Junie's Online Thoughts
Friday, April 02, 2004
Well, we came in second place again. Hoorah! That's the best part of trivia. If you dont win, but come in second or third, you get free beer. So not only did we get a free mini-keg yesterday, but we get another next week.
Slept late again today. Jeremy needs to run by the car guy so he can get ours fixed. Now the entire lower section needs to be re-welded, or it will collapse and fall off. Nice, eh? But for them to take off the wheels, and re-do it, it only costs $45 with labor included. Might as well....its cheap enough.
Dont know what we're doing tonight. Probably watching another movie. We're pretty low key these days.
Have a good weekend, y'all.
(Missed you at trivia last night, Dave.....)
Thursday, April 01, 2004
I tried to get online yesterday, but Conect was not functioning. Of course, they didnt bother to tell me this when I came in. I had to hop from computer to computer until I wasted five minutes of my alloted time and realized that it wasnt the computer's fault, but that the system was down. So it goes.
Yesterday was the yeast experiment. Trish had mailed me some, so I decided to try the first recipe: olive, onion and garlic foccacia. It turned out pretty well. Everyone always seems to imply that baking with yeast is hard. Its not. Its messy and time consuming, but its not difficult. Cant wait to try bread.
Made a huge extravagant feast in addition to the foccacia. Veggie lasgana with tons of garlic and basil, wine, salad and this dessert called Chocolate Decadence. (Ingredients: one pound of chocolate, 10 tablespoons of butter, four eggs, one tablespoon sugar and one tablespoon flour.) It was a total pain to make--I had to whisk those damn eggs for over twenty minutes. It turned out like cakey fudge....super dense and rich. Bring on the artery clogging!!
When I was making the bread that morning, I realized that I needed to run to Koala sooner than I planned because the yeast was threatening to expand out of the bowl and I still hadnt bought the olives. I took a shared taxi both ways, but when in the one going home, I sat next to a total character. He (a Ghanaian) was sitting in the middle of the backseat and this was his wonderful ensemble from top to bottom: black cowboy hat, black leather biker jacket, red Daffy Duck t-shirt, hot pink spandex pants, and brown suede cowboy boots. Just watching the other Ghanaians react to him was enough to make me laugh all day. When I told Jeremy about him, he suspected that he was this guy known to our friend, Mark. According to him, he's this local gun-running eccentric. I need to ask more about him, and how Mark knows him in the first place.
Drove to Videonut after supper just to get out of the house. After getting bumped from our slot on the waiting list, we finally got a room (although it was the biggest room in the place and cost more than the others.) Monsters, Inc. is really funny. It was just what we needed--light and fun.
Today Im at Busy, and its already a festival of strange folks to watch. It's going to be one of those days. It is April Fool's Day, after all.
Tonight is trivia, and last week we won second place and its prize of this huge container full of beer. We saved the coupon to use tonight so we can drink for free while playing. I hope we get second or third place tonight (third place is just one pitcher of beer.) Who knows what's going on this weekend. Still havent decided on whether to see Stevie Wonder or not. Dont know if we can justify the $100 for a night, when thats almost a third of our month's rent. We'll see.
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
On Saturday, we went to a wedding. One of the guys who works at the archives invited Jeremy and Jon, so we all went together. We met at Busy on Ring Road, only to find some walk-a-thon, so traffic was backed up for miles. Instead of a taxi, we decided to walk. (I voted on the taxi, because I wasnt wearing proper walking shoes. In my effort to look nice, I wore one of my two pairs of dress shoes---fine looking, but not comfortable for walking or standing a long time.) So we walked and walked and walked. The pinky toe on my right foot had a huge blister, ready to explode. I was hot and grumpy. When we stopped to ask for directions to the church, some street man punched me in the arm and then grabbed my boob. I shoved him and called him a "f#cking asshole," but by then I was ready to either start screaming or start crying. We turned down the right street, next to about 200 goats and sheep, and I had to stop. Luckily Jeremy's doctor had given him some bandages for his leg, and he gave one to me for my toe. We asked directions again, and found out that the church was just beyond the pile of burning tires.
In typical Ghanaian form, lines of white plastic chairs were in rows, and some lady (who I presumed knew Jeremy and Jon) gave us a program and led us to some seats near the front section. We sat and watched the crowd, all dressed up. The flier was interesting...."The solemonization of holy matrimony of Anthony Akussah and Salome Wauku." They listed the ministers (all six of them), the "Bridal Team" (my favorite part....go team! of just one main of honor and one bestman) and both the Protocol (dont know who those people are) and the Gift desk workers. More on that later.
The organist started and the pastor launched us into a hymn which everyone seemed to know the words to. Then he prayed, for a long time, in a form similar to this and shouting as loudly as he could: "Lord god, come onto them! Come onto them! Come onto them! Oh Lord, make everything crooked---everything that is crooked, make it straight! Make it straight! Come onto them oh lord! Bless their matrimonial home! Bless their finances! Bless their businesses! Bless them! If they are crooked, make them straight! Make them straight! Anything in their lives that is not well, make it well! Make it well, Jesus! Make it well in Jesus' name! In Jesus holy name, make it well! Praise God! Praise God! Praise Jehovah god! Praise god!" Something like that.
Then he paused, and shouted, "Put your hands together for Jesus!" We clapped.
He said another prayer, then began a long song with dancing and clapping (I think it was called "Jesus is Wonderful") and to this song the brides walked in. (Turns out it was a double wedding.) The brides were wearing typical white flurfy dresses with veils, and were walking with their fathers. Behind them were their maids of honor, wearing simple yellow strappy dresses, updo's and flowers in their hair. No flower girls. Just the bride, father and maid of honor.
When the song was finished, the pastor told the fathers to put their right hands on their hearts and if they were going to give up their daughters, they should say "I do." They said "I do." Then the pastors instructed them to take their right hand and grab their daughters right hand and give them to the groom. (It took much cajoling from the pastors...I suspect t here is no rehearsal for the wedding here...the pastor had to continue to give detailed instructions on what everyone should do throughout the ceremony.) Then we sat down.
The pastor said another prayer, then it was time for the men's vows. "Do you take so and so, to love her for the rest of your life?" The men said I do. "According to the word of God, I leave my father and mother and join myself to you to be your husband. From this moment forward, we shall be one." The crowd shouted and clapped. Then it was time for the ladies. "Do you take so and so, (get this) SUBMITTING yourself to him as to the lord for the rest of your life?" "I do." Crowd cheers. "According to the word of God, I submit myself to you to be a wife to you. From this moment forward we shall be one." Crowd cheers.
Then after a prayer, they exchanged rings. Each groom grabbed his rings and gave one to the bride. The grooms said as follows: "With this ring, I wed thee. It is a token of my love for you, from now on and forever, in jesus' mighty name." The pastor then said, "Drive it into her," which Im sure meant the ring, but it was very distracting nonetheless. Then the bride said to the grooms, "It is a token of my love and submission to you from now on and forever, in jesus' might name." (So much submitting....) They put on the rings and everyone cheered and shouted Hallelujah!
The brides and grooms joined hands. The pastor said, "As a representative of god, the father, and his son, and the power of the holy spirit of god, I pronounce you One." Everyone cheered. After saying this, the grooms were instructed to remove the veil. In each case, there seemed to be much tension in the crowd, which was confusing, and the grooms rolled up the veil veeeerrrry slowly as the crowd cheered and hooted and clapped. When he finally pulled the veil over her head, the crowd went nuts.
The crowd was instructed to stretch out their hands to the bridal party and say a blessing to them, keeping in mind that whatever you wish will come back to you. After much murmuring and praying, we sat.
The pastor said another prayer (the charming on from Five Corinthians about how women should submit to their husbands at all times and how men should rule the house as a god.) He blessed the couple, said more prayers. The brides maid's helped to wipe sweat off the bride's backs and foreheads during the ceremony. (Very thankful I didnt have to do that for my sister's wedding. I love you, Stac, but I dont want to have to mop your sweat off.)
After a long blessing and prayer, ("Let God multiply for you. Let God make you the head and not the tail! Amen! Hallelujah!"), the couples faced the congregation. The pastor presented the couple as man and wife, then shouted again, "Let's give it up for Jesus!" The crowd again went nuts with cheering and dancing.
The pastor said another prayer, then gave communion to the wedding couples. Then the bridal party, sits down on benches in the front, and the pastor delivers the sermon. He reminded them of their caution interviews, and made a strange metaphor about how Moses sent spies to look at the land of Canaan for 40 days and nights, and because it was the land of milk and honey, that was like searching for a mate. "See your partner as the only one who can make your life complete. See that you are nothing. You are not complete. Your partner is the one who can make your life sweet. You have come to spy the land!" (I think this is total bullshit, but this is what the pastor said.) "When you go home, give me four reasons why you want to marry him or her. Write it in your jotter. Store it on your PC so that it will keep coming back to your memory. It will help you to overcome his or her shortcomings."
In the middle of the sermon, the pastor interrupted with an announcement that the owners of the three cars with the license plates of blah blah blah should move their cars.
Then he launched into an Adam and Eve story. "They were both naked, man and wife, and they were not ashamed. They were both naked and they were not ashamed. They were not ashamed. What does this mean? It means that there should never be anything secret between you two. There mustnt be any secrets in your life. Even when you give money to your parents, you shouldnt hide it from her."
"All these years you have been spying on your partner. You have been a spy. You are discovering all the things that need to be fixed. You learn there is nothing keeping you from marrying her. Then why do you hide things once you are married? The truth is that your parents are having their own life. My parents cannot tell me how to manage my home."
"If there is something you keep under your bed that you only take out when he has gone to work, if you only disclose it when he is gone, then you are a witch." (This made the crowd laugh for some reason.)
"So no secrets. No secrets. Even if your wife keeps the money she finds in your pockets, she is not a thief. How can you steal from yourself? Your money is not your money. It is our money."
"What you desire most in life is the blessing of your parents. Give to them so they will continue to give you their blessings. Keep on sowing seeds out of their hands. They must eat out of your sweat. Dont say they are richer than you. It doesnt matter. Keep giving to them to continue their blessings on you."
Finally, after such teachings, we stood, said another short prayer, then sat.
It was offering time, to the church. The pastor reminded us that we had to be generous. "Close your fist. Do you feel the heat? Now open it. What do you feel? Thats right. When you open your hand to God, he will release freshness onto it. So give generously to feel God's freshness." While one half of the congregation gave money into a plastic wastebasket, the other half stood up to walk to the Gift Desk. Here you stand in line, then give money to the bride and groom. Those working at the Gift Desk write down your name, how much you gave and then you sit. (Its the same for funerals.) We tossed 10,000 in the wastebasket (It was funny...the guy sitting ahead of us put a 5,000 cedi note in, and dug around for 4,000 in change.) and decided to leave.
Jeremy and Jon said goodbye to the archive folks, who were lingering near the back. They promised to give the groom his gift of money when they saw him at the archives on Monday, and we said adios. Had we stayed, we could have sat through photos, more songs, more prayers. Then numerous people were to give speeches. We ate. They cut the cake. They had toasts. They had more prayers, more speeches, thank yous and a final prayer. I suppose dancing and merriment would have followed, but we were tired and hungry and wanted to go home.
We took a taxi back to Osu and crashed into bed. Very culturally interesting, but very tiring, too.
The weekend was uneventful. WE both felt mildly sick and grumpy. On the upside, Jeremy's leg wound is healing nicely (thank goodness.) He's at the archives today, and Im running errands and writing my cover letter today. My goal is to drop it off at OPE either tomorrow or Thursday. Might as well get the ball rolling on that one.
More soon......
Monday, March 29, 2004
Too grumpy today. Lots to write. Just not today.
