Akwaaba!

That means "welcome" in Twi, and it has been said to me between grins more times than I can count on fingers and toes. Hi everyone! I'm finally updating this ol' mare of a website after being here for almost two weeks. Where to even begin? I suppose I'll take Lewis Carroll's advice and begin at the beginning and go on until I come to the end- then stop.

The first night we arrived, everyone was really tired and disoriented from our half-conscious hustles through Minneapolis and Amsterdam. We were met with student guides at the airport who were eager to raise our spirits by teaching us a traditional song on the bus ride to the hostel, one whose melody hasn't left my head since. The lyrics are:

Weya weya nu ko ko (x2)

Everybody, everybody

Bring your kalabashi

Mofe amo ke edje ni aba

Weya weya nu ko ko

We've learned other songs since, but that one definitely takes the cake. When we finally arrived at the hostel, a thunderstorm had started outside and all the power was out. We signed in, ate dinner and unpacked, all by candlelight. It was a really calming way to begin our trip, actually, and the first of many situations to teach patience and flexibility.

Since that first night, wondering if the power would ever come on (and this blog, not typed by candlelight, proves it has), we've done so much. Every night for a week we had traditional dance lessons with Professor Oh Nii Sowah, a man whose pearly whites probably rate among the top five greatest smiles I've ever seen. If there ever was a man to shake and jive fifty students out of jet-lag and coy self-consciousness, he fits the bill. The man just radiates energy. The power went out while we were dancing once and he insisted that if we kept dancing and clapping to the rhythm, and if we began to sing, it would be restored. Sure enough, during a particularly dramatic stomp, all of our faces appeared again with a cheer.

We've also had about twelve lectures on everything from history, political economy, gender, language, family roles, religion, development, drumming and Twi lessons. When I bring my notebook, I'll update this with some more of my favorite quotes and tidbits from those lectures. For now, what I remember most is "educate a man, educate an individual. Educate a woman, educate a nation"

Here are some more arbitrary tidbits:
-a festival is the only occasion in which people are allowed to publicly criticize a chief, and it's usually done in the form of a song
-the metaphor for the roles of king and president is that the king is like the eyebrows, which a person (or a nation) has since birth. The president comes much later, sort of like a mustache which can be shaven several times.
-the Asante tribe is matrilineal, so family heritage is always traced through the mother
-the king is considered to be the link between the physical and the spiritual realms. The chiefs are considered links to the spirits of ancestors.
-also, some slang differences:
*portable means cute, as in, "you have a very portable wife"
*several means thousands
*minerals means soda
*outdooring means to introduce a baby to the community for the first time
*to pass out means to graduate
*the equivalent of "dude" is "Charleeeeey"

That's all on that for now. What else, what else...

The food is generally really good. Vegetarianism is difficult because they don't consider fish meat, and they definitely don't consider chicken broth meat. For the most part I've eaten:
-fried plantains, which are delicious
-vegetable fried rice
-I tried banku, which is pounded cassava and corn that has been fermented and you dip it in stew. It tasted like sourdough-flavored toothpaste-dough, but worth the experience.
-their version of peanut butter, which is called ground nut paste spread on sweet bread. Mmm...
-fried egg sandwiches with onion and thinly sliced peppers
-two for one pizza Tuesdays at the gas station
-plantain chips
-fresh and delicious pineapple, mango and oranges


We went on a couple of field trips, too. The first was to Kumasi, another huge, bustling city. The drive itself was beautiful, speckled with plantain trees and vast fields of wild vegetation. Every once in a while a tiny village would pop up with a few grass huts or small steel shacks. On the way, we stopped at several craft villages. The first one specialized in Kente cloth. This cloth is one of Ghana's trademarks and it's made on enormous wooden looms that stretch across the entire room. Each piece of cloth has a meaning or a story, which is decided by the weaver. The next town specialized in woodwork and instruments.

Kumasi itself was beautiful. We visited the site of the former palace of the King, which was turned into a museum. There were peacocks roaming the grounds, and we were told all about the Asante kingdom throughout history, including the story of one woman (a Queen Mother) who led the entire Asante army into battle during a time when they were ready to surrender. Our guide told us that she caused a revolution among women, and that to this day, if the King and his man can't solve a problem (say, for example, putting humpty dumpty together again), they take it to the women's council, which they consider the seat of deepest wisdom. That made me feel amazing after all the talk of women who are completely ostracized for being spinsters who can't cook.

The second field trip was much more harrowing to endure. We took another lovely trip along the coast, but this time the destination was two castles, one Portuguese and one British, which were used for the slave trade. We were shown dungeons where the stench withheld several centuries' worth of fresh air. It was horrifying to see what human beings are capable of in the name of wealth and alleged progress. I'd rather not delve into the details.

Since Kumasi, we've been wrapped in registration red tape, so not much exciting news there. Orientation is officially over, so we're left to our own devices as far as traveling goes. No more giant, air-conditioned bus filled with Obrunis (unoffensive word for white people). Instead we get to take the tro-tros during the day, which can take you anywhere in town for about 50 cents or less. It's an amazing experience, being shoved into a giant jalopy of a minivan with about twenty other people, sometimes including livestock, and trying to figure out where you're supposed to get off. Today, I went to Madina, a nearby marketplace, where I bought nothing, stepped in an orange puddle, saw several goats on leashes and baskets of smoked fish heads, got a slight sunburn and practiced my infant Twi ramblings.

More to come later! Hopefully some pictures soon.