghana Police training school, which is just down the street from us (in fact, it is part of our physical address!). We met a German teacher who has just arrived in Ghana 3 weeks ago. We had refreshments with her after the event closed.

The conference center was packed! In the US, the fire marshal would have been called and the place would have been shut down! There were half a dozen pastors on stage, the outgoing and incoming Vice Chancellors, numerous other invited guests (and we were sitting right up on stage with them). There was dancing in the aisles and so much singing and signing — 3 interpreters were teaming the event. Several deaf students were in attendance, too. One of our friends here says that in the US people want to gain knowledge of God, while in Ghana, people have faith in God. It was exemplified in the experience today. You can see, hear, and feel the rhythms of faith. It is really quite beautiful.

Wednesday, our documents, application, and fees were taken to the Immigration office in Accra. On Friday, we learned that the lesser of the fees was waived. That was good news. Now, we wait for Immigration to call and let us know that the process is complete. Then, Frank and I will head back up to Accra to have our passports stamped with residence permits and mine will have the work permit. How long this will take is anyone’s guess – anywhere from 2 to 6 months give or take a month or two. Perhaps, you could start a pool and the money collected can be donated to the service trip to Ghana in March?

Thursday, 24 September, was a Muslim holiday and national holiday, so Frank and I caught a tro tro from the junction near the South Campus to Swedru Junction. That was about 40 minutes on pretty bumpy roads. Then we found our way to the tro tro to Asamankese by asking tro tro drivers who would point in a general direction. We would walk a ways and then ask the next one. Frank finally went into a pharmacy and the woman told us where to go, still in pretty general terms, but specific enough to get us where we needed to be. Then a kid selling flashlights led us to the place where we needed to buy tickets and showed us the tro tro we would need to board.

While we waited for the tro tro to fill, we had strawberry frozen yogurt that we bought from one of the kids selling Fan—- from a box on top of his head. We passed on the meat pies, loaves of bread, women’s lingerie, flashlights, and other asundry items. We waited for about 40 minutes for the tro tro to fill and then we rode for about an hour to Asamankese on extremely bumpy and sometimes washed out roads, bordered by cocoa farms and small villages. Frank and I were sitting in the row right behind the driver. His knee was touching the engine and my toes were baking, but not touching. Frank has a burn on his knee! Be careful where you sit!

Once we arrived in Asamankese, our friend, Elijah, met us at the station. We went to the parish house where he and his parents live. We met his parents who welcomed us and said a prayer of gratitude for getting us to our destination safely. His mother had prepared lunch for us. After Elijah showed me another university in Germany that he is interested in attending, he served lunch to Frank and I. We had rice, salted fish, and chicken in red sauce. We also had a tango orange soda. Once lunch was done, Elijah showed us around the parish house and the church. We then said thank you and farewell to his parents. His father said a prayer that our travel would be safe.

Elijah walked us down to the tro tro station. We bought our tickets and took our seats in the back of the tro tro this time. It had begun to rain. I think the road became more treacherous. I kept remembering the Reverend Minister’s prayer of safe travel. We made it to Swedru right in time for the rain to stop. People were sweeping trash out from their storefronts. This must have been quite a rainstorm. It seemed that all of the trash from the gutters had ended up in the street. We walked in what we thought might be the right direction and asked people where to catch the tro tro to Winneba Junction. We found it, boarded, and took our seats in the back. Again, the tro tro filled fairly quickly and we were off. We made it to the market in Winneba and got a taxi home. We enjoyed the adventure to see Elijah.

Frank and I are fortunate to have a stove and an oven in our kitchen. While Michelle was here, she and I made dinner one night. There are some fun little magazines with recipes in them. We made chocolate pudding and pasta with baked veggies. We basically followed the recipe for the pudding, but for the pasta, we used the recipe to give us some ideas. The meal turned out quite nicely and the pudding was yummy!

When Frank and I dropped Michelle off in Accra, we picked up a vanilla cake mix. Thanks to Cindy, who gave me the recipe (see below), last Wednesday, I baked cookies with the cake mix. One dozen were vanilla sugar cookies (sprinkled with brown sugar) and the other dozen were chocolate chunk (broken pieces of Ghanaian chocolate bar). We shared them with Carolina, who has never made cookies. When I get more cake mixes, I will invite Carolina over to make cookies with me. We also shared cookies with 3-year old, Clements, our friend, Elijah, and our friend, Yusef, who all seemed to enjoy them.

Cake mix cookies

Ingredients

One cake mix (any flavor)

2 eggs

¼ cup oil

Baking chips/chunks (any flavor)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350° F or 180° C. Pour the cake mix into a bowl. Add the eggs and oil and stir. In this case, I added evaporated milk until the batter had the consistency of cookie dough. Roll into balls and place on a greased/oiled cookie sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes.

Variations:

• Press with a fork and sprinkle with sugar.
• Break up a chocolate bar, add to remaining cookie dough, roll, and bake for about 10 minutes.

Frank made stir fired sweet potatoes for lunch on Thursday.

We are definitely enjoying being creative in the kitchen. It feels a bit like “Chopped” – we use whatever is in the “basket” when we get to the kitchen. Unlike “Chopped,” at this point, we have few options for spices and items to add. We are slowly building up our pantry with shrimp bullion cubes, salt, Italian seasoning, Jollof seasoning, and chicken seasoning. In the refrigerator (another appliance we are grateful for), we have pepes (spicy peppers), onion, ginger, and garlic. It is amazing all of the things one can do with these items.

On Thursday, Frank and I traveled to Accra for the wedding of Carolina and Phillipe. We attended the traditional wedding on Friday at the bride’s eldest uncle’s (the family patriarch) home and the “white” wedding at the Catholic church on Saturday. I felt extremely honored and humbled to be part of this. Carolina’s family treated us like royalty.

For the traditional wedding, we sat in the front row with the bride’s family. The wedding began with some calling from Carolina’s family and then a response from Phillipe’s family outside the gates. After a couple of calls and responses, the gates were opened and in walked the groom’s family with gifts for the bride and her family.

There were spokespersons for each family — the woman in orange was the spokesperson for the bride’s family and the woman with the glasses was the spokesperson for the groom’s family. She introduced the  groom’s family and asked to be welcomed. Once they were welcomed, they began bestowing gifts and a dowry for the bride and her family. This took quite some time as there were many gifts and envelopes. Once they were done, the groom was introduced and he entered through the gates. Once he was seated, the bride entered from the family home. She was stunning!

The ring was blessed by another of her uncles who also invited Frank to bless the ring. Once the ring was on her hand, a few more stories and introductions were made. Beverages were served and then lunch. Frank and I had rice and chicken, while other’s had banku and stew.

The wedding on Saturday was in a large and open Catholic church. They referred to this wedding as the “white wedding.” I rode to the wedding with Carolina and entered the church with her, her maid of honor, and her father. What an honor! The choir was beautiful! The church was comfortable and cool. The mass was long and contained many rituals. There were photos and then the reception with beverages, food, and dancing.

Frank and I rode back to Winneba with the contingency from the UEW. Every seat on the van was taken and there were 15 of us.

Frank and I went to the market in central Winneba. The bus station is there. Frank asked a woman selling some traditional crafts and gifts what time the bus would come. Her answer was “There is no time in Ghana. Just the bus is there.”

“There is no time in Ghana” has become our mantra. Time is a uniquely western concept. Frank and I have always been generally “on-time” or early for everything. In Ghana, either on-time or early means that we find ourselves waiting for long minutes and, even hours.

We wait for the bus to fill. Once every seat is taken, the bus leaves the station.

Now, what I need to do is to learn to trust that there is no need to show up early. Once I learn to trust that I do not have to show up early, I will work on trusting on-time. Finally, I will trust that “There is no time in Ghana.”

Transportation is such an adventure here. On Friday, we walked about a mile with all of Michelle’s bags and our knapsacks and then got in a taxi that took us to the Market in the center of Winneba. There we were able catch the Metro Mass Transit bus to Accra. Our friend, Elijah, met us at the Market and made sure we got on the right bus. The bus cost 3 cedis, so inexpensive! The ride is about an hour and a half, depending on traffic. We caught taxis while we were in Accra. They are so much more expensive there than in Winneba. We can get to just about anywhere in Winneba for 5 cedis. In Accra, the prices are double to quadruple that amount. Most public transportation vehicles are in poor condition, but they still run. The bus we caught on Friday was decent. The seats were in tact. The drivers wait until the bus is completely full before departing. On Friday, that didn’t take too long, because everyone was at the station waiting for the bus to come. We probably waited for about 30 minutes in the station. During that time, we visited with Elijah and he taught me how to “top up” my phone with credits (a little like “pay as you go”) so I can make phone calls.

Sunday, after dropping Michelle off, Frank and I got a taxi to Kaneshi Station to catch the Metro Mass Transit. The drive thought we should catch the VIP air conditioned bus, but we really wanted the Metro Mass Transit. The VIP buses were 22 cedis. We caught the Metro Mass Transit. This one was in really poor condition. The seats in the back were almost completely destroyed and the entire bus was dirty. Many of the windows did not work and it was hot. We waited for about an hour while the driver waited for the bus to fill up. Once it was full, we left the Kaneshi Station heading for Winneba. The ride was about an hour and 15 minutes this time. The bus blew black smoke all the way. We got off before the station near the Police Station (not the Police College near where we live) and walked about a mile to the house. It felt good to get off of the hot bus, stretch our legs, and walk!

Spending time with our daughter, Michelle, was awesome and incredible. She is so smart, strong, and beautiful! She has so much personality. We arrived home in Winneba late on Wednesday, 26 August. On Thursday, we stayed around the house to allow for Michelle to adjust to the time change. We took a walk on the beach. We met Richard who lives across the street from us. He was swimming in the ocean pool.

We introduced Michelle to our friends at the Summeryard Vegetarian Cafe. We had dinner there and used the wi-fi. Friday, we went to South Campus and Michelle was able to greet Dr. Oppong and others in the Special Education office. We met Carolina there and she went with us to the market. First we walked down to the fishing boats and bought fish right off of the boats.

Michelle and I had breakfast at the Summeryard last Sunday. We had porridge — hers was banana and mine was plantain — and fruit salad. We could have shared one porridge easily! We took take-away boxes for the fruit and the porridge. I also had Moringa and ginger tea. Michelle had a fresh juice. Sunday afternoon, Carolina came over and showed me how to make fufu with chicken and fish stew. We had so much fun!

We played a lot of cards and scrabble. We talked, we prepared and ate food, and we read books together. We hung out on the porch and watched the birds and the people, while the we listened to the waves crash on the beach.

This weekend, we have been staying in Accra at the Airside Hotel. Very nice people, good food in the restaurant, a swimming pool, wi-fi, and close to the airport and the shopping malls. We have had fun doing the things that westerners take for granted — searching the web, checking emails, going to the grocery store, getting cash from the ATM, shopping at the mall, and speaking English. We just dropped Michelle off at the airport. I was so sad to see her go! We both cried and Frank said that his eyes got moist. We will miss Michelle. She is such a treasure. I wish her safe travels and a smooth re-entry into the world she left 5 weeks ago.

We found out that there is an Immigration office in Winneba, so we went there on Monday morning to find out what is involved in obtaining a work permit. We were told that I would need:

The work permit is expensive and may take up to 4-6 months to process.

We went to Accra on Wednesday to pick up Michelle at the airport at 8:00 p.m. We went up early so that we could make our appointments at the U.S. Embassy at 11:00 and 11:30. We left Winneba t 7:30 a.m. The traffic is heavy on the two-lane highway that runs along the coast. There are taxis, trotros, buses, trucks, passenger cars, motorbikes, pedestrians, goats, chickens, and dogs. When there is a stop or slowdown at a junction or a toll booth, there are numerous people selling everything you can imagine from mango chips to bottles or sachets of water to inner tubes for bicycles to wind shield wipers (that they will replace right there in the middle of the highway) to hot meat pies to maps of Ghana (or Burkina Faso or other random countries) to handkerchiefs to ice cream, just for example. Though the distance between Winneba and Accra is short, the time is long. We arrived at the embassy at about 10:30.

We went in and learned that the U.S. Embassy could not answer any of the questions we had. I asked what services they provide to U.S. Citizens and I was told that we should go to the embassy to report a birth, a death, a marriage, or an adoption. We were told to go to Ghanaian Immigration for all of our visa questions. So, off we went to Immigration where we got our Non-Citizen I.D. cards for $120 each. Then we sat down with three Immigration officers as they tried to decipher our visas and needs for a work permit and residence permits. They confirmed everything we had learned at the Winneba Immigration office. They tell us that the university should provide us with the last three items on the list above and they said that Immigration can help with the police report. The cost is also quite high. I suppose it is tax deductible, though?

Next, we asked about the Residence Permits. We need our marriage certificate! What? That is at home. Why did I not think to bring copies of my marriage certificate and my doctoral degree? These permits will cost $300 a piece.

Since we were in Accra and had some time to kill, we went shopping at the mall and then I tried to get the sim card in my Samsung Galaxy phone to work. We went to several places in the mall and then we were sent to the Samsung Service Center across town. Once there, we learned that there is something wrong with the phone and it needs to be sent back to the manufacturer to get the problem remedied. That is so disappointing, considering I bought that phone especially because it would take a sim card! I guess I will send it back with Michelle to send it to Samsung to get it fixed.

We spent a little time in an Internet Café. It was on the second floor of two railcars stacked on top of each other. There were PCs on both sides of the car. No wi-fi, so we used one of the PCs. We paid 7 cedis for one hour.

We went to meet Michelle at the airport and we had to wait for an hour, but she finally came out and Sammy’s nephew, Samuel, was with her! What a fantastic guy he is! He met Frank and I when we arrived and assisted us in getting through Customs and here is was, again, assisting Michelle through Customs. Actually, Sammy and his family are such a blessing!

Michelle and I talked all the way back to Winneba. The ride at night was a much shorter trip, not to mention cooler. There were still many people out selling stuff to drivers and passengers. We arrived back at about 10:30 p.m.