Friday, October 23, 2009

I promised I would get them water. They walk hours before school every day hauling it home.


The ceremony for Nana Kwesi's enstoolment as Peggy's regent


My interpreter, 22-year-old Elijah


Peggy Opening the first bank account in Otuam and depositing fishing fees


Peggy's nephew Ekow


The handsome king


My little friend Janet with the 1000 watt smile


The little girlburst into tears when she saw me, the big white scary monster. Her brother is protecting her.


Fisherpeople







Kids Playing with a Broken Down Wheelchair


My neighbor, who loves to lounge


Peggy's Gazetting Ceremony











Breakfast in a Pineapple Field with the Farmer




School Kids







1: The beautiful 16-tear-old queen mother 2) Cape Coast Slave Castle was built over an ancient ancestral shrine. Today a tsiami pours libations







My friends at the school


The two kids I am sending to school, Kweku 5, and Esi, 6. Below, Kweku. Bottom, Tsiami the Priest and me







Little Boys Wear Ladies Panty Hose with Shoulders Cut Out


King Peggy and her Soul at her Gazetting Ceremony


Pumping Water to Carry on Their Heads


What They Wanted to Feed me for Lunch


Children at the Drumming and Dancing Party Welcoming Us


A Wistful Boy


The king protected by her Soul, an innocent little girl who keeps the evil spirits away


Peggy's Cousin: Bone Structure!


Peggy's Uncle


A Tyical Royal Council Meeting at the Dining Room Table


Cape Coast -- the door to the slave dungeon


Cape Coast Slave Castle


The First Royal Counci Meeting after our Arrival, held on the patio of the royal palace, currently under renovation


King Peggy and Nana Kwesi, her cousin and right-hand man, who will be ruling in her absence.


The Chief Priest, Tsiami, Pouring Schnapps to the Ancestors living in the stool behind the door


Uncle Moses blowing the Cow Horn to Let the Ancestors Know we are there


Thursday, October 8, 2009

The Harvest Festival: shooting guns on the beach

The house where King Peggy and I are staying

King Peggy and Me at her Gazetting Ceremony

Once again, I can't upload any photos And I have so many great ones. Oh well.

I will be home one week from today. I miss home so much, but I will miss Otuam, too.

King Peggy has shaken up all the elderly men, and is adding younger people and women to her Council. She has opened up a royal checking account at the new bank, the first one to open in Otuam just a few days ago. All income and expenses will be done with checks now. She had to explain the concept of checks to many people, but they like it a lot so that all the money can be kept track of.

My stomach has settled down, and I have the bucket in a bath thing down pat. I don't like it when the power company cuts off the electricity in the heat of the day. Without fans, the house is like an oven, baking us. And it's not like you can take a shower to cool off!

But I will miss the people, and the children. They have such fun, playing with sticks and stones. No one here would ever hurt a child. The mothers send them out to play and they come back at dinner time. Like I used to do in the 1960s. It's so sad that modern kids have to be kept locked up watching TV and playing video games.

Well, I will keep trying to upload a photo until my time on the computer runs out. Bear in mind this computer must be 20 years old! Eleanor