Funerals, hairdoes, and things that jump in the night

We were invited to a member of our branch's brother's funeral on July 4th. We dressed up in our black red and blue clothing and travelled to Asamang a neighboring village. Funerals are frequently done in this season, they a held 40 days after the person dies, and in this case he died in Canada so he was flown back to his home town. We arrived and there were several funeral going on in this small town, so we luckily met up with some of the branch members and they showed us what to do. We came to this clearing behind one of the schools and there were four open air tents set up in a square with a display of picture and flowers in the middlw. there was lots of space in the middle and a huge speaker system. WE started with the tent closest to us and moved counter clockwise and shook hands with the front row of each tent. the one we ended with were the family of the deceased. Then we were wisked away to another area next to the school and given drinks and a meat-like substance that had been severally dehydrated and fried. i think it resembled chicken.... on a side note I just realized that people really do eat the entire chcken and beef peices they are given- like bones and all !!! Malta is a favorite drink over here- similar to puerto rico, so I had a little taste that I was familiar with... do you remember when i thought it was gross. Our church members told us we want you to dance, but don't worry we will teach you. Oh so I forgot to mention that there are two parts of funerals, in the morning is the mourning and the afternoon is the party... we cae conveniently for the party :D IT is custom to give money to the family to cover the cost of the food and drinks and a little more if desired, so we fille dout a slip for the entire group and they took it to the announcer and told everyone how much we gave. Then they said okay now you all need to dance. I just laughed and followed them out to the middle section that was cleared and followed the lady in front. IT just so happened that there was the perfect number of ghanaian people to take each one of us and show us what to do. So there were video cameras and phones everywhere filming the obrunies. I am sure it was a spectacle to see, but when the rest of the group sat down they pulled me back out and made me do it again. Apparently the latin and belly dance helps with ghanaian moves too. Eachj move has a meaning here- you don't use your left hand really, just small movements. they use a lot of hand movements hip movements and you repeat them over and over. Everyone was dressed up with tons of cloth draped all over, oh I wish I had my camera there, but I didn't know if would ahve been appropriate to be a tourist at a funeral.

So I took out the braids from my hair, I had a lot of people telling me it was time to and I had the hugest fro ever! So I went traveling around and found a new salon and they put corn rows in the front in red black and blonde and then did a weave on the back, so I have wavy short hair that sticks out everywhere. they say its mehoya feh, adn hip life, so I reallly like it too. I had 6 ladies all surrounding me as they put it in.

I also got to go to church with Madam Esther our house mom, they really focuse don the singing and dancing at her church, it was very lively.

So I had this great experience on sunday evening, I was getting ready for bed and was headed to the outhouse, I opened the door and truned on the light and this huge black thing jumped out at me... of course I screamed and ran away, but I wasn't sure what it was or where it had gone, so I went back and this thing ran at me. It was a huge rat that somehow had gotten into the washroom and was guarding its territory. I didn't know what to do and so I went back to the house and Grace and Christiana came out and questioned me. they went around the corner and it was there. Christiana went for a huge stick and came running around the corner with it either hot on her trail or her on it's. I guess she got it or something, but it was a great show. Ahh the joys of living in the bush :D