LIVING: Aunt Elizabeth

If there is one thing Elizabeth is not its average. That's clear right from the first time you meet her. Usually you find her infront of her pharmacy - one of her life-projects. You find her sitting on a blue plastic chair, maybe she is talking to her neighbors as they pass by: dynamic and cheerful. Maybe she just started dining on some fufu or perhaps she is searching for the right medicine for a sick child, a family member from Busua who came to her shop with one or two cedis (Ghanian money). If she's not in the pharmacy then she might be on her terrace, setting an elegant breakfast for a few foreign backpackers or in the kitchen preparing crepes; avocado filled, with fried bannanas on the side. Or maybe she is at a meeting in Agona. On Sunday afternoons she preaches her living faith at the Church she helped build, nestled among the other houses at the foot of a hill. Wherever you meet her you recieve an warm, open, authentic welcome; lukewarmness and half-heartedness are permenantly absent. You can't remain an acquaintance for long, before you know it a trusting friendship is built.

Yes, aunt Elizabeth is definitely not average. For me, she represents the prototype of the instinctual, archaic, and timeless women as described by Clarissa Pinkola Estes in the cult classic Women Who Run With Wolves. Elizabeth has within her the primal strengths of women - strong, curious, tough, brave with a playful spirit. During our time in Busua she became a sort of Ghanian grandmother to us.

As one of the rare ambassadors and boosters of education in Busua she played a crucial role in convincing Ebenezer to build a library in Busua and helped him to get his program started. Before the library was built volunteers stayed with her. The beginning wasn't simple, and her help and encouragement within the community really helped. Even now, after the project has become well accepted in Busua, Elizabeth still welcomes new groups of volunteers and gives them help and advice.

The story of how she recieved her education begins when she was a little girl. It was, and is, especially difficult to motivate children who live around the coast to go to school. Although the situation is better now, when she was a little girl absolutely no one wanted to go to school. The teachers came to the Chief for help. After nothing else seemed to work the Chief enlisted the help of several of the men in the village. They go from house to house and, in one way or another, take the children to school; Aunt Elizabeth was also forced to go to school in this manner. Today, she says with a smile, she's very thankful to the Chief.

Her story is rich. She has accumulated many memories since those early days in Busua, some of them also fill the pages of her photo albums. Black and white photographs of a pretty, young ghanan women, pictures of friends and family, of her as a nurse, of her with the first volunteers, later as a pharmacist, and last of all as a Charismatic minister.

It seems that all we could write about her wouldn't be enough, so I borrow the words of Novica Novakovic:

"...I have a very big heart, almost as big as the miner who descends amidst the coal, with a wide smile and white teeth, even though he never knows if his bright face will drink the sun after the shift-change; like a house servant, who washes, irons and cleans the floor and windows with an innoccent song; like a fisher on Dalmatian island, who slowly and deliberately inspects and repairs his hole-filled netting and then sets to sea; like a farmer, who cautiously plows his field and fights--once with the drought, next with the flood--helpless, but determined and proud...

I have a heart almost as big, and in it enough room for all people, from the east and the west, the North and the South, and enough room for jazz and blues."

 Sonja

Če kaj teta Elizabeta ni, prav gotovo ni povprečna. To je jasno že ob prvem stiku z njo. Ponavadi jo najdeš pred lekarno - enem od njenih mnogih življenjskih projektov. Sedi na modrem plastičnem stolu, se morda pomenkuje z mimoidočimi sovaščani. Dinamično, nasmejano. Morda ravno obeduje fufu ali išče primerno zdravilo za obolelega družinskega člana busujskega otroka, ki se je, s CD-jem (ganska valuta) ali dvema, zatekel v njeno lekarno. Če ni v lekarni je morda na terasi, kjer z vso skrbnostjo lično pogrinja mizo ter popotnikom pripravlja palačinke. Avokadove, z ocvrtimi bananam. Morda je na sestanku v Agoni. Ob nedeljskih dopoldnevih pričuje svojo duhovno prebujenost skozi poslanstvo pastorke v eni od busujskih cerkva. Kjerkoli že jo srečaš, si deležen odprtega, pristnega sprejema, zaznaš da izstopa, da mlačnost in polovičarstvo pač nista v njeni domeni. Zdi se, da z njo ne moreš ostati zgolj znanec, ne da bi se zavedal z njo zgradiš zaupljiv prijateljski odnos. 

Da, teta Elizabeta nikakor ni povprečna. Zame predstavlja prototip instinktivne, arhaične, z brezčasno vednostjo obogatene ženske, ki jo je v kultni knjigi Ženske ki tečejo z volkovi pronicljivo ilustrirala Clarissa Pinkola Estes. Elizabeta je ena od žlahtnih »pražensk« - močna, radovedna, vzdržljiva, povezovalna, pogumna, igrivega duha. V času najinega bivanja v Busui, je postala najina nekakšna nadomestna ganska babica.

Kot ena redkih busujskih ambasadork izobraževanja je igrala pomembno vlogo v začetnem obdobju knjižničnega projekta. Začetki niso bili preprosti, zato je Ebenezerju njeno aktiviranje znotraj lokalne skupnosti zelo pomagalo. Tudi zdaj, ko v skupnosti okoli projekta ni več dileme, Elizabeta odprtih rok sprejema nove skupine prostovoljcev in jim ob morebitnih težavah priskoči na pomoč.

Pripoved o svojem izobraževanju je pričnela z anegdoto o takratnem Chiefu. Ker je v obmorskih vasicah, tudi Busui, otroke izjemno težko motivirati k obiskovanju šole, se je Chief tega izziva lotil na nekoliko nenavaden način – po hišah je poslal nekaj starejših fantov, ki so otroke (tudi Elizabeto) »zlepa ali zgrda«  odvedli v šolo.  Danes se Chiefovim strogim prijemom s hvaležnostjo nasmeje. 

Njena zgodba je bogata, kot se za osebo njenega kalibra tudi spodobi. Od časa Chiefovih represalij do danes se je nabralo premnogo spominov, nekateri od njih polnijo tudi strani albuma. Črnobela fotografija mlade ganske lepotice, fotografije prijateljev, Elizabete kot medicinske sestre, gostiteljice prostovoljcev, lekarničarke, ter naposled, Elizabete karizmatične pastorke. 

Zdi se, da karkoli bi zapisala o njej, ne bi bilo dovolj. Naj mi zato pomaga Novica Novakovic s svojo mislijo: 

"..Imam zelo veliko srce, skoraj tako veliko kot rudar, ki se spušča v premogovnik, s širokim nasmehom in belimi zobmi, čeprav nikoli ne ve, ali bo njegov sajast obraz po koncu izmene uzrl sonce; kot hišna pomočnica, ki celo življenje pere, lika in pomiva tla in okna, ob tem pa veselo in nedolžno prepeva; kot ribič na dalmatinskem otoku, ki vsak dan počasi z zanosom pregleduje in krpa svoje luknjaste mreže in se nato odpravi na morje; kot kmet, ki skrbno orje svojo njivo in se bori enkrat s sušo, drugič s poplavo, nemočen a vztrajen in pokončen; ; kakor babica, ki me je vsakič, ko sem napovedal svoj obisk, ure in ure nestrpno čakala na balkonu, da bi me zagledala, kako prihajam izza vogala, da bi me objela in se pogovarjala z mano.

Skoraj tako veliko srce imam in v njem je dovolj prostora za vse ljudi, z vzhoda in zahoda, s severa in juga, in v njem je dovolj prostora za jazz in blues."