We started the day off with a relaxing boat ride. It was so beautiful along the Volta River.
Then we had free time until lunch, so roughly an hour. I had been rally itching to explore with my camera and today ended up being the perfect opportunity. Lauren went with me and we just walked into town. When we were about half way down the market are as heard this loud groaning sound--Lauren thought it was a goat--but it ended up being a man singing through a megaphone at a mosque! It was crazy!
Then we decided to explore the villages. This was one of he coolest things that I have done yet, it was incredible. The people were so nice, especially the children. They were all waving to us and we waved, said hi, and tried to start conversations: "Etesain?" Normally people would laugh and reply "ehye." (That means how are you and the response is I'm good.) we had 3 really neat encounters that stuck out though. The first one was talking with a guy who was weaving a fishing net. We ended up meeting him and his family and all his children followed us around. The children LOVE pictures.
Then we saw this lady who was making banku, which is this pudding mixture made end of corn. She showed us how to make it and start talking we us about some things. Her children came out to greet us as well. They were all very nice and it was really neat how she made it.
By far, the coolest thing was when we were invited into the naming ceremony. That was totally a God thing because the lady who came up to me to invite us over asked if I believed in the one true God, and when I replied yes she said "oh, come please. We are the same people. Come with us." So Lauren and I followed and it ended up being a naming ceremony! Like I said in an earlier post, Ghanaians' middle name is the day that they are born, and they have a ceremony on that day for the newborn--the newborn is not brought out to the public until the naming ceremony. This baby boys name was Calvin, and his mom just handed me him! He was so cute!! Everyone was so happy there. The kids were obsessed with taking pictures and they were taking pictures with Lauren's phone. I was talking to 3 lovely ladies who were asking me the craziest things! They were obsessed with my love life. They asked, "Are you married? Are you in a courtship?" I replied no and laughed and they go, "What?! Why? Do you like black men? Ghanaian men are good, I will give you my brother!" I just laughed and said it was okay. Then we took more pictures of the adorable children! When we left, they all waved goodbye. It was so so so sweet! Definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip thus far!
Here are some of the random pictures I took at the village! The kids were adorable!
