oh saturdays and slingshots

saturdays, are still generally long slow days filled with laundry and not much else to do. i was through with my wash, and i was dying for a little stimulation.

it was early and nobody was in the house.

i swept my room, 'made my bed' by throwing my one sheet into wrinkle free status, then went out into the backyard with my new best friend, my homemade slingshot.

i have been wanting to make a slingshot since i was in the first grade and i started collecting ecclectic homemade battle gear. my uncle had made me a wooden sheild to block the flying unripe figs that my older brother and his friends pelted at me on my walk home from school, and i found some sharp rocks to attatch at the end of my spears that would be good for stabbing. my dad bought me camoflauged shorts and a matching shirt, perfect for a city girl trying to hide out. i was set, i thought. but still, deep down inside, i knew i needed a slingshot, or flaming nunchucks.

one day, while i was out on the side of the highway trying to flag down a speeding tro tro i noticed a small shop, the size of a storage shed, selling thick red rubber bands. i walked over and asked the man how much. he said a few cents, so i bought one. then he laughed and asked me what i was planning on doing with my red rubber band.

"defend myself, kill things, you know."

"do you know HOW to make a catapult?" i could tell he didn't have much faith in the white girl.

"ya. of course i do."

"so you know you should buy this band here as well." he said, pointing to a skinnier length of long red rubber. "and this." he held up a short leather strip, the launching pad.

"oh ya, let me get some of those also."

i gave him a few more coins, and snatched the goods away. then i went back to the side of the road, with my purchase dangling from one hand. all the cars were full, nobody was picking me up. my dark hair had absorbed all the suns rays and was sitting on my head like a sizzling cap. i needed some shade.

i went over and sat down at a roadside bench, in the shade. i stared at my rubber bands and felt excitement at the possibilities. i'd make a slingshot, give up my home, travel in the woods, and eat the meat i killed using the slingshot over a fire i started, for the rest of my life. i'd bathe in rivers, sleep in trees, and be free. i wouldn't cry when i sprained my ankles, and eventually i might not even need shoes. i'd finally be hardcore.

a young man, about my age, walked by me looked at my hand and giggled. his smile made me smile. he stopped a few feet ahead, turned around, and asked if i was planning on making a catapult.

"yes. i am."

"can i help you?" he asked.

"i kind of wanted to do this by myself." any male involvement in this activity was going to ruin my vision.

"i see you have the string" he said "but you need that thing..." he was squinting his eyes trying to remember the english word. "you need the stick, for the middle."

"ya, i know. i'll get it later."

"why don't you let me go find the stick for you?"

i didn't say anything, i just stared at him and thought about it. then... "where are you going to get it?"

"i'll have to go to the bush."

"okay, fine. you can find the stick, but make sure it's a good one, nice and strong."

"yes, i will. wait me, i'm coming." then he walked off, across the highway, into the wild.

i sat and waited, not long, and he returned. he had carved the stick into a perfect Y, and he even made the handle smooth by taking off the bark, revealing a firm white underlayer. when he came over to the bench and sat down next to me i noticed he only had one arm.

i stared at it.

"give me the string." he said, motioning to the opposite end of the bench, where they lay.

i handed them to him.

he wedged the stick between his no-arm armpit and he held the thick rubber band around the twig with his other hand. he took the smaller skinnier rubber band and tied the thick rubber band to the stick using thta. he cut off the excess with the pointy edges of his incisors and spit it out on the ground. then he looked up at me.

"can i help you with any of this?" i asked, more intruiged by watching a one armed man make a slingshot than feeling the need to do it all by myself.

"oh don't worry."

then he worked on tying the other half to the opposite side of the Y.

"you really know what you're doing." i said while a chunk of rubberband was in his mouth.

when he was free he looked up and said "every small boy in ghana has a catapult. but you? you are a grown white woman. what will you be using this for?"

i laughed and looked down. "anything really. mostly i just want to shoot things."

then he asked "why?".

"i don't know why, i just feel like it."

hearing the words come out of my mouth i seemed so blase about life, about taking life. i didn't believe i was ever a vegetarian.

"what will you shoot?"

"what is there to shoot?"

"okay, well, you can go looking for bushmeat."

"yes, that is what i will do."

he handed me my completed killing device, and stood up to leave.

"hey" i said, "thanks for helping me. you did a lot better job than i would have done." he had secured it tightly, and i was sure it'd last a long time.

"yes, it's true. and you see my arm here?" he lifted his wedge.

when i looked closer i realized he actually did have an arm, but it had curled up and molded itself together.

"what happened?" i asked.

"buruli ulcer."

"sorry." i said.

"eh, it's okay. by the way, what is your name?"

"i'm kacie."

"okay kacie, have a nice day."

i raised my slingshot up "you too, and thanks again."

now whenever i look at my slingshot i think of my buruli ulcer friend. sometimes i see him playing checkers with his friends, when i'm waiting for a tro tro. i call out to him, and he gives me a big smile back and waves.

but it was all an act, my desire to kill things.

nanakwame came by that saturday, saw me with my slingshot shooting at nothing in the distance, and told me i wasn't "correct", that we needed to go to where his finger was pointing.

i jumped up gladly.

we went hiking in the bush behind our house, after having walked through acres and acres of orange trees to get there. in the orange grove he showed me his shooting skills by aiming at the innocent fruit, which plunged to it's death because of his accurate shot. he stuck them in his pockets for a better time, when we hid and ate them in secret.

my pants were full of walnut sized rocks and i couldn't stop shooting.

"kessy!? NO! you don't shoot there- you don't shoot there. you shoot the tree, why?"

"because i want to!" i'd yell, as i launched another attack on the distant folage.

he walked over authoritaritively and ripped the slingshot out of my hands.

"hey nanakwame! what are you doing?"

"is no correct!"

"i'm shooting..."

he pouted his lips and handed me my slingshot. "like this" he said, creeping close to the ground eyeing a little bird sitting on the end of a tree branch. he jumped and shot and the bird flew away. i liked the sound of rubber whizzing through air.

we spent the rest of the afternoon shooting birds and oranges. we were only successful with the oranges.

"is kama kama!" nanakwame said, approving of my newly aquired slingshot skills. i was quite proud myself, even though we didn't get any animals. but i was glad we didn't kill a bird, nanakwame stopped shooting once i told him i don't eat bird, apart from the usual.

"you don't eat then you don't shoot." he said.

but i kept at it any way, sure i wasn't going to come close to anything that had an opportunity to move. i wanted my shot to sound like his.

we eventually had to go home because we both needed water. after a day of hiking in the sun i rested for a bit on my bed, but the sound of the birds crashing into the front window was disturbing me. i tried to ignore it, but it sounded more like a flock trying to get through than just 1.

i heard sofie's door open, not realizing she was home too.

"sofie!" i called through my window, the one that faces the living room.

"those birds man!" she said.

i grabbed my slingshot and went into the living room. "i'll shoot them." i said. "i just need some rocks."

sofie ran into the backyard and found some uneven concrete chunks and deposited them in my palm.

"thanks." i said.

we crept down the hallway, quietly, the way i had seen sakola do it when he shot the birds. they were kaa-ing in the front, bashing their beaks into the thick black reflection. i threw open the front door, jumped up, let the concrete chunk fly and it hit the window with a bang.

all the birds turned and took flight, unscathed. but the sound of the rock hitting the window was jarring, and i inspected for possible crackage.

sofie didn't get to see what happened but she heard it. "nice shot." she said. i had hoped i impressed her, but i didn't show it. i wanted her to see my unlimited abilities, one of which was master hunter.

but i knew i was a long way off when just a few days later auntie had some men at the house repairing the front window.

"it broke?" i asked, eyes big and feeling fully responsible.

sofie said "yeah- you didn't hear the bird the other night? it crashed through the window- woke me up and scared me half to death!"

i looked at the spot where the firework crack was expanding. "are you sure?" then i admitted guiltly with concerned eyebrows... "i think i broke it."

"na, i heard it, it was a bird in the middle of the night."

i felt the need to fess up to auntie but i didn't know how to explain a situation with so much uncertainty involved. in her language either i broke the window, or i didn't, and i wasn't sure if i really had.

the crack was exactly where i intended to shoot the bird, but sofie said it crashed through at night.

"okay" i said, "i believe you."

i've now set some ground rules when i go out slingshotting.

1. i'm not allowed to do it around glass.

2. or children.

and i've had to come to terms with the fact that my future probably doesn't involve being hardcore, or, as much as i'd like to pretend, but sometimes, pretending is the best part.

at the beginning there was a wicked woman...

i was sitting in Ma's seat, behind her desk, because she had gone on a weekend vacation and i preferred her view. i also liked pretending she didn't exist, that it was just me and efreeyeh running the maternity ward. i sat there and imagined repainting the walls, the same colors- greens, yellows, pinks, just a fresh coat. maybe i'd rearrange the furniture? but mostly, if it was my center, i'd try to make the services free- i wouldn't want money to discourage a woman from coming. i was deep in daydream when efreeyeh walked in and sat down.

"whatareyoudoing?!" she said, abrubtly but playfully.

"i'm thinking." i said.

"you shouldn't do that."

the ghanaian word 'to think' is 'jwene' and it usually connotates having a problem, or being worried. people don't think when they are content. in the past, when sakola asked me what i was doing, i used to say i was thinking. he'd always tell me "stop thinking. is no good." his response always worried me until i figured out the context.

"nothing is wrong." i informed her.

"okay."

then we went back to silence.

efreeyeh blossoms when Ma is not around, she has more personality. and since Ed had come to the village, her energy levels had heightened. he had informed her the charity was going to help sponser her through midwifery school. it is a 2 year commitment, to which she'll be returning to work in the village, at the health center, to relieve Ma into retirement. but first she'd have to wait for Vera to go to nurse's training, also of which Foundation Human Nature would be sponsering.

a lot of changes are taking place.

Ed has hired a coordinator for FHN, his name is Vasco, and he is young, full of fire and vision. he's close friends with Ed, and was one of the chief people who helped rebuild and reestablish the clinic. that was 4 years ago, and he has just graduated university, ready to start working.
secetry tiptoed around Ed for days, trying his hardest to smile through his deep fear that Vasco's compentence would eliminate his role. i just found out he has been working full time without pay, Ed had never even met him before. he didn't know secetry existed. but in the typical secetry way, he saw a need in the community, at the health center, and he fulfilled it.

now, i hated seeing him so timid, so afraid, so much resembling an abused dog. his laugh was fake and his eyes lost their sparkle. he didn't stand firm while greeting. sofie confirmed my observation. "secetry looks pretty bad, doesn't he?".

i cheered when i found out ed invited secetry onto FHN staff. "i really like him, he's funny. we need people like him working here." is what he said. i congratulated secetry, and he said "oh well well, tank you. tank you." then he told me he would do this work for free. "akua, don't go chasing money. rather, you do the right work and the money will chase you."

life at the center was brimming with possibilities and hope, with celebration. staff and health volunteers were riding around on their new shiny red bicycles, ringing their bells, showing off. Ma had even been promised a bicycle, she gladly accepted the offer.

i was enjoying the week, sitting and soaking in Huttel Health Center life, spending time with everybody's good moods.

"i want to tell you something" efreeyeh said "but you have to promise not to tell anyone."

i love those kinds of introductions. "okay, tell me."

"akua, do you remember that woman? the woman who had those twins?"

"the one we visited at home, the pregnant one?"

"yes, that one."

i had been wondering about her. she was way past her due date, and i occasionally saw her during my time off, as i wandered about the village. she could barely walk and she had turned into the hugest pregnant woman i had ever seen. the lining of my abdomen cringed everytime i smiled in her direction. "yeah, i remember her. please tell me she's delivered."

"she delivered."

"where?" i asked, wondering if Ma yelling at her scared her away from the clinic, or if she was one of the cases at night that i missed.

"she delivered in Duampopo, in the next town over."

"Duampopo?! why did she deliver there?"

"akua! hey! i am trying to tell you a story. listen."

i made myself comfortable in Ma's chair. "okay, go."

"akua you have to correct me when i make a mistake. i want my english to improve. so correct me."

"i will- tell me the story."

"so this woman, the one with twins, she hadn't delivered as of last saturday, she was too big! she was too too big." "the man who got her pregnant actually has another wife. for 6 years he has wanted a child but this woman, his first wife, couldn't give him one, so he got one from my friend, the woman with his twins. the man begged his first wife to let him marry the second one and she agreed. but she wanted him to bring her soooo many things first."

"like what?"

"oh things! she wanted 6 cloths, nice ones, kama kama. 6 nice cloths?! he is not a rich man, how can he do that? she couldn't do that. so she didn't bring them to him so-"

"efreeyeh stop. i'm confused. you're mixing up your pronouns."

"thank you. HE didn't bring the cloths to HER."

"good."

"HE didn't bring the cloths to HER, so she became angry and visited the jujuman, and put a curse on my friend which is why she didn't deliver. she had to go to duampopo to deliver with a pastor, a woman there who prays prays prays and then delivers." "you see? the juju was too strong her babies wouldn't come, it was coming up to 1 year she had been pregnant."

"1 year?" i asked, skeptically.

"akua, believe me, she is my friend. it was close to 1 year, and it could have been longer."

"how do you know all this?"

"you can see the way they move, you can see how the one woman disturbs the other woman. she is always acting unkind, when they are in town the one woman will always be saying things about the other woman. it's true akua, the first wife is a very wicked woman."

"so who is this woman in duampopo?"

"the one who delivered the twins?" she asked.

"yes."

"she is a traditional birth attendant and a woman pastor. she prayed and prayed for the juju to leave, and the twins came."

"where'd they come?"

"at the woman pastor's home."

"oh, okay. and so why is this a secret?"

"ai akua! it's a secret because only a few people know, if you say something, one person will hear and tell another, like that, you see?"

"ya but who cares if everyone knows?"

"because the first wife will beat my friend if she sees that we know. if she knows we know her movement, going to do juju, she will become very furious. so we have to pretend as if nothing is the matter."

"so going to the juju man is a secret thing."

"yes. you can go and-" she grabbed a pen from the desk "say he wants this thing. you can give him this thing. give him this thing and tell him 'do not let this woman deliver' and he'll keep the thing and do what you have asked. like that." then she leaned back and said "ei! 1 year... akua... you don't have juju in your town?"

"not like yours, no. we don't have juju men."

"is that so?"

"i know you told me this was a secret story, but what if i wanted to tell some people."

"akua! you-"

"-some people from my home. can i? i don't think they'll tell anyone in boamadumase, or duampopo. i'll just write it in a story."

"okay...you can do that. start it like this. 'at the beginning there was a wicked woman...' and you can go from there to tell the story."

"okay, i will."

she stood up, leaned over, swatted my arm and laughed. "akua!".