...even further north I go!

just a quick note from a painfully slow internet cafe in Nkoranza - I am leaving Hand in Hand earlier than planned to head further north to a little indigo village called Daboye, where they spin their own yarn and carry out the traditional dying method of blue threads that make the local "smocks", which are woven and look like baggy shirts. I have lots of photos to share when I get back - which will probably only be after the weekend as I want to stop in Adowomase, the little Kente weaving village outside Kumasi, on my way back to Accra. Bye for now!

heading north to Hand in Hand

So, time to leave the big city and head north. although I am going west first, as the family are heading to the beach at Anamabo near Cape Coast for the weekend. I will join them so I can get a bus that drives a better road up to Kumasi, then switch for another bus to Techiman, and then finally hop on the last leg to Nkoranza. Run by a Dutch couple, this community is a haven for abandoned physically or mentally handicapped Ghanaian children. They live with a family of care givers, and the community now includes guesthouses for visitors, workshops for bead-making and weaving, a swimming pool, and a family of resident donkeys. Apparently there is an internet cafe in Nkoranza, so I will do my best to keep in touch with news and pictures :)

Now, I have to move over to Trish's house - while I am away the family here will be packing up their house... Hopefully I will manage to see Bob Dennis before I go, who should be leaving today but has had problems with his visa for the UK. Unfortunately I have managed to pick up a cold (must be the 'cool' weather! not)...Mary made me some strong ginger tea so hopefully that will help get me through another busy day!

a tearful Goodbye to the Osu Library

...or, Michelle is Crowned Part II - this time a prize-giving for her literacy efforts rather than her fight for women's issues previously recognised by the Queen Mothers...

THANK YOU MICHELLE SMULDERS AND FAMILY reads the Kente strip sash awarded to her by all her fellow friends, both co-workers and students. Joanna (pictured above on the right) was barely able to tell the story of Michelle's dedicated volunteering in patiently teaching illiterate Ghanaian adults to read, and on a more personal note, her help in getting the head of the library a visa to go to Spain last summer to receive an award. There were speeches, prayers, presents, lots of laughing and crying, topped off with a couple boxes of homemade cookies to go round and a few crates of fizzy drinks to celebrate. Not far off the food-giving, blue champagne salute received earlier this week from the Nanas! And of course, another piece of Kente to wear...
Finally, almost everyone stood up individually with something nice to say about Michelle...and she was presented with a bunch of Thank You cards, all very carefully written out by hand.

To finish off, there was a huge group photo shoot (at which point our camera batteries died...) so I will have to post more once we round up some copies from the others!

a night of drumming and dancing

Firstly: another day in the entrance of the Myles' household:

lots of colourful shoes

...with some that house very big feet!

The Alliance Francaise holds evening entertainment and we got a whole bunch of people together to go last night, including Trish the Bead Lady and a few other fellow Canadians. There was very enthusiastic drumming, and young dancers with grins plastered on their faces - but you could feel their enthusiasm and tell that they were genuinely having a lot of fun. Apart from some singing that bordered on screaming (enthusiastically amplified by your usual not-so-competent Ghanaian sound engineer), and despite the fact that almost all the members of the front row (dominated by our group) were pulled into the limelight, it was a fun evening...

The dancers - a couple of boys, a handful of girls and some very young ones too, who changed their outfits behind a tree almost every dance...

I was having fun playing with the 'no flash' mode of Michelle's camera trying to catch some of the movement...

The lead dancer - definitely male, but complete with behind padding and loaded with beads, so until he got hot enough to lower his wrapper and show his chest, one couldnt be sure...especially when he decided to take a seat on Uncle Ian's lap..!

Here is Trish onstage, with her 'Ha! You must be kidding. I'm not doing that! face'

...and finally Paul tried to capture my moment of glory trying to jump as high as he could!

the 'Enstoolment' of a queen mother

...otherwise known as my Auntie Michelle. Or now, by her new name Nana Serwaa Boafoa (Nana is the title given to all queens, Serwaa is the name of the queen who appointed her, and Boafoa means 'helper'). The Queen Mothers Association is basically a group of powerful women, each one the matriarchal figure in their community. These Mothers live in Accra and therefore represent the villages they are from. Today, Michelle was made a queen by being dressed up in kente and beads, and sat on a stool like a chief. She has been given the special title of Development Queen instead of representing a specific community for all the work she has done in Ghana over the past three years. It was quite the event, and I had lots of fun taking photographs with all the fabric being paraded around...

Everyone present at the Enstoolment: about 25 Queen Mothers, with the friends and family of the new Development Queen

feet dressed in fancy slippers and knees covered in rich cloth, hands and wrists and necks weighed down with beads and gold...

The three head Nanas - no lack of clashing brilliant cloth hanging off every shoulder

Pouring of 'Libation' to the ancestors

The smiley New Nana in her green, red and gold kente, beads, headdress and surrounded by more cloth-draped bodies

The proud family, starting to the left of Nana: little Paulie, tall Graham, Jamie the umbrella bearer, Uncle Ian, yours truly, and Nana of course: seated on her new stool in the middle.

my weekend out east

So I'm back from my spur-of-the-moment visit to the weaving villages in the Volta region, near Togo, with one successful interview and a bunch of stories to go with it. I joined Bob Dennis in my first tro-tro trip, a short motorcycle-for-three "taxi" ride, and a couple of nights at his father's house near Denu. Bobbo has passed down his weaving knowledge to all eleven sons, and still offers workshops to locals who are interested since he is running out of sons at home. He has traveled all over the globe giving workshops, and is interested in maintaining any kind of traditional weaving - of course, Kente, or "Kete", is his specialty...

Coconut trees in the family compound

rolls of Kente strips waiting to be cut down and sewn together into cloth

Mr. George Amedoda, Bobbo's most senior Elder Weaver

here I am again!

So, back in humid, but not so hot (so they say, although I still find it uncomfortable adjusting) Accra - and a busy first day, which judging by my last trip was to be expected! This time I was greeted by a house full of boys - not only Jamie and Paul but their cousin Graham too. Been feeling very deja-vu today - a work colleague of Ian's has invited us to his birthday party tonight, which was one of the first things I did this time last year too! Also the last person I met before leaving was the woodcutter/printmaker artist friend of Michelle's called Anna, and she was leaving on holiday with her family today so we stopped by for a quick hello. I also met her husband for the first time, Ruud, who makes beautiful woodcuts too -he finished a huge one today with words along the lines of simply saying that a work of art is beautiful means it is dead. They recently had an interesting exhibition in their house called A Woman is a Woman - they invited local artists to join In all his pieces are portraits of Ghanaian people, particularly the women are very powerfully captured. Then it was time for Paulie's horse-riding lesson (which I wish I could have joined!) but since it was in Bhurma Camp it was a good chance to stop by my weaving school and see everyone. I received an email from Bob Dennis just before I left that he was actually not leaving to London yet - which is even better for me! It was great to see everyone again and I was very warmly welcomed. They wanted to see pictures of my loom so I promised to print some out...and I will join Bob Dennis this weekend in Denu, near the Togolese border. This is great since I was planning to go and visit his father's workshop, and now I get the chance to travel with him too, and a place to stay since they have a big house. So, off tomorrow already - time to test out my new handycam and interviewing techniques :) A presto!