I spent Christmas in a village with five other PCV’s. We cooked a ton of great food (thanks to a dutch oven (pan inside a pot)) which included: fake sushi, apple crisp, m&m’s, fake tacos, banana bread, coffee cake, curry…delicious. Dallin busted out his guitar and we sang Christmas carols, we had a batik 2-yard exchange for presents, and spent 2 days watching Christmas episodes of tv series we had on our external hard drives…it was FANTASTIC! Christmas morning we decided we should entertain the Ghanaians and decided we would hunt down a goat, capture it, and put a Christmas wreath on its neck and say it’s an American tradition. It went splendidly well; PCV’s and Ghanaians alike were totally entertained and the goat didn’t mind too much either.
Next, I finally decided to get some weave. I told Gifty I wanted dreads and the hair should be brown. I got tiny braids twisted together out of dark blonde hair…oh Ghana. Anyway, after 11 hours spread over two days I got my hair! I love it!
This week my chief’s brother is having his traditional wedding in our village. It’s spread over 7 days, but the main day was Tuesday. At this wedding I spent most of my time with the women instead of the men (when I went to the traditional wedding in Bala); so I didn’t watch the slaughter or eat the blood this time. Instead I danced and clapped with the women and made banku. The women were more fun, but the men got more booze and meat… I loved dancing with the women; they have so much fun just clapping and dancing and teasing each other; I wish I could understand everything they said, I know they are hilarious.
Tonight I have a couple PCV’s and 2 couchsurfers from Spain coming to stay for NYE. I got a ridiculously sad looking bottle of champaign and it’s chilling now :) 2011, you’ve been awesome, but 2012 is a big year; both for the Mayans and for me: I’LL BE GOING HOME!!!!! Mom and dad arrive in 3 weeks and I can’t wait to see them!
j
sorry, the pics are all out of order...i dunno...
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| NaNa, me, and Fo Nicho |
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| My Mama Victoria and me |
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| The Bride |
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| Me hair. |
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| Women dancing while preparing for the wedding. |
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| Bringing in of the cassava for the fufu. |
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| Adjua and Better bustin' it. |
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| Me with the crazy ladies. |
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| Gifty and I (she's the one who did my hair.) |
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| Women making banku. |
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| Men and the jugs of palm wine. |
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| Stirring the banku. |
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| Dividing of the meat. |
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| My chief is on the right; his brother is the groom. |
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| Women eating banku. |
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| Gifty, Better, and I eating banku. |
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| Some of my students eating. |
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| Mama Victoria busting a move. She's Boss's sister and loves to dance! |
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| I like these 2 old ladies too...they're always fun. |
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| Women singing and going to collect the bride. |
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| Our Christmas Card |
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| Monkeys everywhere at Atome. |
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| Christmas Love |
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| Christmas songs |
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| Caught our goat! |
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| Merry Christmas |
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| Esther and Gifty braiding my hair in our village. |
