Collins *8*

By traveling just a few short hours in Ghana, and a lot of Africa, you pass through not just scenery but various cultures, traditions, and languages. I've spent the last few days in the Volta region, just 5 hours and a few languages away from where i'm living in Boamadumase. its been a nice break to not understand what people are saying to me, to not have to turn my head to every "oburoni kokoo maakye!/white girl how are you?". i can just walk in peace and ignorance and listen to what Maya Angelou refers to as "the beautiful singsong language, Ewe".
i'm starting to miss my roommates a little. mostly collins, the youngest brother. he's 19 years old and has lived in the village his entire life and is just completing junior high school. he's the only disabled person in the village i've seen, and also happens to be the person i feel most comfortable around.

after a long day at the clinic, i am happy to see collins at home. he usually is sitting in 1 of our 3 plastic chairs in the living room, that lean up against thick glass windows that look into my room. i would have bought curtains for a bit of privacy from all the people who pass through, and occasionally collins peeping eyes, but the glass is so dusty that i don't need any. i am protected.
the first week i was here i gave collins a tee-shirt, bright blue that says "Chapman Cats". it's boasts the logo from the school i was working at just a few short months ago and was given to me as a present by my wonderful boss Chris Kenney. Before i left for this trip i was feeling nervous about quitting, i didn't want to let people down by giving my notice in the middle of the school year, but the call back to Ghana was so strong i couldn't help myself. she strongly supported me and then gave me the gift at a going away party. now, collins is wearing it, religiously.

every day when i meet up with him he has it on. i can see him coming down the long dusty trail, his body twisted at a challenged angle, his stiff homemade crutches working their way down the road, and his legs whipping around slowly, one after the other. his shirt is very new looking amidst the aging things my eyes are so used to seeing.
his mother is the next closest house to mine, close enough for him and his brothers (all of them my roommates) to yell out the window and ask if dinner is ready, but far enough for it to be funny. it would probably be equivalent to a little longer than the length of a football field.

Sakola has the best yelling voice, and the best ear. He waits a few extra seconds, till the sound waves travel and have made a complete stop. then he inches up close to the window and hollers back. usually it is accompanied by a "let's go." and then we trudge off to eat whatever has been prepared for us.

In between the houses is a cocoa farm, owned, ran and worked by all the family, except Collins. His body is disadvantaged, especially for village life. But his mind is keen and he makes great conversation. He can't haul water, or carry wood, or pound fufuo but he can translate anything me or the brothers can't get across to each other, and then has the sense of humor to laugh at us all. he hears the miscommunication between us and sees the struggles, and smooths them out by patiently explaining what we each mean, all in our own native languages. then he claps his hands together, throws his head back, and shakes it all around.

he was so overjoyed by his bright blue t-shirt he promised me again and again that God was going to bless me abundantly, when i returned to America. "Just you wait and see Kessy, God will BLESS YOU BLESS YOU BLESS YOU!" he shook his head around, side to side, like a dog after a bath.

he was so sincere, i felt like i was having my palm read.

"really? how?" i was almost scared to ask, like the feeling you get when you sneak into your mothers secret hiding spot and look at a Christmas present early.

"oh Kessy, he will BLESS YOU! because God says 'those that give to the least of these, give unto Me. Just you wait, he will BLESS YOU! you will be RICH!" he was rolling his rrrrrrr's and speaking in his deep preachers voice.

i'm believing him. even though just being in collins presence is all the blessing i need.