The wall sign in the STC Station in Bolagatangu, Ghana.

village child

village chief

Nonswaoga's mother

Nonswaoga's Senior Brother and family from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

The following is an email sent from Kathryn Roe, who is back living in Grand Bassam for the winter months 2001/2002, to the Whatcom African Students of 2000 about their Guardian, Nonswaoga's, trip back home to Burkina Faso.

The Journey to Burkina Faso

After many delays Francois decided he could not go on the trip to Burkina, so Nonswaoga and I invited Albert to go in his place. He accepted our invitation with obvious pleasure. Our trip of one day less than two weeks was all I’d envisioned and more. You, of course, realize that it is impossible to describe much of what is West Africa, however, I’ll try to touch on some interesting moments. Because we had already decided to go through Ghana rather than north through Côte d’Ivoire, we stuck with that plan deviating a little by going directly to Kumasi on the way to Burkina and stopping briefly in both Accra and Elmina on the return trip.

Nonswaoga wore his big black Julia shoes to begin the trip, and spent most of the time in Burkina wearing April’s brown leather Tevas. They are still holding together, April, even with Nonswaoga’s feet stuffed into them.

When I asked Nonswaoga what he liked most about the trip, he put on his biggest grin and said, "The visit with my family in my village." When I asked him what he liked least about the trip, he could not at first understand my question. And then he replied, "Nothing, everything about the trip was good."

Albert said he liked visiting the village of the president of Burkina Faso. Zitenga, the junction where you take off on the dirt road for Nonswaoga’s village, is the home village of Campoli, the president of Burkina Faso. It was special to Albert because he has been in the president’s village in Côte d’Ivoire (Gagnoa) and the president’s village in Ghana (Darbee) and now the Burkina Faso president’s village. What was the least favorite part for Albert was our first visit to the market in Ouagadougou. When the three of us entered the market we were at once accosted by several young men who would not leave us alone. Albert pointed out that when Nonswaoga told them in Mossi that they should leave and they did not, it meant that they were up to no good. There were about six of them, so we cut our first visit short leaving quickly in a taxi. I should add that our second visit to the market was successful with the beads of most interest to me.

Ouagadougou. Perhaps the most glaring visual difference from West African cities I’ve visited is the presence of motorbikes and mopeds on the streets. There are hundreds of them. They even have a special car width lane to the far right of most streets especially for the mopeds and bicycles. The most striking thing about the motorbikes is that many (almost half, I would guess) are ridden by women wearing traditional dresses. I never did get good pictures of them, but they are vivid in my mind’s eye.

When my son, Philip, sent an email asking about the trip – lots of dust and difficult travel? Interesting people on the buses?, Albert asked, "Has he been here?" Yes, there was dust, difficult travel and interesting people, and the three of us made a most functional interesting trio, too. It was a good trip. We’re tired and very happy to be home in Grand Bassam.

On this trip I became well acquainted with Nonswaoga’s ID card and learned that his name is spelled "Nonswaoga." What do you think of that? The fact that Nonswaoga returned with me to Burkina seemed to give him some great added prestige that I could not completely understand. His senior brother treated him differently I was told, and his family in the village was very happy that I came with Nonswaoga to his village. I guess my presence indicated to all who were interested that Nonswaoga had left home and had made a success of his life.

The highlight of this trip for all of us was the visit to Nonswaoga’s village. I’m not really sure I can even manage to give you an inkling of what that was like except to tell you that my heart was in my throat most of the time we were there. Nonswaoga’s senior brother lives in Ouagadougou where both he and his wife hold teaching jobs. They have a nice home, which houses their seven children, a few more relatives, plus two cars and a motorbike. They drove us northeast to the village. It took almost two hours of which the last half-hour was 12 kilometers on a red dirt dusty road. The house was right out of a picture book with thatched round roofs over round rooms attached to each other by brick mud walls that formed compounds for the people who live there. I did not begin to get everyone straight. Nonswaoga’s brothers resemble him, though, so they were easy, and his mother was made known to me by Nonswaoga. I was so moved by the gracious hospitality of these obviously destitute people that I found myself giving Nonswaoga money to give to his family. I then learned that protocol demanded that he give the money to his senior brother who would in turn give it to the family. We left there with gifts of red beads, old and wonderful, a hand woven white cloth, also old and traditionally special, and a live chicken. With tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat I listened as Albert translated through Nonswaoga his mother’s blessings and thanks for taking such good care of Nonswaoga for her. I wish you could have all been there with me. No wonder Nonswaoga is so wonderful. Perhaps the photos will tell more of this part of the story as I’m at a loss for words to describe how being there made me feel.

We looked for Isaac in Accra, but did not find him. After returning to Bassam, we learned from Victor that Isaac is well and doing fine. We stopped in Elmina so Nonswaoga could see the castle. That was on Thanksgiving Day one year after you were there, Brooke.

One of the oddities in Ghana has always been for me how many of the businesses have names with religious connotations. During this trip I collected some of them for you: Divine Feed Mill, Hands of God Electrical, Thy Will Be Done "J" Snacks, Love All Bar, Hope Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, Kingdom Inherited Food Co., God and Time Motors, God’s Way Haircut, God’s Heart Jewelry Salon, Virtuous Woman Mini Mart and God First Shoe Doctor. I have photos of a few more, and as those of you who have been there know, this just scratches the surface.

Now it is time to move on to "Akwaaba." As some of you may have guessed by now, Stephen, Richard, Albert, Francois and Alice and I are putting together a West Africa Travel Company. We hope to make it possible for people to design their own West Africa travel experience using our African friends as guides or experts for individual interests – much like your Ghana trips. My next email to you will be to tell you all about these plans and how you can help if you choose.

Thanks so much for your warm responses to my notes from Cote d’Ivoire.

My love to all, Kathryn