I had fun today. The Child Center was not open because today is a national holiday; it is Ghana’s Independence Day. If you remember a couple weeks ago when we were visiting the church at Borido I spied a condemned drum. It was an old funeral drum; both of the raw hide heads were busted. After some negotiating we bought the drum. Foster, the church leader said he knew someone that would rework the drum and put new skins on it. Foster called yesterday and said that the drum was finished and that we could pick it up today. He also said that the lady that makes clay pots would also be around and she was ready to show us how she makes the pots.
While we were waiting for Timothy to come to the mission house the brothers from Nakpa brought the paperwork for the church. We were happy to see them; only 2 more churches to go before we will have all the paperwork. Divine wants to take the documents to Tamale on Thursday.
It did not take long to get out to the village of Kpanjamba where they make the clay pots but the lady was not in the village; she had gone somewhere to fetch water. We decided that while we were waiting for her we would go to a neighboring village and pick up the drum. Well, the village might have been a neighboring village but it was far away! We passed through 5 or 6 villages to get there. The drum is big; it probably weighs between 35 and 40 pounds and is 3 feet tall. The man that worked on it did a good job and the heads look nice and it has a nice sound. While we were paying for his workmanship we noticed a small drum hanging inside the thatch cover building he was working in. The drum was for sale so we bought it too.
The lady that did the pottery was amazing! She did not have a pottery wheel; she used a piece of plastic off of a 5 gallon plastic container, a leaf and a stone to smooth the pots. She used a small piece of rope to make the designs around the pots. Today she made 3 different pots. She made a bath pot, an eating bowl, and a small storage pot to keep valuables in. She said that she makes a lot of the small pots because they are also used for Juju by the witchdoctors.
After she finished making pots I asked if they had any of the smoothing stones that they wanted to sell. After I bought a couple from her many of the women ran home and brought theirs. I ended up with more stones than I know what to do with. One of the old ladies brought out some of the stones that they use to spread cow dung on their compound floors and walls. The stones are flat and smooth on one side from years of work. She had one that was beautiful! It was flat on both sides; I wanted to buy it but she was reluctant to sell it because it was her grandmothers. I finally threw out a number that she could not resist and she sold it. At the same house there was an ancient round grinding stone and stone grinding bowl; I tried to buy it but it belonged to a man and he refused to sell it. He said that he used it for special occasions, which probably means he is a Juju man.
Foster said that he wanted to check with his mother because she used to be a potter but had given it up years ago. Sure enough we got lots of nice smoothing stones from her and then the ladies started bringing round grinders and plastering stones. At this point I hated not to buy everything that was offered because it was obvious that they needed the money. While we were there I found another condemned drum; this was not a funeral drum; just a dancing drum. I bought the drum and contracted with a man from that village to put a goat skin head on it. When we left everyone in the village was smiling!
Hope you enjoy your day as much as we enjoyed ours!
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
