Overall, Christmas in Ghana did not
make me as sad as I thought that it might. It was more of a detached
weirdness that I wanted to call people and ask them what they got to
live vicariously though them, but honestly I did not feel sad to miss
the stress of buying people gifts and all the stress that comes with
the holidays. Christmas in Ghana is a more than a week long occasion,
it really goes from before Christmas to after new years. Someone
actually stopped by my house yesterday for a new years visit. So what
my counterpart (John) told me was that when people come by to see
you, you are supposed to give the children biscuits (cookies) and the
adults a drink (soda). We never went out and got sodas so I didnt
give those out, and I bought a pack with a lot of biscuits and only
on one night did children come by to ask for anything. So now I am
left with a lot of biscuits that I am not particularly interested in
eating...I gave a pack to the person who visited me yesterday. John
says the children will come eventually. Technically he said “By all
means, they will come”. He has some phrases that he likes to use a
lot, one is by all means, another thing he says a lot is the word
compulsory, which I am not sure I have ever used in conversation in
my entire life. So anyway when the kids did come for the biscuits, it
was Christmas day, and I was sitting with John's family (my new
family) after dinner. We were sitting on the veranda by the light of
a kerosine lamp. We had eaten fufu with light soup and chicken for
dinner, so our tummys were very full and I was feeling very relaxed
and happy. Suddenly in the distance we could hear some yelling, which
wasnt out of the norm because throughout the day I had sometimes
heard adults celebrating and happily yelling, or sometimes children,
or sometimes loud explosions that sounded like gunshots. The gunshot
noise came from this thing, I think it was called a cabart? It is
something like two plastic bottles and like a science experiment they
put something in the bottom and add some liquid and it makes a really
loud noise and explosion. They do this around Christmas. Anyway now
the yelling was a crowd of children who were actually singing a song
and beating on pots and pans. The Christmas song they were singing is
one where you ask for things, and they were heading for my house. Im
not sure if they went to every house or just houses where they
thought people would give them something. I couldnt make out the
words to the song but it was something asking for presents, and had
the word father christmas in it, and they all filed onto my veranda
and sang for me. I gave them a lot of biscuits and then they changed
the song to a celebratory thank you song and inserted my name into
it. I really wanted to take a video of them singing it and make them
work for the cookies but my camera died right when I started
video-taping. Other than the biscuits there is not any gift giving
that I saw. For the christmas tree they take palm fronds and braid
them, and make an archway in front of their house. They decorate it
with flowers and balloons. Christmas here is about visiting people, I
think thats why they make an arch to their house. One of my chiefs
came to my house yesterday to ask me how I brought in the new year,
but I was at farm and missed it. So I think basically the holidays
consist of visiting people and especially after new years you ask
everyone how they brought in the new year. And by brought in the new
year I mean how your life situation is at the beginning of the new
year. The saying in my language around the holidays is jeha eya ne
jeha ebanau wau which means may another year come and meet us. And
the response is kabiwasi nadeke wange, which means and may we be
alive. Or something like that. Wow it doesnt sound very festive when
I read what I just typed but people are ecstatic when they say this
to each other, and they especially go nuts when I say it. When I ask
them how their christmas is going, some people have told me that it
is only okay, and that it was much better last year, because this
year they dont have much money. It really makes me want to be able to
help my village. One of my purposes for being here is to increase
household incomes.
The community had a naming ceremony for
me and gave me a Krobo name. Because my community is made up of many
smaller villages, I have eight chiefs, and eight queen mothers, youth
leaders, and opinion leaders. So this naming ceremony had a lot of
people in attendance. My volunteer friends nearby and their
counterparts came also. The ceremony started with some singing, some
speeches, and then they took me to a back room and put some
traditional cloths on me over my clothes. These cloths were kind of
thick and very hot. Then, as with tradition, I sat in “my mother”'s
lap. Really it was one of the queen mothers. The ceremony is normally
for a baby. They put beads on me, and when they named me they tied a
bracelet with two beads onto my wrist. This bracelet is what they do
for Krobo babies when they name them. So my name is Awisi Nakie, or
Nakie Awisi. Nakie is a queen mother name, so that means that I am to
be respected and there are chores in the house that I dont have to do
(very true lol). Nakie is the name they give a firstborn, and they
surprised us at the ceremony because John had told them I was the
third born daughter whenever I came to visit in november, and we just
assumed that they would give the name Mamle. Well the way they see
it, I am the first born because I am the first white person born
there, and I am very happy because honestly Mamle kind of sucks as a
name. Awisi means that I was born on sunday. After they named me they
took up a donation, which is customary. At baby naming ceremonys they
donate money to buy something for the child like chickens or goats,
from which they can profit later in life. My money was to buy things
for my house because right now I pretty much just have empty rooms
with my stuff on the floor. They gave me 125 Ghana Cedi, which is a
lot and honestly I wasnt expecting them to give me anything. It was
really nice and I feel very wanted and loved by my community. During
the donations I danced this dance called Dipo, which is not a part of
naming ceremonies normally. Dipo is a rite of passage to womanhood
for girls. So I guess they were combining two into one day. During my
dance people ran up and stuffed money all over me where ever they
could, including down my shirt and some tried to put it in my mouth.
Most tried to stick it in my beads around my neck and then it would
fall into the floor but there were many people making sure all my
donations made it into the donation bowl. They seemed really excited
to give me money. After dancing a couple times they said some closing
words, and like that it was all over. I think the ceremony was three
hours long. Its weird how the Ghanaian mindset of long times not
being long times is starting to become my way of thinking also. Time
is not valuable to them, so they are usually not on time for
anything, and the thing that they are attending waits until everyone
is there to start.
After my naming ceremony me and John
and Kyndra (another volunteer) went to the middle of the community
for a football gala. It was a three day gala with several teams from
my community and allso some from nearby towns. This was the first day
and it was pretty fun because there were a lot of people there. Some
of the people came from out of town to celebrate the holiday with
their families in the village, and some came from the nearby areas to
watch their team. John was the manager for the team from the village
where we live. It was really funny because the people that arent from
my community did not expect to see a white person there and they were
very eager to talk to me. I think I got six marriage proposals. The
people that are from my community were excited to see me also because
they like it when I am involved. I try to go out whenever anything is
going on, but unless it has loud music I dont really know about much.
The other thing I went to was a birthday party which was basically
big speakers and everyone dancing. So I went and danced of course.
The second day of the football gala was even more fun, because this
time I ran into my friend who is one of the people in my village that
sells akpeteshie. She snuck me off from the gala to take from shots
and then return. She was with some other ladies from my village and
it was nice to hang out with some people that werent kids. Even
though they were just as rowdy as kids. We went and stood next to the
goal for the other team and cheered from there. When our team scored
we rushed the field. My villages team won both of their games which
made the day even better, and my counterpart yelled so much that he
lost his voice. He normally has a really deep voice that sounds like
darth vader but it was so high and squeaky it was hilarious. He
sounded like a muppet or something. There is a lot of fighting
involved in these football matches, so after the gala closed for that
day everyone was trying to rush me home. I would rather people care
about my safety that to not care, but it made me feel like a little
baby, not even able to walk home by myself.
So whenever things arent going on, I
normally spend my day talking with people. I feel really happy in my
village and I really love my new family. My family is John's family.
His wife is super nice and happy. They have three daughters, ages 14,
7, and 1.5. The little one was scared of me for the longest time but
recently she has warmed up to me and will call my name and let me
hold her and sometimes when I am sitting down she crawls all over me.
I dont know how anyone could do peace corps if they didnt like
kids....so the 14 year old is kind of quiet, but sometimes when I
come home from going somewhere she runs up to give me a big hug. Im
not sure if that is because she thinks im going to bring her
something because one time she did my laundry so I brought her a meat
pie (its what she wanted) from koforidua. But she knows english and
Krobo so she was very helpful when I wanted to go visit people
because then I could talk to anyone successfully. The middle
daughter, is quite the wild child. She kind of reminds me of me when
I was her age. She likes to laugh a lot. She runs to give me a hug
every time I come back from anywhere. She also tries to jump on my
back sometimes, random times...she will jump as high as she can onto
my back and then try to climb the rest of the way up to get a piggy
back ride. One time she successfully jumped all the way up onto my
back and clung on like a little monkey. I usually try to shake her
off. Last night I let her play with my hair...which was interesting.
She took a comb and was combing from the top down, causing all the
tangles to form at the ends of my hair. She put some braids in that
were really hard to get out. She also went and got something from her
mothers room, when she brought it out it was hair conditioner...for
africans...i told her no she could not put it in my hair and then she
was playing with my hair more and I could smell it and I realized it
was already on her hands. I was mortified but my hair doesnt smell
like it today so im over it.
So in conclusion I am still having a great time, more to come later
Nancy! This is a wonderful blog and I am excited to hear more from your escapades in Ghana! I can't wait to depart for Nicaragua in March and reading your stories are making me more and more excited. Happy Holidays and best wishes in the new year from Northcackalaky!
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