My flight was late by over an hour and our Management Trainee, Rose Aba Dodd, met me at the airport late on Christmas night. That’s a particular bummer in a country where checking the status of a flight before going to the airport is really not possible. She waited nearly two hours, outside, with hundreds of other people. Thankfully, she and her family had already celebrated Christmas and been to church so I wasn’t really imposing in this case – and she was happy to see me.I stayed two nights at a tiny local hotel in Accra before heading up to Koforidua. On the day after Christmas I took Rose to breakfast at Frankie’s, a semi-western, semi-Lebanese restaurant in Osu, about two blocks from Rose’s parents’ house. Then we ran a bunch of errands so I could buy various things I needed from the big city and finally ended up back at her parents’ home where I had been invited to dinner. Rose cooked – rice and groundnut (peanut butter) soup. My favorite Ghanaian meal, although certainly a tie with a plate of red red (spicy red bean stew and red (ripe) plantain), or kelewele (keh-leh-weh-leh). But kelewele isn’t so much a meal as a side dish.
Meanwhile, Rose’s mother, who is a caterer had signed on for more than she bargained for when she agreed to cater three events the following day (Sunday) and worked late into the evening preparing 100 pieces of chicken with donuts (savory, not sweet) and other side dishes for one event, breakfast meat pies (oh, that’s another favorite) for another event, and birthday/ anniversary cake for an old friend’s party. Rose’s younger sister, Graceluv (photo)
, and I helped cook the donuts in these tiny little donut shaped molds in a waffle iron / sandwich machine type thing. After dinner, when I finally went back to the hotel, Rose’s dad took a “nap” and I understand his wife woke him at 2AM, to help finish. When I went over the next morning, she was preparing the icing for the birthday party. As far as I know, she didn’t stop going until the party started. Talk about your Burro bunny (hey, we don’t give Energizer free publicity), besides Burro bunny is a nice alliteration.At some point in the morning, Rose’s dad let it be known that he would like us (Rose and me) to attend the party. Me, because she and I were driving to Koforidua in the afternoon and in order to get her to go, I had to go, too. So, we headed off for the Accra Mall with a cooler so I could do my grocery shopping, then back (in the wrong direction from Koforidua) toward the airport where the party was being held. It was a couple Rose’s parents had known forever, so Rose had known their kids forever, too. Such parties are pretty formal – a bit of a speech at the beginning (Rose’s dad) describing the purpose for the party, then going around the table with self-introductions telling how you know the honorees (the wife’s 50th birthday, and the couple’s 22nd wedding anniversary), then a meal, etc. So, we stayed for about an hour and a half and excused ourselves with the argument that we’d like to get over the mountain before dark.
So, I was welcomed back to Ghana in many ways – meeting new people, sharing a meal, attending a party, and not the least being the greeting from the kids when I pulled up outside the office in the truck. They knew I would
be here on Monday (Dec 28th) but had their ears pricked on Sunday, just in case. I hadn’t even opened the door of the truck when Precious and Pamela came running out in their pajamas. I did, indeed, feel welcome.XO
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