Site Visit

So I finally got the chance to visit my site the place where I will live for the next two years. It started by us going to workshop where we met our counterpart and supervisor (C&S) to discuss the Peace Corps and everything that goes along with it. So the first night we got there we had not officially met our C&S yet. So some of my friends and I went to supper and there were some Ghanaians who had showed up but no one knew who each other was. So when we sat down we started to eat and then two men sat down at our table. We asked them where they were from and it turns out they were my C&S and when we figured it out they ran to me and both gave me a huge bear hug. It was really cool and could not have worked out better. They showed me a map of the area and that is when I figured out that I was going to be living on an island. It was really cool and all of my friends were jealous at how cool my C&S were. Then we finally got to site it was awesome. The first thing I did was meet about 15 of the elders of the community and I was introduced to them. Then we walked around it is a really beautiful place and it was the rainy season so there really was water everywhere. It actually is not a true island there is a road to it but it is a man made road so I call it an island. The next day though was perhaps the most interesting thing I have seen in Ghana. It was nothing special until about noon when I heard all kinds of drumming and chanting. I then went out and saw this group of people dressed up in their traditional clothes walking around the community. They were going around to the different idols or the statues to the gods on the island. At each place they would perform a little ritual. First the fetish priest would take a bowl of palm wine and make three pours of it in front of the shrine. Second he would take baby powder and spread it all over the shrine. Then he would take some gun powder pour some out and light it on fire. When the gun powder flamed and went up in smoke everyone would stop singing and do a little yell and raise their arms in the air in a grandma Burke Neato Neato sort of way. I really cannot describe how crazy it was I hope I will be able to get some video of online some time and let you know about it. It turns out that this area is one of the most traditional areas in Ghana and they have many people who still believe in shrines and their ancestors as gods. It is really cool and as it turns out it is much quieter than all the Christians. They do pretend they are catholic sometimes but I do not think anybody really believes here. Well since I will be writing much more about my site and you will get to know it well I will end this post.