The Ultimate Price - a Koforidua Flower

It was something we looked up to. We were young and daring. Adventure was always on my mind. The first going was on an excursion with many other students to the Akosombo Dam. It was my first time in that part of Ghana. I was by then undergoing practical training in school radio whiles attempting to study to become an accounting technician. At last I mastered radio. Accounting technician, I did not become. This was in Kumasi, Ghana's second largest city. Being on school radio makes one popular among students, and the surrounding communities. My radio show was usually between 5PM - 7PM on Saturdays. It was a once a week show. I called it ''General@ the controls''! And I played dance hall reggae and spoke 'corrupted English'. The students loved it. It was during this period that I met my long time friend and brother Cassius 'King' Owusu It was he who taught me that all I needed to speak 'patois' was corrupting my English language. This was after EDEM, final year student programmes manager, under whose tutelage I was undergoing my radio training, handed to me his slot to sit-in in his absence. It was a music/talk show. And I enjoyed the experience of excitement at the time. Bobby was my class mate and friend. We both wanted to become 'accounting technicians'. We were also eating mates, though I hated his eating habit. He would usually start with the meat. Not only that, he took a different bite of every piece of meat in the soup. The first day we had a meal together, I confronted him right in the middle of the eating. I told him to take it easy. He did not. After a couple of weeks of adopting to Bobby, he became my friend. I chose him as my friend because he was a neat guy. He didn't argue much intellectually or politically or philosophically. He was not judgmental and shared a couple habits. His interest was entertainment and girls. He was a simple guy. Although he wasn't a rich student, he appeared as one, with his neat and fashionable dressing. Women were always attracted to him, sadly, he didn't know how to coax them. He either misunderstood them, or misinterpreted them. He was a Fante boy but who was born and lived with his parents in Tema. I had one problem with him; when ever you asked him where he comes from, he will say he comes from Tema. Unlike me who will say I come from Kandiga, 18 km east of Navrongo. I suggested to him to to be himself. but he was adamant. Anyways, we rolled together. We got a guided tour of the DAM that provides over 50% of our energy requirements as a nation. We asked questions. And we said good bye and headed to the Akosombo Hotel were the action was to take place. There was a large swimming pool. Some other accounting and banking students from Koforidua were coming to mix and socialize with us. We got excited when we heard this. We hoped for more 'Koforidua flowers' in the crowd. I was particularly looking for a rose flower. In the end, I got an Anita flower. I don't know if it was because of my swimming skills in the pool. Or was it because I was walking with the handsome Bobby. Perhaps, it was my dancing skills though the last time I checked, only one person has ever said I can dance well. Anita chose me. May be because she noticed I was famous among the crowd. She was one of the Koforidua girls. She came into our bus with many other students from Koforidua. They wanted a short ride back to their campus, from where we will proceed to Kumasi. Even though there was no space by me, Anita still came and tried to push me from my seat. I looked at her fair face and slender figure. I obliged. Next thing she was asking everything about me. I gave her a few correct answers. And I 'packaged' for her the rest of the information she wanted to know. She was smiling. She had just met a half - Ghanaian, half - Jamaican. An exotic guy with a 'patois' accent. School radio star. All I did was to ''corrupt'' my English to assume my character. I found out from my experience that many Ghanaian girls interestingly wants a guy remotely exotic. So if you really want a pretty Ghanaian girl, put on your exotic self. By the way my parents are both proud Ghanaians. It was just my own 'acquired identity' as a life skill. And it always worked. The bus ride to her campus was short but I got her number. She had a mobile phone at that time when many of my peers didn't own one. I hadn't even dreamed of owning a mobile phone. There were telephone booths everywhere in town, on campus etc. etc. One only needed to buy a telephone card to communicate. Whiles I was saying goodbye to the Anita Flower, Bobby was hugging Tilly. He told me later that he had managed to con her and got her number. In that case, We both went to Kumasi with some Flowers from Koforidua. What are we going to do with them? It was our puzzle to answer. I kept in touch with my Anita flower from Koforidua. Actually, she hailed from Cape Coast and lived in Accra with her parents. She was only attending school in Koforidua. I constantly telephoned her from the booth. We talked and she told me how she was boasting to all her friends about her new 'Jamaican boy friend.' She was completely obsessed. After a couple of months, when we had received our student loan, and were sufficiently rich, we decided to return the flowers to Koforidua. Bobby and I planned the trip tactically. We wanted to make such a big impression on these girls so that we could claim the 'ultimate price' before we return. First of all, as exotic as we wanted to portray - or at least, I wanted to portray - we had to show that we were not poor guys - even if we were. ATM BANKING was the BUZZWORD at the time. It was new in town and it was prestigious to operate an account with an ATM card. It was enough to get you a beautiful girl friend for a short while - even when the account actually has no credit balance. So having assured ourselves that the both Koforidua flowers were anxious to see us again, and hopefully bond with us, we set a date for departure on that adventure. Rather not so strategically, we decided not to carry cash with us on the journey from Kumasi to Koforidua. We wanted the girls to know about our 'ATM status'. We wanted them to be there whiles we withdrew our cash to dramatize the point. And we took this major decision without knowing - and just assuming - that there is an ATM machine in the Koforidua branch of the Barclays bank. We didn't even care to inquire from our hosts. We were so sure because we assumed that that town must be as commercial as the city of Kumasi. How naive we were. We left in the morning on a crowded bus. We looked forward with excitement to meet our flowers. I wanted to smell mine properly and appreciate it. My Anita flower was more than eager to experience her exotic new breed. Everything went pretty well until we arrived in Koforidua that late afternoon. It was the beginning of our adventure proper. To our utter amazement, the Barclays bank in this whole town of beautiful flowers did not operate an ATM machine. The banking hall had just been closed with an unyielding security man in a tattered uniform making sure we didn't get near. What a horror story. We were now standing in the town, so near to our flowers, yet, faced a dilemma. We couldn't let them know about our situation. That will spoil the plan. So plan A had failed brutally. We had to operate plan B. The nearest town that may offer a solution was a town called Suhum, we found out after some inquiries from some ignoramuses around whose advise only misled us through out. We had just a few cedis in our pockets combined. We were so surely misled into believing that Suhum will offer a solution, we decided to rent a taxi with the rest of the money to take us through a guess of 18 km of red, bumpy feeder road to that town. When we finally arrived, having paid off the taxi driver, we were told that that bank did not even operate, or exist, if you like, in that town, let alone an ATM machine. It was now 5PM and we hadn't arrived in Koforidua yet. We had no money except a few coins. We had had neither water nor food. Luckily for us, as we didn't own mobile phones at that time, we could not be reached by our hosts flowers who were prepared and anxiously waiting for us. We also could not even afford to communicate with them. Even if we could afford, we will not until the right time. Next stop was Nsawam. Here, the bank also did not operate an ATM machine even though it existed. It was now a completely disastrous day. We were now standing at Nsawam at 7 pm, having set out in the morning from kumasi to visit our flowers in Koforidua. We were yet to arrive - and we had no way of arriving soon. We now had to decide. Bobby brought a brilliant idea. He said we are close to Accra. Let's take a trotro to Tema station. I know a branch there with an ATM. He was so sure. When we got to the Tema station, it was 9 PM. It was a long ride in traffic. We got our cash finally in our hands. And we were still on our way to Koforidua. It was too late to arrive that night. The journey from Kumasi to Koforidua had taken us more than 24 hrs. We were now much closer to Bobby's 'home town' - Tema. I suggested we go visit his family and pass the night. He agreed but he needed a decoy to cover our real adventure story. After much brainstorming we came out with a tale that we had come to Tema on a school excursion bus to visit the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR). That some how, we went about touring and eventually missed our return bus. It was an acceptable story for his parents to welcome us home. It was too late when we arrived so nobody asked us about food. Early the following morning, I gave Anita a call from the phone booth at the Koforidua lorry park in Tema. I expressed my regret that I failed to turn up the previous day as promised. I told her We had to 'run a few thins'..' in Accra first but I was now on my way with my friend Bobby. She was excited. She shouted and called out my name on the phone. Some how, my name was the most exotic thing to her. We finally arrived to rousing welcome - at least for me. Anita was jumping all over me. She took me round to show off to all her friends. She kept touching my bushy hair. And she kept saying 'this is my Jamaican boy friend...this is my Jamaican boy friend...' Bobby's Tilly Flower was 'still coming' after more than three hours of arrival that Saturday morning. It was curious considering that Bobby had assured me that she was equally eager about his visit. So far, she hadn't demonstrated eagerness. My Anita hadn't only demonstrated, she was practically dramatizing her eagerness in front of all of us. We were eventually invited for lunch. It was to take place in a certain hostel where we would finally meet Bobby's Anita. We arrived. There was a crowd which included other guys. It was introduction time. Tilly introduced herself and introduced a certain guy in the crowd as her boy friend. Bobby's eyes were wide open. He was shocked. As if to equalize it, Anita introduced me '' This is SaCut, my Jamaican boy friend. He is a school radio star and he speaks 'patois'.'' I now had the easiest task of 'corrupting' my English to demonstrate my exotic nature. I was good at it, and I enjoyed doing it. We enjoyed their food as well as their drinks. Bobby had started getting real. Whiles I was acting as a non - alcoholic drinker, he on the other hand, drunk the liqueur unashamedly. As if he wanted to get drunk and lose control. He may have started regretting for the journey after his 'girl friend' introduced to us her boy friend. Later that evening, we went out for drinks and meat and ice cream. At that time, 'fried rice' was very fashionable and we had our own share of the fashion. Regrettably, we could not prove our ATM point which we set out from the onset to do - the same reason that we spent over 24hrs making that long journey. Anyways, that was no longer necessary for the plan. All my plans were on course so far. I worried less about the games between Bobby and his Tilly flower. That was their own cup of tea. Of course, I sympathized with Bobby but he was responsible for misreading and misinterpreting the signals from the girl. He had to take responsibility for his poor judgment. We planned to party through the night but Tilly suddenly wanted to go home and see her mother. She promised to return to see Bobby. She left. I told Bobby to give up. He said yes, but he still nursed hopes. We eventually returned to the Hostel where we were to stay the night. It was a time many students were at home with only a few professional students still in school. There was one empty room with two double beds. I now had the onerous task of managing a situation where my friend Bobby had no other place to sleep except in the same room with me, and an eagerly awaiting Anita flower who wanted to bond with - but in private. It was such a dilemma. There was only one option - to convince Anita that my friend Bobby will sleep and slumber and will not even notice us. It took some time to convince her, but she succumbed eventually. I had a 'special agreement' with Bobby. I told him to do well to sleep, probably start snoring as soon as he can pretend. He promised on his honor, with his hand on his heart, that he will not give Anita any reason to escape my grib. He told me that he wanted me to 'pay his debt' for him since it was almost certain that he had hit a hard rock with his Koforidua exploit. We went to bed with our rubbers - of course. Anita and I slept in the first thirty minutes when Bobby was preparing to 'pretend to sleep' but we kept awake for the rest of the night. We were playing. And she loved playing with me. We even did run together but not with our bare foot. We run with the rubbers on our feet. We also talked. Bobby had had enough of our all night play. Whiles, we played, Bobby chose to wake up and urinate. He however staggered as though he was sleep - walking. We halted until he came back and pretended to be sleeping. To put it simply, the night was blissful. I woke up smiling broadly, having risen to the occasion and claimed my title to the regret and annoyance of my friend Bobby. I got the price. He didn't. Anita's face glowed in the morning. Before we left later that afternoon, I promised Bobby - but not on my honor - that I will 'package' the narration such that I will edit out the part of the story that says that he missed the price, but not always. That part of the story hinges on his honor - he claimed. He said he was jealous of me but understood fully that it was not my fault that he missed the price. He told me that he had at least 'enjoyed watching us play during the night'. He couldn't keep his promise to remain sleeping during our play. I currently don't know the whereabouts of either Bobby my friend and old school mate nor Anita my Koforidua Flower. My meeting with Anita was the second and last time. Interestingly, we had no mutual friends. As I had no mobile phone on which to be reached, and could not constantly keep in touch from the phone booth, I put her out of my mind. That Flower is now a souvenir in my mind. - extracted from the book 'PANAFEST IN THE DUNGEONS - an experience of a natural mystic by SaCut Amenga - Etego.