It's Ghana Be Quite The Summer! - Part 4

So this past week in Ghana has been pretty relaxed... I can't say a whole lot has happened since my last post!

Last Wednesday Stacey (one of the other volunteers) texted me and said she had been given tickets to see a performance at the National Theatre of Ghana and that the person she was supposed to go with backed out, so would I like to go instead! Of course I accepted the offer and that night trekked to the "Ministries District" to get to the theatre. It was a beautiful big building with quite an interesting design... it had just one proscenium arch stage and although the seating was quite comfortable, there was no lighting grid on the ceiling and no booth! The lights were hung on what is essentially scaffolding that just kind of sat on stage as the actors moved around it. The booth was just a two guys with a sound board sitting in the middle of the theatre... interesting no?

Annnyway, the show that we saw was called "Cinderama: The African Cinderella" and was put on my ActionAid to raise awareness for child abuse. Cinderama, much like Cinderella, lost her mom and ended up living with her step-mother and two step-sisters. Unlike Cinderella however, her step family physically beat her constantly and refused to let her go to school saying she had to sell beads in the market. Cinderama eventually ran away and was attacked by a man who intended to rape her but was chased away by Cinderama's old school teacher. Then, surprise surprise, the prince decided to have a ball to choose a wife... women would dance for him sexually and then he would choose the one woman he wanted to dance with for life. Cinderama decided that this was the way to get money to go to school - she would marry the prince so he would pay for her education. Of course he chose Cinderama but when the clock struck midnight, Cinderama started running away because she had to get home to clean, but the Prince grabbed her waist-beads and tore them off... but she kept running. Finally the old priest came knocking at her door, she tried on the waist-beads - would you believe they were a perfect fit? - and the prince agreed to pay for her schooling.

For me, the storyline shocked me because a) all kids deserve to go to school, b)it seems like the right thing to do is for women to marry for money and c)the teacher didn't talk to Cinderama after scaring the rapist away, she just peaced out. HOWEVER, the biggest shock for me was the audience's reaction to what we were seeing. Every single time poor Cinderama was beaten, the audience members would yell "Good!", "She talked back! She deserves it!" or "Yes! You show her who is in charge" or would even just laugh hysterically. When the rapist grabbed her and tried to attack her the audience yelled "She deserved it dressed like that!" and "A man should always have his way!". When the Prince agreed to pay for her schooling, the audience yelled "She better give him sons!" and "Smart girl!".

....

DOES ANYONE ELSE SEE A PROBLEM WITH THIS??? We were there at the National Theatre raising awareness for the rights of children, showing the audience that child abuse is NOT ok and here the whole audience filled with Ghanaian men and women are cheering for the antagonists! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? ... Needless to say I was a little heated after the performance and despite the wonderful costumes, good acting, captivating dancing and fantastic music I still left with a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth. It showed me a glimpse of the true mentality Ghanaians have towards children and I can't say I liked that mentality one bit.

Thursday and Friday nothing very exciting happened as it was raining and as I've mentioned before, Ghana shuts down in the rain! Saturday Stacey, Emilie and myself got up early and went down to Labadi beach for some much needed sunshine. We each bought some artwork from the beach vendors and played with a few puppies that a man was selling. After that we went back to our house to shower and change for the big game - Ghana vs. Australia. We got all decked out once again and headed into town to a bar called Epo. The place was packed with Ghana fans draped in flags, blow-horns, wigs, streamers... anything that screamed Ghana! We cheered hard for our dear Black Stars but the game ended in a 1-1 tie and a crowd of disappointed Ghanaians. After the game we headed home and had a nice quiet night. The next day was pouring rain and I wasn't feeling the greatest so I decided to opt out of going to see workshop performance with Theatre for a Change. Then it was Monday where it rained all day once again, then Tuesday which was quite dull and now finally, Wednesday where the excitement will pick up again as Ghana plays Germany in the deciding match!

We will be leaving work early today to head to the bar, once again decked out in our finest Ghana gear to cheer for our Black Stars! This match is crucial for Ghana as if they don't win they won't make it to the next round and with most ever other African country out of the World Cup, all eyes are on Ghana today! Cross your fingers!

This weekend myself and a big group of volunteers have decided to venture to a tiny little peninsula by Lake Volta - 3-4 hours away - called Ada Foa. We will be sleeping in huts on the beach... should be fun!!!

Have a good week :-)