Many of these photos are a repeat of what's been posted on the blog...but I figured I'd share it on here, too...just in case you're craving more :) Click on the link to see the "Best of Ghana" photo album I created to share my experience. If you click on the first photo and go through the photos that way,
you'll see the captions, which explain a bit about each photo. It truly was an incredible experience!
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Sunday, July 29, 2012
A typical evening in Kpendua
Each late afternoon/evening, a crowd of kids would gather outside of the clinic, where we were staying. Usually, Derek would play soccer with a group (or frisbee), and I would bring out crayons and paper. The children were so excited by crayons and paper--something that seems so simple to most Americans. One time, Derek folded a paper airplane for one of the kids...for the rest of our time there, no matter what we were doing, kids would approach him, hand him paper (some would say "plane," make a gesture like an airplane, or just assume he knew what they wanted.) You can see some photos below, including one such crowd of kids surrounding Derek! Eventually, it would get dark and we would go in to get ready for dinner (put lots of bug spray on and long pants/sleeves). Sometimes the kids would still hang out for a while, but they eventually went home too and we started again the next day. 
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Kpendua: Greetings
Greetings are a very important part of the culture in the village (though I would say greetings are important to Ghanaian culture in general, just usually less formal than in the village). Luckily, Mumuni Zakaria was kind enough to tell us who to greet and how to greet them, translate for us (as most, probably 95+%, of the people don't speak any English) and make sure we did all the appropriate things (giving kola nuts and squatting for the chief, telling us when we could take photos, etc.)
Below are photos of the kola nuts; it is customary to give kola nuts to the chief of a village in the North when greeting him. Also below is a photo of the chief (back left with stripes and turquoise hat) and his elders after we greeted them. The chief gave us 20 eggs (!!) to welcome us.
Below are photos of the kola nuts; it is customary to give kola nuts to the chief of a village in the North when greeting him. Also below is a photo of the chief (back left with stripes and turquoise hat) and his elders after we greeted them. The chief gave us 20 eggs (!!) to welcome us.
Kpendua: A Welcome Fit for Royalty!
Upon our arrival in Kpendua (pronounced "pend-u-a"--"K" is silent), Mumuni Zakaria, the community's former assemblyman, met us at the "station." (Everyone called it the station because it's where the bus stops, but there's not actually a station of any sort.) He and another man tied our backpacks to the back of bikes and rolled them along as they walked us to the clinic, where we would be staying. Along this walk, everyone wondered who we were-- the adults looked at us with curiosity, as Kpendua doesn't get many visitors, and the kids yelled a mixture of "silaminga, silaminga!" ("white person" in Dagbani, the local language in the Northern Region), "N-gang Nguni, N-gang Nguni!" (my friend, Cheri's local name--she spent two years there as a Peace Corps volunteer and, though she finished over two years ago, was kind enough to connect us with the village), and "Jisonaa, Jisonaa!" (the local name of the last Peace Corps volunteer, Connor, who left only a few weeks ago). The children were convinced we were Cheri and Connor at first, and though the calls of "N-gang Nguni" and "Jisonaa" subsided a bit as the days went on, people (adults and children both) insisted that we looked just like them. (Cheri has straight blonde hair.)
After putting our stuff down, we began our greetings. See the next post for more on greetings...
After greetings, Zakaria said we should rest so we began settling into our room (a room in the clinic building--one of only a few concrete buildings in Kpendua--where Connor had lived during his stay in the village; you can see some of it in the photo of me drinking tea below). As we were relaxing, we heard stirring outside of our door. About 6 women, including Queen Mother (whom we had already greeted), and numerous children were outside, so we welcomed them into our room. With them, they brought a bucket of unknown items. They put it down, but we couldn't see anything...and since we spoke no Dagbani and they spoke no English, it just sat there and we sat and smiled a lot at each other. After a few minutes of semi-awkward smiling, I got out some tissue paper I had brought and taught a few kids how to make a tissue paper flower. Both the women and children were excited by this. About 10 minutes in (still not knowing what's in the bucket, if we were supposed to unpack it, or if it was even for us), Mumuni Zakaria came and informed us that Queen Mother and her company had come to welcome us with tea, at which point we were left alone to drink our tea and told that Queen Mother and her company want to do the Tora dance to welcome us when we are done with tea.
The tea was our first of many encounters with the very large portions we were given in Kpendua! Between the two of us, we had a large pot of hot tea to drink, complete with milk and sugar, and an entire loaf of bread! Besides the fact it was very hot outside and drinking hot tea seemed absurd to us, the sheer amount was so much! But it was such a nice welcoming gesture. More on portions in a future post...
After we did what we could to make a dent in the tea and bread, we started to hear drumming across the road. We headed over there, where people had started to gather. The drummers led a large group of both adults and children over to the area near the sub-chiefs house, drumming the whole way. While the people gathered, Mumuni Zakaria took us to greet the sub-chief. When we returned, there was quite the gathering--probably about 75 people! A group of 10-15 women danced the Tora dance, something I pictured as a short dance with a few people. Instead, this was a large gathering, and the dancing went on for 45 minutes or so! It was clear from this dance how fortunate and unique this community is--everyone was having a blast, dancing, laughing, watching, and welcoming two strangers into their community. The drummers accompanied the dance, which took place in a moving circle and after some probably basic (but seemed fancy to me) footwork, two women would bump butts, before returning to the outer part of the circle. They even invited me to join in, so I did...and in true Amy/Ms. Gale-form, I stumbled my way through it but had fun doing trying (& everyone REALLY enjoyed watching the silaminga try the dance!) There are photos, below, but the video captures it best. The app won't let me upload video on iPad, so hopefully I can add it from home in the next several days once I'm at a computer.
The welcome was so overwhelmingly warm and kind. We did not expect any sort of formal welcome outside of our greeting the chief, so the tea, dancing, drumming and huge gathering in our honor was beyond anything we could've imagined. It was hard to believe that all the effort was for us, just because we had come to visit the village! The tremendous kindness continued throughout our entire stay, but I'll continue with more tomorrow...
After putting our stuff down, we began our greetings. See the next post for more on greetings...
After greetings, Zakaria said we should rest so we began settling into our room (a room in the clinic building--one of only a few concrete buildings in Kpendua--where Connor had lived during his stay in the village; you can see some of it in the photo of me drinking tea below). As we were relaxing, we heard stirring outside of our door. About 6 women, including Queen Mother (whom we had already greeted), and numerous children were outside, so we welcomed them into our room. With them, they brought a bucket of unknown items. They put it down, but we couldn't see anything...and since we spoke no Dagbani and they spoke no English, it just sat there and we sat and smiled a lot at each other. After a few minutes of semi-awkward smiling, I got out some tissue paper I had brought and taught a few kids how to make a tissue paper flower. Both the women and children were excited by this. About 10 minutes in (still not knowing what's in the bucket, if we were supposed to unpack it, or if it was even for us), Mumuni Zakaria came and informed us that Queen Mother and her company had come to welcome us with tea, at which point we were left alone to drink our tea and told that Queen Mother and her company want to do the Tora dance to welcome us when we are done with tea.
The tea was our first of many encounters with the very large portions we were given in Kpendua! Between the two of us, we had a large pot of hot tea to drink, complete with milk and sugar, and an entire loaf of bread! Besides the fact it was very hot outside and drinking hot tea seemed absurd to us, the sheer amount was so much! But it was such a nice welcoming gesture. More on portions in a future post...
After we did what we could to make a dent in the tea and bread, we started to hear drumming across the road. We headed over there, where people had started to gather. The drummers led a large group of both adults and children over to the area near the sub-chiefs house, drumming the whole way. While the people gathered, Mumuni Zakaria took us to greet the sub-chief. When we returned, there was quite the gathering--probably about 75 people! A group of 10-15 women danced the Tora dance, something I pictured as a short dance with a few people. Instead, this was a large gathering, and the dancing went on for 45 minutes or so! It was clear from this dance how fortunate and unique this community is--everyone was having a blast, dancing, laughing, watching, and welcoming two strangers into their community. The drummers accompanied the dance, which took place in a moving circle and after some probably basic (but seemed fancy to me) footwork, two women would bump butts, before returning to the outer part of the circle. They even invited me to join in, so I did...and in true Amy/Ms. Gale-form, I stumbled my way through it but had fun doing trying (& everyone REALLY enjoyed watching the silaminga try the dance!) There are photos, below, but the video captures it best. The app won't let me upload video on iPad, so hopefully I can add it from home in the next several days once I'm at a computer.
The welcome was so overwhelmingly warm and kind. We did not expect any sort of formal welcome outside of our greeting the chief, so the tea, dancing, drumming and huge gathering in our honor was beyond anything we could've imagined. It was hard to believe that all the effort was for us, just because we had come to visit the village! The tremendous kindness continued throughout our entire stay, but I'll continue with more tomorrow...
A photo to go with my last post...
After three nights in the village of Kpendua and a night on either end in Tamale, we're now back in Accra for a night before flying back tomorrow night (& arriving in Chicago Monday).
Today, we happened to walk past the "Hilarious Services" place I posted about last time, so we took a photo. Pretty hilarious, eh?
Today, we happened to walk past the "Hilarious Services" place I posted about last time, so we took a photo. Pretty hilarious, eh?
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Lost in Translation...
Tonight for dinner, I decided to order an egg sandwich. I thought it was a pretty safe bet, as we had delicious egg sandwiches in Cape Coast which consisted of fried eggs (sometimes with some veggies in it) on toasted bread. So, you can imagine my surprise when the plate, below, appeared in front of me! Our server could see my confusion, and she said, "I'm coming back with the bread." Certainly not what I think of when I think of an egg sandwich! Now, it may be hard to see, but this "sandwich" consisted of a salad of spiral noodles, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, some sort of beans, and a few pieces of hard-boiled eggs, then topped with swirls of ketchup and mayonnaise. Yum! Besides the fact we're not eating fresh vegetables like that here (been advised to avoid getting ill from bacteria), the combination of items wouldn't be appealing in the US either. Oh well, shared Derek's fried rice...something we had for lunch today too, but it's randomly widely-available here and usually edible so it's become somewhat of a staple.
Other funny things we've seen here:
- Burger Queen, not a fast food place but a clothing store
- Hilarious Services, which offered faxing, copying, passport pictures, etc.
- Lots of Obama stuff, with the occasional LL Cool J hair salon
The list goes on, but I have to pack and get ready for a very early morning bus to Tamale ("TOM-aly," not like the Mexican food) tomorrow...too bad they don't actually have tamales to eat there! Not sure if I'll have Internet tomorrow, but we will be in the village (Kpendua) Tuesday-Friday so we definitely won't be in touch then... I'm sure I will have a lot to share when I write next!
Other funny things we've seen here:
- Burger Queen, not a fast food place but a clothing store
- Hilarious Services, which offered faxing, copying, passport pictures, etc.
- Lots of Obama stuff, with the occasional LL Cool J hair salon
The list goes on, but I have to pack and get ready for a very early morning bus to Tamale ("TOM-aly," not like the Mexican food) tomorrow...too bad they don't actually have tamales to eat there! Not sure if I'll have Internet tomorrow, but we will be in the village (Kpendua) Tuesday-Friday so we definitely won't be in touch then... I'm sure I will have a lot to share when I write next!
BON
Today we met with the artist and retired professor, BON (his initials, which is how he signs his artwork and how he's known). He had told me he'd meet me at the University (KNUST) and we'd go from there. I thought maybe we'd talk for a bit there, since it's about halfway between where we are staying and where he lives. Instead, he picked us up and took us to his home. We met his wife, Jane, and twin 30-year-old children, Afua and Kofi. He showed us his studio and his many varied artworks. BON works in many different styles and, when asked why, he replies that he "doesn't eat rice everyday...why should I paint in the same style all throughout?" However, almost all of his works have a single central figure, surrounded by either impressions of other figures or traditional symbols. He loves pastels and oil paints, but he works mostly in acrylic now because it's what's popular here. You can see a few examples of his varied styles below...you wouldn't even know its the same artist!
What we thought would be a short talk with an artist, actually turned into a full afternoon at his home. He and his family were so welcoming and excited to have us as guests. We sat and talked with them for nearly 3 hours! We even got to try Jane's tiger nut mold (tasted like a nutty custard, but slightly different flavor than any nuts we could think of). It was delicious! We really enjoyed the time at their home and look forward to keeping in touch with them! Who knows...perhaps one of them will make it to Chicago one day so we can return the favor!
What we thought would be a short talk with an artist, actually turned into a full afternoon at his home. He and his family were so welcoming and excited to have us as guests. We sat and talked with them for nearly 3 hours! We even got to try Jane's tiger nut mold (tasted like a nutty custard, but slightly different flavor than any nuts we could think of). It was delicious! We really enjoyed the time at their home and look forward to keeping in touch with them! Who knows...perhaps one of them will make it to Chicago one day so we can return the favor!
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