Joy is not in things.

Akwaaba!

Okay, so now that the initial thrill of a new life in Ghana has waned enough to make way for the practicalities of actually preparing for, getting to and working in Accra, I’m tired already. Having just returned from three intensive (Carmilla has a different adjective here…something like luxurious or indulgent or lackadaisical) weeks of finishing my M.Ed. in Calgary, I was ready for a little sip of summer before the demands of my new posting fully kick in. What I got instead was a week of being scraped, poked, photographed, prodded, kneaded, baked, billed and bartered with. Please allow me to elaborate lest your imaginations run inappropriately wild (you know who you are!).

I must admit, that much of what I am about to describe is our self-inflicted attempt to feast on Canada before we leave its fair shores behind for an undetermined amount of time. When we moved to England for a year there were more than a few things we pined for (believe it or not winter was one of them!) or regretted not having taken more advantage of (our dental plan springs immediately to mind), and Ghana is not—for better or worse—England!

Prior to my departure for Calgary we did (thankfully) take care of our passports, which was a fun-filled adventure hosted by London Drugs and the passport office in Winnipeg. We are silently hoping that this will not serve as an ominous metaphor for the rest of our journey. After I came back, we had to play “Whose Passport is in the Expresspost Envelope Anyway?” as they arrived one day at a time, in separate envelopes (No worries, your tax dollars are working hard, and sensibly, for you!). We then had to scan all six passports and courier them to Ontario so that they can go to the Ghanaian consulate for Visas. A couple days after we sent them, we received an urgent request for four more passport-sized pictures of each of us (yes, that’s 24 more pics!) for travel and for the consulate. We opted out of official photos, and I did them myself with a digital camera and a pair of scissors. Eat your heart out London Drugs.

One of the first things that we did upon my return, was book full massages in order to milk as much out of my medical plan as possible. There will be more. We also all went to the dentist to abuse…er, I mean, respectfully enjoy my recently minted dental plan. The dentist was gracious enough to anticipate our needs over the next couple of years, and he proceeded to “drill and fill” accordingly. He expressed a general lack of professional faith in the Ghanaian dental system, though I’m sure it will be more than adequate.

Next stop: travel health clinic. I can sum this up by saying “Damned, sterilized, standardized, protected, antiseptic, guarded, safe, Canadian health environment.” Typhoid, yellow fever, meningitis, malaria, hepatitis, and dengue fever are but a few of the charming possibilities that we must immunize ourselves against. This takes about a month in total and the visit to the clinic was just the beginning of service and drug charges (oh yes, times six!). Apparently, any one of us can now drink directly from the watering hole, ingest dung beetles just come from a hepatitis buffet, or sleep naked in the swampy breeding grounds of the mosquito, and we will be just fine. If only this were true…there are no guarantees! Not bad for well over $2000.00, eh?

To close out my first full week back, we decided to have our first garage sale this weekend. We took shifts sorting, carrying, pricing and parenting, and managed to survive three days of moving sale in the heart of garage sale country. We also managed to get entirely too much sun while doing so (Ghana here we come!). Most of what we have is now gone or spoken for, and we have been especially impressed with how readily the kids have given up everything. In fact, they have each opted to bring less than we offered them. We will pack a few comforts (mostly kitchen items and a few pieces of pottery, art, etc.), but we intend to get what we need in Ghana, and to keep it simple. A guiding principle has been the old saying (attributed to Ben Franklin and Richard Wagner): Joy is not in things, it is in us.

Did I mention that we got a call for a house showing that took place immediately following our sale? We pulled it off and while there are no offers on the house at this point, there are still also no regrets.

Take care,
Ryan