Are they speaking in tongues or in Twi?

This weekend I did a lot of things, none of them particularly life-changing, but all of them enlightening.

On Saturday I went with my roommate and her boyfriend to see her sister. Her sister just entered her first year of high school at a boarding school about two hours away from Accra. The first year of high school is really hard for students, because, on top of being away from home for the first time, they are also made to do all of the menial labor around the school like cleaning the bathrooms, scrubbing the floors, weeding, etc. I brought a bracelet for her sister, but she said that the older girls would take it away from her, so she asked my roommate to hold it for her. I was so sad for her! Tina and Fifi (my roommate and her boyfriend) said that this was very common in Ghana.

Today, on Sunday, I went to church with Sarah and her roommate, Peace. It was definitely different. It lasted for four hours and included slaying in the spirit, an alter call, and calls for financial donations of $1,000. They got four people to pledge $1,000, so I guess it worked. At one point, I wrote a note to Peace that said "are most people speaking in tongues or praying in Twi?" and she laughed. Most were speaking in tongues. I felt very Presbyterian throughout the whole thing, but it was an interesting experience. It actually reminded me a lot of what we saw at the Odwira festival in Akropong a week ago, when women were ritually possessed by the spirit of their ancestors. They exhibited the same movements, facial expressions, etc. The people around them caught them exactly as the helpers at Odwira did. It certainly gave me a lot to think about.

After church, we went to see Peace’s cousin, who is a seamstress. She is making me three dresses, two of which will be quite fancy. I gave her fifteen yards of fabric to work with in all, so I hope they will turn out well. She measured me today, but I’ll go back in a few weeks to try them on.

This week (we leave tomorrow at 6 am) we travel to the Northern region of Ghana. I am extremely excited for this, although I am not excited for the 12-hour bus ride over very bumpy roads. The bus is supposedly air conditioned, so I will hope and pray that it is working. I think that I am going to spend my travel break doing relief work in the North (there has been heavy flooding), so I am excited to see what is happening before I make my plans to go. Joy's parents are involved in a mission organization which has branches in the North, so she is going to connect me with some of her friends. It will be good to do some "real" work in Ghana.

Anyway, things are generally very good here. I am learning a lot about relationships and Ghanaians. I feel like I am finally making friends with some of them, and learning how to communicate across our accents and cultural outlooks. It's been good for me.