THE WEEKEND

I tried to download this short video. It is Saturday morning at the school. The girls hostel and spend Saturday morning doing chores together. It is so Ghana. Singing while washing clothes by hand in cold water. Cooking over charcoal, having to fan the fire to keep it the right temp.

Bakatue festival started on Tuesday, the first Tuesday in July. Town was very
crowded. Music was loud. Regatta a sight. It ended on Saturday, with a parade of the chiefs and queen mothers through town to the castle park where there was a ceremony and then a few hours later a recessional back to the palace. Another day of merriment. I did not stay long, but if I had to guess, it went late, was loud and if you were a local, much fun.

On Sunday, I was invited to attend a naming ceremony at a church. I was told it started at 9 AM so that is when I got there. Now I have been here for 7 weeks and I really should have known that 9 was way too early to arrive but old habits die hard. So at 9AM I was one of 3 in the open air church. Soon there were 6 of us so we started SUNDAY SCHOOL BIBLE STUDY! Then they thought I should have my Sunday School in English so a second black board and benches were move so we could have 2 classes. By now there were probably 10 of us. I found a clock and it said 10 minutes until nine. People kept arriving and the clock continued to say 10 minutes before 9. Soon (well not really soon) Study time was over and then people really started arriving (my phone registered 10:30) .When I guess enough people had arrived (still not the people who had invited me) They removed the clock that said 10 minutes til 9 and I guess then everyone up until that point had arrived on time and only the ones who came later were late. Pretty cool unless you had been there since 9AM real world time. Of course then worship starts. You have never worshiped until you have done it African style. I find it very moving. Singing, dancing and a real feeling that it is great to be alive. Of course then the preachers start. I think that there were 3 of them. Luckily I still had many things to thank the lord for, a breeze that kept me cool, an unforgettable adventure, friends that were so glad I could bring some color to their Church service and George and Nancy and friends coming on Monday. The naming ceremony was very similar to a baptism not very African at all but by 1:15 we were done. With church that is. There was still a visit to the house where Malta and a meat pie were proudly offered. Luckily a meat pie only has a teaspoon of “meat” in it. I wonder how sick a spoonful of “meat” can make you? Anyway, Lorinda is a beautiful baby who appears healthy and happy. Her sister Liza (formally baby Liza as she is named after my daughter Liza when she was here in 2003) is growing big and is proud to be a big sister.