Celebrations of Monkeys, Freedom, Community and Activism!

In the past few weeks I've had so many good experiences and celebrations, that I really don't know where to start! This is a long one, so I've divided it up with headings so you can find the parts you are interested in.

Monkeys and Waterfalls
Two weekends ago CIEE went to Ghana's Volta region. We've all become very close, so it was fun to travel with everyone again. Saturday we went to a Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary. A guide explained that monkeys had once been considered messengers for the gods, but as the areas converted to Christianity, the monkeys were considered symbols of polytheism and were killed. Recently, however, in an effort to both protect the forest and monkeys, as well as bring tourism money to the area, conservationists have worked with town members to preserve the monkeys and their habitat. We only had to walk into the forest for a few minutes before we saw tons of monkeys leaping around like, well, monkeys and practically flying over our heads. It was pretty cool! Sunday we went to Wli falls-Ghana's highest waterfall. The falls were really beautiful and safe so we all went swimming in them. It was so fun to play under the fall (although the water was crashing down pretty hard, so you had to take breaks) and see the rainbows that the falling water created. We all got a little nervous when swarms of hundred of bats left their sleeping spots and began circling above us, but when none attacked, it was actually a really neat sight!

Pesach in Ghana!
I was very nervous about spending Passover in Ghana. Last year had been my first Passover away from home, and it had been very hard being separate from my family and traditions on my favorite holiday. We decided to host a seder at our house, and Shulie and I pored over our Haggadahs a week before photocopying important parts and typing out our favorite songs. The day of the seder we counted and realized we were expecting 30 guests (mostly from our program, but also some Ghanaian friends and some Jewish students studying in Ghana)! We went to the best shopping center and wondered if we'd be able to find the ingredients that make a seder. We bought 20 cans of chicken stock and lots of paper plates and bowls and apples and honey and were roaming the aisles when the first of many Passover miracles happened-there was matzah! On a shelf, in a box labeled "Organic Unleavened Bread" was what was unmistakably matzah! We had a few boxes that Shulie's parents had brought when they visited, but now we could buy enough to share and get us through a week of Passover! In another aisle was horseradish-another unexpected Passover miracle. We ran across the street to a stand to buy vegetables and were given the green onions (which for me are a crucial part of Passover tradition, to be explained later) as a free "dash" for buying so much! When we got back to the house all our housemates got involved, helping cook and move almost all our chairs and tables outside into a big seder table. We prepared for hours, and by 8 had 30 people and lots of food all ready for our seder! The seder was really fun-our non-Jewish friends participated by reading the English parts, and many of the Jews threw in commentary or family traditions. We did some extra readings on global poverty and one girl suggested we have a seder of sorts for the poorer in our surrounding neighborhood. We had a big debate about the 4 children, and one of the non-Jewish guests asked "Do you normally have such big discussions?" Yes! Everyone got really into singing the English songs that I brought from my family traditions, and had fun dipping the karpas and eating the first matzah of the season. I passed out my miracle free green onions and everyone enthusiastically participated in the tradition of hitting one another with them in memory of slavery's whip while singing Dayeinu. We even opened our front gate to Elijah and waved our hands in the air while singing Eliyahu Hanavi as my family did when I was younger. Dinner was great-everyone loved the chicken soup and another friend brought stew and I had made fruited carrots and when they were done eating everyone ran around looking for the hidden afikomen. By the time we ended the seder everyone was so happy (and maybe a little drunk from the boxes of wine everyone had brought for the occasion) and many were thankful for their first seder experience! It was amazing that my Ghana family was so open-minded and had been happy to participate in all the family traditions I brought. It made me feel like my family seders can come with me wherever I am and also made me so thankful to have such loving and interested friends here!

Shabbat Shalom in Sefwi Wiawso
This past weekend 3 of my friends and I set out on a trip to "find the Jews" of Ghana. I had read an article my grandmother cut out for me about a small Jewish community in Northwestern Ghana, and my friend knew someone else who had been so we e-mailed their sister synagogue and found out directions and set up our trip. To get to Sefwi Wiawso-where they live-we first had to take a bus to Kumasi-the main northern city. After spending all day travelling to Kumasi, we got up Friday morning to try to catch the 2 and a half hour tro-tro to Sefwi Wiawso. We piled on and tried to sleep. When we arrived, we asked a taxi driver to take us to "Joseph Armah's house." On our way up the beautiful hills we stopped at a store called Shalom Enterprises where our taxi asked for directions, and finally pulled up at the home where we would be staying for Shabbat. We nervously got out but immediately knew we were in the right place when a woman hugged us saying "Shalom" and led us inside, right past the neon pink and yellow kente cloth tallitot hanging on the laundry line! Joseph and Alex, the brothers who would be hosting us, came in and began to discuss our plans and answer our questions. They explained that they believe that their ancestors can be traced back to the days of Abraham, and that it was when Christianity and colonialism came that their relatives had begun to suppress their Judaism. Some traditions survived, though, and in the 1970s they began to revive their community's religious practices, not really connecting with modern Jewish communities until 1996. They were really used to opening up their home to visitors-apparently international Jews come and visit quite often-and they explained that they try to take Abraham's example and always welcome strangers. It was amazing to explore their house, which was quite big in order to house the large family living there, and had piles of Jewish books that people had brought piled on desks-just like at any family member's house at home! The kids were great (when we came in, we had seen a few of them running around singing "Day, dayeinu, day dayeinu")-we had a nice time talking to one of the older boys in his last year of secondary school (like high school) about what its like being the only Jewish kid at school (which is decidedly harder sounding here where no one has heard of Judaism and there is prayer in school) and heard about what Hebrew words he knew. He tasted the matzah we had brought on the trip (as it was still Passover) and was surprised-it was very different from the matzah they made on their own. At 6 we walked to synagogue, which was a small room with a mini torah, 6 or 7 rows of pews, and many bookshelves filled with Sim Shalom Siddurim and machzorim and other books. We sat down on the women's side with an entire row of little girls. They lit Shabbos candles and began reading words I had heard so many times in my life. We read many of the psalms and blessings for Friday night and the leader brought all the kids up to be blessed. Just like at home, there was lots of singing (although this was mostly in Twi or Sefwi), and just like at home usually an older man or woman sitting in the back of the shul started the singing in a loud and spiritual voice. The kids were very enthusiastic-singing so loudly that I couldn't help but laugh at their cuteness, all while crying a bit at the familiarity of this service to home. When we left synagogue the kids latched on to us and we walked home in a big group singing songs I've known my whole life-Shabbat Shalom, Oseh Shalom, Kol Ha N'shama, Mayim. It was amazing doing what I had done so many times with family or at camp with a big group of Ghanaians in a place I'd never even known existed until a few months ago. It was really fun to join in with the moms leading their kids in the singing and hear the little ones scream back Shabbat Shalom just as I must have at my Jewish preschool. When we got back they fed us a delicious meal of chicken and tomato and bean stew and Joseph taught us some of the Twi songs they were singing. The next morning we went to synagogue again and had Shabbat morning services that were almost identical to the ones we have at home-except the Torah reading was in Twi and Sefwi and much of the prayers were in English. But just like at home, the leader led a good (sounding at least, I couldn't understand the Twi and Sefwi)discussion on the Torah portion and the little kids started to get antsy and so the older adults had to come sit with them to quiet them down and there was lots of singing and clapping. When we went home we took naps and woke up to find most of the community in the Armah's living room having a community meeting. They invited me in, and as I tried to garner some understanding from their passionate Twi and Sefwi debates and as I watched the women and men weigh in while the kids ran around being bored, I couldn't help but feel at home. I remembered many a Shabbat spent rolling around on the floor of my grandparents' house playing with their shoes and my cousins while the adults discussed politics and finance and things that seemed, much like Twi, a complete foreign language to me. After the meeting I played with the kids-reading a book about Israel with them and teaching them a few songs and learning their favorite card game. I had brought the family a Haggadah which I had brought for Passover, and had a lot of fun looking at the pictures with them. One little girl, looking at the page with the matriarchs, asked who each person in the picture was. When I showed her Rachel, she looked up with glee and shouted, "I'm Rachel!" She was so happy and she hugged the Haggadah and showed her sisters, as I explained the story of Rachel.
I began talking with one boy who was my age about school (he had studied some economics like me) and his desire to go to Israel and learn Hebrew. When we turned to the topic of growing up, he began explaining to me how he is praying he will find a woman who will convert, because while he wants to have a Jewish household he is related to almost everyone else in the 20-family community (not an uncommon problem in Jewish communities in the past either). Just as we discussed this, his father ran up and shouted "my daughter-in-law!" and we all laughed-just like at home, any opportunity for Jewish matchmaking was grasped. The whole day felt very much like Shabbat at home-family, rest, Jewish tradition-and it was interesting how in a place so seemingly different (no running water, lots of goats and chickens, no one with ancestry in eastern europe), I could have the same feelings I've had on Shabbat at home for so many years. After Shabbat we brought out our cameras and the kids went crazy taking and posing for pictures for a few hours before bed. Sunday we went back to shul as the whole community was gathering to make a big end-of-pasover feast. Again, just like at home, there was SO much food and many women cooking and the teenagers crowded around a borrowed computer trying to blast rap music while the kids played soccer. I taught one of the kids the mayim dance and sang Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu with my favorite almost-husband and helped the women cook and had a great morning. When it was time for us to leave to get our tro-tro, none of us wanted to leave the place that had become so much like home.

Student Activism at University of Ghana
Today in Human Rights in Africa-a huge class where there are not nearly enough seats and today I simply resorted to sitting on the floor (rather than arrive 2 hours early only to be forced to share an uncomfortable desk anyway)-I was jolted out of my note taking by a big group of students running in the classroom dressed in red and carrying protest signs and sticks to bang on desks and even some homemade noise makers. After we ran out of the classroom in semi-fear (everything was safe, but there was so much yelling and we did not really know what was going on), a student explained to us that the university changed its housing policy such that only 1st year will be given a chance to live in campus housing-leaving the rest of the students with only expensive alternatives that are often far commutes. After understanding what was going on, it was really interesting to see students rally in this way. While I am familiar with student activism, its usually involved world issues and definitely not the whole campus and definitely not gunpowder to make noise.

Thats my update! Things are feeling pretty amazing here right now, and the prospect of leaving so soon (only 5 weeks!) is pretty hard to believe. Love being able to share my stories and love hearing from you!
Micaela