Chaos.

People coming, people going. I swerve through the grocery store’s traffic, which consists of incoming shopping carts, employees with their hands full of produce, and shoppers leaving with their newly bought items in their yellow plastic bags.

I am overwhelmed by the busyness of this environment; however, it isn’t unfamiliar. Just think of Costco the day before Thanksgiving, except with more tropical fruit and unfamiliar brands.

As I make way away from the group and towards the dairy section, I find what I’m looking for. Apricot yogurt, a special request from one of the members of my group who decided to skip out on our trip to the mall. After I take the yogurt into possession, I turn around and see three Ghanaian women making large motions which brings my attention to their lips and there is silence. Before I can make out their signs, my vision is impaired by local shoppers zipping through the aisle.

After a full school year worth of American Sign Language, I was determined to understand what they were saying. As I stepped out of the lanes of traffic, I started to focus on their body language and I was unable to make sense of what they were saying because of all of the people. Frustrated, I stepped to my left and shared a smile with one of them who was not engaging in the other two’s conversation, who were completely unaware of my presence. As I was about to sign hello, a shopping cart smacked against my elbow and the shopper apologized and continue moving through.

That was my cue, I left the aisle and met the rest of my group to checkout.

As I waited in the long line, I wondered about the deaf community here in Ghana and decided to look into it.

Thanks to google, I came across the Ghana National Association of the Deaf (GNAD), a non-profit organization, that has a mission “to mobilize members, remove communication barriers, create awareness on deaf issues, and advocate for equal opportunities for the Deaf People.” According to their website, there is an estimated 110, 625 Deaf Ghanaians.

Knowing that Ghana has many local languages in addition to English, I was curious what sign language they used. Their website informed me that fifty percent of Ghanaian sign language can be comprehended by American Sign Language users although they use the French’s method of fingerspelling. All of this research inspired me to do a special report for Metro News on awareness of the Deaf community in Ghana, and my news editor liked the idea for a special report.

Stay tuned.