Blogs from Africa - page 3026

We went to our first African wedding yesterday, what a treat! The bride, Nthabiseng, works in the office of the Bahá’í National Center. The groom, Mandla, is a young man she has known since childhood. We learned that African weddings don't require an invitation, you simply attend. The food at the reception was a combination of traditional African and Afrikaans. The wedding was a Bahá’í ceremony with many Christians attending, so the prayers came from both faiths. During the reception, it is quite common for a guest to beginning singing to the newlyweds and everybody joins in and begins to dance. There were songs to welcome the bride, honor the couple as they left the ceremony, again as they entered the reception hall, many during the reception and more as the couple left the reception hall. ... read more

so i left everyone in the dark because the country left me in the dark..been out of electricity alot lately since the hydroelectric dam that the country relies on has been drained to its lowest level ever and there is a bit of a draught. also, water hasnt been put on. its almost 3 weeks now without water, except strangely one odd day. taking a shower with a bucket i haul up the stairs from the tank near my dorm. been cooking for myself alot lately, usually one meal a day with my rice cooker. i will be so good at rice-cooker cooking after this! the problem is the dishes...anyway classes have been going going going. cant really tell you whaty im learning beyond how different students are here than at home. people very afraid to ... read more

yesterday night we got back from Cape coast, its even more beautiful than Accra. Its less congested, smaller city. The people are a little more pushy though. For my first meal I ordered a chicken sandwich, I was kind of worried about it when it came but I was starving and I wasn't going to change, after all I hadn't any problems with any of the food that was prepared for me at home. We stayed in a little hut RIGHT on the beach, I have plenty of pictures but you won't get to see them until I come home ;-( sorry, I downloaded more of the ones I got onto cd though on the Kodak site. So anyways, on saturday morning the day we went to see Elimna castle which we could see from our ... read more

We’ve finished training! Woohoo! After returning from the conference in Mamou, we had a few days to pack up and say goodbye to our host families. I gave my family a few gifts, mostly trinkets from the US, toys for the kids, nice-smelling lotion for my host mom, a necklace for my host sister, and a chicken. Yes, I went to the market and purchased a live chicken. The people who sell the chickens were between the gare (where all the beat up taxis are) and the people who sell buckets and frying pans. After asking around about prices to make sure I don’t get ripped off because I’m a fote (white person), I bought a good-sized chicken. The man selling it tied its feet together and handed it to me. I carried my chicken back ... read more

Qasr al Hajj and Nalut are really interesting as they are both round unlike those we experienced in Tunisia yet both are different on the inside. Al Hajj is a circular qasr both form the inside and outside, and Nalut is circular on the outside but inside is an interesting mess of narrow alleyways and steep climbs. You feel like a kid climbing around in these places but at the same time a part of history as you can see the baskets hanging and the pots still are used for olive oil storage, hoists to carry the grains up etc. ... read more