Adjoa Poomah

September 24, 2010
Ghanaian Village Experience

My time at the village was a little different than what I was expecting.  After such an authentic experience in Winneba, I assumed that for some reason the SAS trip to the village would be authentic as well.  Instead there were about eighty of us students, which made the whole experience more of a tourist feel than realistic.  Our drive up to the village was actually really great and we had an awesome tour guide named Yao accompany us to the village.  He told us a lot about Ghana and the economy.  Tourism is Ghana’s fourth main export with the mix of both tourism within the country and exporting items out for tourists to purchase elsewhere.  We also learned that right now Ghana imports all of its oil and refines it in the country to be more cost effective.  However, recently they have found an oil reserve off the coast and can drill/refine it themselves, hopefully boosting the country’s economy. Although Ghana is a poor nation similar to the rest of Africa, it is actually one of the more developing African nations.  They are slowly growing and gaining the knowledge and proper resources to make the country prosper. 

On the drive to the village, it was hard to ignore the poverty that surrounded you, but it also made you recognize the life that was around the areas.  The village was off of a dirt road ten minutes away from the ‘main’ road that we had been on.  It wasn’t necessarily in the middle of nowhere but there wasn’t really much around the area. When we arrived we were welcomed with a traditional welcoming ceremony with drumming and dancing from members of the local tribe.  There were colors everywhere and each was so bright and lively.  The dancers moved flawlessly but aggressive with fully of emotion at the same time.  They were all barefoot on the bare ground, stomping and jumping around, but all you could see where the different emotions brought out by the dancing.  We were then introduced to each of the tribal leaders before we were welcomed into their tribe.  The main point of the village experience was to become a member of the tribe and given a traditional African name.  Mine was Adjoa Poomah meaning born on a Monday, the firm one.  It took awhile going through the people who were there and naming each and every one of them so we started to play with the children.  It’s so funny how intrigued they are by the cameras and how much they love having their pictures taken or taking pictures themselves that we were all entertained until the ceremony was over.  Afterwards, more dancing occurred but this time we were included and not only people from the tribe.  Some of the women dancers were teaching us local dance moves and we were all soaking it in.  It was then time for lunch, but instead of eating there in the village we were taking to a hotel.  I was surprised by this since I assumed it was part of the village experience, but the locals there told us that we would not be able to handle the food they eat- our immune systems would not be able to process the food they eat there and instead we have to have it made special at a hotel.  It, in the end, is kind of the same food, but made with clean food and water and in mass quantities for all of us.  It's understandable since we are so used to eating in large quantities versus their smaller portions, but i do wish we would have had a completely authentic meal (minus the stomach pains that would have followed).  Anyways, the food was delicious and I have a new obsession with plantains!  :)