church and tro-tros

I’m exhausted but had a wonderful day! Our day began at 6:30, when Gillian and I woke up to go to church with Naa. The services start super early here, though they tend to run long and run into the next service’s beginning time. But hey, that’s Ghana. Being late or over time doesn’t affect me anymore at all. It’s just the way of life here. In that vein, we were late to church by almost an hour, but they were still doing their opening hymns, so I think we were okay. No one seemed to notice we were late. The service wasn’t exactly what I thought it’d be (you know, lots of hooping and hollering and “amens!” and such, though maybe that’s more of a black American thing), but it was still really good! It lasted about two and a half hours. They begin with opening hymns out of their Methodist Hymnal Book. There are like 4 or 5 hymns they sing before the preacher preaches. The preacher preaches for about 30 minutes or so, and then begins the long part—collecting the offering(s), doing announcements, etc. The offering collection is so cool because it’s not like at home where a tray is a passed around and people put money in. Here, everyone gets up row by row (kind of like you do for communion) and walks to the front, putting money in one of 7 buckets, each bucket labeled with a day of the week. Each day represents the day you were born (just like your Ghanaian name does), and you put your donation in the appropriate bin. When you walk back up the aisle, everyone dances to the music and seems to be filled with joy. Every week they tell the congregation how much each day of the week raised the previous week, kind of like a little competition. The day of the week which raised the most money goes wild and claps and such. Kinda a smart idea if you ask me, they seemed to get a lot of donations that way. They also do announcements, which no joke, took like 45 minutes or so. They announce stuff like upcoming marriages and stuff—they announce a marriage for three weeks before the wedding, and do the whole “If anyone has any reason for these two to not be married, speak now or forever hold your peace” type of thing. Kinda funny because I’ve never seen that in person before. After all the announcements there is a second round of singing, this time not hymnals but more upbeat songs, lead by a 6 person singing group. It was a lot of fun to try to figure out the songs, and there was one in particular I really, really liked. I asked Naa what it meant (because it was sung in Twi) and she said it means “God is bigger than everything”. I’ll try to find the song online at some point and post a link. Afterwards we went to Naa’s house for a few minutes and met her brother and friend, and had some of her mom’s fresh squeezed pineapple juice, it was sooo good.

When we got back, we decided to go to Makola Market, so a few of us (including one Ghanaian neighbor) got on our first Tro-Tro!! I don’t think I’ve explained what these are yet. They’re these privately owned mini-van type things that are basically falling apart, but they go to a central location, much like the shared taxis yesterday. Tro-tros are kinda like the bus system-equivalent here, though they’re private and there are public buses here. The tro-tros are by far the cheapest way to get around, as our trip to Makola was about a 15 minute ride and cost us 30 pesewas (cents) each. Ha, but you definitely get what you pay for—the vans interior is practically in shambles, and is overcrowded. But it’s an experience in its own right. NYU doesn’t really recommend taking them, though former students say that’s how they got around all the time, they just never took them at night. It was a little nerve racking, but knowing we had a Ghanaian guy with us made us feel a little more at ease about taking one for the first time. The inside of the tro-tro.

Anyway, we got to the market and low and behold, it was closed. Several people told me it’d be open on Sunday, but I guess they were wrong. There was an open gate and so we walked in to find all the stands completely closed up. We tried to walk back out of the gates and there was a man locking the gates up, which scared us because we thought we were gonna get stuck inside! We were so tired already and exhausted from the heat, and were frustrated it was closed. But we finally got out of the gates with some pleading and eye-batting to the guard, and visited some stands right outside the market. I bought some more fabric, which we’re going to take to another tailor sometime this week. I think I’ll get a skirt made. I have been looking online and finding pictures of outfits I like, so I’m excited! Anyway, some of us bought fabric, and Gillian and I bought some much needed Tupperware and water jugs to store our boiled water in. We came home exhausted, but very happy, because we’d gotten a lot of the stuff we’ve been needing for a while.
Gillian and I riding VERY close together in the tro-tro.

Katie made dinner for a few of us tonight- spaghetti with homemade meat sauce and meat balls. It was SO good! Marykate made a Ghanaian dish called Red-Red and it was also DELICIOUS. I’m gonna learn how to make it. It makes a huge pot of stew, and can be saved for MANY leftover meals throughout the week.

Oh! I forgot to mention the Harmattan winds—they are the winds that happen from January to April(ish) that bring sand down from the Sahara. The air is often muggy and our eyes get dry pretty easily because of these winds. It was especially evident this morning when we were driving to church—the sky was all hazy and yellowish. Gillian pointed out the sky here is never blue, which is really true. Maybe once Harmattan season is over the sky will clear up.

I’m excited for tomorrow! Our group interview at WAAF is tomorrow morning at 10 am, so be praying for that! I also have my first Media and Society class with Marykate tomorrow, which I’m really looking forward to. Time for me to go to sleep now!

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