Alumni Blog

Former Participant/Current Mentor, Tabitha Kroeker, Speaks from Ghana

It is raining here in Sega. The pitter patter on the tin roof is so refreshing!

Not long ago a close friend/mother figure from Canada passed away. This has been very difficult for me, especially as I am so far away. Today I received news that the mother of a student I am particularly close to at the school here passed away early in the morning. The mother lives in another part of Ghana about 6 hours from here. Last year during one of the mid-term vacations, I went with my student, Lawrencia, and spent about 2 weeks at the mother’s place, in a beautiful little village near Kumasi. The mother spoke only a few words of English, but we walked to the farm together, ate together, spent hours sitting together under the mango tree and communicated in the limited Dangme I could speak and understand. She has been here visiting the past couple of weeks (in a village about a 30 minute walk away, where Lawrencia lives). I was just at their house last Saturday, with Ezekiel (another student, and little “brother”), where the mother pounded fufu for me and served it with a huge bowl of soup full of fish, eggs and meat! She has been sick for a long time, but seemed so strong sitting there pounding the fufu, greeting me with her huge welcoming smile and a big hug. It is such a shock, just 5 days later to hear that she has died. And I just attended the funeral of another student’s mother 2 weekends ago.

As much as I have been faced with death in the past little while, life always continues with its many adventures and joys! Last Thursday, after school, Ezekiel and I walked to a mango tree near Princess’ house, about a 15 minute walk from Sega. Most of the mango trees stand alone, out in the middle of an open field, but this one was surrounded by bush, so the ends of its branches just meet the tops of the surrounding bush. We walked through a little path and entered into the little cove formed under the tree, covered by branches full of fresh, ripe orange mangoes! Ezekiel climbed the tree and plucked 51 mangoes, which he tossed down to me one by one to collect in a little pile. When he finished we sat in the little cove feasting on the juicy flesh, mango juice covering our hands and dripping down our chins! Haha! We must have eaten about 15 mangoes each, before saving 5 to bring to Ezekiel’s brother and giving the rest to a group of boys we heard passing by, who we called to come and join us. I’ve never eaten so many mangoes before in my life!

On Friday my “papa” called a family meeting and asked me to come, telling me he thinks of me as one of his children and inviting me to say anything I want to say during the meeting, as he wants each of his children to do. He congratulated Richard, his oldest son, on graduating from high school and asked each of his kids their plans for the future. He also talked about the farm, asking them to keep helping him with the work. I felt so honoured to have been asked to be there.

On Saturday I ate banku with my brothers in the morning, then spent about 3 hours helping them transplant tomatoes in their huge garden (I was super slow compared to the rest of them!), before Ezekiel and I went to visit Lawrencia. I learned to use a machete to make a hole in the soil and pat in the tomato plant roots.

We have some boarding students living at the house I am sleeping in. On Sunday as I was leaving the house, Isaac, one of the grade 8 students, looked at me and said in such a serious voice, “Madam. I want to do something for you.” I had no idea what he could possibly have in mind, so I asked him what. He looked at me so solemnly and said, “please, your shoes are too dirty, I want to wash them for you.” Boy, grade 8 students sure are different here!! In the morning I had a pair of sparkling clean sandals waiting for me outside my door!

Time for me to go wash my clothes… the same student who cleaned my shoes insisted that I wait until after school so that he could come and help me!