Culture/Going to Kasoa

Since we've arrived, we've been able to do quite a few cultural activities, which has been things extremely interesting. The third night we were here, we went to a live TV show called "Ghana's Most Beautiful". Apparently, it is extremely popular here. They have 10 girls, each from a different region of Accra and each week one gets voted off American Idol style after phone voting. The show is designed to raise cultural awareness and to promote unity at the same time. Anywho, we were in the audience and were on air tons of times (we could see what was being broadcast on monitors). This week the theme was queen mothers, who are the wife of the chiefs (or in some cases rulers), and each contestant had to talk about a pressing issue, like the status of women, child labor, and the like. It was extremely interesting, although some of it was in local languages. The producer of the show even gave a shout out to the "oburoni" (white people) in the house haha.

We have also seen some pretty incredible traditional drumming and ghanaian dance. We were able to go to a rehearsal of a professional group of 15 or so, and it was one of the most intense things I've ever seen. We have even had a few drumming and dancing lessons ourselves. Obviously, I was the best dancer around haha, but the drumming was awesome.

We went to the market downtown in the middle of town the other day too. Massive, massive market. So many people around selling everything you could ever want (suitcases to giant snails to pots and pans to vegetables). It was a bit overwhelming--there was so much stuff going on and people are yelling at us trying to get us to come to their stand (but also in many many cases just to talk to us--unbelievably friendly). Everyone has their one stand filled with whatever goods they are selling. There is no room for cars and if you don't know where you are going, it's easy to get lost.

We also went to Jamestown the other day, which is one of the poorer areas of Accra. Personally, and i think this would apply to most people, as a tourist I would never venture out into a stanty town and walk around. But I have to say, I've never felt safer. People were friendly and asking us how we liked ghana. It totally blew my mind and really changed my perspective on things. Perceptions and generalizations can be so off the mark.

We also had about 25-30 of the local children (from about 5-6 houses) over to the house yesterday to play games, mainly so that the volunteers in going to orphanages or schools could get a feel of what it might be like. What a mad house haha. The kids were fantastic and incredibly enegtic. They were climbing all over me wanting piggy back rides haha, it was hilarious. After a few hours I felt like I had run a marathon. Mum also really enjoyed it and of course seemed to be totally in her element. I also played football (soccer) with a few of the older kids and they made me look like a I had never seen a soccer ball before. They could go in circles around me. It was a lot of fun, but we were exhausted by the end of the day.

Tomorrow we leave Accra and go to Kasoa where we'll be staying with our host family. Mum and I are excited but a little nervous. We've learned some Twi language, but miscommunication in english will be an ongoing issue. Also, there are some culture norms and taboos (NEVER eat with your left hand) that we are still getting used to. All in all though, we're still loving the whole experience. We've even started to plan weekend excursions to wildlife reserves.. can't wait!