It's been a while!

Hello M'Adamfo (my friend)!

It has been quite a while since I last posted, but much has been going on. Last weekend, I went to a Ghanaian play at the National Theater called Romantic nonsense. It was in a theater that seemed to be cross between my high school theater and broadway-the theater sat about 2000 in nice seats but the lighting was very minimal. The play was based around short scenes dictating a relationship between a Ghanaian man and woman and brought up a lot of interesting perceptions of relationships in Ghana. Some of my favorite lines from the play were: one song that the whole audience knew and chimed in with everytime it was sung was "God man the man, man made the woman, woman made the devil, devil made fire, Oh fire, fire fire fire, fire down below", another of my favorites was "marriage is the only institution in which the man looses his bachelors degree and the woman gains a masters degree" and "women are like hot palm nut soup, if you stick your face inthe bowl you will burn yourself, you must drink from the edges" and "marriage is the only war where you sleep in the same bed as your enemy". Perceptions of relationships don't differ so much here as from the US, they move much slower and you are not to show affection in public. There's a strong emphasis on women being able to cook and clean and take care of the chores of the house, while the man provides through work. Nonetheless the play focused on similar challenges as we would find the in US marriage like a relative unannounced staying with a new couple, a random woman walking is accusing the man of having an affiar with her but mistakenly getting the wrong person. In between each scene there was a 5 minute pause where the same song was played and people laughed and talked about the last scene.

The next day my host family, Dave, and I went to MaxMart to pick up some supplies for Valentines Day. MaxMart is a mall similar to what you would find in the US and I was amazed to find a supermarket with cornflakes, frenchfries, and salsa. Juxtaposed with the poverty right outside of the mall, it really brought my attention to the fact that in our world it's not just rich countries and more countries, there are very affluent areas of developing countries. I didn't realize the extent to which these exist, but seeing Ben and Jerrys sold for 16 sidi ($20), I realized that there is a strong desire in the affluent places of developing countries for the same products that we eat in the developed countries. On Sunday, I pounded Fufu with my host family and realized that American skin is very weak, I came out it with several blisters and was tired after a mere 10 minutes of pounding.

The rest of the week was fairly routine. I'm working on a number of proposals at my internship in water projects for slum communities. I attend my classes, one of which I hardly pay attention to because the professor is literally reading from a book that I now have a copy of. Apparently, no one in the class has gotten a copy of the nonrequired readings, which explains why no one else realizes he is reading word for word from a book.

This weekend was particularly interesting. I attended a funeral this weekend that was very different that what funerals are like in the US. It began in Friday night, we arrived around 4:30 to Kotobabeh in downtown Accra. Kotobabeh is a community dominated by shacks and makeshift structures, there's a nearby river the runs through that is a cloudy green because it is used as the main urination and defecation spot for most village residents. So, we arrived outside this large house where 7 canopies and about 400 chairs had been setup. We sat for about 2 hours chatting with the family and then went with my host aunt and her friend to get some drinks. After a couple beers, we came back and as we were walking back I started dancing to the music. The whole time there had been a large set of speakers setup amongst the canopies that had been blasting music. I started dancing and the kids thought it was particularly funny, so I pulled one of the kids in to dance with me. Soon enough, I was dancing a combination of the African dance moves I know and some American style with about 15 kids around me. After about 15 minutes they were all copying every move I made. So I had all the kids go low to the ground, count to three and then we'd all jump into the air, 5 minutes later I had the idea to have us dance in a circle so we danced in a circle with Ghanaian dance moves and I'd periodically switch directions and we'd rotate the circle the other way. Then I had the idea to have us dance in a circle holding hands Hora style, so we did. Afterwards I was quite tired so I sat down and chatted with Dave and my host mom for a while. The music continued to blast so conversation was limited, but around 9:30 a man comes over the microphone and says, "Please be seated, we're going to start the wake". Everyone sat down and he started speaking in Twi, suddenly he started singing a prayer and everyone joined in. Then the same thing happened for a second prayer. Then a small brass band started playing and a third prayer was started. A token drunk guys was dancing to the whole thing, standing in the front row, and "conducting" the bands. As the brass band concluded a couple songs a small African band with three drums, a shaker, and a tamberine started playing and the first 12 rows got up and started singing, swaying and dancing. Apparently, it was the church choir. The speaker then introduced the next group, the Kotobabeh boys who went to the front and started shouting and dancing together and singing. As these three groups were exchanging songs, it got to be about 10:30. I had been told earlier by my host family that we'd be leaving around 10:00, so my host Mom turns to me and says "Yen Kaw"-meaning let's go. As we were leaving, we started filing in a house which was unexpected given I thought we were leaving. As we were filing into the house with much of the family, the drunk was holding onto my ass and I remarked to Dave "Dude, the drunk guy is holding my ass", Dave turns around and says politely, "Shhh.." I was slighly confused by immediately realized why because as we walked into the room there was an open casket with Wisdom, the deceased. Wisdom was the son of my host mother's brother. He was wearing a nice suit with white socks and just laying there. Having never seen a dead body before (since Jews tend not to do open casket funerals), I was shocked and had the strange urge to touch him. At that point, I had been barely briefed by my family and didn't know the deceased's name of why he died and I was walking in the room with a group of people I barely knew in a country I had come to a bare 6 weeks ago. To say the least it was a very strange experience. The only time I saw a person cry the whole weekend was as they were filing through the room with the casket. At that point, I realized I was at a funeral not a party. Up until that point it had been singing, dancing, eating, and drinking. After viewing the body, the dancing and singing continued-most of the members stayed there until 4 in the morning dancing and singing. Periodically they'd give us sweets and drinks. Me and my host family stayed until about 12:30 and headed home. Saturday the body was taken up to Wisdom's home village to be buried and only a couple of the family members went. Sunday, which was the day we were to wear all black was a very strange experience as well. This was the day of the actual "funeral". We arrived at 1 and sat around talking with the family until 4, for some reasons I thought that were were going to have some sort of ceremony or service of some kind, so I asked my host mother Auntie Rejoice, when the service started. She responded, "There is no service" so I asked, so what are we doing the rest of today and she said, "This". This consisted of loud blasting music, periodic dancing, eating and drinking. I was quite confused, but shortly afterwards was pulled up by Aunti Jo to dance, so I did. Me and her were the only peope dancing, as while we danced all the Ghanaians sitting were watching, I broke it down to the best of my ability. As we were dancing, a Ghanaian man came up and put a sidi in my pocket, then another women came up and put a sidi (about $0.70) on my forehead. I never expected that dancing in Ghana could be profitable!

So in between the days of the wedding I went to Aburi Gardens, a Botanical gardens a couple of hours from Accra. with one my friends, Kristen, we rent bicycles and biked through villages on our way to a waterfall. We biked through the jungle, past a church playing volleyball, past dozens of kids who called Obruni as I passed by, and got to the beginning of the hike. So we got off the bikes and were accompanied by two new people who kept demanding money from us, they hiked with us all the way to the waterfall (about 10 minutes downhill) and continued to accost us as I played in the waterfall. I decided that it would be a good time to read the Shema (a Jewish prayer) as it was Shabbat, so as I was reading it the man told us that we should leave now. I looked to our guide and he motioned that we were OK to stay, so I ignored the annoying man. He again persisted and I stupidly said, "My friend, please leave". Not taking this comment too likely he marched up the rock I was sitting on and shouted, "You ask me to leave one more time and I'll show you what kind of man I am". The tension was intense and if he had touched me, I probably would've hit back. So I finished the Shema and waited for the annoying man to leave on his own, finally realizing that we weren't going to pay him any money. We hiked back up the mountain and biked back to the shop about 5 km mainly uphill. On the way back I stopped to buy some Aborawbeh, pineapple and let some little kids ride my bike. It was a very pleasant bike ride through villages, past most of Ghana that rarely sees tourists.

Well I think that's a good enough entry for now. Take care and I'll keep you posted!

Yebehyia Bio,
Ben