and you my friend, are invited!
Since I've been in Ghana, I've realized that the cycle of life is just one big party broken into segments. We as humans absolutely LOVE celebrating life, and to show how much we love to celebrate it, we throw a "Party" every chance we get. This Life Cycle of festivities usually occurs before birth in the United States with a baby shower. But here in Ghana, the party happens when the baby is already a few weeks old, when he/she receives a name in the glory of God.
While a baby shower is all about giving gifts to the mother, a naming ceremony is all about the baby. A man or woman of God holds the baby up and praises The Lord for blessing the parents with the child. He or she then asks for His grace in the child's life and offers the child as a servant to God. The parents stand in front humbly and say "Amen", while the baby wails from being rocked around so much. After this has taken place, the baby is given a Christian name aside from the day-of-the-week name that he/she was born on, then the ceremony is over. At the end, no gifts are bestowed upon the mother, rather, the parents are expected to give food to their guests before they depart.
Speaking of giving gifts to guests... This was the topic of the sermon the priest gave when I attended church last weekend with my entire host family (immediate and extended) and some of my American sisters. The priest explained that if you are hosting a guest, you should give that person a gift , referencing Biblical incidents to backup his statement. He even went as far as to explain the procedures for hosting guest in Ghana. Here he explained, that when a guest is present one must first offer them a chair. This is true as I have never been invited in to someone's home or work place without being forced to take a seat. In addition to the offering of a chair, you must also provide your guest with something to drink as well as something to eat if the occasion is right. In Ghana, if someone does not "at ome " you, or invite you to join them in eating their food, it is considered extremely rude.
After the priest gave this sermon, it was time to give to the church, for the second time. I had become a little worried when it came time for my row to give, since EVERYONE as the priest stressed must put at least five Cedis in to the collection box or else be dealt with by a higher power. This semi frightened me since I knew that everyone was watching my sisters and I, and we all had already given everything we had during the first round of collections. Once our turn had passed and we had gave nothing, some of the brothers in the church took the box away to count the money. After counting the money and it coming up short, the priest pestered the church and those with a guilty consciences came up to place their tithes in the box. This lasted for about twenty minutes before he went on to speak in Fante.
At first, the fact that he decided to speak in Fante confused me since the whole sermon had been given in English. However, after a while I begin to pick up on some of the words to conclude what he was saying like "Americans" , "stingy" and "small small." As people in the church begin to laugh and look at us, I knew that he was talking about how my sisters and I did not give enough. Although we were very embarrassed, all we could do was laugh along with those who were laughing at us.
When the priest reverted back to speaking in English, he looked at my sisters and I who were sitting in the front row being video tapped and stated the obvious. "I have spoken in Fante so that you would not know what I was saying, but all I said was, we welcome you to be here with us." The church bursted out into laughter again.
I later found out that my assumptions were correct. Actually, what had said was that Americans are stingy and that we should offer "plenty" to the donation box as we have "plenty" more to give. This seemed a little hypocritical to me, as he had just gave a sermon on the importance of giving to ones guest (a theme in Ghana), not necessarily ones guest giving to you. Anyways, my sisters and I found it very humorous so there were no hard feelings taken. The sermon concluded with the singing of Happy Birthday to my host Grandmother Mary and her twin sister Martha who had just turned 70 years old. After the singing, The priest sprinkled us all with holy water and sent us on our way.
After church, we changed in to our party dresses because it was time to CELEBRATE! My entire family had been in preparation for the gathering of Mother Mary and Martha's 70th birthday for months, and the last few days leading up to the party were extremely hectic. I must say I felt so bad for my Auntie Matilda (my host mom) who had not slept in days because their was so much food to be cooked. On the Day of the party, my sisters and I laced up in our matching party dress and walked into paradise. The set up of the party reminded me of a wedding reception and their was at least 250+ people in attendance. To entertain the guest there was a live performance by my American sisters and I! My cousin thought that it would be funny to include us in the program as a way to entertain everyone. Lets just say that they were extremely entertained by our off key singing and off beat dancing. This was definitely the day I felt most at home, being surrounded by my Ghanaian friends and family all under one roof.
Speaking of all under one roof,
On Friday of last week , I attended the wake of a person in my neighborhood. Of course I did not know the person personally, but neither did most of the Ghanaians who were gathered with me under the roof top. In Ghana, it is common for more strangers than family members to attend a funeral as everyone is always invited to such an extravaganza, the more people who attend your funeral, the more you are thought to have been loved during you lifetime. Minutes before the wake began, there was a worship team marching, drumming and dancing up our street to indicate that a wake was about to take place. Behind these marchers was a long line of children and adults who had joined them along the way. Our neighbor Emmanuel suggested that we should attend and so we all followed behind until we reached the house of the deceased. When we arrived, everyone was singing and dancing and simply having a grand time. As we moved through the line, we were invited in to the home of the deceased to view the body. The women was dressed in a white gown that reminded me of wedding dress and covered in Gold and jewels. I had heard a few times before that in Ghana it is important that you take good care of the dead so that they do not come back to hunt you. This explains all the many caskets in the shape of Limousines, Money signs and flowers for sale on the street. We did not stay until the end of the wake as Emmanuel warned us that it could last all night, but I really had a good time dancing and singing with the others in attendance...weird, I know, but it is all apart of life!
-see you soon,
Araba
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