"The three of you claim you are young, yet, I've been able to get myself ready before you did," said Mr. Agyei, feeling so proud of himself. "I beat you to it."
"Father, you woke up before we did." replied Baafour,
"Is that not the whole idea?"
"No Dad," said Bentum "We slept late. We were on a zoom meeting." Mr. Agyei ogled skeptically at his three sons.
"It's true Dad," said Baafi, buttressing his brother's point.
On the way, the three discussed etiquette when it comes to meeting with great leaders.
"Judging from the way they may sit, we must greet from left to right," said Mr. Agyei.
"I heard so," replied Bentum. "That if you greet from the right side to the left side, it means you're slapping the people. How absurd!"
"Yes it is, but it's true," said Baafi.
Mr. Agyei, his three sons and the guides of the surrounding villages met with the chief and elders of the surrounding villages of Mount Afajato; Liati Wote, and Gbiedi Gbogame. Their representatives received the gifts and blessed them at the foot of the mountain with a colourful African ceremony. The chief of Liati Wote advised all the teams present, telling them the story about how they came to settle below the mountains.
"I myself have not ascended the mountains," he said. "Yet you have been brave enough to take up this challenge. I wish you all the best. Our ancestors however hid in caves and fought several battles in and behind rocks and crevices," he said in Ewe as his linguist translated into the English language. "This mountain is so high that we have never thought of anything like you just have. The government has much more power over it now since the name has gone into the books of history. I think it is in the Guinness book of records, right?" he asked his fellow elders who were not so sure. "You may have to search for it when we leave here." The king had spoken and his subjects would obey.
"You have permission to proceed with the training, after which you'll necessarily have to come back to us to send you off properly with another ceremony like this."
So we are not done yet with these pleasantries? Come on! Thought Bentum.
"Our training begins tomorrow," said Mr. Adjei at the end of the ceremony. "We're going to be testing every gear and equipment we have."
For three months and over, Mr. Adjei and his family scaled the heights, facing every obstacle squarely. It seemed to be a success until the rains threatened to pour down once again. This time, Mariama could find no hiding place for them. They necessarily had to pitch their tents and hide in them. It figures the rain waited for them to get ready this time.
"We may not be lucky the next time around, but we hope we'll be able to set up in good time," said Mariama. "I will be consulting the weather forecast from time to time."