Monday, August 17, 2009

Hey guys!
Sorry it has taken me so long to write again! Some cool stuff has gone down- seriously. I have so much to write about and very little time- but I will try to catch you up a little bit for now!
One thing I have to write about was my experience right after I left last time. The center got a call that there was a funeral happening that evening in a neighboring village, so we cancelled classes to attend. We all pilled into the van- 17 of us to be exact in a 12 seater- and set off. This might sound incredibly unsafe and uncomfortable- which it was - but take come comfort in the fact that we could only so about 10 miles an hour the entire way because we took a crappy dirt road all the way there. Fifteen minutes, about 200 potholes and 9,000 palm trees later we arrived at this village.
What you have to understand is that here a funeral is really different At least for the "Fetish" spririt religion that is practiced here ( most people are christian and there are some fetish groups here and there-- as for jewish people here, I think that I am the only one in all of Ghana haha).
Basically what happens is that the entire village comes out and starts dancing. They play drums and spend hours and hours sending this person off. It is totally joyous and wonderful. I was all set to dance- when we learned that the person who had died was actually a member of this village's shrine, so there was a stricter dress code than we had anticipated to partake in the dancing ( rather than just watch). We were told that to dance we had to take our shoes off and the men had to take off their shirts. But the women seemed to be given no option to dance because we were supposed to wear dresses but we only had skirts on. I was so upset about this while were were walking into the village center- but it was not until we got to the village center that I realized that the women actually did have another option, it was just assumed that western women wouldn't want to do it-- we could take off our shirts too! Women were dancing topless all over the place. And tempted though I was, I was not prepared to strip down in this african village.

So I am standing there witnessing one of the coolest things ever but not able to participate in it, when one of the women of the village came over and offered to re dress us in her home. So me and two other girls went off to her home were we changed into proper attire and then went out and finally joined the village dancing. Ofcourse we drew a lot of attention becausde a) we are white and b) we are bad at this tradtional african dancing- but we tried our best and the people of the town seemed to be happy we were there. Whether they were laughing at us or with us I am not sure- but either way I had a great time. We danced for like an hour an a half, and finally we left even though it was still going.

so so cool.


Agh there is so much else to tell, but I am going to have to save it for another date! Miss you and love you all! xoxox

http://rebeccasworldadventure.blogspot.com

1 comment: