Dealing with Crazy People!

On Sunday in our morning and evening Bible studies I taught about the maniac of Gederra. During our teaching time I had the opportunity to share a few of our family experiences with crazy people. The people found these quite funny. After church when I was talking to Patty about the services, I realized that I have never written these experiences down. So in an event to make sure that these interesting tidbits do not get lost, I want to relate them here today.

First the reader must understand that the government of Ghana tries hard to take care of the people with special needs, but in a place that has barely enough money to maintain the things that are needed for normal citizens, the moneys for other groups is not available. For this reason, one thing a new coming to Ghana will see in the city are crazy people.

These crazy can be quite colorful. Most communities will have one or two. These people each have their own character and personality. There is the guy near Anloga River that caries around children’s toys. There is the crazy guy at Bomso that wears about 15 coats, even though it is about 100 degree out. There are ones that collect plastic bags, or hats, or watches. They all have different reason for going crazy, and if a person asks, many people around know the reason. Some go crazy from using drugs, some have sickness or fevers that have affected their mind, some use ju-ju (black magic) and it drives them crazy, and some are just demon possessed.

One thing that is generally true about crazy people here is that a person can tell how long a person has been crazy by their appearance. They start off pretty normal looking real, they just have a distant look in the eyes, and they start to wonder around. Then the clothes become more dirty, next the clothes are almost black with dirt. Finally the clothes become very ripped, until some of them wear no clothes at all.

Most people here have learned to deal with crazy people, since they have seen them their whole life. (For a stranger to Ghana these people can be quite frightening). Most are harmless, but some at times can be violent, and since all the asylums are full, most people try to stir clear of them. If a crazy person walks near a chop-bar (local restaurant) the worker will prepare a small amount of food in a bag, give it to the person so they will go quickly, and not cause trouble for them. Overall people just try not to get the crazy peoples attention. After some time they normal leave and go on their way.

But being white in a nation where most people are black makes it a little more difficult to not get a crazy person’s attention, since even a crazy man in Ghana finds bronis interesting. Thus, our stories begin...

The Crazy Guy with a Comb-

I think that Patty and I had lived in Ghana for about two months. At that time our apartment was in a local community called Anloga. Patty was about 8 months pregnant, but still liked to go visiting with me, even though there was a lot of walking.

So one day about 2:00 in the afternoon, Patty and I went out to invite some people to church. After about 30 minutes, visitation had brought us to the area near Anloga’s local market, and allowed us to talk to a lot of people.

This is when Patty and I gained our first experience around crazy people. My wife and I where talking to some ladies in a salon, when a crazy man walked up. At first he just stood a few feet away. I saw him out of the corner of my eye, but figured that he would just keep walking. But no such luck. All of a sudden, the guy pulls out an old comb from his bag, and proceeds to comb my wives hair. She was in total shock. I could she the horror all over her face, as she tried to figure out what was going on, and what was in that comb!

There I was, husband, missionary, and soon to be father. What did I do? I tried to tell the guy to leave, but he was not listening to rational thinking, I mean, he was a crazy guy. My mind keep spinning. Did I grab a stick and hit the guy, did I push him away, ignore him and pray he left? (A the reader might thing he would hall off and hit the guy, but remember that Patty was pregnant and I was not sure if the guy was violent!) As I tried to figure out what do, the smallest lady in the shop grabbed a big stick and started whacking the guy! I mean she went at him, like Hank Aaron with a Louville Slugger. That crazy guy turned tail, and ran as fast as he could. The crowd that had gathered started laughing, and after a few moments, so did Patty. So, that was our first experience around crazy people. (Now I know what do if a crazy guy tries to comb my hair!)

The Follower-
One day our family took a walk together over on the campus of the University. On this day as our family was walking back home a newly crazy man began to follow us. (We could tell that this was true about this guy because his clothes wear fairly clean). At first I thought that he would get board and just stop following, but after taking about 7 turns to loss the guy, he was still about 100 yards behind us.

Needless to say Patty really did not want this guy to know our house and sit outside all day, to which I heartily agreed. So I came up with our plan. Once we reached the road, that divided our community from the campus, the girls and Patty would run to the house and I would walk slowly another way. See, the main road to Accra is raised very high, and since the guy was far behind, once the girls got over the road, they could run to our house without being seen, and the guy would not know where we lived.

So over the road they went, and into the house. The crazy guy did not see them, he soon found me. I had stopped at a local salon to see what he would do. So there I sat. Most salons here in Ghana have chairs outside for people to sit in while they wait, and cokes to drink. So I sat down, told the ladies my story, and bought a Coke, waiting, hoping the guy would get tired of watching me drink, and head on his way, so I could go home.

No luck! The guy just stood there for about 30 minutes staring at me. The girls at the shop thought it was funny at first, but after about 30 minutes, they asked me to leave, because the guy was scaring off customers. Off I went again, walking down the road, with this crazy guy following me.

Most of the people around here know me and keep asking how my ‘friend’ was, with a laugh. After leaving the salon, I decided to walk to our neighborhood Shell station and see if the Security guard there might help. Well, after arriving, I told all the people inside. They just told me to buy an ice cream and wait him out. The manger had the security guard, one of my friends, go try to talk to guy, but that did not help. He (the crazy guy) was loopy. No talking, just staring!

So, finally after another 45 minutes and few ice-creams. The manger got a good idea: He said to just walk to the junction, grab a taxi or tro-tro and get a ride to town. Crazy guys cannot ride tro-tros. Then after a few minutes come back. Once the guy sees me leave, he will get board and go away. So I tried it, and it worked! By the time I got back he was gone, and I had a funny story to tell that cost me about three hours.

These are our two funniest crazy person stories. In the six years that our family has lived here, we have become pretty good at knowing how to handle these kinds of rare circumstance when they do happen, but they do make for good stories.

(Note- by the way, these stories are a collect of events over six years of time. Please do not get the impress that there are tons of crazy dangerous people walking around Ghana. The few crazy people of Ghana are not dangerous generally. These stories are just told for memory sake, and are not intended to be dramatization of the mission filed.)