More about the weekend… Actually, a funeral

Joey and I by the river, just a short walk from the home they are living at.

Death is accepted as a part of life here, and people are not afraid of death. (This is cited completely from Abbie.. I haven’t actually learned this for myself here in anyway J ) The funeral was interesting. It was a group funeral (for 4 people) and the size of the funeral is intended as a way to measure the good of a person’s life. For really wonderful people some even take out small loans for the party. We arrived to four canopy’s of people sitting in black, children and others talking around them, and very loud upbeat music pounding across the little square in the middle. The square also has a few people dancing. We walked around the entire square (apparently greeting everyone) and then got caught up in talking with some of the children. They love having their picture taken, and are even more happy when they can see the picture of themselves on the digital camera.

11 year old girl and her friend, both carrying small children on their backs.

Then we (the white ‘obroni’s’ were fortunate enough be called up specifically over the microphone to dance. We came up and joined.. and several of us were singled out by people trying to dance seductively with us.. ya, great times. I was fortunate enough to have probably the most aggressive person about it. The ‘goucchi man’ became his title among us. He came and danced next to me, which became closer and closer.. backing up, did NO good. Trying to move in toward Josh for some level of protection.. total failure. Get this guy away from me! Plus he’s doing all these things that are clearly a show of ‘this girl is with me, don’t even think about it, look how cool I am with a white girl’. Agh! Finally Stephen came over and separated the two of us. The goucchi man resisted, but Stephen was firm. Stephen then took both my hands and danced with me. Another clear sign that I was not available. (Stephen is probably in his 60’s.. its not a sign that I’m his, just that I am not open to the goucchi man ;) ) After dancing finally ended we all moved over toward one general area. I was talking with one of the kids when Stephen was pulling my arm over toward Josh. Before I knew it Josh had his arm around me and I was his ‘wife’. This allowed the women who kept proposing to him a chance to realize he wasn’t available. He wasn’t just married.. his wife was here, and white, and involved. He said thank you, or something in Twi, which made one woman turn to me and say that I just couldn’t have all that, and put her hands between us literally separating us… This was a quick cue to swing over to Josh’s other side and insist even more than no… he is mine, all mine, and I’m not sharing. Needless to say, it was an interesting experience, and we learned later that pretty much everyone was drunk. Which.. was kind of weird because they didn’t seem drunk. Even Josh didn’t think they were drunk. Anyways, being single can apparently put you in a lot of uncomfortable positions, and I may have a few “opportunities” to claim marriage here.