A voyage through traditions (5)

News of a child born to Addae had reached his parents.

Theirs was a chosen simple life in a small remote village that stood alone, miles away from any of the towns in the Eastern Region.

Not so surprisingly, only the older folk and the traders in the neighbouring towns were interested in Asetena Pa Krom.

That was largely because they had left the small village years prior and settled in the other towns that offered more excitement than sleepy Asetena Pa Krom.

The place was hardly a topic of conversation for the young ones.

Though small and uninteresting, Asetena Pa Krom was not a place of lack for its inhabitants.

The village was blessed with a watercourse that gathered into a river near the forest.

The water went on for miles deep into the forests, disappearing to places that its people could not trace due to the unnavigable nature of the routes.

They mostly farmed on the soils close to the water body, caught fish from the river and ventured as far as they could into the forest to hunt for game.

 A few villagers raised poultry and other domestic animals.

The one time the village got attention was when the government in power went there to fix solar panels to generate electricity for the people.

It was an election year.

Most of the indigenous people who left the village never went back to live out the rest of their lives there.

 However, from time to time, they would visit family and friends they had left behind.

 These visits could only happen twice a week even though there was a decently tarred road that led from the nearest town, straight to the village.

The drivers who went there were only willing to make trips on Wednesdays and Fridays for the benefit of the traders.

This allowed the family of the village folk to visit and for the indigenes to make purchases of essential items from the traders, paying with fresh produce and smoked fish.

It seemed the only people who made purchases with cash were a middle-aged woman named Ataa and Addae’s parents who supplied potable water to the villagers.

 Ataa was a widowed trader whose two children lived with her spinster sister in Accra.

 She had dedicated her services to the people of Asetena Pa Krom and was the sole contact for most of their needs.

 The villagers considered her and Addae’s parents very wealthy people and often went to them with personal needs.

Visiting days were very much anticipated and always stirred up delight among the village folk.

The young men and women especially, those who had reached adolescence or were way past that stage of life sought to experience the much talked about happenings of the towns that seemed so far and yet so near to them.

What better way to hear stories about these towns than from their people who were not their people anymore?

The stories made some of them yearn for a time when they would also finally leave the village for a better life elsewhere.