Go on and Feel the Todome Love

So it’s the day of the ceremony and Chris is coming to stay with us tonight so he can meet mom and dad.  Once we get up I make banana pancakes and then I show them how to wash their clothes in a bucket.  It was funny.  Mom and dad both opted out of hanging their undies outside to dry…wusses!  Francis and his brother were molding mud blocks out back, so dad, ever the engineer, goes down to see how they are doing it.  There’s a knock at the door.  Some of the elders from the village have come to welcome mom and dad.  A little later and there’s another knock; it’s Confidence and Peter.  “We have come to greet your parents.  Where is your mother?  We have been sent to do something.”  So they find mom and start looking at her and chattering back and forth in Sekua.  Mom is just smiling, “Jeanna what are they doing?”  “I dunno, looks like they’re gonna make you a dress.”  And sure enough the measuring tape comes out.  Their measuring mom and chattering.  “You know they’re talking about the fat white lady. How’s he gonna make a dress so fast?”  “He will.”  And then they left.  A little later, “Jeanna, call Fo Nicho and give him Sister Kafui’s number.”  “Wow, looks like you guys are gonna have a nice ceremony.  Sister Kafui is the bead lady in Wli.”  Chris arrives, we hang out at my house and talk about mom and dad’s experiences in Ghana so far.  After a while there’s another knock at my door.  It’s my chief and some guys, they have brought us palm wine!  Mom and dad take their first sips from the calabashes…dad said he liked it, mom wasn’t such a big fan.  It was fresh and super sweet, not my fav.  So we then sit around and sip palm wine…the ceremony was supposed to start at 2.  So we sit and wait.  And wait.  I drink some more palm wine and tell them that it makes you have the poops… “Well then I’m not drinking anymore!”  So around 4 Confidence comes to get us. 

We walk down my hill and start walking up to the village.  The drums start, the kids  dressed in their cultural outfits start dancing and singing down the road to get us; the villagers are gathered at the kindergarten grounds clapping and singing.  Fo Nicho, Francis, Gifty, Apolonia, Mama Victoria and others come to help us dance in.  The kids grab mom and dads’ hands and walk with them up the street.  I’m just smiling; my village is good to me.  We walk/dance into the grounds and are seated.  The chief and elders are all there in their garb; the drummers and dancers are lined up on the opposite side.  Silencer starts the ceremony speaking into the mic which is rigged up to a bullhorn powered by a car battery.  The elders come out and pour libations for mom and dad’s safe arrival and safe travel back home.  Next we get up to greet and shake hands with the elders of the village.  Then the elders get up and come to greet us.  Next I get up to introduce mom and dad to the village.  Then the Queen Mother’s linguist and another woman elder come over to present the gifts to mom and dad.  First they dress dad in a batik chief’s smock.  They give him a big strand of beads for his neck and a bracelet.  Then comes mom.  The women start pulling a batik dress over her head.  They’re yanking and pulling (“they about ripped my tits off!”) and then put a headband on her along with neck beads and a bracelet.  They have dad get up to address the community.  He thanks them for the ceremony and for taking care of me.  Then comes the cultural display.  The girls in my village do a long dance and then comes the dance with boys and girls.  I love these dances and the drumming.  After a while they start a general dance with people in the community coming up and forming a circle dance.  I love to dance, but I get tired of dancing in a circle.  But I get up and join in.  I look back and here comes mom, dad, and Chris!  We’re all in the circle dancing and laughing; I look back and Gifty has dad all hunched over trying to teach him to dance.  I WAS LAUGING SO HARD!!  First of all, my father cannot dance, bless his heart.  And Gifty always yells at me, “Bend over, bend over.”  “Gifty, if I bend over any further I’ll be on the ground!”  It’s a running joke between us.  Instead of harassing me today, she’s got dad!  He won’t be able to move tomorrow.  We danced and laughed and I was just so happy.  This is why I love Ghana.  I love that the people here dance and sing for any and every reason and it makes everyone smile and there is just a simple, unbelievable joy in it.  After the dancing is finished, Silencer announces the palm wine has arrived and talks about how much Sister Boala loves our palm wine…I do…he catches me at the palm hut quite often J  So as they dole out palm wine to the villagers from the gas jugs, I take Francis to play body guard and go to distribute the candy mom and dad brought for the kids.  After a while it turns into a malay (as I knew it would) and I’m swarmed by kids, adults, and old women.  I end up just throwing it and running away to mom and dad’s delight.  We drink some palm wine and take pictures with the chief and villagers.  It was awesome!  After that we head back to house to drop off things and then head down to Fo Nicho’s for fufu, light soup, and mom’s big black cock.  We get there and start eating.  As I’m eating the chicken I think it looks kinda small for the black one.  “Esther, is this the black cock?”  “NO!  He ran away into the bush to hide.  I had the boys look for him for 2 hours and then had to kill a different one.  He is clever.”  And sure enough a few minutes later I see the black cock emerge from the bush. “Oh, I’m glad he wasn’t killed for me.”  “Mom, they still killed a different one.” “Yeah, but I don’t know which one. I’m glad the black one got to live.”  So we sit and eat; mom and dad said they liked it, but it was spicy.  Francis came down.  “Francis, you want my bones?”  “Yes.”  Here in Ghana people eat the bones for calcium.  Mom and dad sat and watched as Francis chomped the bones…they thought it was funny.  After mom and dad finished, Chris and I really dug in. “Good Lord, you guys act like you haven’t ate for days.”  “This is how you gotta eat…fast, fast.”  After fufu we went home and relaxed.  Dad said that Gifty reminded him of my sister, Jennifer. “Always bouncing around stirring up shit!”  “You know, she does remind me of Jennifer.  She’s one of my favorite people in the village…maybe that’s why.” It was a great day!