Afehyia pa! Christmas in Ghana

Is not the same as in the US.

First off it is very rare to give gifts, so there isn't all this hustle and bustle to get presents right up until the last minute. There are very few decorations, I've seen some street vendors small fake Christmas trees, about the length of my arm. A few people wearing Santa hats, but it is rare.

What is common is church and cooking all day.



Victoria lead the team of four girls, her daughters and a neighbor, making fufu and jollof rice.

We took turns pounding the cassava, but it was pretty difficult to get a rhythm down. With one person pounding and one person needing it is easier, but not easy.

Some friends of the family stopped in during various parts of the day, and everyone greeted us with "Afehyia pa" (which sounds like afishapa), a merry christmas.

A pastor friend of Akwasi's mother came and we had a group prayer blessing us for the new year.

Christmas might also be slightly different because of the election.

That night some of us decided to go for a treat: the movies. I'm beginning to notice that lines aren't really the thing here in Ghana. It's almost like bidding for a ticket, for some popcorn, for a coke. You basically have to grab one of the attendants attention to get them to help you, which is *slightly* chaotic. Part of the problem was that there weren't any prices listed, so ordering was delayed because many people first price out everything on the display. Also common, is people complaining to the attendant how long they were waiting...

Finally we settled into our air conditioned seats, and watched about 80% of Australia, when the lights went out. Blackouts are fairly common, sometimes they happen once a day, once a month, and they last from 5 minutes up to the whole night. So the theater waited... an attendant asked everyone to remain seated, as they has a generator they were about to get up and running.

Half an hour later, we left.