Suddenly, the children are no longer seated by the carved wood door in ancient Ghana. Now, they are seated on a wood bench. They are beside a vast garden. Farmers move through the field. The farmers weed the plants.
“What do you grow here, madam?” Justinian calls to a woman who comes close.
The lady stands up. She smiles at the children. She does not recognize them.
“Are you visitors? I enjoy visitors,” she sounds friendly. “We are raising yams and plantains in this field. We eat this. But see over there?”
She points to another garden in the distance. A tractor moves through that plantation. “That is where we grow cocoa. We sell cocoa all over the world.”
“Cocoa?” Dingo Pingo is surprised. “We have cocoa at home in America!”
“I think we send it there to you. You don’t grow cocoa in America.” The farmer lady is a good teacher. “Please come to our home. You are hungry.”
“How do you know we are hungry?” Dingo Pingo asks.
“All children are hungry!” the lady farmer laughs.
The children enjoy supper with the Ake family. Justinian talks to them about raising pineapples to sell. The Ake family describes the cocoa business. They have much in common. Evening comes in Ghana, and the children begin to think of home.
“We have beds for you here,” the lady farmer is so welcoming.
“Bed! I am sleepy,” says Isabella.
“We are tired. We appreciate your hospitality, madam. I do think that our father is worried.”
The children gather outside the Ake home to discuss how to proceed.
“How do we get home?”
“We have a map of Uganda!”
“Yes, let’s lick the pineapple juice and lick the map of Uganda! We’ll be home instantly!”
The boys try just that. But the juice is too dry on the pages of the atlas. There is no longer the pineapple juice they need to travel.
“What do we do? Are we stuck here?”
“I hope not. I want to go home.”
“Home!” cries Isabella. She wraps her arms and her blanket around Dingo Pingo and Justinian and cries, “Home!”
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