Thanksgiving and Farewell to John Alcorn

On Saturday morning I awoke with my hair looking unmistakably like Jack Sparrow’s from Pirates of the Caribbean. We had taken out the top of my braids the evening before, leaving me with a combination of matted locks amid the “dreads” that still remained. It was unanimously decided that it would be best that I did not attend the wedding I was planning to join Tanya and Morgan at. Instead my two roommates began to tackle the remaining braids with knives…working the tightly braided plastic hair out of own locks. Three hours later I emerged having shed my Jack Sparrow look-alike do for something that now resembled Diana Ross’s afro or a nasty rendition of those 80’s styles that most could only achieve from a long session with a crimper and an entire bottle of hairspray. Washing my hair for the first time in a week felt amazing; all in all the “African Makeover” was lots of fun but I think I’ll stick with ponytails from here on in ; )

On Saturday evening we were invited for a Thanksgiving Dinner at Nancy and Frank Cosway’s, two CIDA project workers who have worked in Ghana for a total of over 20 years, and most recently have been stationed here in Tamale for 7 years. Tanya and I were hoping to have departed freshly showered for our little celebration, but just after 3pm we were informed that the water had been turned off for an undetermined amount of time throughout Tamale and unfortunately, our polytank of reserve water turned out to be empty. Doused in a little extra mosquito spray we set off to try to flag down a tro-tro driver who would understand where the “Northern Regional Office” was. (This is one of the exasperating things about Tamale…you always have to know the magic “key word” that is necessary to get people to understand you. For example: “Do you have a bike lock”…confused face and no answer. “Do you have a lock…for bikes?”…still no answer or flicker of understanding. “I’m looking for a lock…to lock up my bike?” …finally an answer emerges.. "No…we don't have”. ) So Nancy had given us this key phrase, “Northern Regional Office”, to make our way to her bungalow. Forty-five minutes later after our driver insisted on a hugely inflated rate for his services, we ended up walking to the house, unable to direct our driver. Thankfully the meal had not yet begun and we were greeted warmly into a moderate bungalow decorated with beautiful authentic Ghanaian art and filled with the wonderful aroma of Thanksgiving Dinner. About 20 guests, a combination of young Canadian interns sprinkled with Sisters from one of the missionaries, sat in a round circle munching on groundnuts and enjoying the MacLeans magazines and Globe and Mail newspapers Frank had just brought from his trip to Canada. Our buffet style Thanksgiving was just as impressive as any spread found at home. We had turkey, stuffing with dried fruit, gravy, pumpkin, mashed potatoes, marinated vegetables, a vegetarian lasagna, and Greek salad. We all happily enjoyed our meals, chatting with other each other about the triumphs and trials of our experiences so far, swapping travel stories, and reminiscing of home. The amazing meal was completed with a pineapple upside down cake made from fresh, Ghanaian pineapples and chocolate chip ice cream!

By Sunday afternoon the water situation was beginning to become a lot more pressing than it had been the day previous. Our “family breakfast” used up the rest of our clean dishes and we were slowly sitting a little further away from one another as it had now been over 24 hours since any of us had showered, despite the sticky heat. We took turns using Kristine’s backpack and cycling (slowly, so as not to sweat)to the gas station to buy bags of water to at least wash our hands and faces. If the water is not on by tomorrow morning I will be using 500 mL sachets of water to “shower” for work.

Sunday night I attended a going away party for my “Ghanaian Dad”, John Alcorn, the temporary administrator at TICCS. He is an immigration lawyer from California who took a year off from his law practice to come and volunteer here in Ghana. The picture below is my original TICCS family- my little sister Lise, John and I. We all bid farewell to John at a barbecue under the starry African night with old time jazz and African tunes piping into the courtyard. I couldn't help but smile when a song I recognized from the African Summit cd strummed in the clear air of this calm, African night amidst the crickets and toads croaking softly in the background. It was just over a month ago that I had played that some song while I packed and daydreamed of the adventure before me.