Mia Dogo. We will meet again.

   

The Crafty Art Shop

Last weekend was the first weekend that the whole group stayed in Hohoe instead of taking some sort of trip. I was glad to have some down time, but even more excited to have time to visit the people I’ve met around town. A few of us had spent some time looking at the artwork in one shop called ‘Crafty Art’ where the guys inside always invited us to stay and hang out. Last Friday afternoon, we had the time and finally went down to the shop just to talk. We easily spent 3 hours there just getting to know the guys that work there and talking about anything and everything. We talked about music, gender roles, the upcoming presidential elections in both Ghana and America and the term African-American. They are a special group and kind of remind me of some friends from home. Their group includes the quiet artist, the politician, the goofy little brother, the lovable drunk and the renaissance man who draws, paints, sings and writes poetry. The conversation in the shop is always interesting, but I am always most impressed by the artwork they are able to create almost effortlessly. Their rasta friend comes around every once in a while, but they don't seem to ever know what he's doing. I’ve seen numerous paintings sketched and completed and chairs carved out of wood while we’re just there hanging out. Here are a few of pictures of some of the guys.

Courage

Inside the Shop 

Yao 

Godson

Koffie

Enoch

Free Hands

On both Friday and Saturday nights we met up with the guys from the shop at our new favorite spot, Obama Gardens. We gathered around a large table (with our favorite server Divine) and taught each other our favorite drinking games. The guys seem to like 4 and Kings the most and I am excited to bring the shoulder game (better known as free hands) back to the States. 

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On Sunday morning, myself and another volunteer attended Assemblies of God Pentecostal Church with our staff member Rebecca. We arrived for Sunday School a little after 8:30am and the morning service started promptly at 9:30 as promised. The service and style of worship was very similar to Pentecostal services I’ve seen in the U.S. with lots of singing and dancing. The choir even sang a song that I recognized from my home church, “Higher, Higher”. The one thing that surprised me was how many people from the congregation were invited to the front of the church to speak. One man came up to give a large donation to the New Building Fund and told a lengthy story about how he had came about the money. Others were specifically asked to come up to testify and some just wanted to make an announcement. I also thought it was interesting how much time was spent speaking against the recent decision of the United Nations (and the U.S.) to pressure Ghana to be more accepting of homosexuals. 

I’ve experienced an occasional long sunday church service before, but didn’t account for the time it would take for everything to be translated from English to Ewe. A translator had a microphone during the entire service which means everything was said twice. I enjoyed the service, but around 12pm we realized that we hadn’t asked anyone to save lunch for us so we decided to leave early and head home. I told Rebecca that I would be sure to come back with her another Sunday.

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Ghana is currently playing in the African Cup of Nations which is a huge deal here because the Ghana Black Stars are so highly ranked worldwide. Sunday evening we headed back to Obama’s to watch the quarterfinal match against Tunisia. We piled into a large outdoor tiki hut and gathered around a 20inch TV with 40 or so other people. The crowd was hilarious and was very happy to see that we were cheering for Ghana. A few red cards and an overtime later, Ghana won 2-1. We immediately poured into the streets with the rest of Hohoe. It was 10pm on a Sunday night and pitch black outside, but the whole town seemed to be out celebrating. Kids ran through the streets singing while their parents gathered together to bang pots and pans. All of the cars and motocycles on the road speed past beeping their horns and flashing their lights. As we headed towards home we discovered that a big crowd had gathered in the town square to dance around the statue and sing Ghana’s praise. I’m sure this celebration was more exciting than any Superbowl party that happened on Sunday. Ghana lost the next game in the series, but I'm still amazed at the level of spirit people here have for the Black Stars. 

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My free time this week was spent visiting new friends and learning more about the everyday happenings here in Hohoe. My usual stops are at a shop in town to say hello to ‘grandmama’ and her grandkids, my favorite seamstress Divine and of course the guys at Crafty Art. All of these people have been so welcoming and have really made me feel more connected to Ghana. I’m looking forward to spending more time with all of them and now know to say mia dogo upon my departure to let them know that we will meet again. I'm sure that it is the relationships I'm building with the people around town, our staff members and the other volunteers that will make this trip such a great experience. 

One of our security guys, Immanuel
and one of the neighbor girls

 

Grandmama's Shop

Learning how to weave Kente

Random things I’ve noticed/learned:

• If you want to get the cheapest price for a cab, you must be willing to stop and pickup others who are headed in the same direction. I got a ride for less than half of the usual price after riding with 3 other adults and a baby in the backseat of a regular sized taxi. 
• Most barbers here use regular clippers to cut hair. The only real difference in hair cutting techniques is the use of an open flat razor blade to lineup the edges. The kids at Happy Kids cut each other's hair using only an open flat razor blade and a comb. 
• Public Displays of Affection don’t happen here in Hohoe, among any age group. They’re highly frowned upon and the occasional couple holding hands or walking arm in arm definitely stands out. It is common, however, for friends of the same sex to hold hands as a sign of their friendship. 
• The town of Hohoe starts to run low on water as the dry season comes to a close. This shortage caused us to lose running water at the Home Base for a few days. We still had access to water, just not through the pipes so I'm slowly getting used to bucket showers.
• Wednesday morning is worship time at Happy Kids. A teacher leads the students in a bible study kind of service consisting of a song, scripture and prayer. I was surprised to see that an offering was collected and the kids were asked to give any extra change they brought to school that day. One of the teachers told the students that their “coins could go towards ice cream or the Lord.” That's a rough choice for 2nd through 6th graders to make, but I noticed that most kids who had change quickly gave it up. 
• Never Eat Salty Watermelon is the most commonly used mnemonic device to remember the proper North-East-South-West order. 
• Friday is gameday at Happy Kids and most other schools around Hohoe. Classes end at the 10:15 break when kids run to the park to play soccer. While the boys play soccer, the girls jump rope and play handgames. These girls are the highest and quickest at jump rope that I've ever seen.

Charlotte jumps so high!

Some of the boys getting ready for
the weekly Friday match