Bonaventure

Angelina and I have interacted with many taxi drivers throughout the weeks we’ve been here. But with Bonaventure, we had one of the most amusing conversations. He started out with the regular questions “What is your name? Where are you from? How long are you in Ghana?”. He then proceeded to offer his phone number for us to call if we ever need a ride or “drop-in”. This wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, we already had another taxi driver’s phone number. By the way he was looking at me we knew where the conversation was going, especially after he asked “how old are you?”

“24” I said (my birthday in August is close enough). “Really? I am 25!” he replied with a smile.

“How old do people in your country have to be to get married?” Bonaventure asked. With all the marriage proposals we’ve had, we knew where he was going with this.

We told him legally anytime after you are 18 years old. Angelina and I were on the same brainwave. She stepped in and said “I got married when I was 23. How old were you Brenda?”

“Well, it was a year ago so I was 23 also” I replied.

It took Bonaventure a short time to realize we said we were married. He asked to see our wedding rings. We showed him our bands. He was incredulous and smiled a lot. Eventually he believed us and then he asked for our advice.

“If I want to marry a white woman, what should I do?” he asked.

“Well,” I started “a white woman will not marry a stranger so you need to be friends with her first. You need to talk and get to know each other well. Maybe after 2 years you can think about getting married”. Bonaventure listened intently, smiling.

“You need to take her out to dinner and you have to pay for the dinner” Angelina added. Bonaventure of course wasn’t liking our advice, it meant too much trouble. He wanted a white woman fast.

“But if I want a white woman, where should I go?” he asked. We didn’t really know how to answer this question, but we tried our best, reminding him he needs to be friends with a woman first.

He eventually stopped asking us questions, but he never lost his smile. However, his car did lose the ability to get into gear. Luckily, it was only a short walk to where we were going to get off anyway. “Ndaase” we thanked him, and walked to Eli’s.

The next day after walking out of the Elmina Beach Resort to find a taxi to take us home we encountered Bonaventure once again, his car working well.

“Do you remember me?” he asked with his signature smile. “Where are you going?”

We told him we needed to get to Abura, and after he offered us what we knew was a good price we got into his taxi once again. He didn’t ask many questions this time around as we shared the taxi with many other people on our way back to Cape Coast.