Amy’s adventures in Ghana

Kofi is Simli Aid’s accountant and he is really lovely and has been so kind to me since I arrived. He took me to hospital and looked after me then, bringing me pineapple and ice cream.  So when he invited me to his wedding I accepted straight away.

It’s a long journey to Nyanyano, near Accra so we planned to leave Tamale at 4am on Friday.  In typical Ghanaian style we didn’t leave till around 5.30am and the bus that had been hired was really old and so cramped, with about 25 people in it. It was probably the most uncomfortable journey I have ever made.  Really hot (no a/c!) hardly any room and it took a crazy 18 hours!! If I’d known it was going to take so long I think I might have reconsidered going.  It didn’t help that our driver got lost a few times.. anyway, we got to Nyanyano around 11pm totally exhausted and just went straight to bed. We were woken at 6am and told the wedding was at 9am, so we were ready and waiting, but nothing happened.  In true Ghanaian style, the wedding didn’t actually start till about 12.  It is so frustrating just waiting around not knowing what’s happening, but I guess I’ll have to get used to it!

Anyway it was worth the wait cos the wedding was amazing!  It was in a Baptist church and everyone was singing and dancing.  At one point, each group of friends had to get up to the front and do a dance. So I was up there with the Simli Aid group dancing away to some evangelical song. It was excellent. Everyone thought we were hilarious, being white (me, Jen and Pam – who is considered white too).

The service lasted about 4 hours!  We left a bit early as couldn’t understand the sermon which was in Twi.  Everyone then came back to the hotel, where we were staying, for food, speeches and dancing. Again, we provided entertainment when we danced and the kids were laughing at us so much!  I even managed to break my shoes! 

The party finished fairly early whcih was a good thing as we had to leave the next day at 3am. The journey home was a bit better asseveral people stayed in Accra so the bus wasn’t full and we didn’t get lost. We arrived back to Tamale about 6pm very tired and sweaty and looking forward to a shower only to find the water was off. Very disappointing!

This entry was posted on Monday, April 3rd, 2006 at 3:26 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.