The Day Jimmy Carter Almost Killed Me

 

I traveled to Ghana to document the Carter Presidential Center’s efforts to eradicate guinea worm disease, a hideous parasitic illness afflicting those in the poorest regions of Africa and Asia.

 

I was told before I left that I should not miss visiting the town of Elmina, a beautiful fishing village on the coast with a Dutch slave fort where a previous generation had been kidnapped and shipped like kindling across the ocean.

 

On a day with nothing planned I hired a driver in Accra to take me on the journey to Elmina. I got into his car and he promptly introduced himself as Jimmy Carter. I exclaimed: “No Way!” and told him of my mission for the Carter Center.

 

It seemed like destiny to both of us that we were connected that day. He told me he admired the man so much that people began calling him by that name.

 

Elmina truly was one of the most powerfully beautiful places I have ever seen. The slave fort overwhelmed me with its’ sense of devastating history. After a few hours we decided to eat.

 

We both ordered the local beer, which came in larger than life bottles with a huge star on the label. I’m not sure what the alcohol content was, but the star seemed prophetic. I had one. Jimmy had two.

 

It began to rain and we decided it was time to go. Behind the wheel, Jimmy Carter drove with a new sense of abandon. It was dark, raining, his windshield wipers barely worked and the road was littered with potholes. He never lifted his foot from the gas pedal.

 

We veered frighteningly close to the edge of the road, nearly hitting a continuous stream of pedestrians whose faces emerged and quickly vanished in the darkness. It was a harrowing ride as we hurdled through the African night and I began to pray.

 

At one point I thought of asking him to stop the car, fearing for my life but I remembered advice from a friend on my first taxi ride through New York City: “Just pretend you’re watching a movie!”

 

A few hours later we arrived back at my hotel. Drained but alive and thankful that I could work another day for the other Jimmy Carter.

 

 

Photos from top: Elmina, Jimmy Carter in Plains, Jimmy Carter in Africa

 

 

TAGS: , ,