A very crazy weekend in Kumasi

My dear friends,

This past weekend was perhaps one of the craziest I've had since coming to Ghana. We went as a whole group to Kumasi in central Ghana for a three day trip. Here are some of the highlights.

We had just arrived at the Kente Cultural Center. Walking into this large building we were hawked by dozens of sellers that noticed an entire bus of Obrunis just disembarked. Inside the building were about 20 Kente weaving machines with an aisle around the outside where the sewers were displaying their work for sale. You couldn't go a foot without being pulled in one direction or another, called by a salesperson saying "My friend", "Come see", "two cidi", or something of the like. Along the outskirts of the building many salespeople tried to get out attention through the small windows as we walked past. After purchasing a couple things I left the building and headed back to our bus. We had attracted quite a bit of attention and there were at least 50 people standing by the bus waiting for us to return. Many were sellers, others were kids who would say "give me money" or "can I have some money for food". After a few minutes the bus opened and we got on. About 12 people were on the bus meaning a big portion of the group was still inside. As we sat on the bus, people outside were banging on the windows and shouting trying to get our attention. It was quite stressful, but we decided to just close the shades so it limited the amount of space they could use to shout at us. My friend Clara had been asked what her name was as she had gotten off the bus in the first place by a man with a diamond ear stud that looked about 19 years old. When she got back on the bus this man was thre waiting for her with a bracelet that said Sara and asked her to pay the ridiculous fee of 14 cidi (worth about 1 cidi), so she refused to buy it. The man had written her name in the bracelet, I suppose, and he was visually displeased. He poked his head through the bus door several times trying to get her to buy it, but it wasn't her name and it was way overpriced. Rachel got up to the door and put her back onto it to keep it closed so he couldn't keep popping his head through to bother her. As this was going on the banging and shouting of people outside trying to get our attention continued, and Billy aptly described it like we were in Jurassic Park. So, Mary spotted a man selling bags and she thought he was gesturing 2 bags for 5 cidi so she called him to the door to bargain and buy. When she got to the door, Rachel opened it and she found out it was one bag for 7 so she wasn't interested. Nonetheless, our diamond-eared friend was at the door and let out a stream of curses saying "F****** white girl, you f****** white chicken" referring to Clara. Mary was not pleased with how he was trying Clara and trying to force his way into the bus while cursing. She remarks, "You can't talk to my sister like that" and knees him in the chest. He is not quite pleased with this turn of events and leaves. 5 minutes later he comes back with a 4 foot long, thick tree branch and starts hitting the windows of the bus. We are quite freaked out, but realize that he cannot break the windows. Nonetheless, for 10 minutes we saw him angrily circling the bus shouting at Mary to "Come out and fight like a man". It was quite an interesting experience as you can tell, but in the end we left and no one was harmed.

For the weekend we were staying in the same hotel as the Black Stars, the Ghana National Football Team who on Sunday competed with Benin in a World Cup qualifying game. While in the hotel on Saturday night I met several of the black stars and even got a picture with Appiah, the team captain.

Yesterday was the Ghana-Benin qorld cup qualifying game. We arrived at the stadium around 1, unneccessarily early for the 5 game, but just wanted to make sure that we'd all get seats. About an hour after arriving, Stephanie and I got bored of sitting around. We saw a large section of about 300 colorfully dressed people that were up and cheering and banging sticks, so we decided we wanted to join. We approached this section of what we later learned were the National Supporters Union, a group that travels to all the Ghana games to support the team, and were immediately welcomed. We started clapping with them to the beat of their own small band they had in the back and they even gave us seats. For several hours before the game we were dancing in a coordinated fashion lead by four people who were facing the group from the front all doing the same moves so that we copied. We put our hands over each others shoulders, all 8 rows in a line, and jumped 5 steps to the right and five to the left; we made swimming motions with our hands; we shouted Amen in unison and waved our white handkerchiefs. It was like sitting in the ASU student section but with 10 times more coordination and enthusiasm. By the time the game started I was already tired. Nonetheless, in the first 60 seconds of the game, Ghana scored on Benin, the person who scored was named Prince (one of the people I met and took a picture with). As he scored, the section passed up a huge flag that covered the whole section and we all jumped up and down. The dancing and coordinated cheering continued to half time and I was completely exhausted at the half. I had made some nice friends with the people next to me, and my friends Molly and Liz had been there with me the entire time, Stephanie had some time before. After the half, even the leaders of the cheering seemed tired. I mentioned to Liz how crazy it would be if we could get the whole group to do the chicken dance. So I being in the second row made eye contact with the main leader and tried to teach him the chicken dance, he missed a couple of the steps but people did alright with it. I was heavily thinking about going up in front of this group to lead a couple dances so started talking with Liz and Molly and Kristen about dances to do. As the leader tried again to do the chicken dance, I worked up the courage and went down to the front row. I turned around and was facing a group of nearly 300 jumping fans who I had never met and who were ready to copy my every move. It was quite an adrenaline rush! So, I started doing the chicken dance and the other leaders caught on and did it with me. Soon nearly 250 Ghanaians were doing the chicken dance to the accompaniment of the drum band in back-their favorite part was wiggling the but and getting lower. After doing the chicken dance for a little, it was time for a new dance so I lead the Macarena. This was a huge hit! Everyone was sticking their hands out, across their chest, on their waste, on their butt, and then wiggling the butt and clapping. I looked to my friends for inspiration to a new dance, Liz suggested the YMCA hand scan, so I did it. There I was in front of 300 fans who were scanning their hands and bobbing their head. I did a couple of other moves, but after about 15 minutes I was flush out of ideas and went back to my spot. I was welcomed with dozens of back pats, smiles; I had made 150 friends in about 15 minutes!! :-). Liz and Kristen also lead several dance moves as the game went on and then it ended as Ghana won 1-0. The crowd was ecstatic as we through up the flag again and jumped around waving our white handkerchiefs. After waiting for most of the crowd to clear, I headed back to the rest of our CIEE group. I was immediately stopped by a couple members of our group who had seen me up on the "jumbo tron" several times. Right afterwards I was stopped by a member of the CIEE staff who informed me that she had just gotten a call from Mr. Gyesi who had gotten a call from one of the CIEE staff at another program in Ashesi who recognized several CIEE people on TV. Apparently, I was on TV during the qualifying match!! How crazy is that! During that game I commanded 300 people in the chicken dance, screamed my lungs out in Twi songs, and was on international television as one of the Obrunis in this very enthusiastic crowd of Ghanaians that cheered the entire game. As you can guess, it was probably one of the funniest and most ridiculous moments I've ever had.

As you can tell it was quite a trip. I met two men that are doing a documentary on African football and I'm in the documentary now. I met a group of regular supporters of the Black Stars who have made me an honorary member and I will be going to their meetings in Accra. What a crazy weekend!

Miss you all!

Best,
Ben