Don't worry, God is in control!

Now there’s a comforting thought.. That was just one among many, many signs and stickers with a reference to god that I’ve seen on the trotros and taxis, even in the names of stores! Some others include ‘With God All Things Are Possible’, ‘With God’s Grace Fashion’, ‘Allah is Great’, ‘The Lord Is My Shepherd Chop Bar’ (a chop bar is just a small food place that sells local food), ‘Glory Oil’, all the way up to ‘Repent Enterprises’!

I went to church yesterday for the first time in my life, and I don’t think I’ll be going back in a hurry. Yes, Paul, it was exactly like you thought it might be – the crying, sobbing, shaking, dancing, praying, “PRAISE THE LORD!!!”ing! The sermon was actually really funny, because I went to the youth service, but for the most part I felt like I was mocking them just by being there. The first song they sang had words like ‘I love you, I am desperate for you, I pray that you will control my path today’ – some sentiments I don’t think I’ll be able to share. A lot of the talk was about repenting the sins you have committed against God today so that he can forgive. Two things I’ve never understood about religion – one, why does God need people to pray/thank him everyday, and two, why do people need to give money to the church just for being there? Nadia gave me 5000cedis (about 75cents) to drop into the offering basket. That was fun…

On Saturday night, the family took me to a wedding party. I’m not quite sure what part of the wedding it was, because it was a Ghanaian man marrying a black American woman so it was a sort of jumble of cultures. The man asked the woman to marry him, but she didn’t ask him. He gave her a ring, but she didn’t give him one. When they kissed at the end, everyone cracked up laughing! I had no idea why, but then Nadia told me that Ghanaians do NOT kiss in public. Everyone was laughing throughout the whole night, because of the differences to their usual wedding party. They had a guy (the minister or pastor?) praying that the marriage would be strong enough in God’s eyes to not allow the devil to harm them or their relationship. He kept saying that the devil is everywhere! I’m getting scared of this devil-man… I think he finished every sentence with ‘praise the lord’, to which everyone would say ‘amen’, or ‘amen’, to which everyone would say ‘hallelujah’. Please allow me to apologise if I’m seeming offensive to all the God-lovers out there, but I just haven’t been exposed to such strong religion before! Other than all the godliness, I had a lot of fun - Tiko kept getting me these Gordon’s Spark drinks, which are gin with fruit flavour, and one woman even made me get up and shake my booty!

Now, onto my obroni (white person) life! On Thursday night, a Lithuanian girl called Dalia that I’ve been emailing for months came and picked me up from work to take me out. She took me straight to “Oxford” Street in Osu (the quotation marks because it’s not actually called Oxford Street, but everyone calls it that because it’s possibly the busiest street in Accra and it’s where all the obronis hang out – just like in London). We went to a place called Koala Market (coincidence?), which she says is one of only 2 normal places to shop. We walked inside and I felt myself go ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh – it’s like a normal supermarket!! I saw cake mix, detergent, Red Bull, icecream, fruit and it was all just like home!! So relaxing. After this, and a walk to Independence Square, she took me to Champs Sports Bar at the Paloma Hotel. This place is made especially for obronis. On Thursday nights they hold a quiz night there. They even have half-price margheritas, making them 20000cedis, or about $2.80! Next week I’m bringing a lot of money with me. I met about 14 other trainees who are also here through AIESEC – Romania, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Norway, Mexico! I had such a lot of fun, and we even came 3rd in the quiz! We won 100000cedis to put towards our next bill.

I’ve made myself a bit of an itinerary now, so I’ll be doing a trip every weekend until I get home. That way I can keep you and myself interested!

xx

1. As an example..
2. The house-warming party from last week - see the homeowners on the far left and far right.
3. Nadia (front) and Sarah in the car
4. The usual scene - piles of coconuts, women with goods on their heads
5. Me washing for the first time, and lacking the skills