reggae night

I planned to make my next visit out to AAMA and near the old site on Sunday, four days after my thorough exploration of the area. The night before, Saturday night, was Reggae Night at Big Milly’s, the old guesthouse; and for once I decided to go out at night, both to check it out and to hopefully ask after Ernest, who had owned the land on which Koro and I had lived. 
 
Setting out from the house, I prepared myself to pass through a street full of men whose unwanted attentions were generally amplified at night, made all the worse by the cover of darkness and the increased presence of alcohol; and as I started determinedly down the dirt road, I put out an extra-strength version of my usual “not interested” vibe.  (Sometimes the vibe worked, sometimes it didn’t…)  Thankfully, the only person who called out to me now, as I neared the guesthouse, was the young ringleader of the group of boys, maybe around ten or eleven years old, for whom I often bought fruit when I made a stop at the fruit stand that was down this way.  By now they knew my usual patterns, and so the whole gang looked at me in confusion as I passed by, a few of them turning their hands up as if to say, “What are you doing?  Out so late?  And no fruit???”  I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head and continued on to the gate to Big Milly’s property, where I had to pay a small fee before being let inside.  
 
Finding a nice spot to stop and survey my surroundings, I took in the scene.  The DJ on the stage was playing music that did not interest me, and no one was dancing yet.  (I had known when I left the house around 9 that it was probably still too early for the “party,” but I had waited as long as I could – before losing any desire to go out.)  The first thing I had noticed upon walking in were a few pool tables set up near the gate, and this was a bit of an interest – it had been years since I had played.  But looking at all the men currently playing, I let go of the idea when I didn’t see anyone I felt I wanted to join.  A lot of people were gathered at the bar – never my place.  And as the restaurant fairly full of diners also did not draw me… before I knew it, having found Reggae Night itself predictably boring for me, I felt myself heading straight for the beach.
 
But stepping through the gate opposite the one through which I had entered the yard, this suddenly seemed a bad idea, as I was now right in the midst of dozens of men out there on the beach.  I had been reluctant to go to Reggae Night at all because I was dreading dealing with all the men who had been trying to talk to me on the street earlier that day – all telling me they would see me at Reggae Night…  Well, what I had found time and again in Ghana was that, without an escort, the only way to keep men from trying to talk to you is to talk to one of them; and in this regard, I lucked out.  The first Ras who called me over, I soon found, was not at all a bad sort.  
 
Sitting on a bench beside him and a couple of his friends, talking about this and that, having learned that he was from the Ashanti region (and typically very proud of his Ashanti heritage), was a couple years younger than myself, had been here in Kokrobite a handful of years, had a small shop here on the beach and was all about doing business – ever since he first went out on the streets of his hometown selling small items as a kid (any cross-cultural business idea I might have, he said, he was eager to help me get started)… and having shared with him that I had lived around here eighteen years before… I eventually asked whether he knew Ernest – “an older Rasta,” I said, “who’s been around here for a very long time.”
 
I didn’t expect the first person with whom I spoke to know him, but still I was a little disappointed when he said he did not – thinking that this meant I would have to find someone else to ask.  But after a minute or two, he asked if Ernest was tall or short, and when I said he was quite tall, it came to him – “Ah, yes!  Ernest – he is living with a woman from Europe…”  And then he told me, smiling, not only that he did indeed know who Ernest was, but also that… he had been to his house!  Meaning that he could lead me to him!  “He lives way down the road out of Kokrobite, maybe a twenty-minute walk,” he said.  
 
“Out by AAMA, the old run-down hotel?” I ventured.
 
“Yes, very near there.  We can go there,” he offered excitedly, “ – whenever you like.”
 
Eureka.  “Can we go tomorrow?”  
 
After making our plan for the following day, I surprised myself and stayed out longer, enjoying the view of the full moon and the ocean, while talking about nothing in particular with my new acquaintance, Jahfar.  And when finally I stood up and said that I was going to leave, I was exceedingly pleased that Jahfar neither protested nor asked me for my phone number nor tried to walk me home.  I had him show me where his shop was, told him I’d come by around 4 pm (by which time the weather would have cooled), and that was that.  In this setting… this truly felt like a small miracle.
 
Though by now the party was going a bit stronger, as I passed back through the yard around 11 pm, with a live band now on stage (playing some rather uninspired reggae covers) and some (uninspiring) dancing going on, the scene inside Big Milly’s still held no interest for me, and after a moment of taking it in, I continued on through the street-side gate opposite the beach.  Delighted to find myself on a blissfully empty road – such a rarity, I walked back to my home at the AirBnB feeling really good.  Really… in the flow.  With it – with the Divine Flow.  Conscious of it.
 
He will take me to Ernest tomorrow…  And I only had to talk to one guy! The Universe had brought me directly to the right person…  
 
Back at the AirBnB, after a quick shower, I got back to my journal as I went through my night-time stretching routine on the floor.  Do I even want to see Ernest? I now asked myself.  Ernest and I had never been friends, by any means, and I reminded myself now how I had felt about him – while I had not known him at all well, I had always gotten the impression that there was something a bit shady about him, something a bit untrustworthy.  …But he knew Koro, I told myself.  And it could be our site he’s living on.  And that is what I want to see…