O Madam!

A few stories from my village last week- one funny the other fascinating. On Saturday morning I watched Gulliver’s Travels with some of my girls. Watching movies with them is always a riot because of the comments they make. For example, at the beginning of the movie there were all these shots of NYC and my student Sarah said ‘O your place is niiiice-o madam!’ After we finished watching that movie they were waiting for a Saturday class to start with another teacher so begged to see my I Love my Life video and also ‘Choose Your Partner’ and Group dances we did at our swearing in. A few had seen these dances before but one who had not exclaimed ‘O madam you can dance!’ Then my student Gifty decided I should teach them the southern Ghanaian dances. In the middle of this, Abigail walks in to see me teaching them the dance and asks ‘O madam is this one of your dances?’ I was cracking up about teaching a southern Ghanaian dance to northern Ghanaians plus me teaching anyone to dance period! I guess my role as a cultural ambassador encompasses people within Ghana as well.

Saturday evening I was going out to walk and ran into my friend Chris and his friend Joe who is a local cobbler. Earlier in the week I’d stopped by his shop and commissioned him to make me a pair of black leather sandals. I liked a certain style but it was only in white so I asked him to make it in white. So that night he apologizes for not having had the time to make them yet and for disappointing me. Of course I said it was ok but asked why he was so busy. To which he told me his father passed away so they’d been busy with funeral preparation and had buried him that afternoon. They were on the way to go to the funeral party so I accompanied them in order to greet the family. I pass their house almost daily on my walk to the dam. We greeted many different family members and I saw the burial site which was inside the compound and consisted of two mounds of dirt with some objects on top. Then we got out of there as fast as possible because all the men were bushed (drunk) making it a rather unpleasant scene for me especially. I asked Chris to explain traditional burial practices to me later and it was very interesting. Men are buried 3 days after they die and women 4 days in the same way they are named after being born. A traditional mat is used to carry the body to the circular holes which have been dug to construct a room of sorts. Once the burial rituals are performed, which includes pouring of libations among other practices, the person’s spirit joins the ancestors. This particular man worshipped a juik (an idol) given to him because he had both sons and daughters. The juik was the object I’d seen on top of the mounds and consists of dried bush rat skin. After some time, the burial site is then ‘cemented’ over and just becomes part of the compound’s floor. I’m sure I will learn more about other traditional practices the longer I live here.