Activities and Observations in Kumasi

Kumasi is certainly a lot more busy than the Bolgatanga area. According to one set of statistics Kumasi is the largest (in pop.) city in Ghana. Its culture explodes out at you a little more than in Accra. We are staying at a very nice hotel called the Hotel Rexmar. Like the Erata in Accra, it has a nice pool area with bar (they even sell pizzas). There is AC in the rooms and a TV with a few channels available. Yesterday I watched parts of a Valencia/Inter Milan match. I watched a portion of a Namibia/Botswana friendly, and a little part of a Lethoso/Angola friendly. Our schedule is extraordinarily busy so I don't really have time to lounge around watching football all day.

The other day when we were visiting the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), we visited the art department. I am always very moved especially by student art. It is a subject that I now wish I had devoted more time to when I was younger. One piece of sculpture that I really enjoyed was a piece that was done with the following theme as the assignment: Premarital sex has two face. The piece was a sculpture that protruded from a board. One side of the face looked bright and peachy and full of life, while the other side was distorted and confused. I could not help but wonder if the artist meant that premarital sex can have its good feelings, but can also cause aids (there are tons of public service billboards warning against the dangers of unsafe sex practices and virginity in general). Or did the artist mean that premarital sex was psychologically damaging at too young of an age? I was discussing this with Ida Malloy (one of our group) who said she wasn't sure either, but she did say that art was therapeutic and to that I agreed.

On Friday, we were able to shed the weight of our school gifts as we paid a visit to our last schools. We had the option of choosing one of two junior secondary schools (middle schools), or one primary school (elementary school). I chose the elementary school. I went in armed with a Polaroid camera and a few sample of American currency. At first I asked the students about the leaders of Ghana. Almost all of them knew that Kwame Nkruhma was the first president of Ghana (1957). None of them knew that George Washington was the first pres. of the US. I showed them some currency and they showed me some of theirs. It was a fun exchange. I then began milling around during their lunch break. The name of the school I visited was the Kokoben Primary School. There is no lunch room, but the school contracts out to a nearby kitchen to have lunch brought in around 10:30 AM. When lunch arrives the students get about an hour to mill around and do whatever they want. I would have liked to have been that proverbial fly on the wall so I could have seen what they would have done if five Americans (obroni, as foreigners are called) had not been in their midst. After they had eaten (in about ten minutes) the children swarmed around Ellen Cummings, Jennifer Johnson, Mora Martin, Susan Parker and me. With cameras flashing the students would strike funny poses and run up to the digital camera to see what they looked like. They would usually get a big chuckle. We then started to organize smaller group shots (by grade) with the one Polaroid camera we had. I taught them to say cheese on three, which they didn't really understand ( I am not sure I have ever fully understood as I have never really understood if cheese has brought about the desired smile). I then was standing in a big crowd of little ones so I asked them to sing me a song. They broke out into a song that goes like this: I am H - A - P - P - Y; I am H - A - P - P - Y; I am sure I am; I know I am; I am H - A - P - P- Y HAPPY!!!!!. They would clap in rhythm with each letter they spoke.

After a little while they returned to their classes and I went to fourth grade class where the students were permitted to ask any question they wanted. I was having a really good time when Jennifer had come by and said it was time for us to go. We had to pick up the others from the other two schools and get on to participate in a local ceremony the shrine of a priest.

One of the most interesting parts of being here in Ghana has been that we will be driving down some road and turn into a very packed-in housing complex (like the one we visited in Tongu), and stop the bus in go inside. Well, this is what we did after having a late lunch on our school visit day. As soon as we arrived several young men and women saw to it that all of us had a place to sit. We lined the perimeter of a meeting area in the priest's house. I wasn't ready for what was going to happen next. All of a sudden it started to rain (and rain hard). We retreated to a small room where we participated in a ceremony where we were poured a little bit of gin. You poured a little on the ground to offer to the gods and drank the rest yourself. After doing that the rain had slowed and we returned to the meeting area and drummers started playing. A group of women off to one side started dancing when a priestess dressed in a black and white wrap and covered with clay dust started dancing. She had what looked like a horse's tail (although I don't believe it was an actual tail) in one hand and a ceremonial blade in the other. She danced around for a few minutes and went back inside. Then another woman began dancing closer to us seemingly to show us how to get into what was happening. Then the priestess reappeared and Lynn (one of us) was pulled out onto the floor. As Lynn put it later, she gave it he best "clubbin' " effort. I thought she did alright. Slowly all of us sere asked to join in. We had to take off our shoes and do our best to interpret what to do. We were then asked to sit down and the priestess disappeared again. She then reemerged with a live chicken. I then got a sinking feeling for a moment because I didn't really want to watch a chicken get killed. But in rhythmic fashion while dancing she rang the chicken's neck (she did not let go of the chicken until the ceremony was over. We then were all asked to dance with her again. She chose several of us to dance with the whisky thing or the ceremonial blade. She then threw clay dust on us and later a mixture of charcoal and gin was rubbed on our legs (while dancing). As the dancing was winding down, we were all told to tell an egg what it is we were praying for. We then one by one went into her shrine and knelt before her and to ourselves said our prayer. It was really a unique experience. We have not yet had the time to debrief with Agya Koo Nimo, but I will try to remember to tell you what it all meant. Well, it is early in the morning here (about 7:15). I am going to return to my room to bathe and get ready for breakfast. Today, we are attending the Akwasidae Festival. Yesterday, we also attended a funeral. I will try to write about the funeral and the festival next. See you then. Tohajie!!!