Growing up in Accra, Ada and Ho, I have very fond memories of my childhood and my stay in these three places.
As a child growing up, I remember being taken to the training college where I became a live doll for some training college students because they changed my hair style every two or so days. Poor me!
I did not live too far away from the beach and could see the sea if I climbed the wall or stood outside. Though my parents kicked against it, as adventrous as my siblings and I were, anytime my parents went to work, having been locked inside, our only fun was to climb the wall. Sit on the wall and view our surroundings with a binoculars one by one.
If you didn't learn to climb the wall, you couldn't catch the fun so even the coward amongst them: I, learned to climb the wall. The only things I never tried were playing kpitinge, alikoto, climbing coconut trees, playing games that involved getting physical. My younger siblings took delight in playing games I found weird and stupid. How do you agree to spank each other turn by turn, ten times in a row. Yet, call that a game even when one ends up crying.
Though I went to school in Accra, almost every vacation was spent in Ada.
So I remember my siblings and I started stalking some other children who lived farther away from us. Their house was the last one at the far end secluded from all the other houses.
Theirs was much bigger and had yellow walls with a driveway that stretched on like a real winding road. Just like us, they hardly came out but made sure they climbed their wall too.
Gradually even without ever speaking with them we could tell what time they would climb their wall and we always watched as they sat on their wall. They always came outside on time,at the same time that we would climb our wall too.
Our binoculars must have gotten them intimidated as they were all boys and could not figure out what we were using. We learned later that they were the children of the DCE.
With time,they were allowed to come outside their gate and sit with their security man. Good for them, we still had to climb the wall to catch a glimpse of our neighbours.
They always locked us inside. My brother was troublesome and climbed almost all the coconut trees by the sea. He fell once from a very tall one and never told anyone but fell ill for a long time. We were always locked because out of curiosity, we could go to the oceans and play.
My brother and aunty even helped the fishermen drag their nets often. We all did once a while, I still cannot tell what for as of now. In the end, we went home with lots of fish but made sure we fried and ate as much as we could before my mum got back else trouble for us. If we couldn't finish, my Aunty was burdened with the responsibility of having to smell fried fish in her room all night. She even ended up eating all of it and would lie to us in the morning that a mice ate it. I never saw a mice around yet she always had imaginary ones visiting her room at night only to eat our fried fish. As naive as we were, we believed her. It only occurred to us years later that my Aunty had lied to us.
One day, my mum forgot to do the usual locking up of her kids and went to school. My Aunty had travelled too, so my siblings and I decided to stay home and play in the sand outside, though we could go to the beach. I sat watching them play alikoto and since I didn't know how to play that, it got boring with time. I began to read a book and then decided to go to the beach alone.
I disappeared without telling anyone. I think I was about twelve or so. I went to the beach holding a bible as a form of protection and sat on one of the fallen coconut trees. Then I spotted a canoe and decided to check it out. Whilst I was by the canoe, a little boy came to me informing me in the Ada language that someone wanted to see me. I asked him to go and tell whoever it was to come.
It turned out to be one of the boys we had been watching with our binoculars. I later learned from him that his was the first of four boys. My heart began to beat really fast when I met him finally. Don't blame me, I was becoming an adolescent and Sweet Valley High as well as the other books I had been reading, U.P.S, Redco and Redco parties did a good job of opening my eyes to what was cute, handsome or beautiful. This guy was so cute but looked creepy to me as well.
I knew he was going to start a fight because we had been watching them with our binoculars.
He started by introducing himself and went ahead to ask why we had been watching them. He demanded to know what we had been using to watch them. Had to explain that it was a binoculars. He even asked where we got it, but obviously I couldn't say much. My dad brought it from St.Petersburg or Moscow, hilarious.
Told him it was for fun. He just laughed. He calmed down after learning we were just a bunch of curious kids. I learned later he knew my mum because he had attended the secondary school that my mum taught at. He was a SHS leaver whilst I was in J.S.S. one going on to form 2. They were the last batch to go through sixth form. We talked, laughed and he even invited me to go to his house. Initially I did not want to, but agreed to go after he had offered to lend me some cartoons to go watch and some game cartridges.
He was several years older than me but with time, we began to meet at the beach every day. Looking back, I think he was such a gentleman.
Unfortunately, my mum got transferred to Accra just when we were becoming real friends with our neighbours. We kept in touch via telephone as he would call me on my landline often. He wrote me letters as well, but I never saw him again. We lost contact when I finished J.s.s and moved houses. Our phone number changed.
One afternoon, whilst still in my third year at University, City fm carried a news story on his supposed family I had assumed at the time. Same surname: district chief executive of Ada east involved in a tragic motor accident and lost his life together with his oldest son. Same name as my friend. I cried for days and was inconsolable.
Don't know why I cried so much. Perhaps though I had not seen my friend in years, I had been hoping to see him in future I guess. I couldn't comprehend how such a handsome young man would die that way. I even wrote him a tribute and spent days grieving.
Recently, I became friends with his brother on facebook and he drove to come and see me. That was the only day I learned the truth. The family that had been involved in the car accident just had the same surname as theirs. My friend is still alive and I'm grateful to God. I miss Ada. From my house at the far end close to the beach, to the streets, watching the fishermen at work, the women who could walk about without covering their breasts,the little villages around the sea, Ada kenkey and fish, the much revered Olaga, Totimekope, Ocanseykope, church, Manet beach resort, my childhood friends...oh I sincerely hope I see them again. I even miss sitting in the Adasco truck:eeiiiii. I miss the beautiful scenery, all the lovely people including my neighbours who have passed on to glory. If I could turn back the hands of time......
Memories from Ada.
With fond memories of my friend; Ofoe Ceasar and my stay at Ada-Foah....childhood memories.
