More on the title later… but to re-emphasize …the time is going way too fast! We are officially at the one-month-to-go mark for Ghana and the 2-week mark for Sumbrungu. We are going to miss WAAAYYYY too many people around here. I think we’re going to be in for a shock once we leave the awesome Upper East Region…we’ve been pretty spoiled. Things we will miss dearly in Upper East (besides friends): our favorite Ghanaian dish, TZ with leaf stew, is sadly only a Northern thing; the relaxed pace of nearly hassle-free Bolgatanga; making people smile when we can greet them in the local language (FraFra); being dry and hot (ok, won’t really miss the heat part) instead of humid and hot, as it appears the rainy season has begun down south where we will be traveling during our final 2 weeks in Ghana…glad I have my $0.99 Walmart poncho!
This week has been full of “it’s the last time we do fill-in-the-blank". One of those was our final monthly librarian meeting. Frustratingly, we were never able to have a meeting where all 3 librarians were present…either due to sickness or other commitments or who knows what. However, this last meeting was definitely our most productive yet and for me, one of the most exciting. After postponing it twice, we FINALLY got to have our book club discussion about Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey!
The book is written by a Ghanaian author and takes place in the Volta Region of Ghana. It’s a detective novel, a mystery about two similar murders in a village, separated by 20 years or so. The title comes from the references to the “trokosi” system in some parts of Ghana, where a traditional priest takes several wives, often immediately after puberty. I was SO excited to hear how much Jennifer, Bernard, and Lucas (he loves a good debate/argument) had to say about the book. There’s too much to detail it all here, but one thing both Laura and I learned is that the book is a lot more Western or American than meets the eye. The Ghanaians thought the book jumped around too much because it used the “cliff-hanger” chapter endings common in Western novels and would switch to a different plot line for the next chapter. Lucas and Jennifer were frustrated by this writing style and preferred the straightforward style of classic African novels like The Gods are Not to Blame (ok actually a play) and Things Fall Apart. In contrast, I really struggled with Things Fall Apart when I read it because of this “tell it like it is” style; to me it was a little bland, which was a big disappointment since it’s THE premier novel of classic African literature. But hey, the Ghanaians love it that way. Another interesting part of our discussion was when Bernard described how he used one of the Reading Strategies (!! J) to think about what would happen if a murder like that happened in his community. We ended with a lesson on traditional marriage practices and rites in Ghana, and learned that in some places, even if a Christian ceremony has taken place, the families won’t consider a marriage valid until the traditional rites have also been performed. This involves the bride jumping over a cow into the new husband’s home, and sometimes a large bride-price of many domestic animals. All in all, it was a great discussion, everyone had something to contribute, they seemed to enjoy the book despite the foreign writing style, and we hope the book club continues. And, if Quartey writes a sequel, they said they’d definitely read it.
Another one of our “lasts” was our last week of Phonics Mini-Camp at Gowrie. There was one student in particular, Awinbila, a good reader from the start who really stretched himself to take on harder books at the end of the week. This was really exciting to see. And, during our final review day almost everyone had “Bossy E” down pat. We are doing quite a few revisions for our next rounds at Sherigu and Sumbrungu, and it’s difficult to tell how much will stick with them given the short time we had, but overall I think it was a success. Our final day in Gowrie in particular was a blast, beginning with Laura finally taking the plunge into the reservoir nearby. She wanted to do this since we first went to Gowrie, and after I made her take the necessary precautions to avoid contracting potential parasites, she embarked on what I call her Schistomiasis Swim, or Bath of Bilharzia. She was very happy, and I was very happy she was alive after she ALSO jumped off a 20ft tall concrete piling into the lake…Unfortunately after this great start we were displaced from the library by screaming-baby-weighing for the morning (just like during inventory) and were forced to camp out under a tree, entertaining a horde of 4 year olds and attempting to keep them from beating on each other too much. We grew weary of this and headed into the main part of town to get some lunch and have a well-deserved drink at a spot to celebrate the last day of camp. Little did we know some members of the community would surprise us with more drinks and a traditional TZ meal at the end of our class! It really touched us to see that they appreciated our efforts and was a nice ending to a great two weeks at Gowrie.
Last but not least, we went back to Navrongo to visit our friend Roland and his family yesterday. I’m sort of speechless about how generous and welcoming they were. And they were SO delighted to entertain Roland’s new “fella” (word for white person #7?) friends. We spent the first part of the day relaxing inside, watching a very confusing Nigerian movie and one of hundreds of “prophets” on TV. That was when the copious amounts of food began to roll out…Roland’s trio of sisters-in-law, Esther, Beatrice, and Rebecca, made us popcorn and fresh cut mango and melon. Then they began the preparations for TZ with leaf stew. We tried to “help” and they let us pound some groundnuts and stir the TZ once or twice…but mostly we hung around the extended family compound and chatted with these really cool women and their children. They’re all fairly young, late-20s-ish, and are really modern, stylish, and rather progressive, Esther in particular. Her husband (Roland’s brother Benjamin) is currently in the Western Region at the University of Development Studies campus there, and Esther stays in Navrongo raising their children, Pearl (6) and Ludovic (2, called “Lu” for short). She only speaks English to her children because she wants them to have a head start when they get to school. Everyone else in the compound, however, speaks Kassem (the local language) to them, so they are growing up bi-lingual. I thought this was pretty neat, and I wonder if other young Ghanaian couples are starting to do the same thing…
The kids were a hoot to play with. Lu, one of the youngest of the cousins present, was terrified when we first showed up, but soon got his confidence and started treating Laura and I like his own personal jungle gym. He was clearly going through some “terrible two’s” moments and threw a few fits, but each time we briefly left the compound, he and his little cousins would come running out to give us a big “welcome back” hug…even if we were only gone for 2 minutes. So. Cute. Once we did leave for a longer stretch to go sit with Roland’s friends at a spot across the street to have a few drinks, and to discuss something they could not wrap their heads around: polygamy is illegal in the US. Roland loves to ask us questions about what things are like in the US and usually accepts the answer, but this one in particular he couldn’t understand. “You can’t even have just 2?”. We brought up how some sects of Mormons practice polygamy, but they were still a bit confused. Ah, cultural differences.
After we chowed down on the TZ and a delicious “fruit salad” (more like fruit puree), we took our gluttonous selves for a stroll to visit the famous cathedral and mission site in Navrongo. The cathedral (over a hundred years old!) was beautifully decorated with the traditional, red-black-white Northern-style paintings inside, as well as a marble copy of the Pieta we were told was sent to them by the Pope! Navrongo is the epicenter of all things Catholic in the Upper East and I think was the site of the first Catholic mission to Ghana so it’s a very important place. We ended the night with a trip to the nearby Teaching College campus to meet Roland’s mother, a super sweet woman who cooks for the dining hall there. We made sure to tell her she raised a very nice young man and tell her how generous her family had been all day. It was an AWESOME day, and we would love to take them up on their invite to come back if we have the time…so much to do, so little time, stay tuned for more exciting final-week adventures!
This week has been full of “it’s the last time we do fill-in-the-blank". One of those was our final monthly librarian meeting. Frustratingly, we were never able to have a meeting where all 3 librarians were present…either due to sickness or other commitments or who knows what. However, this last meeting was definitely our most productive yet and for me, one of the most exciting. After postponing it twice, we FINALLY got to have our book club discussion about Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey!
The book is written by a Ghanaian author and takes place in the Volta Region of Ghana. It’s a detective novel, a mystery about two similar murders in a village, separated by 20 years or so. The title comes from the references to the “trokosi” system in some parts of Ghana, where a traditional priest takes several wives, often immediately after puberty. I was SO excited to hear how much Jennifer, Bernard, and Lucas (he loves a good debate/argument) had to say about the book. There’s too much to detail it all here, but one thing both Laura and I learned is that the book is a lot more Western or American than meets the eye. The Ghanaians thought the book jumped around too much because it used the “cliff-hanger” chapter endings common in Western novels and would switch to a different plot line for the next chapter. Lucas and Jennifer were frustrated by this writing style and preferred the straightforward style of classic African novels like The Gods are Not to Blame (ok actually a play) and Things Fall Apart. In contrast, I really struggled with Things Fall Apart when I read it because of this “tell it like it is” style; to me it was a little bland, which was a big disappointment since it’s THE premier novel of classic African literature. But hey, the Ghanaians love it that way. Another interesting part of our discussion was when Bernard described how he used one of the Reading Strategies (!! J) to think about what would happen if a murder like that happened in his community. We ended with a lesson on traditional marriage practices and rites in Ghana, and learned that in some places, even if a Christian ceremony has taken place, the families won’t consider a marriage valid until the traditional rites have also been performed. This involves the bride jumping over a cow into the new husband’s home, and sometimes a large bride-price of many domestic animals. All in all, it was a great discussion, everyone had something to contribute, they seemed to enjoy the book despite the foreign writing style, and we hope the book club continues. And, if Quartey writes a sequel, they said they’d definitely read it.
Another one of our “lasts” was our last week of Phonics Mini-Camp at Gowrie. There was one student in particular, Awinbila, a good reader from the start who really stretched himself to take on harder books at the end of the week. This was really exciting to see. And, during our final review day almost everyone had “Bossy E” down pat. We are doing quite a few revisions for our next rounds at Sherigu and Sumbrungu, and it’s difficult to tell how much will stick with them given the short time we had, but overall I think it was a success. Our final day in Gowrie in particular was a blast, beginning with Laura finally taking the plunge into the reservoir nearby. She wanted to do this since we first went to Gowrie, and after I made her take the necessary precautions to avoid contracting potential parasites, she embarked on what I call her Schistomiasis Swim, or Bath of Bilharzia. She was very happy, and I was very happy she was alive after she ALSO jumped off a 20ft tall concrete piling into the lake…Unfortunately after this great start we were displaced from the library by screaming-baby-weighing for the morning (just like during inventory) and were forced to camp out under a tree, entertaining a horde of 4 year olds and attempting to keep them from beating on each other too much. We grew weary of this and headed into the main part of town to get some lunch and have a well-deserved drink at a spot to celebrate the last day of camp. Little did we know some members of the community would surprise us with more drinks and a traditional TZ meal at the end of our class! It really touched us to see that they appreciated our efforts and was a nice ending to a great two weeks at Gowrie.
Last but not least, we went back to Navrongo to visit our friend Roland and his family yesterday. I’m sort of speechless about how generous and welcoming they were. And they were SO delighted to entertain Roland’s new “fella” (word for white person #7?) friends. We spent the first part of the day relaxing inside, watching a very confusing Nigerian movie and one of hundreds of “prophets” on TV. That was when the copious amounts of food began to roll out…Roland’s trio of sisters-in-law, Esther, Beatrice, and Rebecca, made us popcorn and fresh cut mango and melon. Then they began the preparations for TZ with leaf stew. We tried to “help” and they let us pound some groundnuts and stir the TZ once or twice…but mostly we hung around the extended family compound and chatted with these really cool women and their children. They’re all fairly young, late-20s-ish, and are really modern, stylish, and rather progressive, Esther in particular. Her husband (Roland’s brother Benjamin) is currently in the Western Region at the University of Development Studies campus there, and Esther stays in Navrongo raising their children, Pearl (6) and Ludovic (2, called “Lu” for short). She only speaks English to her children because she wants them to have a head start when they get to school. Everyone else in the compound, however, speaks Kassem (the local language) to them, so they are growing up bi-lingual. I thought this was pretty neat, and I wonder if other young Ghanaian couples are starting to do the same thing…
The kids were a hoot to play with. Lu, one of the youngest of the cousins present, was terrified when we first showed up, but soon got his confidence and started treating Laura and I like his own personal jungle gym. He was clearly going through some “terrible two’s” moments and threw a few fits, but each time we briefly left the compound, he and his little cousins would come running out to give us a big “welcome back” hug…even if we were only gone for 2 minutes. So. Cute. Once we did leave for a longer stretch to go sit with Roland’s friends at a spot across the street to have a few drinks, and to discuss something they could not wrap their heads around: polygamy is illegal in the US. Roland loves to ask us questions about what things are like in the US and usually accepts the answer, but this one in particular he couldn’t understand. “You can’t even have just 2?”. We brought up how some sects of Mormons practice polygamy, but they were still a bit confused. Ah, cultural differences.
After we chowed down on the TZ and a delicious “fruit salad” (more like fruit puree), we took our gluttonous selves for a stroll to visit the famous cathedral and mission site in Navrongo. The cathedral (over a hundred years old!) was beautifully decorated with the traditional, red-black-white Northern-style paintings inside, as well as a marble copy of the Pieta we were told was sent to them by the Pope! Navrongo is the epicenter of all things Catholic in the Upper East and I think was the site of the first Catholic mission to Ghana so it’s a very important place. We ended the night with a trip to the nearby Teaching College campus to meet Roland’s mother, a super sweet woman who cooks for the dining hall there. We made sure to tell her she raised a very nice young man and tell her how generous her family had been all day. It was an AWESOME day, and we would love to take them up on their invite to come back if we have the time…so much to do, so little time, stay tuned for more exciting final-week adventures!
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