Wet White Women

Today was another adventure in Ghana. Grandma wanted to take us to her village, which is in the Eastern region so Felix drove the three of us to Odumase Krobo. Anytime you get into a vehicle whether it is a taxi, a trotro, or a car, it’s dangerous. I have found that everything in Ghana is slow except for the driving! On a two-lane road, people will pass you on the right or the left.

We arrived safely at grandma’s family home and had lunch that grandma had packed. Afterwards we drove to a more remote part of the village to go to the market. Grandma, Claire, and I walked through the market as Grandma wanted to buy us beads that her village is known for. The market was a maze of hundreds and hundreds of shacks with people selling many different things. We were also the only white people, as this village is more remote and not likely to have any tourists.

As I sat down to have my necklace made, a storm approached and it began to rain. Claire and Grandma joined me under the tin roof and then the deluge began. There was driving rain for about an hour. The tin roofs were coming undone as the wind was really strong and I was keenly aware of how dangerous this could be. Some of the stands began to collapse from the wind as well. As Claire and I stood together wrapped with grandma’s beautiful Ghanaian fabric to protect us from the rain, we realized that we were both frightened at what might happen.

The rain finally let up to a drizzle and we began the walk back to the car. This entailed walking through what was previously a dirt path, but was now a river. Water was up to our ankles at one point. As we carefully traversed this new path we realized that people were talking about us and laughing. Grandma said that they found it funny to see two white women soaked from the rain walking through the market. As we passed hundreds of Ghanaian women, they looked at Grandma then at us and pointed and laughed.

What an adventure!

At the market

After the storm!