Blogpost for Jan 1. First free day.
It was a beautiful Sunday morning, our first Sunday of not being on the road. We woke up to dry cool Harmattan weather. To the people of Tamale, January is the coldest time of the year, but not us from the U.S. and particularly from Minnesota, it feels extremely warm. What a contrast! Some people chose to sleep in, while others decided to join the rest of the group for breakfast at our usual spot, which was wonderful as usual. Some new additions to our meal included Buffloaf, koosei. and Millet Porridge.
After breakfast we watched a soccer game with Kwabena, our indefatigable driver, and the locals at the restaurant. Afterwards, Prof. Iddrisu took some people in our group who decided to attend service at the OLA Catholic Cathedral, which was located a couple of blocks from where we are residing.
Waiting for the English service
There were two services. The first was in Twi (native language) and Ewe and the second service was conducted in English. In the service that we attended they used more contemporary music and drums, ostensibly to appeal to the constituents, in the same way new music forms and drumming is now introduced into American churches.
The activities of service were similar religious rituals that are performed in Catholic churches except clapping, drumming, and dancing were incorporated. The drums added in a traditional Ghanian element not seen in catholic churches in the U.S. Interestingly, we were welcome in a special way by being invited to the sacred platform of the alter to introduce ourselves.
Outside the church were many muslims, as people of Ghana don’t mind which religion an individual chooses to practice and there is a strong multi-religious community!
After church, Prof. Iddrisu took many of us, who chose to go to the Modern City Hotel pool downtown, to cool off from the hot day.
We ordered pizza and fries at the pool and had a nice relaxing evening.
We appreciated our off day but are ready to jump right into tomorrow and learn about some NGOs in Tamale!
Tina, Maggie, Mac and Clara