Sunday, May 10, 2009

"OUT OF AFRICA"

Chia C. of Cameroon had his story told in the May, 2009 issue of the AA Grapevine. Parts of it sounded like life in Ghana. He began by saying that his drinking started off as an acceptable way of spending time with friends but it soon “made my life topsy-turvy”. He got involved with fights, money problems and the wrong women in his “long journey into the abyss of alcoholism”.

He went on to say that “One of the most disturbing things about alcoholism in Afria is that most communities do not even consider it a serious social problem. So many are trapped in its asphyxiating grip, and whole lives are lost forever or simply swept down the drain into oblivion without many people seriously questioning why. The ‘drunkard’ is simply considered a societal clown if he drinks and remains ridiculously friendly, or someone to avoid if he becomes agitated or violent after consuming more than his brain can reasonably handle.”

Chia went on to describe how he took up a responsibility at the funeral of his brother’s wife. He received money from the family to pay the morticians and others, and took a drink “to steady my strained nerves and that was when all hell broke lose. I spent the night on a bench in a market stall, and stayed away from the ceremony. I continued drinking heavily days after the funeral and finally left my village to go back to my station. I had become a nuisance not only to my family but also to the entire village.”

In his post-booze despair, Chia turned to the only anonymous source he knew, the website of Alcoholics Anonymous (http://www.aa.org/), and sent out his first SOS signal. “Therein started my fellowship with online members of Alcoholics Anonymous. The literature and e-mails I constantly receive from the members of this group are the reason I have not tasted a drop of alcohol in the past eight months. The benefits of sobriety are innumerable.”

Summary of the "Out of Afria" story in the May, 2009 Grapevine

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