Wednesday, September 23, 2009 – Cultural Immersion
Today was a very early day! We had to be ready to go by 0630. Breakfast was only continental because it was so early so we were scrambling to bring food with us for the ride. We boarded the bus (only 1 this time!) and started off to the
As we got off the bus and headed to the center square, I couldn’t take the smile off my face. Everyone was saying welcome and waving to us as we sat down. When I say the entire village was there, I mean the entire village. The school children were all in their uniforms (school had been cancelled for the day for our arrival), the children’s dance group (which was almost all the children) had their African fabric ensembles on. The women of the village were sitting to our left and there was a big space in the middle of the square which would be used for dancing. As we settled into our seats there was a lot of commotion because the chief and his company were coming!!! The ceremony was about to begin! The chief and his elders made our jaws drop. I had never seen anything like this before. We were actually in a real African village! Before the ceremony we all went through the line of elders and chief by shaking their hands and thanking them for having us. We sat down and the ceremony started with a welcome speech and dance by the children. There were so many of them and they all danced barefoot in their beautiful fabric dresses. Every moment was a great photo op so I couldn’t put my camera down. At one point during the dancing show, a little girl had made her way through all of our chairs and was right behind Lauren and I, just standing there. She was so cute and shy! The little girl just stood there close to us and watched – it was a really neat experience. After the dancing, the naming ceremony began. We had about 40 people to go through so the morning was very long. When my name was called, I went up to the table in front of the entire village and was told my African name: Adzoa Elorm. Adzoa stands for Monday, the day I was born, and Elorm means “my creator loves me”. I repeated my name and a couple from the village presented me with two gifts: a beaded bracelet and handmade pot with my name on it. The wife tied my bracelet on my left hand and the husband handed me my pot, then we got our picture taken! I was so excited and honored to be welcomed into the village this way. The entire village was taking the time to share this experience with us and went out of their way to give us these gifts as a sign of welcome. Throughout the naming ceremony we took short breaks with more dancing, and at one point, two students read poems to us. It was very powerful and they were amazing speakers who expressed heartfelt passion in their words.
After the ceremony we were introduced to our host families whom we would be staying with for the night. I had three other SAS girls in my family: Lizzie, Ally, and Julianne. We first met our host mom, sister, and brother. Before going to their house we all got a group picture with the chief and his elders! Our mom, Beauty, and sister, Elorm, led us to our new home! If you notice, my sister and I share the same local name!! The walk wasn’t far from the center of the village. We passed so many goats and children running around the dirt paths. We turned off the main path onto a smaller one and entered the house through a wooden gate tucked between trees. The home was amazing. There were two buildings of the house: living quarters and kitchen. The center of the home was an open yard with dirt instead of grass. To the left was a tent like structure with a straw ceiling where the goats, cats, and chickens were lounging under. There was a small patio between the corner of the kitchen and the living quarters where we sat down to visit. Beauty showed us our rooms; we had two girls in each room with a bed and a mattress on the floor. Julianne and I shared a room and Ally and Lizzie were in the other bedroom. In our room there was a picture of Beauty’s husband who had passed away so it was neat that he was looking over us. What surprised me was the tv in our room!! I’m not sure if it worked but it was still there! After our short tour we sat down with our new family and got to know each other a little bit. Our brother, Sedinam, was actually the videographer for the naming ceremony and he creates his own movie scripts. He has big dreams of going to
After lunch we headed back to the village for some more time with our families. Each family would be doing an activity; either going to the river or watching the pottery process. We had almost four hours to spend before we had to meet in the middle of the village for our evening event. We brought our bags to our home; we were already experts on finding the way there! Our family was getting things ready for dinner so we sat down to learn the ways! Our family was made up of our mom, sister, her daughter, Priscilla (1 yr old), 2 brothers and a friend, aunt, and cousin! We weren’t sure who all lived in the house because they weren’t that many rooms but the more the merrier J I was in love with Priscilla and she was the cutest little girl! She sat on my lap and I took pictures of her to show them to her. She was so fascinated with the camera! She also liked my nose ring – haha! Elorm was cutting up a melon called Pawpaw which is orange and looks like cantaloupe but is a lot different. It was very sweet but had a harder texture. We probably shouldn’t have eaten it but “when in
We went with both brothers, Priscilla, and their friend, Bedi. We ran into a few other SASers drinking out of coconuts (Oh, and my friend Katie had a coconut tooJ)! The path to the river was down a steep bank and as soon as the area opened up, it was like a welcome to real
We came back to the house and hung out for a bit more. The family introduced us to the family goat, Becky. She’s the pet of the family but their other goats are the ones they eat for dinner! Good thing they weren’t cooking one for us! We helped sweep the floor with a straw broom and Lizzie got to help make the soup. I asked Sedinam if he would give us a tour of the village so we could see where everything else was. Sedinam and his friend took the four of us, now sisters, around the village. We passed the school, clinic, and mortuary. Everything is in pretty bad condition because the village doesn’t have the money for repairs or for redeveloping the buildings. We walked all the way to the outskirts of the village where the Village Piggery is located. We got to go inside and see the pigs up close and got to watch them eat – pretty gross! There was a watering fountain right outside so a bunch of children were filling their bowls and balancing them on their heads. We followed them down a path to another part of the village with more houses. There were a bunch of children running and playing in the center of the houses and two women were making pots. They invited us to sit and the kids were letting us take pictures of them. The women were making pots by hand, which is how all the pots in the village are made. Pottery making is the largest form of income for the village. It was an amazing process and it happened so quickly. I turned my head away for a second and the pot was already 1/3 of the way done. We thanked them for letting us watch and an older woman gave me a hug; she was the sweetest lady!! We headed back to the main area of the village because it was almost 6:00. I let Sedinam use my video camera because he’s so into film. He really liked it and I’m glad I got to share it with him.
When we got back to the center, there was already a bunch of people gathered. So many kids were everywhere playing with other SAS students. We were standing around talking and two kids came up to me so I knelt down to talk to them. They immediately held my hands and a few more kids came over. Before I knew it, I had at least eight kids surrounding me, holding my hands, arms, and leaning on my shoulders. It was quite the experience and I loved it! They were so fascinated with us and we were so fascinated with them. Lauren, Kristin, Katie, and I wanted to play a game with the kids so we started London Bridge is Falling Down. They loved it and caught on pretty fast! Pretty soon we had a huge group trying to go through at once because everyone wanted to play! The kids really loved it when the bridge fell down!!! It was so cute to see them so happy. As it got darker, we made a huge circle with more SAS students and more kids and played Ring Around the Rosie. We had a hard time getting everyone to fall down at the same time but it was so much fun. The kids absolutely loved playing the games. We each had about ten kids following us around at once too! One girl with a pink dress really took a liking to me and was with me for the majority of the night. Sometimes it was hard to communicate with them because of the language barrier even though they could speak English. They mainly speak the language of their village so their accents were pretty heavy but we made do! After we played with the kids a little longer our families came into the huge crowd because it was almost dinner time. Each family rounded up their SAS kids to a table to get ready. The sisters and I went back to the house to change into longsleeves and put bug spray on because it was night time now. Again, I used the 98% DEET so the bugs better steer clear! Our family had brought their own food for them to eat and a large buffet of traditional Ghanaian food was prepared for us because we couldn’t drink their water (most of the food is cooked with water). Our brothers must have eaten earlier so it was just our mom, sister, Lizzie, Julianne, Ally, and I at the table. The food was amazing! We had spicy rice, garden egg veggie mix, chicken, fried plantains (my favorite!!!), fufu (Ghanaian rice ball made of flour), and spicy soup. The meal was so good and I absolutely loved the flavor of everything. It was the best meal I’d had in a long time. Beauty and Elorm had the traditional bankou and tilapia soup (another form of rice ball made of corn meal so it’s a different texture). The Ghanaians eat it with their hands by taking a finger full of bankou and scooping it up with soup. Elorm let us try it and the soup was extra spicy but it was all very good. I loved being able to try new things! Throughout dinner we had an amazing conversation about how much we all love Ghanaian culture. We talked about the views Ghanaians have of Americans and vice versa. It was really interesting to hear the point of view straight from a real Ghanaian. We couldn’t stop thanking them for their hospitality while we were there. Once dinner was finished the drumming and dancing began.
Everyone slowly started crowding around the drummers and before I knew it I was dancing with an old man! He was a trooper and really got into the dance moves. Everyone does this certain move that resembles the chicken dance with your back and arms but it looks so much cooler when they did it! The older man and I were really getting down and then everyone moved to the open area for more dancing. We probably danced for two hours in a huge circle. The environment was awesome because the whole village was dancing and clapping and just enjoying each other’s company. When the drumming stopped, Terrence got in the middle of a group of kids and started the “No Music” song and had all the kids clapping and singing – it was great and they loved it! After a while, Elorm and Beauty grabbed us to go home. It was getting late and they wanted us to get settled in at home.
The village was pitch black and we had a small flashlight to lead us home. Luckily, it wasn’t a far walk so we made it home without any mishaps. Elorm offered us a bath which consisted of a bucket of water and her pouring the water over us as we stood there naked. All of us opted out of that, and I think they thought we were dirty but none of us wanted to experience the real Ghanaian shower just yet! We all just washed our faces to freshen up a little bit. We sat around the patio for a good hour or two talking and wishing we didn’t have to leave in the morning. We all exchanged phone numbers, emails, and addresses so we could all stay in touch. Our sister, mom, and brother all had different mailing addresses which was a little confusing if they all lived together (I think maybe they didn’t). Beauty took us to our room and showed us a bowl in the corner of the room. She said if we had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night to go in the bowl and we would dump it in the morning!*** I didn’t know what to think at this point and just said I would be okay! Let’s just say I’m thankful I didn’t have to go in the middle of the night!! There was a ceiling fan in the room but it was SO hot and we had to sleep in long pants and shirts. We had a mosquito net over the bed but decided not to use it because I didn’t want to feel trapped! Beauty said goodnight to us and we settled in. The bed was actually really comfortable and I had a really good night’s sleep in my new Ghanaian homeJ
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