christmas...with pictures!

as promised,i am posting pictures of our ghanaian-american christmas extravaganza.
the party began tuesday afternoon when the first guests arrived. on wednesday, we toured wa and saw all the sights. we visited the great mosque, and the imam allowed us to go up in the tower. it was pretty sweet to be high above wa and see the whole city.

the next day, most of the rest of the guests arrived. we (of course) took pito, this time mixed with guinness. mmm.

as this was christmas eve, we felt we needed to partake in a typical american christmas dinner. right? so... BANKU! we went to the spot down the street and had banku (a fermented corn dough) with okro stew. yum yum.

we partied there for a while before bringing the party back to my house and building a BONFIRE! i mean, you can never go wrong with fire, right?

the next morning was CHRISTMAS! for breakfast, we bought BOFRUIT (a fried dough ball similar to a plain donut) and americanized it with jelly, powdered sugar, sprinkles, chocolate frosting, etc. amazing. tasted just like krispy kreme. or else we've been here long enough it tasted nothing like krispy kreme and we were just desperate, but either way, it was amazing.

next was present time! we did a little white elephant exchange, swapping some lovely and some not-so-lovely treasures

then it was time to start preparing dinner. starting with the slaughter of the three chickens. yes, we did. it was slightly traumatic, mostly because the americans have never killed chickens and had no idea what they were doing.

but the end result was magical.

the end. it was a very happy christmas, good friends, lots of food, and much laughter. i hope you all enjoyed yours as much as we enjoyed ours!

christmas without santa and snow

merry christmas to all! i've had a lovely christmas here in ghana. about ten of us spent christmas at my house. highlights included two bonfires, pito, donut creations, white elephant, chicken slaughtering and large american feast, and much laughter with good friends.
i'll post pictures soon, i promise.
i hope you all enjoyed some snow and cold for me.

school party

last night was the end of term party for the students. it was hilarious, to me at least.
it started with two jhs boys coming over to my house, dressed in their finest clothes, to escort me to the party. one of them had a camera, so they each posed for a picture with me.
when i arrived at the party, the place was hopping. loud music, jamming. the deaf children, of course, couldn't hear it though. so they all sat calmly in their rows of chairs. the children from our mentally challenged unit, the ones could hear, were out on the dance floor having a blast.
there was a random homeless looking man, someone i've never seen before in my life, who apparently crashed the party. he stood off in the corner for quite a while, dancing by himself. but then a fast-paced song came on, and he raced into the center of the room. he threw down his cane, his purse (yes, purse), kicked off his shoes, and started break dancing. just because.
when the song ended, he picked up his things and returned to his corner.
an hour or two after the party was supposed to start, it actually did. the assistant headmistress spoke. then a representative from the ghana ministry of education gave a speech. to the students aged 4 to 21, she gave a lengthy warning. that the children should not drink when they return home. drinking is bad. and they should not smoke. smoking is also bad. but if they must, drinking is better than smoking, so you can maybe drink small but don't smoke atall. oh, and don't have sex. just because they are deaf does not mean that they will not get aids from having sex. so they should be careful and not have sex atall.
after that, they brought out the food. the plates for the teachers were massive, heaped full of rice, topped with spaghetti and cabbage and sheep. immediately, at least half the teachers pulled plastic bags out of their purses and dumped all the food in the bag to take home.
thankfully, the teacher i was sitting by had an extra bag, so i was able to save my leftovers as well.
i mean, it would be a shame to waste it, right?

welcoming committee

this weekend, we had a peace corps meeting in a nearby village.
because none of us volunteers live in this village, it was decided we should go and greet the chief and explain our purpose in coming.
after we did this, we went to take some pito. pito is a locally brewed alcohol, fermented yeast something, that tastes vaguely of hard cider but awful. to me, at least.
anyway, the group of 15 white people walked over to the pito stand, but the party had already started long before. a group of old women had apparently been drinking for quite some time, and they were thrilled to see us. they formed a dance circle with us and sang and shrieked. soon enough, benches were pulled up for us all to sit and take the pito.
next thing we knew, these drunk old ladies had formed a line and danced their way over to us, still singing and shrieking. each one of them shook each one of our hands and welcomed us.
then they danced away.

well, that's one way of handling that...

school children in ghana are required to have shaved heads.
at first, i thought that was odd, a little too regimented, but now it makes sense because it certainly must reduce insect (lice) problems, and it's a lot easier for the children to take care of. if the girls had hair, then they would also need mirrors, etc.
ok, so i don't know what the length requirement is, but hair must be kept quite short.
the other day at assembly, one of the teachers apparently decided many of the kids' hair was getting too long.
his solution? he walked around with a pair of scissors and cut a bald patch in each child's hair.
it looked awful and was quite embarrassing to the children he selected.
but i guess it worked, because by the next day, i think all but one of the kids had shaved their heads to get rid of the horrible bald spot.