Always an Adventure

I have titled this blog "Always an Adventure" for a number of reasons - mainly because many of you have asked what it is like adjusting to living in a third world country, and partly because of all the events and injuries I've been through in the last week. So, since it seems many lifetimes are lived in one day here I better get on with this blog before it becomes an electronic novel...
One of the many questions I face on a day to day is basis is do I use my bucket of water to have a shower or to flush the building pile of excrement that has been sitting in my toilet for 3 days because I opted for the shower those 3 days previous. And often, I do neither because it is a guessing game as to when we'll get water again. Water is now privatized in Ghana and sometimes we're waiting for a truck to bring more and other times there are power failures rendering the shower and toilet useless as they work on a pump powered by electricity. This is not to mention the majority of people in Ghana not even being able to afford water in the first place.
Sewage is a huge problem here. The centre where I'm staying is just off of a beautiful beach that we aren't allowed to swim at because the locals use it as their public toilet and dumping ground. So you can imagine some of the many smells that cut through the hot coastal sea breeze.
Also, things can be very difficult to come by. For example, I needed to take some money out and we had to take 5 Tro tros (public transport system), 1 taxi, visit 4 banks and brave one hell of a tropical rain storm that flooded homes, shops and the roads so that I could take out some cedis (local currency). When you go on a trip it is best that you think of absolutely everything you need before you go and buy it when you get there because it can be an incredibly lengthy and arduous journey to do it again.
I hope I'm not painting too drastically dark a picture because I'd be a fool not to say that we have it good.
On a lighter note, I was made the "chief" or caller of the traditional Africa songs when we perform the OGE rhythm on our Kpalago drums...and we did just that when we were all invited to a funeral last Sunday. In the Ga tradition a funeral lasts for three days - the body is laid out and people pay their respects on the first day, the burial and celebration happens on the second day and on the third, people go back to the burial site to see if the diseased has risen and is waiting by the headstone to be taken home. We performed on the second day and the celebration takes place because it is said that there are "no more troubles under the sun" which happens to be the name of a new song I finished two nights ago.
It was an incredible and overwhelming experience to both watch and perfom at this event. As part of our performance we did the Kpalago dance we have been working on and somewhere in the midst of it I managed to take a huge chunk of skin out of my foot from the rock encrusted dance floor we let loose on. Immediately there were many locals working on it - the dance instructing sucking back water and spitting it at my foot to flush it out, a driver with a razor blade to remove the flap of skin that was preventing other from digging out the large rocks and so on and so forth. Everybody said the wound looked like a minature map of Africa except that Madagascar was missing. When we arrived home, one of the women on the tour slathered my foot in bedadine and wrapped it up so needless to say, I was well taked care of, as well as receiving endless apologies from the locals..
Unfortunately, the wound set off a chain reaction and days later I managed to do something to the muscles surrounding my rib cage. After foregoing an overpriced Chinese acupuncturist we went to the druggist who thought I had a respiratory infection. Now I'm on medication and receiving massages from a friend of Tettey's (head of Kusun ensemble) who used to work on the local football team.
Anyway, I believe things are on the up and up and I'm back to wrapping my head around the complex west african rhythms and the incredible songs and dances this place is built on.
Till next time...

Music is in the Air

I apologize for the belated blog. The stories and experiences are accumulating so fast it will be impossible for me to keep up with all the details but here is a glimpse into the first week and a half...
It is Sunday night and a large group of people dressed in white are across from the Kusun Centre (where we are staying) on a blotched soccer pitch singing prayers, dancing and playing the tambourine - Sunday night prayers.
Music is everywhere and it never stops. Songs and the incredible African rhythms are all around you all the time. It is a huge part of their culture - it is how they live.
Today we learned some African songs and all of them are about people in various villages. Apparently, people don't go behind the backs of others and gossip till about them till their blue in the face but rather, create songs in three part harmony about them and sing it for the whole village to hear!
We were given a performance last night by two Gonje players (a violin with one string in the shape of a guitar - the body being made from a hollowed out gourd) and the whole family is known by the name of the instrument. Now that is taking your craft seriously. I've been contemplating changing my name to either Voice or Guitar but no verdict yet on whether I'll fill out the papers and upset my family.
Last Sunday afternoon we went to a welcoming ceremony conducted by the fetish priest of the village. To explain the whole ceremony would take too long, and I'm told it is bad kharma to divulge too much about the tradition so I don't think I'll post it on an internet blog for the whole world to see - that has to be the ultimate in bad Kharma.
The lessons are going well. I am constantly stimulated, even when I go to bed - whether the latter be from the mosquito bites or the crazy dreams the doxecycline is giving me, it's a bit of a toss up.
Everybody on the tour is amazing. So many talented musicians and great people - most of them being Australian. So not only am I getting my fill of Ghanian culture, but also Australian, as well.
That's all for now. Hope you're all well and I'll try and update this at some point next week.
David

Waiting on the Visa

I'm a mere hours from taking off and still waiting for my Visa that will allow me to enter the country. No matter how prepared one is the visa likes to off put the neurotic traveler by growing fangs and biting them in the ass. No matter, the Fed Ex people said it would be here before noon and they would try to have it de-fanged by then.