Homowo

So I got to experience my very first Ghanian holiday today. The Ga people of Ghana, who reside in "Old Accra" celebrate their history and merging of freed Brazilian slaves with their traditional African tribes on this day. We woke up pretty early this morning (7 a.m.-ish) and went into Accra to the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park and got a guided tour of the park/museum/mausoleum where he is buried. After spending about an hour and half there, we went to the district in Accra known as Usshertown and visited a 17th Century Fort that was built for the slave trade. It was pretty intense. We got some great pictures of the ocean and all the fishing boats from the back of the fort. Afterwards, we went to "Old Accra" and met the chief of the one of the neighborhoods. It was a really cool ceremony. We had to pay the chief homage with a bottle of Schnapps (apparently that is the drink of choice for Ghanian government/tribal officials). He said a prayer for all of us in the traditional Ga language and shared in a shot with each of us. Later we went to a chop bar and had a couple sodas. We had to kill some time before going to see the King of the Ga people. Again, we had to give a gift of Schnapps. Then we were allowed to ask the King and his advisor's questions. Finally, we went to our tour guides home and had the traditional Homowo Festival food with his extended family. It was an awesome day! I still feel so far behind in letting everybody know about our awesome experiences. It's just very difficult with the time limits on the computers.

Well, I must be going now. I might be heading out of "civilization" for the next couple of days to visit Cape Coast and won't have internet access. So I probably won't update for a couple days. Talk to you all soon!