Sunday, January 18, 2009

Church in Ghana

Today I went to church. Natalie's dad has a friend who's a pastor, and he came and found her and invited her to church and she invited me along. I figured it would be a good idea to try it out, because maybe it'd be something I really enjoyed... nope, not at all. The service went from 7:30 until 10:30, only they ran late, so it was 8-11, it was RIDICULOUS! The pastor spent and hour and a half on the sermon. It was about faith, and in the beginning was somewhat interesting, but then he just kept going and I could not pay attention. Also, the singing was in Twi, which meant I understood none of it, and each song went for about 15 minutes. Oh, and the pastor shouted roughly every six words (yes, I counted) and mixed with a microphone this was not pleasant for my already pounding head.

The pastor has good family friends who took us over for lunch. The act is something I think you would only find in Ghana. These people who didn't know us in the least happily took us in, fed us, and entertained us for the afternoon, all because someone asked them too. Koby and Elise (they're sister and brother) were in charge of us, and after a huge brunch, they took us walking around their neighborhood. They live in a nice sized house, but there were some other houses close by that were really big. I mean, ridiculously huge and unnecessary. Elise said that in Ghana, if people have the money, they will spend it. We also sat outside in their backyard and talked about life in Ghana and what the University was like and just generally enjoyed talking peer to peer.

Tonight was our official Akwaaba (welcome) dinner. It was good food, and amazing African drumming and dancing. I am really tempted to take a drumming class now, so I am going to look into the times tomorrow. Being at the dinner tonight, I realized that I am starting to feel more at ease with being in Ghana. I'm adapting better and the heat isn't getting to me quite as much. Being here is starting to feel more like school, than another country, which is good. I like that I am in Ghana, but am still starting to feel comfortable with things, it makes my days much less stressful.

Classes start tomorrow! I only have two, one of which is Twi, but it'll be nice to get a schedule of some sort going on. In the afternoon I'll need to try to register for some political science classes since they don't let international students register until Monday in their department. Hopefully no teachers change the time of classes now that I finally have it all worked out!

Happy MLK jr day!

3 comments:

Tasha said...

I think taking in other people to your home and feeding them because someone asked you to is something that is only strange in the U.S. (I've reached this decision from study abroad, talking to other people about their various being abroad experiences, and watching shows on the travel channel which may or may not be an accurate representation of life).

Jamie said...

church for three hours? eeee, not something i'd be able to do. way to get through it. but it sounds like lunch made up for it.

Colin Welch said...

How did classes go? We want to know moar!