Flying and arriving

It was the first long flight since the beginning of the Corona pandemic. The preparations already showed that travelling has become complicated and costly. A plane ticket and visa are not enough. There are forms to fill out online, QR codes to scan, an expensive test to take before the trip, and so on and so forth. I fulfilled these duties mostly cursing. But then the flight with transit in Brussels was almost a piece of cake. Especially as the plane was quite empty on the first leg.

But boarding and the 7-hour flight to Accra were different. Close together in the queue during boarding, then close together in the rows of seats. It was scary despite the booster vaccination, but whoever travels today has to take risks. Just push away and the pilot came in for a landing. My passport was checked about six times. And everything went quickly. It seemed to me that Corona was a job engine in Ghana. So much staff is involved in checking the vaccination certificates, forwarding them for testing, as testers, as forwarders again and then as checkers if someone is tested, then as helpers to retrieve the test results … Wow. Finally the waving through, and everything went well. I really must say, exemplary. A safe journey.

 

First car that I saw in Accra! Fits to me – really!

Titus Kuuyuour and his son Ransford picked me up. Soon we were stuck in the usual Accra traffic jam again. Things were only moving forward by the metre. You can’t say that the drive from the airport to the outskirts of the city in the Madina district flew by. But it was not boring. As usual, the main streets were one big department stores’. Without getting out of the car, you can buy pretty much anything wearable or edible from the street vendors at the car window in Accra. I often wonder how many kilometres these people cover a day, how much they earn – walking alongside the cars and standing in the exhaust fumes.

 

Even Queen Elisabeth arrived in Ghana. And Titus clock remembers me to stay positive!!!

 

Now it’s time to settle in: It’s over 30 degrees, humid. It has snowed in Berlin. I get quite drunk from the many familiar and yet again unfamiliar impressions. I was warmly welcomed. Now everyone goes about their work, especially preparing for the funeral in the north. The pile that is being taken away grows and grows every hour. It is impressive what things are being organised, bought and packed. Cynthia Kuuyuor, a niece of Titus, helps to bag everything. She has been living in Accra for a year to finish her schooling. Before that, she went to boarding school in Wa, the district capital in the northwest. Titus finances her education here. In return, she does the shopping, cooking and cleaning, and of course helps with the preparations for the funeral. Probably about 500 to 900 people are expected to come one by one on the three days of the funeral. They will be entertained, they will all get a memento … And amazingly, on the printed silver bags it says that Pigr, my adoptive mother, turned 107 years old. Very old indeed. The portrait I made 1989, 32 years ago when I first stayed with the family.

 

Lot of Give-Aways for the guests of the funeral … And in times of Corona: Tissues, masks and handdesinfection.

 

The portrait is from 1989, I DID IT!