** Here are some offline posts covering last week and the flame fun. Standard caveats apply regarding spelling, grammar and style. They're really first drafts. ***
DELAYED POST:
Saturday, Feb. 24, 2007
Takoradi, Ghana
Home! Finally! And a day off!! Sort of.
Even though I was pretty much exhausted, I still spent most of the day working on my previous supersized multiple blog posting in addition to filtering hundreds of photos.
I hung out at home and barely left the yard. It was a good, good day.
Sunday, Feb. 25, 2007
Takoradi, Ghana
Another day off. And again, sort of.
I spent the morning writing blog stuff and off-line emails before heading into SKYY to spend four hours working on the super-slow interNOT.
Exhaustion was the word of the day and I spent the evening moving as little as possible. Glorious!
Late in the evening I received a phone call from Asamoah telling me the team had decided to drive four hours north to the border between the Ashanti and Western Regions. They were going to do some sort of cross-border torch handover and then an impromptu procession through Axim.
The starting time for all this merriment? 4 a.m. I laughed my head off and told Asamoah if he wanted to go, he could. However, as this was not part of the original tour, it's wasn't critical for the documentary, which really focused on the ten regional capitals.
Asamoah decided to go.
Monday Feb. 26, 2007
Takoradi, Ghana
They left at 4 a.m. while I was midway through the second feature at Eyelid Theatre. When I rose from the near-dead several hours later I had a rather severe pain in my tummy.
Could it be the illness I'd so far been lucky to avoid? Could it be stress? Could it be hunger? Could it have been the bottle of tap water I accidentally drank?
After lying in bed whining for a couple of hours I realized that no one was going to come to my aid. I drank down some real bottled water and promply barfed it up.
Hmmm.
I was certainly thankful that I decided against another long day in the hot sun without sleep, food or water. If anything could have pushed me over the edge, it was a repeat of the previous week.
The rotten tummy soon subsided and I spent the rest of the day relaxing and working on other projects, reports and expense reports before hitting the sack early.
Tuesday February 27, 2007
Takoradi, Ghana
It was another morning monkey f***. But more so for the others. Although my patience would soon be tried yet again.
Asamoah reported in early that the previous day had been gruelling, lacking food and long. They returned to Takoradi around 1 a.m. -- a nice 21 hour day.
The flame was scheduled to be carried through the Takoradi-Secondi metropolis and I prepared by getting up around 6 a.m. and hoping for the best.
At 7:30 our driver, Smiler, comes by to drop off the camera for charging and says he'll return at 9:30 a.m.
I wait. 9:30 comes and goes. I wait some more.
Asamoah calls at noon to say they've already started the procession without me and the camera (!) but they'll meet me at an intersection that is about 10 minutes away by foot.
Minutes later Asamoah calls again to say the route has changed, and they won't be passing by after all. They ask if I could call a taxi and meet them on another main road by the regional hospital.
I waste precious time dickering with a taxi driver on the fare. We finally settle at 10,000 and head off in the wrong direction. I call the organizers and give the phone to the driver.
Soon we're back on track, but I had to offer the driver another 15,000 to get him to drive against traffic so we could pass the long back up of cars in the right lane.
In Ghana, if you need to get through thick traffic, adopting a "me first" attitude combined with a lot of honking seems to work every time. "Ghana at 50! Now move your ass!"
I jumped from the taxi when I caught sight of the flame and started running. I ignoring the schoolchildren shouting "Obruni! Obruni" as I wheezed my way to Simler's Land Yacht.
It was like old home week when I finally caught up with everyone. There were lots of handshakes and hugs. I noted that most of them looked like the walking dead.
The bosses wife was carrying the torch and I snapped several pictures of her and the large contingent of SKYY personnell covering the event.
The procession was a long one and the day was very hot and humid. I did my best to either shoot from inside the vehicle or while clinging to the outside. Many of the images I was capturing were carbon copies of those from previous days and I've learned that there isn't much point in overshooting and wasting digital memory.
The procession concluded at the regional ministry. We grabbed some clips and then walked to the residence area where everyone was staying. Talk about nice digs! The guys told me they had excellent food service, comfortable and clean rooms and, most importantly, air conditioning.
We joined a big dinner hosted by the regional minister before heading to a nearby bar to take a beer and watch the 6 p.m. news on SKYY.
At 6:01, SKYY's playback computer melted down and the story fails to air. Are we cursed?!
We finished our beers and head home while formulating a plan for the next day: leave for Cape Coast, the capital of the Central District, early. In this case early means 4 a.m. or 6 a.m.
Where have I heard that before?
**Remaining flame tales to come week!**
Cheers!
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