Independence Day, church services, and more

I apologize for not updating my blog for so long. I suppose I didn’t think that I had been doing anything too exciting, which is sort of true, but I will update everyone anyways! March 6th was Independence Day in Ghana. On the Friday before there was a reggae concert at the national stadium. The vast majority of the people there were rastas, with the exception of a few oborunis . This essentially meant that there was an unbelievable amount of marijuana there (don’t worry, I didn’t smoke any). I kid you not, there was a man walking around with a platter of weed, just rolling joints and selling them for one cedi. Mind you, marijuana is also illegal here- with a prison term of up to 10 years! I supposed there was just no point in enforcing the laws because then they would have to arrest just about everyone in the entire stadium. As for the concert, the main performance was a Jamaican reggae artist named Sizzla. There were a lot of openers, and by 1am we were pretty tired of waiting for him to come on, so we just left. After that we went to Epo’s, which is a bar in a neighborhood called Osu. We didn’t actually go into the bar, but there is a stand outside of Epo’s that sells possibly the best noodles I have ever had in my entire life. There were so many fresh vegetables in them, which is (surprisingly) hard to come by in Ghana.

On Independence Day some friends and I went to the national trade fair. This was pretty much a huge fair where vendors paid for a booth, and they could sell their goods. You could buy pretty much any cool African souvenir that you were looking for, so I went a little crazy. I actually spent all of the money that I had in my wallet. I bought some gifts for people at home, a beautiful painting, and a drum (that I have no idea how to use properly). On our way home our tro-tro broke down. As it was rolling backwards, the mate (the person who sits with the rest of the passengers and collects the money) jumped out and threw a rock under the wheel to stop it from moving. This is the type of thing that happens here in Ghana that has just become regular, or unsurprising to me, which I guess is actually a good feeling. I have actually realized what a different type of travel study abroad is. All of the past times that I have traveled, I am constantly trying to fit in all of the things that I want to do and rushing around and going nonstop. But, my time in Ghana is just life, not necessarily travel. When I first got here, I felt the need to constantly be on the move, doing things and keeping myself active because I thought that if I didn’t, I would be wasting time. However, I have found that I have to take time for myself, to just relax and lay in bed, and that is totally okay.

My week days here are pretty routine- class, internship, neglecting my pile of reading, and sleeping. One thing that I do not think I have written about is the church services. Every Sunday morning (and sometimes on weekdays too) there is a church service in the dining hall next to my dorm. It is directly below my window. These church services can start as early as 5am and they aren’t nearly as quiet as our services in America. No, there is drumming and singing and tambourines and people periodically screaming in unison (why? I have no idea). Now, I have finally gotten used to this inevitable noise in the morning, and I can usually sleep through it. But, the church service on Sunday night really takes the cake. From what I have gotten from some Ghanaian friends, the group is called Militia (I find that a strange name for a church) and they are Charismatic. Every Sunday night, at about 7pm their service starts. They proceed to speak tongues into a microphone for HOURS (or until about 10pm). There is no way to escape this noise in my room. The only thing to get away from it is to blast music in my headphones. I really wish that I could accurately describe the sounds that come out of this church service, but they are sounds that were so foreign to me that I cannot even describe them. I would really like to attend an actual service (maybe just to get some video footage of it), but I can’t imagine sitting through at least 3 hours of it without getting a serious migraine.

I have lots more to say but I’m going to stop here because the power had gone out. This means that a) my computer is about to die, and b) my computer screen is the only light in the room and giant bugs keep attacking me because they are drawn to the light. More later!