1. Never say never
Eight months ago I made my way through thirteen (or maybe more) passport checks at the Accra airport before boarding my flight back toward the United States. As I passed through one of the checks one of the guards recognized that I had a visa for multiple visits and asked if I would be returning. I chuckled a bit and said “no, never.” This was the same day that I was mugged and I was feeling quite down on Africa and Ghana. I thought to myself there is no way that I would ever return.
Eight months later, here I am sitting in an Accra hotel room. The lesson, of course, is to never say never. I find myself back in Ghana this time to do research for my management thesis project. For the last several months I have been working with a group of talented women to revise the operations curriculum for the Management Development Institute (MDI) that I worked in here in Africa last summer. We have developed a practical teaching case to replace the theoretical material that was taught previously. The case is based on HIV/AIDS clinical processes related to pregnant women. The transmission rate of HIV from mothers to children in Africa is currently around 30% whereas in the U.S. and other developed countries it is less than 1%. It is our hope that our teaching case will help to improve the clinical operations in at least some of the clinics in Africa and contribute to reducing the transmission rate. So if you were wondering, yes, I am saving the world.
2. Luggage does not sprint
Because United Airlines is absolutely fabulous we were delayed in Washington DC because someone packed a (yes, singular) bag in a cargo bay that they were not supposed to. Apparently moving said bag took over an hour. This delay resulted in a late arrival to Frankfurt and gave us only 20 minutes to catch our connection to Accra. We sprinted through the (not so tiny) Frankfurt airport and made the flight. We were quite proud of ourselves until we arrived in Accra and found that our luggage had not managed to make the same quick transition that we did. Losing luggage is certainly nothing new to me but losing luggage in a foreign country is. Stopping by the local shopping mall to pick up some clothes is not exactly an option here. My mom suggested I pick up a traditional African gown to wear until my luggage arrived – I decided not to take her advice.
3. Welcome back to the Club
We arrived at the hotel safely and were quite excited to learn that they had three restaurants to choose from. After 24 hours of travel I was not feeling adventurous so we went for Chinese. The food was surprisingly delicious but also one of the spiciest meals I have ever had. The noodle dish I ordered had me in tears and I consumed three Clubs (local beer), not because I wanted to get drunk, but because I wanted to finish my dinner. Let the tradition of beer in Africa continue.
4. Make no mistake, TIA means This is Africa
While in Argentina I rebranded TIA as “This is Argentina” but one day in Ghana reminded me that the A in TIA is undeniably Africa. Our first TIA moment came tonight when we went to pickup our luggage from the airport. On the ride to the airport we were explaining to our driver what had happened and that we had been wearing the same clothes for two days. He chuckled and responded “we are quite used to that here, you should fit right in.” It put my “drama” in perspective for a moment, but just for a moment.
Upon arriving to the baggage office were elated that our luggage actually showed up but were deflated when they would not give my colleague her luggage because she had forgotten the form they had given her when we lost our bags. They made us come all the way back to the hotel to get the form and then return for the luggage. I am certain they had a copy of the form on file and probably had the capability to look up the information on the computer but they refused. The whole ordeal took us over two hours. Despite the delay though, we did finally get our luggage and I am now sitting in clean clothes for the first time in 48 hours.
