still laughin, lovin, livn, and learnin

3/14/07



Valentine’s day was wonderful! Greg and I both decided not to buy each other anything and then we both surprised each other with something. We spent the night teaching Adom old dance moves…can you believe Greg even broke out the break dancing skills. Adom seems to be developing his own unique dance style which of course makes me proud- he used to call it freeze dancing and whenever he came to one of my dance performances he would give his own little impromptu freestyle improv- jam session out in the lobby. I never really knew if I should be proud or tell him to sit down or be still. Being proud of course won out. He was literally amazed when we saw Savion Glover perform at FSU I am glad that he is finding his own little voice in all of his involvement in my world of dance. I could go on forever talking about my crumb snatcher but I know that you really want to know about Africa and so I will get to the subject at hand. Africa has been very kind to me and my family. We really like where we are living. I am enjoying working with the National Dance Company of Ghana. Towards the end of Feb. I had the opportunity to take part in a collaboration between African Footprints – a dance company from South Africa – and The National Dance Company of Ghana. David Matamella came and set a piece on NDCG to be performed live along with African Footprints at the GLOCAF awards. I WAS IN IT!!!! I had the opportunity to perform live on t.v for all of Africa and guess what????????? The president was sitting right there watching the whole thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got to perform for the president of Ghana!!!! Wow. I know your next question is … what in the world is the GLOCAF awards. Well this is the Confederation of African Football (soccer) or something like that and it is sponsored by GLO. Basically it was pretty huge. We were the opening act. I met some wonderful people from South Africa and learned about some huge differences and made a good contact with the guy who set the piece. It was a wonderful experience that literally brought me to tears as I watched all of the other performers I thought to myself how blessed I am to be experiencing all of this. The Soweto Gospel Choir was there and they recently won a Grammy….you should definitely check out their cd. The rehearsal process was interesting after being in grad school and the dance company there I had almost forgot how the energy of a group changes once a guest choreographer comes in and believe me Africa is no exception… I loved and learned every minute of the whole process. Adom and Greg came and watched/recorded the dress rehearsal and we took lots of pics. The night of the show they watched me on t.v and they were both very proud.

I am still working with the group out in Medie but I don’t get to work with them as much as I would like to. They mostly work on the weekends and since I have been rehearsing everyday the weekend is usually my time with my fam to unwind. I have come to realize that we just may not get a chance to do everything that we would like to. There is soooo much to do here in Ghana and if you live a liafe anywhere near normal then this means that you are always busy.

I have been allowing my hair to grow…don’t ask me what my next move is in the hair dep…I’m still considering a mowhawk ;-) watchout!!! Right now I am wearing long braids….. my trip to Africa would not be complete if I did not allow these talented sisters to braid my hair at least once. My hair is not long at all and still natural – no perm – and they caught my hair and braided every strand…….I LOVE IT AND I have been getting so many compliments….. it’s amazing the different responses I get depending on my hairstyle…. People do judge books by their cover and they also treat books by the way that the cover looks. When I had my locks people seemed to have the utmost respect for me always speaking and smiling and giving well wishes…… when I cut it and wore it VERY short they guys seemed a little more aggressive and flirtacious…then for a brief moment I did small locs like the beg stages of locs….how they start them here in Ghana. … then it was the same, people (mostly guys) speaking and yelling out rasti!!! Now that I have braids so far it seems that people are curious….. I get a lot of stares and smiles from the men, compliments from the women…..maybe I should try the Mohawk here and see what happens!

We are also in the process of celebrating Ghana’s independence which is a BIG thing! 50 years of freedom from British colonial rule. Kwame Nkrumah was extremely influential in the declaration of independence on March 6, 1957. To celebrate there was a huge ceremony attended by many people from Ghana and all over the world. We had plans to attend a concert at the beach but as fate would have it yours truly was sick from the night before. As a family we started celebrating independence early….we were so excited and so we went to the trade fair the day before ----- there were vendors from all over Africa, it was WONDERFUL --- and then we went to Osu and I ate fish…… that fish had me sick the following day…. I though I had malaria (the devil) or typhoid…so we took another trip to the hospital…this time we went straight to the lab and I was tested for both and thank God both were negative…..so we went home and I took some cypro (for stomach bacteria) and we just chilled….i was disappointed that we didn’t hang on the big day bit it really is a year long celebration…and it also made me think of not only how far Ghana has come but that in Ghana we still have a long way to go because I was not the only sick person on that day….some had malaria, typhoid, or other diseases that are prone to this area and cause problems for many.

Back to the celebration…Jesse Jackson was here along with other delegates from the U.S. The U.S. gave Ghana $50 million dollars a couple of days after the 6th. This is the first installment of a total of $547 million coming from the U.S. to Ghana over the next 5 years. The U.S. hopes to help Ghana in the area of rural banking and exporting of farmed goods….this is all in an effort to boost the economy…… I am amazed and when I look on MSN and other sights where I see international news I don’t see any news of it…


The weekend before the jubilee celebrations we went to the W.E.B. Duboise Center ( he spent his last days living here in Ghana) as we walked up we heard music and guess who it was? King Ayisoba and his whole group rehearsing for their show at the beach on March 6th. So we ended up getting a personal concert and after they finished Greg and I were discussing if it would be appropriate for Adom to walk up to him and ask for a picture and we looked up and Adom was already over there shaking one of his friends hands. So we went over and let me tell you this guy has a wonderful spirit….very calm, humble, peaceful, and friendly energy. Adom sang “I want to see you my Father” for him and he sang along with him…..remember I told you that this is Adom’s favorite song? So we all took pics with him and we basically had a wonderful day.

Adom is doing well in school. We are still not happy with the school but at the end of the day he has about 2 ½ more months there….he is learning a lot also…if something unbearable happens then I will remove him and he can sit the rest of the time out. He seems to have many friends at school though and we actually found a love note that he wrote to some girl along with other notes to his friends that said that they were going to beat the girls up on “our day” Our day is a day usually at all schools here at the end of the term when the children do not have to wear their uniforms and they wear whatever they want (they usually all wear western clothes) they play all day and dance and listen to music. All of the children are talking about what they are going to do on our day and what they will wear. We have finally finalized our leave date and we will leave mid july….i have to find a school in the U.S. for the crumb snatcher and he is looking forward to all the family we left at home. I must admit that before I came I actually thought that I would have wanted to move here (remember I visited in 2005) But early on I realized that I really wanted to go home…even though I am a traveler by heart and home for me changes but it never truelly changes because it will always be at my mamma’s house and I cant wait to go back to my mamma’s house.

still laughin, lovin, livin, and learnin

shani