It is never a pleasant experience when a close friend calls to inform you about the passing of his dad. It even hits harder when you were close to his family. That was the story of Red (Name withheld).
Red’s dad hails from Nkonya in the Oti region of Ghana and, considering the critical nature of some sections of the road, I was contemplating joining Red to show my support.
However, there was no way I could miss out on the funeral. On the 21st of October, I joined Red’s family and love ones to journey to his late father’s hometown.
We were in a convoy of about 15 cars, including the ambulance that carried the body and also by a police escort.
In all honesty, it felt good moving through the static traffic of Ashiaman smoothly because of the advantage of our police escort. For the first time, I realized how good our politicians were enjoying life with their police escorts.
The first stop of our journey was at the Adomi Bridge where we stopped to enjoy some Abolo, One Man thousand( small fishes), fried yam, and other local delicacies. Others dropped to ease themselves before we continued the journey.
It was a bumpy ride until our next stop, which was at ‘HAVE’ where we enjoyed some fresh coconut from the indigenes. As we enjoyed our coconut, we also waited for those who were left behind to catch up.
We finally reached reach the outskirts of Nkonya around 5 pm but we could not enter the town as certain customary rites had to be performed by the elders before we could enter the town with the remains of Red’s late father.
We had nothing to do but observe the beautiful scenery and greenery mountains that surrounded us. Nkonya has a beautiful landscape. After about an hour and 30 minutes, we were now granted permission to enter the town.
We took the body to the family house and then proceeded to the house of Red’s uncle. As expected, the place was filled with family members and guests. They were unpacking several items into the house, and we helped.
The house was so packed it was clear we had to find another alternative to spend the night.
Trust me, I did not know it was going to be a long night. It is important to note that Nkonya is a rain-prone area because of its mountainous surroundings.
We had entered a van to transport us to the various hotels around, then the rains began. In a matter of minutes, the depth of the rain had increased, and before we realized, our van was stuck. Now we had to get down into the rain and push. In all honestly, I got pissed. Is this how Nkonya was going to welcome us?
After several deliberations, the men got down to push the van. We tried several times, but the downpour was putting our efforts in vain.
Finally, a pickup truck arrived and offered to transport us to our destination. The ladies quickly run into the back seat of the truck, leaving the men to use the back of the truck. As the truck drove at top speed, the rains did not spare us. We finally got to the first hotel, and you could tell I was not a cheerful man. All I could think of was lying in bed under a thick blanket.
Unfortunately, the first hotel was fully booked, so we had to move to another hotel. Luckily for me, the rains had stopped slightly, but I was feeling cold. We got to the second hotel and got a room.
I moved to the room and realized I had left my lens at the first hotel. “O God, what is happening to me today, I shouted. I was tired, hungry, angry, and sad at the same time”. I joined Red in his car to go in search of my lens.
I was happy when I found the lens just where I left it. The people of Nkonya are kindhearted. Red took me to his uncle’s house to get some balls of kenkey and drove me to my hotel. I ate my food, took my bath, and went straight to bed.
The next day, I joined Red as they carried his late father’s remains to the church for the last rites. Being an archaeologist, I observed how old the church building was and its unique architecture. It was a Presbyterian church, by the way. They constructed the building in the 1930s.
After the church service, we accompanied the body to the cemetery and bid farewell to the dead. We later came back to the house of Red’s uncle, enjoyed some local delicacies and said our goodbyes and headed to Accra.
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