Bentsifi’s Tattle…Guy about town
Bentsifi’s Tattle…Guy about town
Ending up going no where
Suppers that linger… When we gather for Easter Sunday nourishment
I’m sitting here alone with my thoughts, looking up to the sky and feeling a moment of gratitude. It’s 6am. With my coffee in hand, I’m wondering how it is that I ended up at our family beach house at Kokrobite last weekend, instead of all the plans I had to attend the Easter festivities in Kwahu up north in the Eastern Region, and dash down south to Vodza along the Volta coast for the Easter regatta festival.
Time was when it was quite easy to make the decision of choosing where to celebrate Easter. If you weren’t going to your ancestral homeland, you would most certainly be going up the mountains to join the revelry that goes on in Kwaku! It was an easy choice. That community during Easter had gained such notoriety for hosting the biggest carnival that time of year, with almost every top performing artiste being on the bill, in the various stage concerts, and celebrations.
When I was younger, my family almost always went home to Busua. My dad never missed an opportunity to have us all together there. It was a pleasure having to be together and bond and reminisce how far we had come.
Later though, with most of us living abroad and the younger generation now also grown and doing our own thing, I don’t feel as obligated to do the traditional things. Now I feel at liberty to experience other places, and I find myself hanging out at these rather very crowded celebrations in someone else’s town.
This year, particularly, I really wanted to “do Kwahu again”. I’ve done it a few times since the thrill of the paragliding festival was established there during Easter. Not having been for a while, I wanted to see first-hand how things have developed, or not!
Then I came across the Vodza Regatta – essentially, canoe races by the indigenes in the Keta area – scheduled the same time but in the other direction. I wanted to be there at that one too. It felt like it would be massive fun!
Then I heard about the Gomoa Carnival. Again, scheduled for the same time frame! I wanted to be there too. There was yet another exciting event, the Tuozaafi Festival, also literally scheduled for the same period in Tamale. All events I so wished I could attend.
Then come the day, I end up choosing to be someplace else completely. I just couldn’t make my mind up which one to choose to be at. I thought, let me just go camping at my sister, Kesewa’s beach house at Kokrobite. So it is that I packed my tent and some camping gear, called up a few friends and ended up by the Atlantic coast at Kokrobite for just as rollicking a time! From there, I followed goings on at all the places I had wanted to be, at a distance, online.
There’s one tradition that I had to factor in my plans, for which reason it was quite difficult to make the trip elsewhere. It is Easter Sunday lunch with the Macaulays of Soul Clinic International School. We have been spending it together for nearly twenty years, and I didn’t think I wanted to break the trend just yet.
Dining a tradition
Just when the oven bell went, the doorbell did too. It was perfect timing, and I rushed to open the door. It was Easter Sunday sometime in the 2010s, and as expected, it was my lunch guests, the Macaulays. Often, some people just exude certain calmness, the kind that infect, and the matriarch, Salwa, petite, svelte with a rather pleasant smile is one such. There she was, beaming, with arms open to give me a hug. She was not alone. Behind her, was her family: her three children, Marcia, Vincent and Andrew, and granddaughter.
It was one of the days they came to mine for our traditional Easter Sunday bonding lunch. There was a beefy smell of garlic and herbs from the kitchen lingering in the air around the house. I love it when my kitchen so smells. It rushes my adrenalin and puts me firmly and completely in cooking mode. I stood at the door and observed the chaos I had created with various saucepans sitting in the sink and on the prep table. It spelled only one thing, that the kitchen was in session and that some delicious chow, food made with heart, was being made manifest.
As I prepared to serve lunch – lamb, grilled with sauté sweet potato and garlic sauce – frequent guests, the MacCauley’s, settled in in the living room, taking their usual positions. Often, they bring an ice chest full of drinks and hang out with me after Church when we’d watch movies off a projector, eat and have some hearty conversation.
Today’s lunch is special. Soul Clinic International School, the educational institution that Salwa’s late husband, Rev. Vincent MacCauley established in the late 1960s, is about to celebrate a milestone anniversary, and the MacCauleys, as should be expected, are super excited, none more than Salwa. It is she, who, since her husband passed away, years ago, set to continue running the school in the vein her husband intended.
It was the Reverend’s dream to educate the young minds of Ghana, and to nurture and develop them into becoming future leaders. From humble rented quarters, it is now with quiet confidence, one of the finest private co-ed schools from Kindergarten to A level.
Over the years, Soul Clinic has been transformed, under the management of Salwa, into stately brand new structures which holds their over 1000 students, a cafeteria/kitchen, study lounge and computer lab, staff lounge and hall, as well as a demarcated area for a swimming pool.
The school has chalked many successes too. An accredited IGCSE Curriculum institution, in 2009, their first year, they produced Jad Fattal, the first student to achieve 8 A*s and 1 A! He was awarded prestigious prizes from CIE (Cambridge International Examination). In 2011, they were awarded ‘Best School of the Year’ for outstanding results from their students, and this year, the school received five awards: the ‘Star Performance Award’ to Malaika Aryee-Boi with 8 A*s and 2 As, who also won ‘Overall Best Student in Biology’. Harshal Karia got 6 A*s and 2 As and won for ‘Overall Best Student in Chemistry’. Another student, Aathira Anilkumar had 8 A*s and 1 A, and Chemistry Teacher, Mr. Rahmani Awel was awarded ‘Best Teacher’. For the second time, the school earned the ‘Best IGCSE School of the Year’ 2013. The list continues with more recent chalks.
Salwa’s Soul Clinic, an institution of international repute providing holistic education
Salwa recalls the days when she used to teach. Her children, Marcia and Andrew, were once her students. “Boy, they got the most canes, more than anyone else. They just had to excel,” she reminisces, holding Marcia, who was sitting next to her on the sofa, and gave Andrew, who was in the armchair, the most adoring look, her eyes filled with what can only be described as pride.
In those days, it was not unusual for teachers to crack the whip. Those were the days when the adage ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’ ruled. No wonder her children are responsible adults. They all work with her in the administration of the school. Vincent, who doubled as an actor, appearing in a number of films in the 2000s and 2010s, has since passed away.
I called my hungry guests to table, and after grace, we begun delving into the chow, passing platter and saucers of condiments round. We began to tuck in as we made light conversation. I wanted to find out more about what the school offered. Marcia answered, “We offer enriching activity clubs on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Golf – Potter’s League, Pottery – ‘Clay modelling’, Drama, Modelling and Deportment, the Soul Clinic Junior and senior Choir/Band, the Science and debate team. And because we only have a small compound, we made grounds for basketball and volleyball, which we encourage everyone to partake one way or another.”
Part of the school’s vision is to inculcate in their students the values of a ‘sound mind and healthy body’.
What’s in store over the next few years, I inquired, and it is at this point Mrs. MacCauley got most excited, animated even. Did she see in her mind’s eye how she wants her school to be?
I see Soul Clinic International School becoming more equipped to give our students the very best in terms of facilities, and we will definitely continue in our commitment to unite knowledge with godliness, especially at a time when education is in a state of decline.”
She topped her glass with more ‘Nude,’ my special blend of fresh fruit and vegetable juice, took a sip and continued. “We will continue to seek students who combine academic ability with thinking critically, creatively and independently. We want to create such an environment at Soul Clinic!”
“Our prime concern is for our students to excel and be prepared for courses that push them to perform beyond themselves,” Andrew, who was also beaming with smiles, chipped in.
At this point, I raised my glass and said, “To nurturing quality youth!” And while I had been eying a last piece of the lonely lamb steak, so had Vincent. “Ok,” he said, “now, let me clear this plate.” And he took it just when I was thinking of clearing the table and dealing with the juicy piece back in the kitchen. We all looked at each other and burst into laughter.
That was a good while ago though. But, the spirit of bonding has never left us since we met all those years ago through my dear uncle Kofi Ansah, who unfortunately, passed away in 2014. Since then, we have continued the friendship and tradition of spending Easter Sunday together, even if we don’t get to meet up the rest of the year. So, we make it a point to meet for these moments at any of the top hotels in town.
Last Sunday, we gathered, as usual, for the buffet at the Kempinski. We filled our bellies with some good nurturing food, and our hearts some sweet memories and laughter. It’s things like these that make life worth living for some of us!
