Feb. 28th

It rained Wednesday night and Thursday morning!! That meant that it was ‘cool’ until about 9 am! I walked to the orphanage around 8 in the morning and I walked by a father and a 4 year old boy wearing pants and a sweatshirt. Even though it was ‘cool’ to the Ghanaians, I was wearing shorts and a tank top and was still sweating! Apparently the rainy season starts around May or June and we just started the dry period. It has not been as humid as the first couple of weeks but it is still plenty hot.
On Wednesday I went with 2 other friends to a tribal ceremony and a naming ceremony for us. First we went to the shrine, it was in a circular hut, the ‘priest’ - I am not entirely sure what his title was - prayed and then passed around a bottle and a small cup. We poured some on the ground as an offering to the gods and then drank some and then poured the rest on the ground again. We looked what is in the bottle - sticks, fabric, shells and a chicken foot! Yes, a chicken foot. We tried to ask what all the objects, especially the chicken foot, represented or the reason they were in the bottle. The language barrier did not help with asking that question - so we don’t know why. After accepting the fact that I had just drank something with a chicken foot in it we entered the shrine. We sat in a circle with candles as the only source of light. We each had to go around the circle and say our names when it was my turn I said, “Clara” and they all tried to repeat it and finally the ‘priest’ said, “And that is why you need an African name, no one can pronounce it!”. My friends and I then picked folded pieces of paper and handed them to the ‘priest’ and he told us our names. My name is Nakokwe, meaning second born. After we were assigned names we had to make another offering to the god. We poured some on the grounds, drank some and poured some on the ground again. The names we were given are not in Twi, Ghana’s most prominent language, it was either in Ewe or Ga we think. It has been more difficult than any of us expected to meet Ghanaians so going to this helped us meet new people and experience a ceremony without 46 other white students.
Speaking of names, my name has been very difficult for everyone to pronounce. The letters l and r are very difficult to pronounce and therefore really messes up my name. I usually tell people my name is Sara, which helps a little. Or I use my ‘day-name’ which is Yaa. In Ghana your name is given to you based on the day of the week you were born. For example, every female born on Thursday is Yaa and every male born on Friday is Kofi. Not everyone has these names but a majority of people do or at least some variation of it.
On Thursday we were supposed to have our last day of Twi and our final. But, the power was out on the entire campus and they were not able to make copies of the test so the test was moved until Monday.