Life Again

I went to church yesterday, to the cathedral in Accra. The Mass was a little different to that which I am used to, but no harm in experiencing the faith of others in a most lively way. I have heard the statistic that Ghana is greater than 90% Christian. On Sunday’s, you will find them all in church. There had to be at least a 1000 people in the church that I attended, and that was only the first service of the day!

I was then picked up by the cabbie who had dropped me off earlier. The starter motor of his car required a bit of thump with a heavy metal object before it would work. Then we off, with a horrible grinding noise from the left front wheel. As we jerked around the place, the taxi driver told me about a woman passenger he had just dropped me off. As she was paying him, a man leant through his window and stole his cell phone. For a guy who had been driving his taxi for the last 31 years, this was a pretty big injustice.

It was hard to know what to feel. Here was a guy trying his best to earn an honest living, which was probably not very much. His taxi was slowly falling apart around his ears and then the little he had was taken away by some punk. I would have been a little mad. I would probably have lost control and yelled and screamed and then kicked some stuff and punched some other things. This guy just calmly accepted that this was life and today was just not a good day. And that was just the start of his 24 hour shift....

Then a mate picked me up and took me sailing on the Volta River just outside the village of Ada. The sailing club was having a race day and I ended up crewing for one of the members. The three races were loads of fun and boy did I learn a lot. There is a sincere beauty in the ability of a sailor and his craft to take the force of the wind and put it to work. Sometimes going with the flow and at others using this same force to turn back on itself.

I suppose life is a lot like that...