The last few days have been extremely busy and exciting, so here’s all the details.
First, as Laura mentioned, we got to attend a Frafra literacy class with Uncle Benedict, our new BFF. Uncle Benedict is a nonformal education supervisor, and this is a class he checks up on. The class is held at night at someone’s home not far from our library, outside in their courtyard. It’s mostly women who attend. It sounds stereotypical, but to describe the scene: dim light comes from a kerosene lamp, the facilitator writes on a blackboard painted onto a courtyard wall, about 20 women sit on mats on the ground surrounded by their children and babies. I thought about how awesome it is that after all their hard work they do farming or weaving or just taking care of the house (still a huge task), these women find the energy to come learn to read and write the language they’ve only spoken their whole lives. And they are super enthusiastic about learning. Lots of people volunteer to write phrases on the board or go over the pronunciations. For Laura and I, the class was a big step towards Frafra and we finally know what sound some of the funny vowels make (ex. backwards “c” = “aw” sound). We also learned some new important phrases like “I do not want meat”. This was a special experience and we’re hoping to go to another class soon!
You also know we were invited to a wedding on Saturday! Turned out that Bernard, the Sherigu librarian, was coordinating this event for Francis, his friend/coworker/secretary of Sherigu library committee and groom-to-be. We arrived on our bicycles just before noon when the service was supposed to start (haha…), in our dresses, already dripping in sweat from the heat of the mid-morning. It was going to be a Ghanaian-style Catholic wedding, and Bernard showed us to some nice seats in the rear of the church. And so we waited, until around 1pm (an hour after Bernard announced to the congregation that “The bride will be arriving very soon”), when the singing started up and in came the bride.
What followed was unlike any other Catholic wedding mass I’ve attended; the words spoken by the priest/bride/groom were the same (and, to our surprise and delight, in English not Frafra), and the bride wore white, but the feeling and the singing (and dancing!) was completely different. Much more jubilant! The heat in the fan-less church also made me think that this is what it must have felt like on July 22, 1978 (ok, now it's right!) when my parents got married…which I’m told was also in a fan-less brick building in dead heat. To top it off, the church was PACKED. We estimated there were about 300 or more people crammed into and spilling out of the church.
The service was very long (about 2.5 hrs, start to finish), which was par for the course here in Ghana. There’s a lot of extra singing in Ghanaian Catholic masses (most things we speak in church at home are sung here), so they take longer and the wedding was no exception. This time there was a huge choir (dressed in caps and gowns…we’re not sure why), a full drumming/percussion band, a lot of extra dancing (we danced too!), hooting and hollering for the bride and groom after they exchanged vows, and the entire homily was repeated in English and in Frafra. I think most people (ourselves included), went outside at some point during the offertory to quickly rehydrate mid-mass with a bag of nice cold pure water.
After the service, there was a presentation of gifts to the new couple, photo time, and then the entire congregation piled into the Catholic Social Center next door to take part in the reception. This was no invitation-only, write-down-if-you-want-meat-or-fish affair. No, they started handing out tons of food cartons (jollof rice) and sodas and bags of water, to all the people in attendance. The important ones were served first, but they were trying to get at least something to everyone. We were told that not all weddings are that open, but it serves as yet another example of the importance of community that permeates Ghanaian culture.
The bride and groom had a first dance (shorter and not a song they picked), fed each other cake (cleanly and politely), and had a champagne toast. There were also speeches we couldn’t hear, but there was plenty of people-watching and chatting with the bride’s sister to keep us occupied. We were told the dance floor would open up soon and the party would go all night, but we had to exit at 5:30pm to get back home before dark. A tiring, but absolutely amazing experience. We were very grateful to have the opportunity to peek in on this slice of Ghanaian life. Oh, and we happened to sit next to Darius’ mother, Agnes, who invited us to dinner at her home sometime. Score!
The next day was 6th of March, or Independence Day. We woke up super early to go to the English mass in Sumbrungu, and to get to Bolga in time for their 6th March celebrations and parade. As soon as we arrived in Bolga, we were befriended by Millicent and Clara, two sisters who were nice enough to show us to the parade grounds (sadly we only caught the end of it) and tried to help us find a Ghanaian flag for purchase. This was actually really hard to do, which seemed strange to us. Turned out Independence Day in Ghana is not as big of an affair as 4th of July at home, which was kind of a disappointment. But, maybe that’s just here in Bolga, who knows what happens in Accra.
In Bolga, students from surrounding schools marched in a circle around the grounds to “God Bless Our Homeland Ghana” (national anthem) played by a sharp military band. After the marching was over, there were speeches by local and regional officials, which were drowned out by the noise of hundreds of children milling about and trying to get their photo snapped with the “white ladies” wandering through the crowd (who could that be…). The one thing that did live up to my expectations was the abundance of street food and snacks! I want to try everything here (exception: dog meat), so I had the chance to try a few new snacks like a peanut butter brittle-type delicious morsel.
After the parade, we came home and rested until the “jams” started. This was the same “middle school dance” that happened before, but this time there were a lot more people (and older ones too). We went to the bar for some liquid courage, took a deep breath, and entered the jams by ourselves. Soon we were surrounded by a crowd of little children encouraging us, “Solmia Dance! Solmia Dance!” This morphed into an intimidating crowd of young men trying to show us their dance moves. We finally ended up with a great group of teenage girls who kept the boys at bay and were eventually escorted by the girls and the children to the library when we decided we were too hot, sweaty, and tired to go on.
Last but not least, we biked to Gowrie-Kunkua Library on Monday to finish inventory….success! We’re very excited to have completed our first library inventory, and celebrated with a Sangria toast with Lucas last night. We’re also very excited to know that we can bike to Gowrie in far less than 2 hours, which was our original estimate. Now we’re beginning the inventory here at Sumbrungu Library, and we can’t wait to revamp this thing. It was kind of a mess, particularly in the back storeroom. The library continues to be closed due to the construction (which is looking more complete by the day!), so it’s a good time for us to lock ourselves in the room and count some 2000 books.
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