Day 15 R & R
Day 16 THE RETURN OF TD

Panafest has officially ended and the marketplace at Adisadel has been emptied….
i am glad to have some time for simple Rest and Relaxation…i utilize this time to also catch up with what is going on in NY and US online…i had been checking in now and then but i would spend quite a bit of time at an internet cafe over these next couple of days…

i find out that in MN (where i lived for almost a decade) a major bridge has collapsed! i email some friends/associates there to check-in…i flashback to being in DC when the airplanes hit the twin towers…

i also search for information on National Theatre in Accra and Dance Factory(a Ghanaian company i had seen in Senegal a few years back)..i find out that they are supposedly in residence and make a plan to connect with them when i return there in a couple of days..

when not online, i shop for gifts and trinkets to bring back…particularly getting some new traditional ‘gear’ to wear when i begin teaching classes in the fall…ironically i also search out Ghanaian versions of American cuisine – in particular ‘good ole’ fashioned mac & cheese…at this cafe in the center of town i find their version …of course it cannot compare to the US South and i become aware of the lack of cheese or dairy i have had in Ghana…it is not something they make or try to make and i vaguely connect this thought with the high rate of lactose-intolerance among African-Americans…hmmm

while Ghana may not do cheese they most definitely do CASHEWS! i don’t think i will ever find a better tasting cashew than Ghana’s GOODY bag… even in an un-salted and raw version, these cashew taste like some of the most decadent of chocolates! the same expansive flavor without the guilt!

i realize that while i have been immersed in Panafest activities, “Mormons” have come to stay at the hotel and are slowly trying to convert the hotel staff…i find out though that they are NOT Mormons but with the L____ Ministry in Texas…THAT IS EVEN MORE SCARY!

i secretly and covertly alert the staff to “beware”…they are amused at my concern and at these “oboni”[white people] who are so kind and talkative…since my time at the hotel, i reflect on the panorama of peeps who have passed through:
– the religious African brothers who loved to ‘hiss’ at the staff
– the young sistas from DC who were not interested in anything too “‘Ghanaian”
– the people whom i know were not American and yet were definitely not “African”

it is also during these days that i meet W whom becomes not only my favorite driver but a good friend; he takes me around to find hip-life music, chill spots in Elmina and particular specialty gifts…he was the first driver in Cape Coast to take me back to the hotel and his re-remembering of our earlier interaction impresses me…i wish i could have had him take me back to Accra, but have already pre-paid for another driver…He wants to come visit me in Accra and i give him the contact information to the lodging…i spend the last of this time of R&R hanging out with him and T at this very impressive Hotel in Elmina…

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