A New Life

First time in a trotro. First time at an African market. First time by the ocean. First time washing by hand, first time eating fufu and goat meat, first time at the dressmaker. First time experiencing an African thunderstorm (Salakka and M were sitting on the floor, holding each others' hands, too scared to sleep).

Life was suddenly so full of first times, beginnings, new things, it was as if having been born again. Like having to learn how to walk, how to speak, how to eat all over again.

It was great. As if ten thousand kilos had been lifted up from shoulders, all the old things - replaced by ten thousand new things to learn, which was interesting, satisfying, rewarding, and gave you a 100% guaranteed good night sleep after every day.

Salakka and the German girls, M and C, got to know the places, the habits, the people; the kids, the "big boys", Auntie Yaa, each other. C was the calm one, who didn't easily reveal her feelings, but could tell a lot of interesting and surprising things about herself in a long conversation. She had been to Togo before this, and African life was not as unfamiliar to her as it was for the others. Still, she also was new in Ghana and new in this home.

M was quiet yet emotional, and for her, being here was a big shock. It was hard for her to get used to living in a religious home, having to be home by a certain time in the evenings, not being allowed to live as freely as in Europe. But she had the warmest heart: she had a real calling to work with disabled people, and she was the one who cared for the animals like dogs and cats, which were not treated as nicely as the pets in Europe.

And then there was Salakka, the most talkative, also emotional and a bit lost with the new life in Ghana, but the same time quick-adapting and motivated to learn how to survive. Sometimes she was afraid to be too bossy, talking too much about herself, bringing too much of her own ideas for the work with the boys in this home. But the same time she felt good, free (despite the curfews etc) and that she was exactly in the right place.


The kids were another chapter. The youngest one, shy and funny at the same time, who spoke maybe three words of English and thus was not yet ready to start school. The five school boys: the joker; the enthusiastic; the attention-craving; the polite one and the one who was difficult to get close to, him having been so attached to some of the former volunteers who were now gone. Salakka found herself feeling it was not hard to love these boys - it might be a lot harder to depart from them in next June.

There was also a girl living with Autie Yaa who was part of their group. The teenagers were not officially part of their work, but if some of them needed a hand with homework, they wouldn't mind helping. The big boys, young adults still living here while studying or looking for work, were more likely to be their friends, at least some of them.


Pretty soon it became clear Auntie Yaa would be an important part of their lives here. She might have seemed scary on the first day, but later Salakka understood it was probably just one of her bad days, or maybe she, too, missed the volunteers who had just left her. After all, the volunteers were her daughters; her only daughters. Salakka, M and C were to be the next ones.

She brought them more dishes - plates, spoons, cups. "Take it to your room!"
She gave them eggs, bread, margarine and jam for breakfast. "Keep in in your room!"
She appeared with a huge sack of rice. "Take it to your room!"

It was funny, considering the size of their room. But then again, it was better to keep the things in than leave them in the kitchen - no matter how strict the rules might be, if someone was hungry, it wouldn't really matter who had put the food there, and there were many hungry mouths around.


After a month, they got another volunteer to stay in their room. Lillian, or Lilli as she wanted them to call her, was from Austria and had a great sense of humour. She loved the "take it to your room" -thing, and pretty soon she and Salakka had a long list of other possible ways to use it.

The arrival of Lilli also cleared out how they would work. M and C would spend their days in the home for the disabled people, as Salakka and Lilli would stay home and work with the boys, planning program for them after school to practice school subjects, learn other things or just spend time together.

On Lilli's second day, Salakka was the one who was supposed to take her to the office of their organization to sort things out. A month ago, she had sat in a trotro, unable to understand how things worked - and how she'd ever be able to survive here. Now, she took Lilli to the road side, where they picked a car to a bigger junction, where they picked another car to 37 station, where they picked another car to the office. Salakka remembered the name of the bus stop, the right road to the office (after a short thinking), the right gate to the right house. In the burning sunlight, they made all their way to the office, and though she didn't say it to anybody, Salakka felt a deep happiness; happiness for having learned everything it took to live the every-day life, gotten used to that life, and simply being able to live it so smoothly, so naturally, without a feeling of surviving anymore. She felt happiness for living here.

And it had only just begun. There were eight more months to come.