Festival

Festival

The weekend is free time and after a week of cultural adjustments and working, I was excited to have some time to explore the town. Three volunteers were leaving on Sunday after two months in Ghana, which meant that we needed to celebrate their final weekend. Luckily, it was the perfect weekend for a celebration, as Senya (the fishing village that I am working in) was having their yearly festival. The festival celebrates the first harvest which eliminated hunger and allowed the village to prosper back several hundred years ago. Each year, many families travel back to Senya to see family, dance, and party.

We decided as a group to go to the festival on Saturday night. We arrived around 8:00 (which seeing as I have been going to sleep around 9:00 was quite late). Even if I was tired (partly because of a 45 minute tro tro ride in the dark), my energy levels were recharged quickly as we walked down the crowded street. Everyone seemed to be outside and spontaneous dance parties were found on every block. After a walk up and down the main street, we (3 international volunteers and 4 Ghanaians) went to the main bar located at the front of the town which was hosting a live band. The group continued drinking and dancing the night away, first to the live music outside, and then to the “night club” inside. A mixture of some American and some Ghanaian hits kept the crowd entertained well into the night. It is always interesting being the only white guy on the dance floor, and I tried my best to overcome the painful dancing stereotypes that have plagued the obruni for years. Sadly, the final night of festivities where we were going to show our a movie about child trafficking was rained out, but hopefully we will reschedule for this week.