Dagbani Language Group
Julie, Beth, Me, Kim, and Suf
Sooo swearing in ceremony!
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Swearing In: (August 13th 2009)
We showed up to the OPASS field at about 8AM, the event was scheduled to start at 10. We were to use these 2 hours to setup, prepare, and just have some buffer time for incidentals. Since the trainees didn't have much to do, we used this time to take pictures, and we took a lot. Remember my Gator colored wax print that I wore to Obama's speech? Well Big Mike said he loved the pattern/colors, and that if I found the lady who sold it to me again, he'd buy 2 yards as well to make a shirt. The result?
Go Gators!
Class of 08 & Class of ..30+ years ago...
I know some of you (Hi Mom) have been asking to see all of my Ghanaian shirts. Most of them have made their way onto the blog through one story or another, but as fate would have it they all made an appearance at the swearing-in. I apparently have more Ghanaian shirts than any of the other trainees, and so when people realized they didnt have some local garb to wear, they asked to borrow mine:
My 4 Shirts
3 on left are mine, Mike's shirt is identical material to my O&B shirt
New Northern Region Volunteers
Me and my PCVRFsStephen and Matt
The Kukurantumi Boys Club/The Alaska Collection
(All of these shirts were tailored by Alaska the Tailor)
So yea like I said in one of my recent posts, the math teaching volunteers were based out of Kukurantumi. It was an all dude group. Awesome.
So Ok... enough killing time taking pictures, let's get to the ceremony... Since there were dignitaries coming to the event including the US Ambassador to Ghana, and regional opinion leaders, the event actually started promptly at 10AM. So what do you suspect happened? Haha... the next picture is what the general admission Ghanaian section looked like 20 minutes after the ceremony started:
Ghana Time: Note all the empty chairs...
So the ceremony began. Taj, one of the trainers was the MC and he took us through the whole thing. Start to finish it was upwards of 4 hours long. There were certificates given to all of the trainers and people who helped with training, oaths given to the PCTs to sign before they could become PCVs, certificates given to all of the PCT's who were now officially PCVs, skits done by all of the language groups (in their target language) showing our quasi-proficiency, a drumming and dancing ceremony, and speeches galore.
Our skit was simple enough, it consisted of a taxi ride, I was the driver, and the rest of the group were passengers. But Beth with her ever longing obsession with the livestock here, decided she didnt want to be a human passenger. She would be a goat. So you can imagine how ridiculous the skit was when we're surrounded by hundreds of people, all eyes on us in this small field clearing, holding microphones and talking in a foreign language. If I haven't already mentioned, in Dagbani the reply to (almost) every greeting/question is "Naa" (NAH). So someone says "Deciba" (DEH-see-bah, good morning), and you reply Naa. So an excerpt from our skit, keeping in mind Beth's ridiculous goat impressions...
Kim: Deciba
Me: Naa
Kim: Deciba
Julie: Naa
Kim: Deciba
Beth: NA-A-A-A-AAA
It was hilarious.
Then we moved on to drumming and dancing. The drummers switched positions from the beats they usually play, and I realized during practices that they all play their beats slightly different. For example, if Kofi is on the drum 1 beat, he may do it one way, but when Kwame jumps on drum 1 he'll play the same beat but add a small half-beat at the end which changes the count. Combine that they did this in-game audible, and that I was so excited about the event itself, there were a few beat mess-ups during the dancing portion. Funny thing was, I was in such a good mood about the whole event, I really didnt care at all.
Also during the ceremony there was a few dance-sessions where we found our HomeStay families and celebrated. I love the next picture because it's one of the few that I have where Auntie (My wife/mom) is actually smiling for the camera. She has such a great genuine smile, it's a shame Ghanaians never smile for pictures.
Left to Right: Auntie's Friend, Me, Auntie
Her friend was the one who suggested I marry Ama, and this comment led to me marrying Auntie in stead.
Swearing-in was not only about an ending of things, it sparked a new beginning of others. It also showed how "fan-ice" ice cream in a bag can be the perfect way to snag a mate.
Mini-Man and his Wife-To-Be
After the ceremony was over, Rob one of the members of the PC Accra staff pulled me aside and asked me to speak with a local reporter. Her recount of the event can be found here:
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DONE! We're now PCVs not PCTs. Lets go to the for you and get--- hot dogs! Yea you better believe Uncle Bob had hot dogs again, with Heinz ketchup. Life is good. Add in a lot of partying, some great times, and it was an awesome way to end training. CD Mike even showed up for a little while to say hello and make sure we didn't get too out of hand.
The 3 Musketeers(Beth swears she made this face on purpose)
If you ain't a Gator. You must be Gator Bait!(Darren is an older PCV, an FSU grad).
...to be fair I let him take a Seminole chop picture of me dying as well...
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