Now...Ghana has an unusual number of public holidays and I never know what they are for. I will come into work on Wednesday and my counterpart will advise me that "tomorrow is a holiday, the office will be closed". During my 6 months here, I think I have already experienced 6 such days. Finally we had a day off that made sense....
On March 6th, most of Ghana was shut down to celebrate Ghana’s 52nd year of Independence. After a painful history of rule under the Portuguese, Danish, Swedish and British, ultimately the people of the Gold Coast, Empire of Ashanti and British Togoland merged to become the first democratic sub-Saharan country in colonial Africa: Ghana! Ghana’s first president was Kwame Nkrumah. He was anti-colonial as well as the first African president to push the ideals of Pan-Africanism. Nkrumah laid most of the formal groundwork for Ghana even as it exists today. Ghana is built on the principles of freedom, justice, equity and free education for all, irrespective of ethnic background, religion or creed.
To honor the day, two of the volunteers and I went to Edumafa, a little village right on the beach where we are starting a new cooperative that will make paper out of pineapple fibers. First we stopped by to visit the school which was celebrating by having the children parade and then line up in ranks. After all of the classes were at attention the headmaster set us forth on an obruni parade to walk in between all of the classes to honor the children. It was a little awkward, but funny to see all the little ones giggling at our rhythm-less march.
Then we spent the rest of the morning out on the beach, enjoying the company of some goats and watching fishermen haul in a catch. One of the village girls, Suzzy, invited us to join her on a trip to the Coconut Forest! Now, I have experienced my fair share of forests…mostly of the temperate variety. A Coconut Forest though was something entirely new in my book! Several boys joined us and offered their services to climb the tree and cut down the coconuts. Here is a picture of one of them scaling the GIANT tree!!! Look closely he's on the tree in the center of the picture...Can you believe it?
To honor the day, two of the volunteers and I went to Edumafa, a little village right on the beach where we are starting a new cooperative that will make paper out of pineapple fibers. First we stopped by to visit the school which was celebrating by having the children parade and then line up in ranks. After all of the classes were at attention the headmaster set us forth on an obruni parade to walk in between all of the classes to honor the children. It was a little awkward, but funny to see all the little ones giggling at our rhythm-less march.
Then we spent the rest of the morning out on the beach, enjoying the company of some goats and watching fishermen haul in a catch. One of the village girls, Suzzy, invited us to join her on a trip to the Coconut Forest! Now, I have experienced my fair share of forests…mostly of the temperate variety. A Coconut Forest though was something entirely new in my book! Several boys joined us and offered their services to climb the tree and cut down the coconuts. Here is a picture of one of them scaling the GIANT tree!!! Look closely he's on the tree in the center of the picture...Can you believe it? Then he cut them open and we all partook in wonderful fresh coconut milk and “flesh”. It was quite an expedition and a solid way to cele
brate independence if I do say so myself.
brate independence if I do say so myself.
1 comment:
happy independence day, ghana! wish i had some days off!!!!
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