It's been a while since my last entry, this is mostly because of laziness and lack of internet, but lots has happened in between and since I know you all care let me start with three weekends ago. As the last part of our orientation, the UC group travelled to the Cape Coast for the annual festival celebrating the seven chieftaincies in the area and their respective military groups (don’t worry Mom, today they are more a representation of their groups and heritage, not actual military groups). Out first night we watched a vigil held my the priests and priestesses that began at 10pm and ended the next morning at 4am. It is a very meaningful tradition for them because the priestesses go into trance and receive messages from their ancestors. Well stayed for about an hour, there's only so much we could get out of the half naked priestesses dancing, but regardless it was cool to watch. The next day's event was optional for us to watch, the slaughtering of a bull. I figured I may never witness this again so why not check it out? Well when we walking down to the square where it was to be done we found a pool of blood and the chiefs feasting on meat, guess we missed the boat on that. The city was packed with people for the festival. We spent the day walking on the beach, fending off vendors, enjoying the scenery, watching traditional dance and drum performances, and got a few beers at night at a small bar called "Mother's Inn". When we noticed an abnormally greater proportion of bulky women in there we put the pieces together and noticed we were hanging out in a lesbian bar/house. Ghana is always full of surprises!
Saturday was the day of the festival, we woke up early and headed down to where it began and watched as the streets filled up with people selling food, dressed in costume, and families sitting observing. We all agreed that the vibes we got were similar to 4th of July. Eventually came the parade, a whole of pomp and circumstance. The chiefs were carried high above everyone in thrones accompanied by huge umbrellas. Each chief displayed his blinged out gold jewelry and was trailed by an entourage of dancers and drummers. We joined in the parade and danced through the streets but after a while couldn't take it any more and slipped out to get lunch on the beach and relax the rest of the day.
The week proceeds as usual.
Last weekend we decided to stay in town and explore Accra. On friday a small group of us went to Makola Market, the largest marketplace in the city. We easily got there on our first attempt (a few weeks ago we thought we were shopping in Makola only to find out from our friends that we were basically just shopping around in the slums of Accra). In Makola we found streets upon streets of beautiful Africa fabrics, fish, vegetables, fruit, amazing bread loaves, candy, basically anything you need. I even found a butt pad that you wear in your pants, I'm thinking of investing in it. On our way back to the tro tro station, we were stopped at the main road by men in costumes galloping up and down the street at full speed. We were just in time for the parade of Eid, celebrating the end of Ramadan. A huge train of people decked out in Muslim attire made of colorful African prints, trumpets, drums, people dancing, singling, and smiling snaked through the streets. I looked around and saw a Methodist bookstore, a Presbyterian church, and a Christian church, and right in front of me I was watching an Islamic celebration. And still everyone clings strongly to their African heritage and traditions as I saw the weekend before in Cape Coast. Needless to say, religion is a strong part of life here, and I continually get questioned why I don't go to church services here (sorry Grandpa!). Almost every Sunday morning at 6am someone calls to invite me to church. "It's just the way America is" is the only way I can try to settle their utter bafflement.
A few anecdotes:
-At the market I got called Linda, Jessica, and Chinagirl by random people on the street trying to get me to buy their things.
-In a richer part of Accra I found a bathroom with toilet paper, soap, and paper towels!
-In my Oceanography class, I asked a student where I could get a hold of the lecture notes that everyone seemed to already have. His response was "Oh you know the old man to the right of the Botany department." What does that mean? I still haven't gotten them.
-Never ask for a menu here, even if there is one, they probably aren't serving what is on it and it likely won't be what you expect. In Cape Coast my friend ordered "Macaroni", the woman asked her if she wanted sugar on it... uh oh. She got served a hot bowl of spaghetti in evaporated milk.
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