GHANA: Independence Day with Avocado Crepes

On the 6th of March, Ghanians everywhere celebrated independence day. In 1957 Dr. Kwame Nkrumah became the first prime minister of Ghana, the parliament was sworn in and the Prime Minister of Britain, Ghana's erstwhile colonial ruler, was on hand to welcome Ghana to the family of nations.

Ghanaians celebrated independence day with fireworks, marching, and street parties. Our students marched down the streets of Dixicove with their schoolmates and their peers from other schools, the next day they were off. Of course, Sonja and I also had two extra days to ourselves, we used the time to visit Aunt Elizabeth.

Aunt Elizabeth served us avocado filled crepes with a side of bananas and told us stories from the early days of the project, when Ebeneezer first came to Busua, and how he built the library. The avocado was the perfect creamy texture, the cross-cut banana pieces were sweet and firm. She shared his good fortune when he hired Emmanuel to take care of the library. The challenges facing Ebeneezer were many in those early days, and many remain even as the first of the students he supported successfully complete college. We leafed through a guest-book and album that she presented us with. I only looked at the first two pages of names. Ebeneezer's volunteers stayed at her guest house before he built out the library complex. The first sepia pictures were of her as a young women, the last of her ordination as a Charismatic Pastor (she presides over a branch Church in Agone). Sonja and I hope to be able to dedicate a future post to this remarkable women and her story: her time as a nurse, to her return to Busua to care of the family after her mother's death, to her ordination.  Out of respect (and because of an unpleasant  and unrelated prior experience at the market in Takoradi) we were too bashful to bring a camera the first time we went to meet her. But she asked us where it was herself.

--Tomaž




Šestega marca Ganci obeležujejo dan neodvisnosti. Tega dne, leta 1957, je namreč, na čelu s prvim predsednikom vlade, dr. Kwamejem Nkrumahom, zaprisegla prva ganska parlamentarna garnitura. Novo državo je v družino narodov, simbolno  pozdravil tudi predstavnik bivših kolonialistov,britanski predsednik vlade, Herold Macmillan.

Tudi letos so Ganci praznovali slovesno: z ognjemeti, povorkami in uličnimi zabavami. Najini učenci so se s sošolci ter vrstniki z ostalih bližnjih šol, udeležili povorke v Dixicovu. 
Dela prost dan smo imeli tudi naslednji dan, 7. marca. Tako sva imela te dni kar male počitnice, ki sva jih med drugim  izkoristila tudi za obisk "Aunt Elizabeth".

Ob okusnih palačinkah, polnjenih z avokadom in rezinami banan, nama je Aunt Elizabeth pripovedovala o začetkih projekta, ko je Ebeneezer začel z gradnjo knjižnjičnega kompleksa v Busui. Avokado je bil ravno prav kremast, bananine rezine pa sladke in čvrste. Ebeneezer se je, po njenih besedah, srečeval s številnimi izzivi in težavami; še tudi po tem, ko je nekaj njegovih učencev uspešno zaključilo fakulteto. Imel pa je veliko srečo s knjžničarjem Emanuelom, je dodala. Izvedela sva, da so prostovoljci, preden je bil kompleks zgrajen, bivali pri domačinih, tudi pri njej. K mizi je prinesla album in knjigo gostov. Zdelo se je, kot da sva preko fotografij preletela njeno pisano zgodbo - začel se je s porumenelimi fotografijami iz njene maladosti, zaključil pa s slovesnostjo posvetitve v pastorko (v Agoni namreč opravlja tudi poslanstvo karizmatične pastorke). Tej izjemni ženski, ki je sprva delovala kot medicinska sestra, se nato po materini smrti vrnila v Busuo, kjer se je posvetila skrbi za družino in odprla lekarno, bova posvetila eno od naslednjih objav. Iz spoštovanja (ter, sicer nepovezanih, a slabih izkušenj s tržnice v Takradiju) na prvo srečanje nisva vzela fotoaparata. Paradoksalno - Aunt Elizabeth očitno ne bi motil, saj naju je sama vprašala zakaj ga nisva prinesla:)!