Ato Kwamina

Good morning. Its 7am. My trip leaves at 8. I'm good (I Blink). It's 7:50. OH MY GOD. I'm gonna be late. Get out of bed, change into some jeans and shirt quickly, toss on my shoes, get my backpack, and run! (I get off the ship) Thank god the bus is still there. I made it.
That's how my morning started. I almost missed my trip "Village Experience." I hate it whenever something like this happens. You wake up on time, blink, and then its somehow 30+ minutes later. But its a good thing that I did make it, because I am excited for this trip. It was a 1.5 hour drive by bus to the village, during which I talked with Howard about interesting things, and practiced a bit improv for comedy class. Like the drive to Ankasa, the sides of the roads were lush with vegetation and the occasional village. When we arrived to the village, we were greeted by a performance by the tribe's drumming group. The music was amazing and very energizing, a good thing for my tired self. We all got in a line and greeted the tribe's leaders (there were about 10 of them) and then took our seats. The naming ceremony started off with a traditional dance accompanied by drumming, which was intriguing to say the least. This was followed by an initiation ritual and then more dancing and drumming. Then the real naming ceremony began, as we were called by last name in sets of 12. A traditional Ghanaian name has two parts: the first is a unique name of special significance for each person and the second is a name specific to the day the person was born on. The ceremony involved us getting up to the tribe's "secretary" (there is a real name for him but I don't remember it), telling him our real name, then some chanting from the secretary, us drinking a little bit of water, some more chanting, and then a little bit of soda (traditionally the second drink is honey or gin, I think, but they changed that for obvious reasons), and then the proclamation of our Ghanaian name. Some people had cool names, others complicated, and others were both. My name is the first: cool but not really complicated. Ato Kwamina: meaning he who is born on Saturday and is a genuine person who people like (I'm not making this up). After we all got our names (all 70 of us), it was time for us participating in some dancing and drumming, and talking with the tribal people. As anywhere I've been in Ghana, the people were very friendly, and not shy at all to ask me for my number of email. Some children took me into the village and introduced me to some of their friends. It amazed me in what conditions these people were living in (it wasn't horrible, but it still was quite dirty and old) and yet how happy and content they seemed with their lives. It's times like these when I feel like the things I worry about back home (like school, academics, the future, etc) are so insignificant. I have a great life compared to many of these people, and no matter what happens I should stay content with life. Only then I feel I can be as happy as these people (not just in Ghana, but also in Spain and Morocco). The children wanted me to come to the park and play soccer with them, and I was really tempted to, but then I heard the drumming slow down, meaning that we would probably be leaving soon. And sure enough, as soon as I got back to the group and drumming stopped and we began boarding the buses to leave. There was much picture taking the children and adults before getting on the bus and leaving while waving goodbye. People is Ghana really do love waving and meeting people, especially travelers. We then went to a beach resort restaurant for lunch, which really reminded me of the the restaurant we went to the day before after Ankasa. Lunch was really good, the rice was tasty, the fried plantains were delightful, the tomato sauce was mouth watering, and the pineapple was to die for. The trip back on the bus seemed short for me (obviously, since I was sleeping for most of it) and featured a view of the ship from far away, on the other side of the land near Takoradi's twin city Sekondi. Upon arrival on the ship, I dropped off my stuff and went to Ben's room to transfer some pictures. Since it was still quite early (like 4pm), we (Ben, Nick, Howard, and I) decided to head to Takoradi's circle market, which we had not yet experienced fully. After getting a taxi to the circle, and withdrawing some money, we made our circumnavigation of market. There were so many people, selling anything from backpacks to plastic containers, to fish, to fruit, etc. We even went inside the market which was a cramped labyrinth of more food vendors. Inside, a lot of the locals noticed Howard, and every 2 seconds we would here someone say "blah blah blah Korean blah blah blah" (even though he is Chinese). Back outside, we found ourselves on the complete opposite side of where we should be, so we made our way back towards the harbor. As we were walking between the vendors, one of the cutest things that I have experience took place. I hear a little girl say something loudly, and then she pelted at me and gave me a big hug around my knees (she was really short), and then looked at me with one of the most innocent, curious, and merry faces I have ever seen. I replied by giving her a great big hug, and waved bye and continued on (in my mind I was thinking, "Did that really just happen.... so adorable"). We hired another taxi back to the harbor, and made our way for dinner on the ship, which was a very simple meal for us vegetarians today (just potatoes and rice). After watching Toy Story and playing a card version of Monopoly (Deal Monopoly, which I found much more enjoyable than the board game, probably because it was much shorter), we went to the duty free shop across from the ship again, since everyone was congregating there again. This night was much more fun that the last, as I met a lot more people and had a good time with Jacob and the others. We called it a night around 12, since we (or at least I did) want to get up early the next day so that we can do as much as we can tomorrow, which is our last day in Ghana. I really wish we stayed here longer. There is still so much I want to experience and see. But it is what it is, and so we must make the most of what we have. Dey-ye.
-Nimish
September 24, 2010