sorry so long
2/7/07
I must begin this blog entry with a heartfelt apology for not touching base in sooo long…. I know many of you check every day to see if I have blogged even though you don’t ever let me know that you read them I know I have many fans out there ;-) oh by the way, Curry I think I may have found the person who can make your shirt but I would like you to send me your other measurements as well because she made me a nice comfortable simple dress that I think you might like as well……I cant remember are you a dress person?
At any rate it has taken so long because there have been so many changes in our lives. In January I had the opportunity to attend a political party meeting of the NPP (New Patriotic Party)
Sulley put together a dance group consisting of dancers from all over the Accra area to perform at the political party meeting. The meeting was in Koforidua which is about 45 min to an hour from Medie. We left early in the morning and when we arrived I was amazed. There were so many people there and everyone was in such high spirits. Everyone and I mean Everyone had on red, white, and blue. I learned that these are the colors of The New Patriotic Party (NPP). It was so weird to see people from Africa wearing the same colors as the American Flag. Most people were wearing traditional African attire in red, white, and blue. I even saw kente in red, white, and blue. It was really an enlightening experience. I learned that the purpose of the meeting was for the party to choose a new flag bearer. I was amazed when the vice president showed up and I was almost moved to tears when the president showed up. I had no idea that I would see the president on that day. It took forever for the meeting to start and I was trying to get back to meet Adom and Greg at a birthday party in Osu. The group that Sulley assembled would be performing dances from every region. The group performed wonderfully and the president clearly showed his approval as he watched them dance. I was situated with all the press members and I recorded the whole thing.
After they performed we left to return to Accra and I went to Osu for the birthday party. The party was for Gina’s (my friend that I mentioned earlier) daughter. At the party Gina’s mom told Greg and I about a house that her sister had for us to possibly rent. Within a week we went to look at the place and we really liked it and we moved. So now we are staying at Atomic Junction. We are in a 3 bedroom – 2 bathroom house and our neighbors are missionaries (a couple with a 7 year old daughter) from Nigeria. We miss Medie but we are also happy to be out of the village and closer into the city. We are literally right down the street from The University of Ghana. I have begun going to a traditional class there every Friday. Adom has his own room with bunk beds and the beds in the room where Greg and I sleep are literally 2 queen size beds put together. I really like the place and look at it as a definite answer to our prayers. I still work with the dance group out in Medie and next week I will resume working with the girls at Adom’s school. Everytime I go to pick him up one of them run up to me and grab my arm saying Auntie Auntie and it warms my heart in such a way. I will set a piece on them that they will perform late July at the end of the term ceremony.
Oh I forgot to mention that my teacher Sulley is no longer here, he left mid January for the U.S. he will be teaching at 5 Universities there. Initially we were trying to plan for me to go with him but it did not work out that way. Before he left the owner of the house where we were staying in Medie – Bernard Woma – came from the U.S. for the holidays. He attends school at Suny Freedonia. He teaches there as well, he also runs The Dagara Music Center out in Medie. Well he took me to The National Dance Company of Ghana and re-introduced me to Sister Grace there and from there I began working with the company. I sometimes lead the warm up in the morning and before I knew it I was learning Musu. Musu is a piece from their repertoire that was choreographed by Nii Yartey, who is now teaching at Swarthmore College. The piece is about slavery and it will be performed at Elmina…the historic slave castle in Cape Coast. I am so amazed and thankful that they have invited me to perform it with them. From day one Yaa Yaa (the rehearsal director) told every1 not to speak to me in English and to only speak to me in twi – so that I will learn…. And some people actually took him seriously. So I am learning a dance and literally it is… run, stop, sing, jump, dance, do this combo, pick this up, scream, go off stage, come on stage and everything in between. I don’t even have time to wonder about anything and I am lovin every minute of it. What a wonderful experience! Before I came to Africa and all while I was growing up I have always felt a sense of not knowing where I came from or not REALLY knowing my history. Now I am somewhat at a halfway point in my time here and I feel more than ever in my life confirmed as to my history, who I am, and where I come from. So far I have heard it best described by a guy who moved here 7 years ago from America. Check out www.info-ghana.com. African Americans are a tribe … a tribe that came from Africa. Now I will be performing a dance about the story of how slaves were taken from Africa and I will be performing it with Ghanaians and I will also be performing it in the actual slave castle that still exists. Just visiting the slave castle is an overwhelming experience. So much feeling remains there, wow I can only imagine what it will be like to perform it. I am humbled at the thought of it all. Oh Greg has been coming to all of my rehearsals and he even got on the stage and took part in my warm up. At first he was just doing it on the side where no one could really see him – he was trying not to be seen and trying to see at the same time. Oh my goodness I could not look in that direction or anywhere near that direction, or else I would start laughing… the look on his face was just too much. The next day he was up on the stage doing my warm up. On this day I wanted things to move a little faster and I didn’t change my plan because he was doing it … he did a good job of trying to keep up even though his legs wouldn’t straighten completely…. I led the whole warm up without hardly looking at him because if I did it would have been all over. He even had a role in Musu…but he had to abandon it –even though he didn’t want to - because it really would have taken too much of his time and he needs to focus on other things while here.
Just recently Adom developed a slight case of typhoid…. Had he not been immunized for it I am sure it would have been worse. I also got some food poisoning and had to be admitted to the hospital for one night with an i.v. drip. I cant even put inot words the pain that I was in. My whole life I have never had food poisoning and I never knew my stomach trying could hurt so bad. I still don’t know what it was that I ate. But now more than ever I am to watch what we eat.
Aside from the recent sickness things have been very well here. Every day Adom asks when we will return to the U.S. I have purchased a calendar so that he can keep up. Next month Ghana will be celebrating 50 years of independence and I learned that Oprah did a show about slavery that still exists in Ghana. (Some parents sale their children in a certain fishing community for money) and the people that they work for treat them horribly. People in government and other organizations have done work to get the children back to their parents and also give the parents money and supplies to help them take care of their children. I believe poverty breeds desperation and enables people to do things that they would not normally do and think in ways that they would not think. President Carter was just here campaigning for guinea worm – Ghana has a huge problem with guinea worm particularly in the north. There is so much work to do here it is hard to decide where to start. But the key is to get involved somewhere.
My midpoint thoughts:
*allow your heart to be tender
*when you see injustice don’t try to repay it
*find some way of helping – no matter how small
*do your part at your level
*don’t just talk about things DO SOMETHING
*don’t ever feel like the sky is the limit GO HIGHER!!!
*appreciate what your creator made in you
*establish a personal relationship with your creator
*give something to your creator everyday
************************************************************************
I must begin this blog entry with a heartfelt apology for not touching base in sooo long…. I know many of you check every day to see if I have blogged even though you don’t ever let me know that you read them I know I have many fans out there ;-) oh by the way, Curry I think I may have found the person who can make your shirt but I would like you to send me your other measurements as well because she made me a nice comfortable simple dress that I think you might like as well……I cant remember are you a dress person?
At any rate it has taken so long because there have been so many changes in our lives. In January I had the opportunity to attend a political party meeting of the NPP (New Patriotic Party)
Sulley put together a dance group consisting of dancers from all over the Accra area to perform at the political party meeting. The meeting was in Koforidua which is about 45 min to an hour from Medie. We left early in the morning and when we arrived I was amazed. There were so many people there and everyone was in such high spirits. Everyone and I mean Everyone had on red, white, and blue. I learned that these are the colors of The New Patriotic Party (NPP). It was so weird to see people from Africa wearing the same colors as the American Flag. Most people were wearing traditional African attire in red, white, and blue. I even saw kente in red, white, and blue. It was really an enlightening experience. I learned that the purpose of the meeting was for the party to choose a new flag bearer. I was amazed when the vice president showed up and I was almost moved to tears when the president showed up. I had no idea that I would see the president on that day. It took forever for the meeting to start and I was trying to get back to meet Adom and Greg at a birthday party in Osu. The group that Sulley assembled would be performing dances from every region. The group performed wonderfully and the president clearly showed his approval as he watched them dance. I was situated with all the press members and I recorded the whole thing.
After they performed we left to return to Accra and I went to Osu for the birthday party. The party was for Gina’s (my friend that I mentioned earlier) daughter. At the party Gina’s mom told Greg and I about a house that her sister had for us to possibly rent. Within a week we went to look at the place and we really liked it and we moved. So now we are staying at Atomic Junction. We are in a 3 bedroom – 2 bathroom house and our neighbors are missionaries (a couple with a 7 year old daughter) from Nigeria. We miss Medie but we are also happy to be out of the village and closer into the city. We are literally right down the street from The University of Ghana. I have begun going to a traditional class there every Friday. Adom has his own room with bunk beds and the beds in the room where Greg and I sleep are literally 2 queen size beds put together. I really like the place and look at it as a definite answer to our prayers. I still work with the dance group out in Medie and next week I will resume working with the girls at Adom’s school. Everytime I go to pick him up one of them run up to me and grab my arm saying Auntie Auntie and it warms my heart in such a way. I will set a piece on them that they will perform late July at the end of the term ceremony.
Oh I forgot to mention that my teacher Sulley is no longer here, he left mid January for the U.S. he will be teaching at 5 Universities there. Initially we were trying to plan for me to go with him but it did not work out that way. Before he left the owner of the house where we were staying in Medie – Bernard Woma – came from the U.S. for the holidays. He attends school at Suny Freedonia. He teaches there as well, he also runs The Dagara Music Center out in Medie. Well he took me to The National Dance Company of Ghana and re-introduced me to Sister Grace there and from there I began working with the company. I sometimes lead the warm up in the morning and before I knew it I was learning Musu. Musu is a piece from their repertoire that was choreographed by Nii Yartey, who is now teaching at Swarthmore College. The piece is about slavery and it will be performed at Elmina…the historic slave castle in Cape Coast. I am so amazed and thankful that they have invited me to perform it with them. From day one Yaa Yaa (the rehearsal director) told every1 not to speak to me in English and to only speak to me in twi – so that I will learn…. And some people actually took him seriously. So I am learning a dance and literally it is… run, stop, sing, jump, dance, do this combo, pick this up, scream, go off stage, come on stage and everything in between. I don’t even have time to wonder about anything and I am lovin every minute of it. What a wonderful experience! Before I came to Africa and all while I was growing up I have always felt a sense of not knowing where I came from or not REALLY knowing my history. Now I am somewhat at a halfway point in my time here and I feel more than ever in my life confirmed as to my history, who I am, and where I come from. So far I have heard it best described by a guy who moved here 7 years ago from America. Check out www.info-ghana.com. African Americans are a tribe … a tribe that came from Africa. Now I will be performing a dance about the story of how slaves were taken from Africa and I will be performing it with Ghanaians and I will also be performing it in the actual slave castle that still exists. Just visiting the slave castle is an overwhelming experience. So much feeling remains there, wow I can only imagine what it will be like to perform it. I am humbled at the thought of it all. Oh Greg has been coming to all of my rehearsals and he even got on the stage and took part in my warm up. At first he was just doing it on the side where no one could really see him – he was trying not to be seen and trying to see at the same time. Oh my goodness I could not look in that direction or anywhere near that direction, or else I would start laughing… the look on his face was just too much. The next day he was up on the stage doing my warm up. On this day I wanted things to move a little faster and I didn’t change my plan because he was doing it … he did a good job of trying to keep up even though his legs wouldn’t straighten completely…. I led the whole warm up without hardly looking at him because if I did it would have been all over. He even had a role in Musu…but he had to abandon it –even though he didn’t want to - because it really would have taken too much of his time and he needs to focus on other things while here.
Just recently Adom developed a slight case of typhoid…. Had he not been immunized for it I am sure it would have been worse. I also got some food poisoning and had to be admitted to the hospital for one night with an i.v. drip. I cant even put inot words the pain that I was in. My whole life I have never had food poisoning and I never knew my stomach trying could hurt so bad. I still don’t know what it was that I ate. But now more than ever I am to watch what we eat.
Aside from the recent sickness things have been very well here. Every day Adom asks when we will return to the U.S. I have purchased a calendar so that he can keep up. Next month Ghana will be celebrating 50 years of independence and I learned that Oprah did a show about slavery that still exists in Ghana. (Some parents sale their children in a certain fishing community for money) and the people that they work for treat them horribly. People in government and other organizations have done work to get the children back to their parents and also give the parents money and supplies to help them take care of their children. I believe poverty breeds desperation and enables people to do things that they would not normally do and think in ways that they would not think. President Carter was just here campaigning for guinea worm – Ghana has a huge problem with guinea worm particularly in the north. There is so much work to do here it is hard to decide where to start. But the key is to get involved somewhere.
My midpoint thoughts:
*allow your heart to be tender
*when you see injustice don’t try to repay it
*find some way of helping – no matter how small
*do your part at your level
*don’t just talk about things DO SOMETHING
*don’t ever feel like the sky is the limit GO HIGHER!!!
*appreciate what your creator made in you
*establish a personal relationship with your creator
*give something to your creator everyday
************************************************************************
posted by shani-in-ghana at 5:47 AM
2 comments
