Our Current Address

Many people have requested our address so here it is.

We LOVE getting mail!

Scott and Jennifer Robertson
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 962
Tamale, N/R, Ghana
West Africa

The Camels come to Gushie!

We had an exciting surprise Thursday night.  We had to stay at our friend Katy’s house in Gushie because they were spraying our house for bees for the 5th time since we have been here.  We were waiting to buy some eggs and we saw a camel through the village.  There were four nomadic men  from either Mali or Burkina Faso.  They travel through Ghana every year begging for food throughout the dry season.  People in the villages all gather to look at their camels and give them a little food.  

 

One of the nomads on his camel.

Scott was the first to try and ride the camel bare back!

 

Katy was the second one to give it a try.

Jennifer was the last and definitely the most frightened!  Camels are a lot taller than you think they are.

Africa Cup of Nations 2012

This has been an exciting year for football in Ghana.  The Ghanaian Black Stars qualified for the 2012 Africa Cup of  Nations, which is just like the World Cup but with only teams from Africa.  Football in Ghana is HUGE!!  We get reminded all the time that Ghana has beat the US in the past two world cups.

When Ghana played during the tournament there was not much else going on.  Most of the country was captivated by the games.  Even if you weren’t watching the game you could tell if Ghana scored.  You could hear the screams everywhere you went.

Even in our village with no electricity, people were still able to watch the game with the aid of a TV hooked to a generator. One store in town would put up a curtain made of sewn rice sacks and charge people 30 pesewas (about 15 cents) to watch the games. Inside the curtain was a TV that sat on a rusted barrel and about 7 row of wooden benches. The entire area was about the size of a small bedroom. About 50 to 60 people crammed in the small area. I watched three games this way, it was hot and cramped but it was a blast. The most surreal experience I had was during a match that started right at the 6 O’Clock prayer time. I saw women carrying buckets of water on there heads and people praying in the outside prayer area, while people inside the curtain were screaming at the TV.

Ghana entered the tournament as one of the favorites to win the whole thing. They played well during the group stage, and advanced to the knockout stage with one draw and two victories. We watched the quarter final match against Libya at a sports bar in Tamale with some fellow Peace Corps Volunteers. It was a great time! Ghana won 2-1 in extra time with the winning goal coming just before the penalty shootout.  Every time Ghana scored the bar would blare the music and the bar transformed in to a dance party. Every Ghanaian would dance around until the game started back. This was especially true after the game ended. The dance party was not only in the bar but throughout Tamale. People were literally dancing in the streets, so much so that it stopped traffic on the main road in Tamale. It got pretty crazy outside, so we just stayed at the bar and ended up watching the Super Bowl until 3 am.

Sadly Ghana lost in the semifinals against Zambia, who ended up beating Ivory Coast in the Championship.

Scott and our friend Chelsea cheering on Ghana.

 

A celebratory dance party after Ghana scored.

Scott’s Amazing Birthday Bash!

We had a football party for Scott’s.  It was a ton of fun.  It was the first birthday party our Ghanaian friends had ever been to.  They don’t celebrate birthdays here or even know how old they are.  They just have to guess their age. We bought a chicken from sister Monica and Ibrahim and Scott slaughtered it.  Jennifer made southern fried chicken and corn.  Our friend Katy brought a delicious cabbage salad.   

 

Jennifer burning off the rest of  chicken feathers.

The preparing of the chicken.  Those medical kit scissors they gave us have really come in handy! We soaked the chicken first in reconstituted powdered milk and then breaded and fried it.

 

Katy and Jennifer found a Manchester United party set in Tamale.  Scott hung the balloons. 

 

Jennifer made a giant peanut butter cookie in the shape of a football.

 

The birthday boy and Ibrahim in front of the party spread.

 

The best southern fried chicken in Ghana!

Our friends enjoying their party favors. From left to right: Hardone, Alahassan, and Ibrahim.  After the party Hardone rode his bicycle into town wearing his party hat.

 

 

Scott blew out all the candles!

For his birthday Scott got his very own Ghana Black Stars jersey. 

The Craziest Funeral We Have Ever Been To!

Last week a seven day funeral was held in Dipale. It was the funeral of the former chief's eldest son. He was also our counterpart Ibrahim's senior uncle. He died 7 monthes ago. So many people came to Dipale for the funeral. We have never seen so many people in our village.

On the first day of the funeral, members of the dead person's family get their head shaved. If they don't want to get their head shaved, they pay money.

While they shave everyone's head, the drummers are playing continuously. They only stop to shoot off guns between shavings. They invited Scott to sit and play with them for a little while. Being one of the cheif's drummer is a tradition that is passed down through the family. At a very young age the drummers teach their children how to play the traditional songs. The drummers also act as oral historians. The songs they learn tell the story of the Dagomba people.

Sorry about the sideways video. We can't rotate videos in one of our cameras.
Actually we can we just learned how,but it is too late now

After all the members of the family has shaved their heads, all the elders gather under a canopy to have prayers.

The whole community gathers around the family as they go to meet the elders for prayers.

The two with the brown hats are the eldest son and daughter of the dead man. We aren't too sure who the guy in the white is, but he looks awesome.


After the prayers have concluded, two of the grandchildren dance with the drummers




On the last day of the funeral, the family leaves their compound and circles the house three times. Two of the grandchildren wear cardboard hats and leaves are placed around the bottom of the hat. It is kind of like a big parade around the house.

The cheif's warriors stand around the compound and shoot guns off when the family passes by. They are only shooting blanks, but it is still a little frightening. Since the village is prodominantly muslim there is no alcohol. An interesting aspect of the cheif's warriors is that they are allowed to drink, which means they were a little toasted. So the only people in the village who drink are the ones with the guns.

The chief's grandson rode the cheif's horse for the march around the compound. Many of the visitors waited to see the family come around the house. The men under the umbrellas are chief's from nieghboring villages.

After the family has gone around the house three times, everyone celebrates and they shoot off guns like crazy. It is so loud. Then all the members in the family dance to the drummers.

During the evening, after a prayer and dinner break, everyone gathers back at the funeral house. There is druming and dancing until day break. We stayed up until two in the morning. it was a blast.

Another Baby Naming Ceremony

Our supervisor Obaku’s second wife just had a baby.  It is his sixth child.  We got invited to the baby naming ceremony. A man on a motorcycle came to our house to formally invite us.

Our invitations. These are cough drop flavored candies which sounds gross, but they are not that bad tasting. They our popular because during the dry season, it is dry and dusty and everyone has sore throats and stuffy noses. This weather makes for some amazingly black boogers. 

 

Obaku, his wife, the new baby, and another one of his daughters.  Obaku is pretty young to already have two wives and six children, but his father was a chief and he is better off than most men.

Wedding Day

 

Sunday we attended a wedding in Tamale of our friend Fataou.  The bride and groom spend the day at different houses.  First we went to the groom’s father’s house to greet the family. 

From left to right:  Fataou (the groom), Scott, James (our assemblyman),Katy, Jennifer, and Fataou’s father a sub chief of Tamale. The first thing the guests do is greet the elder of the family.

When you greet a chief he will give you kola.  It is a stimulant you chew.  It tastes awful and is really bitter.  We took very small bites to be polite, but it takes a lot of effort not to gag.

Next we visited the sub chief’s wives.  He has four.  Katy and Jennifer borrowed two of their scarves for the picture.  They were very sweet ladies.

Here are a few of the children at the groom’s family’s house.

 

We got another photo with the groom and his sister.

You can’t leave a wedding with out eating.  Four of us shared this T-zed and groundnut soup with okra.  The soup was great! They also served us malta drinks.  Malta is a drink that tastes like liquid raison bran.  It’s not really one of our favorites.   

Jennifer and James eating the T-zed and soup from the communal bowl.

 

After eating we walked to go greet the bride at her family’s house.  These are some members of the bride’s family we met on the way.  The one in white is not the bride.

Katy, the bride, Jennifer and Scott.  We had a blast at the wedding.  This was only the first day of the wedding.  The bride and groom will not actually see each other until the next day. A wedding can actually take up to four days.