pehpeh and paste

"my sister, listen attentively. Please approach!"

the voice was coming from behind a house. it was the most formal beckoning i had ever received. i knew what was coming. the man just wanted to say good morning. i wasn't in the mood to work my way in that direction, i had an important errand to attend to and i couldn't' quite place where the call was coming from. that meant i would have to weave my way off my path, and greet at least 20 other people by the time i finally reached the stranger who wanted to speak with me. i would sit with him, tell him all about myself and George Bush and leave.

i wasn't really in the mood, so instead i walked and hid myself between small mud houses and old dilapidated concrete structures. I was having fun, with my secret game of hide-and -seek, until i was interrupted.

"Oh hello!" this was a different voice, but it was familiar. i needed to see the person to recognize them. his sound was soft, and persuading.

i turned.

"oh my soccer friend! how are you?" i asked. i hadn't seen him since the game and i was thankful to him for having included me.

"well i'm doing better now. but the other day did you not realize i hurt myself in the first 10 minutes of the match?"

i hadn't noticed, i thought we had played the entire game together. his look was so distraught i had to lie.

"of course i noticed! what happened? one minute you were playing and the next you were gone!"

he was relieved, i recognized his pain and absence. "well, you see, my opponent came at me with force at a time most unexpected" he pointed at his shin "and left this."

it was a small bruise, barely noticeable.

"why didn't you play with the heart of a lion?" i thought i'd remind him of his own advice, joke around a bit.

"oh but he was too rough!"

my friend was whining. he was of a different breed. he was flimsy and weak and living in the village. i wondered about his life, and questioned his work ethic. he wasn't strong from long hard days at the farm, like the brothers.

"well you see i had to stop playing. i thought you didn't notice but i am glad to see that my presence was missed. now sister, i don't know your English name. You say you are Akua. Akua what?"

i liked how he spoke. it was precise, questioning, confidant, and unique.

"Akua Kacie."

"okay, Kacie. I too, I am Yusif. or Joseph. But i am Muslim, so i go by Yusif, you see."

"it is a pleasure Yusif."

"i am the only boy in my family. We have me and 3 girls. So i am also called Tanka. You can call me Tanka if you like."

oh so maybe that was it. he kicked back while his sisters did all the work.

"okay Tanka. i'd like to know, do you live in the village?"

"yes."

"what do you do here?" or more aptly, what don't you do?

"i am a teacher at a private primary school, just down the road."

respect and admiration quickly replaced my judgement and doubt.

i applauded him and asked what he taught. he told me about all his subjects and the students in his class. they were on break at the moment, but when school was back in session he wants me to come and stay for a day.

"just so you may observe and see how school is like here in Ghana."

"i'd love to. you can call for me at the clinic, i am there all week."

"well then, i should let you continue on your way. and i will be seeing you shortly i am sure, if not at the clinic i will see you at school. good bye."

"good bye."

we shook hands and snapped fingers towards the end of the release, its the intimate way friends shake hands.

i continued on looking to complete my errand, my very important errand, when i heard another voice. this one i knew. it was Secetry.

"Keesssyyyy!" explosions of masculine giggles and another "Akua Kessy!"

"Secetry!!!!!!!!!!! Hello! How are you?"

"I am fine and you?"

"I am also fine."

"well its nice that i have seen you. I have been wanting you to meet the Chief for quite some time and he is around today. He needs to be meeting the white woman in the village, so come let us go!"

I couldn't refuse him, and didn't want to. We shimmied our way up uneven dirt road between the buildings i had just walked through when i was hiding from the man earlier. I didn't hear his voice again, he must have gone inside. We walked out onto the main road passing a small stand selling candy and single packets of detergent. When we got to the end of the village's main road we stood at the base of the steps of a fair sized home.

i looked up the stairs onto the porch. a small boy was staring back at us, and after Secetry asked him to go get the Chief, we walked up the stairs through a doorway into the central courtyard. the house was set up where the living quarters were on the perimeter, so we were standing in the middle of the building with the open sky above us.

the chief walked out from a dark doorway over in my direction. He was tall and sturdy. i shook his hand. he pointed to the chair that had just been placed next to me and told me to sit, so i did.

"welcome to Boamadumase." he said.

then we went through the usual. when that part came to a close he assured me "you are living in a safe village. if anything is disturbing you please come to me. i will correct it at once."

i was glad he said that. i had royal protection.

when it came time for conversation, i felt trite being casual so instead i silenced myself and secretly focused on the odd noise that was coming out of his closed mouth (like he was knocking around a dislodged tooth with his tongue).

Secetry took this as disinterest and tried to spawn some interaction.

He said "this is the chief kessy! of Boama!"

he was greatly affected, turning into a small stuttering boy in the Chiefs company and thanking him for letting us come to visit. i was conflicted, wanting to talk but having nothing important to say. so i stood up to follow Secetry out. the meeting had been short and respectful, after all he was my elder and silence was interpreted as reverence.

"Please sit down." the chief said. He leaned back in his chair and Secetry returned. After some quick talk in Twi a little boy ran out of the house with a handful overflowing of little round pebbles. He put them in the Chief's hand and the Chief deposited them in mine.

I looked at the round pebbles. I prayed to God they weren't some esoteric bush hallucinogen. I wasn't in the mood to trip out with the town's Chief on some local African drug. Maybe 10 years ago, not now.

"Dr. Ed Gold loves pehpeh, try some."

Dr. Ed Gold is the founder of the organization I am working with. He lives abroad and makes yearly visits to the clinic. I don't know him, could i trust him? I looked at the round pebbles. Pehpeh is what i thought he said, but it escaped his lips in such a low tone i could barely make it out. i examined what was in my palm. Pepper. Yes, it was black pepper. I hoped.

I popped it into my mouth and pretended to chew. i was preparing to keep it in the pocket of my cheek and spit it out once i left. i motioned my jaw up and down and hummed in approval.

the Chief yelled at me and told me to EAT IT.

i kept pretending.

i didn't want to EAT IT. i preferred faking it.

Secetry laughed and told me it would be delicious.

i wasn't fooling anyone, there were no loud crunching noises coming from my mouth like they were from Chiefs and i was only seconds away from seriously offending him. i bit down hard and the pepper balls exploded in my mouth. i chewed and chewed and swallowed and coughed. the flavor spread from my mouth up into my nostrils, then deep into my eye sockets and up into my head, back and around through the tips of my ears.

it was way too much pepper! i was suffering politely, looking at the Chief wondering why he had handed me so much and told me to eat it all. i needed water. i wanted to leave.

"do you like it?" he asked.

"its delicious."

that was the second time i had lied that day.

"yes. thank you. it is our local pepper."

i glanced over at my friend and motioned a 'lets get outta here' nod. he caught it and we said our goodbyes. the second i was out of the Chiefs arena i spit, choked, gagged and generally acted over dramatic.

"the pehpeh is too much?!" Secetry asked.

"YES! i don't like it, i need water now!"

we walked from shop to shop as the pehpeh's heat seemed to recycle itself through my head. every time i removed a pepper kernel from my tooth it reactivated the entire incident. i pondered death from a pepper overdose.

"there is no water. sorry." Secetry said.

"okay, something, anything will do. beer, coca cola. i don't care."

"Kalypo?"

"sure." i said. "but wait? what is Kalypo?" striking up the first stages of another frenzy of paranoia.

"it is fruit juice."

fruit juice would be just fine.

he delivered the drink and we sat in the shade as i recuperated. he laughed at my foolish ways, and my fear of pepper. after my body cooled off i laughed too. but the taste was still in my mouth.

"so Kessy, what was this important task you had to get done?"

he was referring to my errand.

i carefully explained to him the importance, or desire, of eating familiar food once and a while. "you know, that's why Ghanaians smuggle in their local yams to America, or so i've heard. it's nice to eat your own food sometimes. so today i set out for peanut butter. i want to find some peanut butter."

"peanut butter?"

i fixed my language. "i mean groundnut paste. i took a bus ride with an English guy living in a village north of here. he said they had groundnut paste where he was at so i know they have it here."

"come Kessy, come." Secetry brought me to a small table i have passed every day on my walk to work. Wrapped up in a small plastic bag was the familiar gooey paste i was looking for. i bought it for 1,000 cedis. about 10 cents. i ripped a hole in the corner and squeezed it into my mouth, slowly letting it smooth over the bitter after taste from the morning spent with the Chief.

after i was through i thanked Secetry for the morning and told him i had to go home now to drink some water.

We laughed and parted ways. It had been a full day. i found the peanut butter AND met the Chief, i considered the two as equally important.