Ghana!!! Finally!!!!!

“Who is asleep? Those with chains on their hands? Or those with chains on their hearts? “

People say that happiness is contagious, and if you could have seen all the smiles I witnessed, and see the smile on my face right now you would all agree.  Ghana is incredible, intense, awesome, amazing, wonderful….but none of those words can really do my experience justice.

The best place to start is at the beginning right? First I should say that although Morocco is on the continent of Africa, it is nothing like the Africa I grew up hearing about, and so, no offense to Morocco, I truly felt the amazement that I was in Africa as we arrived in to Ghana.

Day one- Drumming and Dancing

As I got off the ship and took a step on to Ghanaian land the intense humidity and heat was a lot, but not as much as I was expecting. I made my way to the tour bus which would take me to my first adventure. I gave my ticket to the tour guide who smiled brightly and told me good morning! I knew I would love Ghana the moment the bus drove in to town and faces from the streets and sidewalks greeted us with smiles and enthusiastic waves. My thought process the whole time was “ omygosh I’m in Africa, omygosh this is Africa, omygosh I can’t believe it!”

The second the bus pulled up to our destination we could hear the incredible sound of drumming. Just thinking about it now I have no words to explain how I felt. Growing up listening to this music on Cds, hearing my dad’s lectures on how most of the music we listen to now originated in Africa, and then seeing it and hearing it right then was so moving. So we got on off the bus finally and our welcoming party was sitting at the gate, drumming and singing and dancing. None of us knew what to do so we just stood there, utterly wrapped in the music, until our guide told us to keep walking to where we were supposed to sit. The music continued like that for quite a while, and the dancer kept going until finally the last call was made and the drumming ended. We were then greeted by the “MC” for the day. He introduced the plan for the day, talked about some of the different songs we will here, different dances we will see. They of course started off playing some traditional Ghanaian songs but also played songs from New Guinea, and a song from Jamaica. I wish I could write all of the patterns of the drums, all of the colors of the dances, but looking through the pictures right now I am still in awe. Each drum played was on a different pattern, but somehow each pattern fit together like a musical puzzle, the complexity of the dances blew me away as well. The dancers would be doing one dance move and then with what seemed to be no warning they would change. It was like there was an invisible conductor, telling the drums and the dancers what to do….but I think the drums were the conductors….one drum would change its rhythm ever so slightly and the rest would fall in line with it. REDICULOUS!!!! It was so COOL! The other amazing part is that besides doing all the drumming and dancing, the performers made us really laugh. Some of them would dance around, jump in front of people, tell people in the audience to play their drums, or try the dance moves, and the smiles on their faces were enormous. The other funny part about it was that they were taking pictures of us and recording videos of us just as much as we were of them.

Then it was our turn to learn. We were split in half, on half went to learn the drums and I was put in the group that learned dancing first. Amazingly we learned 5 dance steps and put them all together. I thought al the dance steps looked so complicated and impossible to master but amazingly I got all of them! Our teacher’s name was….Tidi….I think, and he was an amazing teacher and really super nice. Then after we had mastered our dance we switched with the other group and I got my chance on the drums.  These people knew how to teach drumming. They would sing us a song and then all we had to do was play it on the drum. It was so fun! And papa you would be very proud of me and how surprised my personal drum tutor was that I caught on so fast. We learned two different rhythms and then put them together, following the clave bell. My favorite part of that was actually getting to know some of the people who were teaching us, my personal tutor was a man named Kofi, and then another friend I met was named Acquah.

After our drum lesson we had to go to lunch. Sadly we were yanked from our teachers, put back on the bus and taken to a really fancy hotel where we were able to eat safe and delicious Ghanaian food. I and many other people were eager to get back to the workshop to see what we were going to do next. We were given another performance, this time the dances were led by our teacher Tidi, he showed us a dance and song from his own tribe of people who are from northern Ghana. It was really cool! Probably my favorite dance they did. After the performance ended we were then given a chance to show our skills. My group danced first while the other group played drums for us. Our dance was over quickly and then it was time for us to free style. Now….my dear friend Arielle gave me a challenge for this month, to do something that I would never normally do, I think I could have shaved my head and that would be pretty incredible right….or skydiving….or bungee jumping….unfortunately I am a tad too chicken to do any of that…..so I decided that this was my time to shine and complete the challenge given to me. Everyone in our dancing circle was given an opportunity to dance in the middle….almost everyone went with 1 or 2 other people…..I went by myself……let me just tell you how completely embarrassed I feel now that I think about it. I don’t really remember what I did….or the reaction other people had…for all I know I could have done something really amazing and people were cheering for me….but…..yeah….I cannot believe I did that and I will never do it again, dancing on my own in front of at least 80+ people…..never again.

Soon after we were able to switch and I felt so much more comfortable sitting in front of a drum than I ever have before in my life. Playing with the drums was so fun. After a little while of getting the hang of the rhythm our teachers left us to play on our own while they danced and sang songs. It was great! After the other group had finished their dance and free style we were all very pleased with our selves. Our teacher told us “You have played African music, you have danced barefoot in the African sun, you can now say you know Africa.” WOW!

The day ended with a Q&A from both sides and then we all mingled and talked to each other for a long time. I continued talking to my friend Acquah, asking questions about how he joined the group, what else he does, and a little more about the drums that we played. It turned out that all the Djembes we got to play were hand made by the people there. They were all such beautiful drums and I would have loved to bring one home, but unfortunately I couldn’t.

Unfortunately our time with our teachers and new friends ended and we had to go, but we were able to make a promise to see some of them that night at one of the local bars to hang out some more and continue our conversations. The rest of the day I looked forward to going to The Ocean Bar, so that I could continue learning about Ghanaian music, but that evening was not what I expected it to be. About half of the students from the ship went to the ocean bar and I got a good chance to see some of my classmates at their worst.

The amount of people getting completely wasted, and the things that they were doing to embarrass themselves was a little too much for me. Don’t get me wrong, I had a lot of fun, the night basically turned in to a big dance party, but I couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed at the behavior of my classmates. Not all of our teachers were able to make it, but Kofi and Acquah came and the thress of us plus some of my other sober friends had a great time dancing in a big group. I found that I really enjoyed the “popular” music of Ghana, and asked Acquah made a list of some of the big bands so that I could later purchase their CD’s. While at the bar we met three Scottish men who were enjoying an eveing off of the tanker that they worked on. They were very nice, bought us all drinks and then made sure I and my three other friends found a taxi to get us back home safely. Like I said in my last post, I went to bed that night at about 2 or 230 in the morning…..which gave me about three and a half hours of sleep.

The next morning I got up at the crack of dawn and joined a small group of students (35) to go and have our cultural experience. I was really excited for this….before the drumming and dancing workshop. As I got on the bus I wasn’t so sure of my expectations. It was a long ride to our destination so I was able to get another hour of sleep before we arrived to a small village and welcomed by more drumming.

I was super excited getting off the bus to see more drumming and dancing. We were ushered under a tent to sit, to the left of us was another tent with seats, the tent to the left of us was facing in, like a band on the side of the stage, and that was where the drummers were. Across from them was yet another tent and under that tent sat the chief, his right hand man, and all of the elders of the village. Most of them were dressed in the authentic kenta cloth. After some drumming we were told what the order of the welcoming ceremony would be, and then it all began. We began by each greeting the Chief and all the elders, the most important thing about greeting them, and one of the most important things to remember about Ghana was not to use the left hand for anything, so as we each went around greeting all of the elders and the chief we had to keep our left hands behind our back. Then we greeted some people of the village who would be taking us into their homes for the night.

After greeting some important people and the important people greeting us as well, the elders did a little ceremony to call on the ancestors and then we began our naming ceremonies. Traditionally when a baby is born the whole village gathers for the naming ceremony. The baby is placed on the lap of an elder, the elder says the baby 3 times the crowd acknowledges the name and a drop of water is poured from a leaf in to the baby’s mouth, then the elder again says the baby’s new name 3 times, the crowd acknowledges and then a drop of alcohol is poured in to the baby’s mouth, then the parents say the baby’s name and the village cheers. Another important thing about names in Ghana is that the first name depends on the day of the week which the baby was born. There are 7 choices for girls and 7 choices for boys, basically I met a thousand Kofi’s (boys born on Tuesdays) and a million Essi’s (girls born on Sundays).  The second name which the baby is given is the choice of the elder or parent, depending on how conservative they are. Obviously we aren’t babies, and they didn’t want us to be worried about bacteria from a leaf, so our naming ceremony was a little different. We went up, poured a little bit of water in to a cup, the elder said our name three times, the crowd acknowledged, we drank the water, we poured a little coke (for some reason it wasn’t alcohol….) into our cup, the chief said our name 3 times the crowd acknowledged, we drank the coke, then we had to say our name to the crowd and they cheered. Even though we didn’t drink from a leaf we still received one as a souvenir. I was super nervous as I went up, our guide hyped up the crowd so that I wouldn’t be so nervous, and I received my name: Essi Esuan. It was such a cool experience!

Once all 35 of us were named, including an intermission of drumming, we were about to be introduced to our host families when it started pouring rain. That stopped everything, people ran home or under trees to get covered, kids used the rain as an excuse to come and join us in our tent, children jumped on our laps and began talking to us animatedly, wanted to learn our names, look at our cameras and just practice their English. It was great. So eventually we were ushered in door to the community center, holding hands of little ones, some people carrying tiny ones out of the rain, and in the community center, with children still clinging to us, we were introduced to our host families. I was put in to a group with four other girls, the largest home stay group, and we were introduced to our new dad. Once everyone had met their parents we were told to get back on the bus. Huh? Back on the bus? We ended up going to another hotel for lunch. This hotel was much fancier than the one from the previous day. The whole room was buzzing with conversation about the naming ceremony, the new host families, and the amazing plantains (they really were amazing). After lunch we all eagerly got back on the bus and headed back to our village.

My group was taken with our new dad to our home for the night. As we walked a short distance through town I expected to soon see a little concrete or adobe like house, with a wooden roof, our mother and some kids standing in front of it, maybe a few goats or chickens….but no that was far from what I saw. I was astonished to walk through a very fancy black gate and see a really nice house. Of course it wasn’t like a normal house in the U.S. but it was easy to tell that it was a lot fancier than any other house in town. We were led to our rooms, mine I shared with one of the other girls, it had two large bed waiting for us. After putting our things down we were ushered into a living room with beautiful matching furniture, a nice dinning room table, and a giant TV. The tv had an antenna which did not get very good reception so there was a lot of static but for the next 2 hours we were told to relax and watch TV. That wasn’t really what any of us wanted to do…..but we decided to do as we were asked. After those two hours of trying not to fall asleep while watching horribly made African dramas, and one telenovela dubbed in English (yes we watched a Mexican soap opera in Ghana), we were then told to follow our father outside to take a tour of the town. That is when the whole experience got a little more exciting. Our tour of the town included meeting family who lived nearby, our dad’s senior brother and sister, and some cousins. We also got to see the Mosque which was pretty close to St. Anthony of Padua Catholic church. We then walked out of town and then the short distance, crossing the bridge of the “Sweet” river, to the next town where we saw an elementary school. The school looked pretty nice; it had murals painted on the walls. When we asked him he said his kids don’t go to that school but a private school on cape coast. Fancy. We walked back to our house and sat outside the gate just watching the town, asking questions and learning as much as we could. Our dad got us a special treat which we were all very excited about: sugar cane. If you haven’t ever seen one before, basically it is a branch that kinda looks like bamboo, when you peel of the grean layer it is white underneath. To eat it you bite off a chunk, chew on it, and the enjoy the sweet juices that come from it. The sugar cane was really delicious. Our dad taught us that normally sugar cane is turned in to an alcoholic drink that doesn’t taste sweet, but will make you go crazy. We all laughed hearing him describe going crazy from the sugar cane liquor. After another half hour we were called for dinner and went back to the community center for our meal. We were also, once again, entertained by some drumming and dancing. This event, being mere entertainment, was not as thrilling to me as the day before, it was still cool, and maybe a little more crude than I would have enjoyed….but I didn’t get as much out of it. Another thing that bugged me about our dinner was that we didn’t eat it with our family, the hotel brought “safe” food for us to eat while people stood outside watching us…..I was eager to be done with dinner and go back to learning about Ghanaian life. After dinner we headed to our gated in house and were once again shown to the TV room where we watched a news show and then found a channel that showed American tv shows. We were enjoying our time but unfortunately realized that our new family members were all falling asleep, we decided that it would be best to head to bed…..and just as we were all ready to lay down and doze off the house woke up……interesting…..that night the noises I heard from outside reminded me a lot of what nights in Cusmapa are like. I am going to include an excerpt from my music journal which I wrote about that night:

“A song I am very familiar with, the song of a small town. Sitting in my new family’s house, the blue room that is mine for the night, my “sister” lying on the bed next to mine scratching in her own journal. The fan above us rocking and turning to its own beat. Outside the closed door I can hear members of my host family shuffling around talking to each other, people outside the gate talking and walking, but, loudest of all- music from a party that is still going on at the community center two blocks away from the house. It’s music entertaining not only the party goers but the rest of the town as well. Then, suddenly silence…..except for the music coming from the crickets and the frogs near the ‘sweet’ river….”

We were told the next morning to be up sometime between 6:30 and 7 for breakfast. We were a little frightened that we would sleep through that time so I set my alarm for us. My alarm didn’t go off when it was supposed to….but fortunately it was ok because we gotten woken up by the call to prayer at 4 in the morning…..and though we were able to fall back asleep before that it wasn’t long before we were woken by roosters crowing, and our family once again shuffling around the house. For breakfast we were given oatmeal, mini omelets, and the most delicious bananas I have ever tasted in my whole life (which came straight from our family’s backyard) After a somewhat confusing breakfast of trying to figure out how we were supposed to serve the oatmeal (it was quite hilarious) we offered a couple gifts to our family and then headed outside the gate for a family picture. We stayed sitting outside the gate talking again to our dad, until we were told it was time to say our farewells. The whole group took pictures, with the elders and also with all of the host families. Then we for real said goodbye. It was really sad for some people, they had fallen in love with their families in one night, had adorable kids who had played with them and wonderful parents that took care of them. It was of course sad for our group too, our parents had taken really good care of us, but I don’t think we had quite the experience that some other people had. All in all, the whole experience was great, not exactly what I wanted from it, but still really good. However I do have to admit…….this experience had no chance beating the drumming and dancing workshop.

When we finally got back to the ship I freshened up a bit, ate some food, and then headed out to explore the market circle. The market circle is the biggest round-about in the whole city and it is the biggest market in the whole city. I can’t tell you dimensions or anything but that place was huge! Around the exterior of the circle there were people selling things and then there were little shops inside the circle. It was big and crowded and crazy, full of smiling faces, laughter, and food. At the time I was on a quest for music and I was able to find a Mr. B who was kinda enough to show my friends and I around and take me to the best CD store in town. Mr. B was such a kind guy and walked around with us until he got us a taxi back to the ship. It is crazy how great people were, how willing they were to help us find our way around, even taxi drivers were friendly, telling us about their families and lives.

OK two more big stories about Ghana in my next entry and then I will catch you all up on my trip here in South Africa! Also if anyone has any questions about anything....or if you want more details about a story or anything feel free so email me! sccontreras@semesteratsea.net. Also I apologize if there are any grammatical errors or misspellings.....I kinda just check as I go, so it's possible that I miss stuff. 

Jya Ne!