As you can see, we had matching jerseys, and they even gave me #8 because it’s Michael Essien’s number. The match was between the ITFC staff and the local team in Diare. Unfortunately, we lost 3 – 2 but it was a pretty incredible farewell. It seemed like the entire town was out watching and cheering. Whenever Diare scored all the kids would come running out onto the field celebrating. It started to rain half-way through but we kept playing anyway. At the end of the match, each of the field assistants chipped in 1 Ghana Cedis (about $1) to pay for minerals (soda). This may not seem like a lot of money, but the field assistants only make about 70 Ghana Cedis a month so I was pretty flattered.
In my final week of work, some of my co-workers at the office arranged for everyone to have drinks outside of the pack-house as a farewell. My counterpart said a few nice words and I had the chance to thank everyone for being so helpful and patient towards me. One of my co-workers who is a field assistant gave me 2 traditional African smocks; one is for me and one is for my boyfriend. I’m thinking they will make some pretty sweet Halloween costumes. This person has helped me a tremendous amount this summer: he helped me gather photos for the user manuals I developed, he translated at the farmer meeting I held, and he helped me adjust to Ghanaian culture in many ways. I wanted to thank him so I took him to a restaurant when we were in Tamale. I asked him where he wanted to go and he said he did not know because he had never been to a restaurant before. I’m a little worried that he spent an entire pay-check on the smocks he gave me.
One of my host mother’s sons (Zidane) lives in Tamale and studied art when he was in school. He came up one weekend to help out on the family's farms and I told him I wanted to buy a few paintings from him before I leave Ghana. On my last night in Diare, his older brother showed up at the house with 2 beautiful paintings that he prepared just for me, and he would not let me pay for them. I was in Tamale for a few days before I left so I called Zidane and bought him lunch to thank him for the paintings. It was a great opportunity for me to get to know him better and he shared some of his goals for the future with me. Zidane is currently working as a gas station attendant, saving up the little money he can. He explained to me that “my mother is my world”. She has worked hard her whole life and supported her children so that they could receive an education and have more opportunities than she ever had. Zidane wants to move back to Diare when he has saved enough money and make farming easier for his family by buying a tractor and investing in more advanced farming technology. I am very grateful for people like Zidane who are self-motivated and willing to try something new.
When I was leaving my house for the last time, I presented everyone in my family with gifts and said my farewells. Amina gave me some cloth to wear when I take a bath and a head wrap with the specific instructions of giving it to my mother. Up until this point I never really felt sad about leaving Ghana. I felt like I had been working towards “the end” the entire time. But when I was saying goodbye to these people that have been nothing but kind and generous towards me, a complete stranger, I began to realize that I will miss many things about the culture and people in Ghana. Although I am a little sad it is all over, I have so many things to look forward to when I go home and I am grateful to be leaving on a good note.
I took a day off of work my final week so that I could spend some time with my family in Diare and go to the farm one last time. This is Amina, we had just taken a break to eat some TZ and Ayuyo soup. I hope I never forget her smile, it is still a vivid picture in my head
These are the three teenage girls that live at my house. The one in the middle is the only one who is actually Amina's daughter. The girl on the right was an orphan and the other girl was given to Amina to help with the farming and household duties (Im still a little unclear on this)
I saw this man every day on my bike ride to and from work. You can't tell from this photo, but he had the biggest smile. He would greet me as we passed by each other and it would always put me in a better mood. Once day I passed by him and he had stopped to help someone whose bag of maize had spilled all over the road. I decided to stop and help them gather the kernals and took the opportunity to take his photograph. I eventually realized that I had met him on my first day of work; he is a watchman at the ITFC guesthouse. He was the first Ghanaian to propose to me but did so with a huge innocent grin on his face.
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