kumasi updates

i'm not sick yet!

i also learned recently that my ghanaian name is kuesi. ghanaians usually go by two names; their ghanaian name and their western name. most go by their ghanaian name and give their western name to visitors. the interesting component to this name philosophy is that ghanaians receive their name in correlation with the day that they were born. kuesi is short for kuesiada which means sunday; all boys who are born on sundays are named kuesi and all sunday born girls are named kuesia. i imagine this makes it fairly difficult for teachers taking roll. ghanaians love it when we answer "wo din de sen? (what is your name?)" with our ghanaian name.

food continues to be one of the most difficult aspects of fully embracing the ghanaian culture; i have been overwhelmed with starches and spices. when i meet up with my classmates in the morning we usually find ourselves talking about how much fufu we were served the previous night or how much tom-brown (rice porridge) was in our bowl for breakfast. most ghanaian dishes you are not supposes to chew because it will stick to your throat; we americans have discovered that ghanaian food often times comes out as quickly as we swallow it in (we have given a new meaning to the ashanti symbol of pride and independence that rests in the middle of their flag--the golden stool). the golden stool was destroyed to prevent the british from stealing it, and on good days here we claim that "we have found the golden stool," other days we are still searching.

on sunday jeff took me to church. this church was unlike any church i had ever experienced before (which aren't many, but that's besides the point). the whole time we were singing and dancing, throwing our hands to the sky and screaming. it was a lot of fun; my tie was loose by the end of it and i put some pretty serious pit stains in my only dress shirt.

yesterday we visited an okomfoo-- an akan priest. she performed a ritual which entailed her becoming possessed by her spirit husband and then dancing with us and telling us about our lives and our futures. she was dressed in traditional garb and began the ritual by smashing an egg and pouring gin and flour on it. after dancing and awakening the spirit and letting it enter her body she brought us into a room individually for consolation with the spirit (there was also a translator present). she didn't provide me with any information that was too crazy; she only said to stay in school so that i can help support my family one day. however, my friend bri's first child will be a girl, and if toby stays in school, he will become the president of the USA!

in class this week we have continued with our twi in the mornings and we have been dancing and drumming in the afternoons. twi has gotten harder; the word papa has four different meanings depending on how you pronounce it! our dancing a drumming has been in preparation for a final performance that we will be putting on for our host families. i will be playing drums for the performance (even though i think i'm a better dancer). the men are usually the drummers and since there are so few of us we have taken on those rolls. we have gotten pretty good, however, i think our families with still laugh at us.

this may be my last post for a bit; on sunday we leave kumasi for our village stays. i can't believe we are already leaving kumasi, saturday marks our one month departure from the states, but i feel like we just landed in accra yesterday. for the villages we will be split into three groups of six students and staying in different villages in the ashanti region. none of these villages have electricity or running water, and many of the huts we will be in are without beds so we are bringing along some mattresses. in the village we will each be studying a different aspect about the culture within the village. this maybe wood carving, education, palm wine tapping, chiefdom, or anything. i'm still not sure what i want to study. each night in the village we have a different event to attend. these will usually be ceremonies or performances of some sort. we will be in the village for 10 days so make sure to check back here then and i promise some wild stories!

in kumasi i have met a few times with the ceramics technichion at KNUST to discuss my independent study project. his name is naab (i think that i mentioned him before) and i have really enjoyed getting to know him. he is in charge of making clay and glazes, running firings, and several other tasks around the ceramics studio. he also spends much of this time at local corries and villages where he finds materials to use in his clay bodies and glazes to substitute for materials that he would otherwise have to import (for example naab collects shells from the coast to grind up and us in white glazes in place of calcium carbonate). i am really excited to work with naab for my project, he has lots of friends in nearby villages where i will be able to observe wood firings and i will also have full use of the studio at KNUST.

alright, i think that is all the news for now, but make sure to check back in 10 days or so! i hope everyone is doing well, ghana sb 09 anyone? let me know

love, dane