There's been no power. Shut up.

Hello.

Here's whatup:

Thursday night: I didn't manage to have a lesson with Afotey. It rained again. I was out in the rain again. I got wet again. This time, however, it was just wet and uncomfortable, not cool and relaxing. Bad rain.

Oddly enough, despite the rain (which doesn't get collected), we have had no water since about Thursday. The water flows on the weekends only and is stored in tanks. Inconveniently for me, Ghanaians come and take/steal the water from the tanks which means that we run out. It's not like they're sneaking in though, they're just walking in and no-one says anything. This is balls. Also, the water didn't run this weekend.

On Friday, I did my thing - had a lesson with Theofo at 7.30 and again in the afternoon. I didn't rehearse with Afotey's group as they were doing some thing at a funeral (the one for the guy who was a dancer in their group and died about a month ago). I was told by Tettey that from about 11pm there would be a fetish ceremony nearby that would play all night. It was decided that I would join in. Of course, due to some mismanagement or miscommuniation, the ceremony didn't happen. I had fried rice for dinner.

Saturday, I woke up feeling like crap. About lunchtime, I went to the funeral which was highly interesting. There were so many people there. First we kind of hung around an area where a big marquee had been put up in the street (it was really hot) and saw some groups (Afotey's included) play. This was quite full-on - because all the people playing were friends with the dancer who had died and were dedicating their performances to him (and had written and arranged things especially) there was lots of emotion and crying. Even while playing and dancing some of Afotey's group could barely stand for grief. Full on.

Then, after a couple of hours of hanging around the street, the coffin came and there was a big procession to the graveyard. There would have been about 6 or 7 groups playing music in the procession - all were playing different things, some only 5 metres or so from each other. I didn't have my camera, so bad luck for you.

After the body had been buried, there was a performance with a heap of groups. Kusun and Afotey's groups played. I only saw an hour or so of the performance - Theofo had heard there was a fetish ceremony happening nearby and wanted me to see and play at it. So, I went with him, walked around, met some guys, waited around and then was told that the ceremony had finished a while ago.

So, yeah.

By the time we got back to where the performance was at, they had finished. So I caught a tro-tro back home with a bunch of loud and semi-drunken Ghanaians.

Sunday, was a runny day, in that I went running.

And did a runny poo.

To your great delight, I took a camera with me to the beach. Unfortunately, due to the fact that everybody knew the guy that had died and was at his funeral the day before, they were all too tired/hungover to go running, so the beach was quite quiet. To see the photos, go here. Although it was relatively quiet, there are still enough people in the photos so as to give you a bit of an idea of how it works. I may have to take some more another time.

While stuffing around and taking photos, I have a feeling I agreed to go on a 'walk for peace' kinda thing on some Saturday, to encourage peace surrounding the election on December 7th, regardless of the winning party. I suspect that I will be walking a long way with a lot of Africans. For you, I may take photos.

The rest of Sunday I wasn't feeling too well, so spent the day hanging around and avoiding Africans. The power went off at 6.30 or so. That was bad. It is now 3.00 on Tuesday and it's only just come back on. That is bad too. In similar news, the water didn't flow this weekend, so we now have no water for the next week (apparently the water started flowing late on Sunday, but with the power off we couldn't draw the water into the tanks with the pump. Bad luck, hey).

On Monday, I woke up cranky. I rang Theofo and told him not to worry about the lesson at 7.30. To get water to wash in the morning, I had to find a small boy (anyone under about 23 and the cheapest labour force available) and get them to climb into the water tank to fetch buckets of water to bathe. I wasn't in the mood for learning. Additionally, because the power was out, the fans weren't working. Because the fans weren't working sleeping was difficult - Sunday night was HOT. So, I was grumpy.

Eventually, although still sticky and feeling unclean, I got over it a bit and had a lesson. Then I went to another Fetish ceremony. This was the one that was supposed to happen all night Friday, except it was happening at 3pm on Monday and going until about 6pm. So, Theofo and I went over there at about 3.30 and waited until about 5.30 for it to start. It got dark, I wasn't in the mood.

I had banku, fish and pepper for dinner.

Today, I woke up similarly cranky although didn't cancel my 7.30 lesson. So, I stank, sweated and sulked while Theofo tried to teach me stuff. Afterwards, at about 10.00 I went down to Kusun's rehearsal to organise a lesson in the afternoon with Otu. The plan (as was agreed to by those concerned) was to have a lesson with Otu straight after training and then go into the fetish market in Accra with Theofo to buy some shakers. As a side note, the rehearsals start at 9 - when I got there at 10, they still hadn't started. Apparently a 'witch' had been caught out in the street so some of the guys were running around gossiping and trying to get a view. I attempted some discussion on the validity of this lady being labelled a 'witch' discovering that she was a witch because she used magic to do bad things to people.

I couldn't be bothered following that any further so I went home.

When home, I did a couple of scattered hours of practice. I've been trying to fix up a few technique things and it is taking time. While practicing, the power came back on (after two days). Then, 5 minutes later, it went off again. It wasn't just my room that was darker.

A couple of hours later, thankfully, the power came back. All my things are recharging as I write.

During the afternoon, (just after I started writing this) Joseph showed up wanting to have a meeting. Apparently his wife is going to leave him because he doesn't have money and he has cattle up North (where he's from) so he needs to go up there to sell some cattle and then he'll have money and he doesn't have money now for a bus ticket and here's his passport as a deposit so can I lend him money and he'll give it back when he gets back in a week's time.

Not my problem. Also, I don't actually have any money handy - I have no cash at the moment. But, on the off chance that he will pay it back (I think it's far more likely that he'll just not come for his passport, but at least then the next time he asks for money I have solid grounds for rejecting him. Or so I think), I agreed to lend him the money which I was planning to get at the bank in Accra later that day.

However, despite our arrangement (as outlined above), Otu showed up at about 3.00. After chasing him around and sitting him down, I managed to have a lesson. Just now, I have finished. My plans to go into the fetish market are not going to happen - it's too late now. But, I now need to get some money for Joseph who's coming back later tonight.

So, if you want me, that's where I'll be.

I also haven't eaten all day because I am poor. I am wasting away.

Please excuse this post's lack of structure (unlike all my other, finely crafted pieces) - it has been written over about 2 hours of interruptions and I am cranky and can't be bothered fixing it and the power's been off and shut up.

Bye bye.
By Jacob.