God's Willing

For as many inconveniences as we have here in Ghana, I am certain that there are an equal number of completely unexpected blessings. One of these blessings is God's Willing. And, no I'm not getting all spiritual on you or anything.

God's Willing, pictured here, is a lovely lady who is also a door-to-door pedicurist. Those are Fuen's toes she working on! What does such a luxury cost?, you might ask...a whopping 60,000 cedis -- roughly $6.50, or $13 for a mani/pedi.

Ok, you Manhattan and LA girls...perhaps that's not such a bargain for y'all as there's a Korean nail shop on nearly every corner and you can get a mani/pedi for $20, but here it feels like one of the few affordable things, that also happens to be completely luxurious.

I had heard of this mysterious woman named God's Willing pretty early on in my stay here, but I never was able to find out how to reach her! And, then, one day, a kind soul text messaged me her number. We've been good friends ever since. With God's Willing, I mean. Said kind soul has left Ghana, as most expats do, eventually.

It seemed such a shame that God (which is how the security guards announce her when she arrives at the gates of Orchid Gardens!), was spending so much time traveling from neighborhood to neighborhood making her house calls. Taxis would be too expensive for her, so she would be using tro tros (the local, privatized equivalent of public transportation), which are not only dangeous -- tro tro drivers are just horrendous drivers, but also thoroughly unpleasant (at least from an obruni's perspective--I'd prefer a crowded NYC rush-hour subway car any day!). So, Thursday afternoon playgroup at Orchid Gardens was born!

What's that?, you say! What does a playgroup have to do with polished nails and pushed back cuticles? Well, numbers my dear friends! Where there is a playgroup, there are captive mommies. Let me rephrase that...at the Orchid Gardens playgroup, there are captive mommies (yes, dear reader, even in Accra, it seems as thought the vast majority of playgroups seem to be nanny-driven and the only mommy in sight is the host mommy!). But not to worry your freshly painted toes...there are plenty of nannies around to make sure that your little one doesn't get into too much trouble before your mani/pedi is good and dry!

The beauty (no pun intended) of this arrangement is that 1.) the women who bring their kids to the playgroup and partake in God's Willing's services are actually totally normal women that are fun and interesting! Definitely not the super high-maintenance gals you might be envisioning. No, THOSE ladies are sending their kids off to the nanny-directed playgroup, so they can go sit at the salon and kvetch about the total "ineptitude" of their staff ("My idiot cook didn't buy ice for the FROZEN margaritas! What did he think frozen meant?" -- I'm not kidding, these folks are amongst us!!). And, 2.) God's Willing makes out like a bandit!

Come to think of it...God is coming tomorrow! Can't wait!