Komenda

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-In the beginning the earth and the heavens existed very close together. There was a woman pounding fou fou but her pounding stick was too long. as she pounded her stick knocked the heavens far away and created the world as we know it today.-
African traditional religion creation story (fou fou is a local dish made of cassavas and plantains)

I spent last week in a fishing village called Komenda. It was really interesting to finally see more of the country. I do not know Cape Coast's population to compare it to but Komenda is made up of about 10,000 people. The people there are incredibly friendly. It is a coastal village so most of the men are fishermen and the women are fish mongers. Because it is so small there are no Americans there. I saw two Americans who were not in my group the entire week I was there. This makes me have a whole new appreciation for the 5-15 I see a day in Cape Coast. As I have said before we have become used to chants of obroni. Komenda brought this to a whole new level. From the moment I stepped foot out of my home I could expect children running up to me or chanting from afar until the moment I reached a safe haven of a home. They all say the same thing "obroni, how are you, I am fine" for many of the children this is the only English they know and they seem excited to use it. One day another student, Ben, and I went to a small village near by and visited a school and hospital. As we walked across the school hard there were probably about 50 children chanting at us. It feels normal now but sometimes I step back and feel how truly surreal it is.

The weekend we were there there were 8 funerals in town. One of them was huge because the woman was highly respected. The best part of my stay there was being included in this rite of passage. Ghanaian funerals resemble nothing that I have ever seen before. They are truly a celebration of life. They are a five day event to honor those who have passed. They begin on Friday evenings and this portion of the event did not end until day break. The particular funeral I was at was for a woman who had more money than most people in Komenda so the general structure was the same as the others but how elaborate it was could not be compared to others. The first night there is the "home call" which is when peopel enter the home to view the body. At first I was extremely hesitant to partake in this because I felt invasive and do not like seeing dead bodies in general. But right before we walked in I was struck by the beauty of the entire situation. Hundreds of people (at least 5 hundred) dedicated 3-4 days to being part of this celebration for only one woman. It was really interesting to see that the whole thing was filled with more laughter and dancing than tears. I even met two of the womans children and was not inspired to give them condolences. Death is treated much differently here. After the viewing there were several different performances by church choirs and traditional african performers. after that those closest to the woman were expected to stay and sit until the sun rose and many of them did just that (I left at 430 AM). The next day there was a live band and lots of drinking and dancing. The women were really excited to have us there and made us get up and dance with them. One of them even brought my friend to her home and dressed her in traditional African dress for her to dance in. the older women really know how to get down. I was doing moves that I would never do in front of my family but I was only imitating women older than my mother.
it was nice to see but I am happy to be back in Cape Coast with running water

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