March 24, 2012
So this morning I noticed a bunch of cars passing through the village. I asked Francis what was going on and he said there was a funeral in Mate for a military man. That means a big funeral and most of my villagers will be going to Mate for the party. Since the lights are out, I decided to go down to the roadside and see what was going on.
I get down there and sit around playing with the kids and talking, and we watch the big buses and fancy cars go by. Mothers are yelling at their kids to stay out of the road and people are bathing and getting dressed up to go to the funeral. I was watching as a few big tour buses filled with military men came through. Then I noticed a bunch of kids gathered around something. They pick up this pulverized chicken that was just ran over by the bus. They drop it. More kids walk over and pick up the mangled bird. They drop it. Apparently someone went and told the owner and she came over looking disgusted and bends to pick up her chicken. She picks it up by the wing and it falls apart. Now the villagers have noticed and they are “oh”ing and saying “mobuelo” (sorry for you) to the women as she hauls off her dead chicken. I don’t even feel bad for the bird that was just mashed to hell, instead all I can think is, “Man, I hope they can still eat it.”
The Ghana Cocoa Board is redoing the road from Bakua to Kute since we produce much of the cocoa in Ghana. So the road crew is here now jack hammering and digging the ditches for the gutters. There are piles of dirt on each side of the deep gutters and the kids like to climb them and jump to the other side; you gotta get your kicks where you can here. The kids are having fun, but every so often a village women will walk by and yell at them to stop; the kids sit down until she passes and start jumping again. This continues for some time until Gifty’s mom comes running from behind one of the houses with a stick chasing the kids and trying to beat them. We all laugh. The kids break into two groups and head in opposite directions. But then Cathrine starts chasing the other group down the road (she’s already decked out in her nice funeral gear) picking up handfuls of rocks and dirt and throwing them at the kids. The kids are running away laughing and squealing. We laugh, too.
The guys that are jack hammering give some of the young men in my village a try. This is a big spectacle that everyone watches and laughs at. Yesterday I smacked my head on the wall of the tro and broke my sunglasses. The kids always like to play with my sunglasses so I glued them back together and gave them to them to play with… they were a hit of course. I also had some extra gum, so I gave the critters that, too. It was cinnamon and the kids kept taking it out of their mouths and breathing hard telling me it was burning their mouths. Dixon kept messing with his and promptly dropped it in the dirt and started crying.
These are my days. I played with the kids some more and sold cassava for Esther while she washed clothes. Now the lights are back on and I’m back at the house. I think I’ll watch a movie. I have an Italian couchsurfer coming tonight. I have about 3.5 months left in Ghana! I’m gonna try to enjoy it, but man, I can’t wait to get home. I just hope the entertaining Saturday mornings continue. j
