Ghana Post 3 - Villages

While in Ghana I had the opportunity to witness a few villages. The first village was an entirely unplanned occurence. During my trip to the volta region I rode on the short bus. We had  two busses (one with about 45 students, and one with about 10. My bus had to wait for the big bus, so we had just pulled over on the side of a road. We got out of the bus to stretch while waiting for the other bus and were taking pictures of a village near the road. While we were taking pictures, one of the people of the village came by and asked us if we would like to come in, of course we did not pass up the chance and walked with the man down into the village. The man we had met first spoke English, but we sooned learned that he was one of the few in the village that spoke English.  As we walked into the village kids began to poke their heads out of their huts and smile and wave, soon enough we were being followed into the village center by a whole swarm of kids!  They were super cute. One of the young girls (probably about 3 years old) just walked up to one of the students and jumped into her arms. She had no choice but to pick her up and just hold her. Soon a women of the village walked by and said to the student "that is my child". I was worried that the women would be upset, but as soon as the student began to apoligize and set the child down, the women said "no, no, sweet child".  The women just smiled and continued on with her business. I was so surprised.  I could not imagine anything like that happening in the United States and a mother being so trusting as to let a stranger hold her young child. This women though was just so kind and trusting that she knew that we were not going to harm her child, and was happy to let the student continue to hold her child.  Showing her trust even more was when the women continued walking to attend to her business even though she knew her child was in the hands of this stranger.  It was a very sincere moment, and one that I will not soon forget.  The other children in the village were a little more apprehensive of us.  SInce this village was a small village that probably had never seen tourists before, they were probably a little weirded out by how different the group of white tourists were from their family.  The kids did not speak english, but loved to giggle.  We took tons of pictures of the kids, and then showed them the pictures on our cameras. They loved to see the pictures of themselves, so it turned into quite an event of taking pictures and sharing them with the kids.  Some of us had little toys in our bags which were HUGE hits!  I had some little squishy balls in my backpack that were red white and blue, and the kids loved them!  Some other people had some stickers which also were well liked.  Before we knew it we had to return to the bus. The short look into the village though was an experience I wont forget.

Another village I got to experience was a very short stop. WHile we were waiting to load our bus we had the chance to hang out with some kids who had congregated around our bus while we were hiking. We played soccer (futbol) with them for a little bit and then a few students on the bus pulled out little gifts for the kids. I had remembered my bubbles, which were a huge hit. THey loved the bubbles!  I will attach a picture of the kids and the bubbles.

The last village that we visited was a planned visit. The Torgorme village had been contacted by a travel agent through Semester at Sea and was hosting a few different groups to come into their village. They prepared a traditional African naming ceremony along with drumming and dancing to show us. The entire village attended the event with us. All of the kids were released from school for the morning so that they could take part in the ceremony. SOme of the kids were just there to watch, but many took part in the ceremony either by one of the dancing groups, or by being a part of the drum core.  It was so cool to see. Most of the village dressed in their traditional ceremony wear which was cool to see. The chief of the village was even present for the event.  During our time at Torgorme we were each given a traditional African name.  I was given the name Arzo Venunye, which represents the name of the weekday I was born on, and a traditional African name.  We also were expected to try some of the African dances along with the village people. We tried many times, but I am sure we just looked silly. Even very young children were a part of the dancing, and we could not figure it out!!


I will post more soon!