This morning we went to a naming ceremony at the village of Salankuka. One of the church members had a baby boy. Sometimes the family waits a little while before naming the baby to make sure that the baby has come to stay and to be able to gather the money for the naming ceremony. Naming ceremonies are sort of like baby showers. The family and friends gather and give the parents small gifts of soap, money or clothes. If the family is able they will rent a PA system, chairs and some sort of canopy for the visitors to sit under. We were told that the ceremony was to start at 8:00 this morning but we knew that would never happen because we are on Ghana Time! Ha! We decided to leave at 9:00. It took about ½ an hour to get to the village. Timothy Niligrini, his son Isaac, and Matthew, one of the church leaders from Kulkpeni, went with us. When we got to the village nothing was happening except blaring music from the PA system. They did have the canopies set up; they were homemade from bush wood with thatch roofs. We decided to go and visit the chief while we waited for the people to arrive. After we visited the chief they fed us. This was unusual because we usually eat after the event. The ladies fixed a lovely meal of Fufu (boiled pounded yams that turn into sort of a dough ball type thing) with a peanut butter based soup. Steve and I ate from the same bowl; our bowl had 3 small pieces of mystery meat. Timothy, Isaac and Matthew ate from a communal bowl. Fufu is supposed to be eaten with your hands but I carry spoons in my purse just for such occasions. I also have hand sanitizing wipes which I distribute liberally. The hostess always gives the guest a bowl of water to wash their hands in before they start eating. The Fufu was delicious. After we ate the Fufu they brought us a bowl of rice with tomato oil and 4 or 5 small pieces of meat. We did not eat the rice but the guys that were with us enjoyed it.
I sat under a shade tree with the guys that were taking money. Many people needed change for their larger denomination bills. I lost track of how much money I made change for. I used all the coins I had and most of the 1 and 5 cedi notes. After the collection was finished and the guys were counting the money I bought the coins back from them. The new parents don’t want to have 50 cedis worth of small coins and besides we need the coins to make payroll and pay the taxes.
We thought we were ready to leave when we were moved to another place in the village. We were told that they wanted to feed us again before we went back to Yendi. We told them that we really were not hungry and that we really needed to get back to Yendi because the masons were working today. Instead of feeding us again they gave us tubers of yams and a rooster. What a lovely gift! We re-gifted the yams and rooster to Timothy and Matthew. We told them to divide them up however they thought best.
When we got back to Yendi the masons were still working on filling the foundation of the training center. They had run out of the gravel that was designated for the training center. Red was not able to get a load of gravel so Mr. Iddrisu and Donkey hauled gravel from the area where the toilet is supposed to be. They robbed Peter to pay Paul. They only had one small section left to fill when they closed for the day. Dawda, the mason, said that they would be taking the day off tomorrow because he had something else to do. He called a little while ago and said that tomorrow’s job fell through so he would come to work tomorrow and start pouring the pillars.
Have a good evening.
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
