Saturday I was in my first performance with DrumGhana! There was a final celebration for the 40th anniversary of the Twerammpon Traditionals and we were part of the program along with several other groups. Different groups played throughout the day so it was very cool to be able to see all of them. What a cultural immersion experience! I was a bit nervous perform because I didn’t want to mess them up, but I think I did alright. I didn’t play any unintentional solos, so I’ll call that a win. It’s really cool to see how the dancers go based on the cues of the drummers. The drummers are always accompanying the dancers and it’s cool to watch the movements the dancers make based on what we are playing. I’m interested to learn more about the interplay between these two things. As of now, I’m just taking it all in. Some of the things that happen in our performance I was surprised about. One of the guys did some tricks with fire which was kind of amazing. He blew it out of his mouth and rolled a fire stick around on his body and didn’t catch fire. Also, a couple of the guys just acrobatic tricks which were just incredible.
I’ve posted a few videos here but because Wi-Fi is not great, I can’t post everything or it would never upload. I hope you enjoyed these clips from our performance, as well as some of the other groups.
Some other groups:
Performances started around 1:30 or so and went for pretty much the rest of the day. We left around 6pm to have dinner and drinks at a restaurant near the beach. It was me, Antoinette, her driver Sampson and her tenant Nii. These two guys are really fun. I’ve gotten to be around them for the past couple days and they’re just great people as well. They are also very close to Antoinette and they’re all kind of like family from what I can tell. Samson is actually dating Antoinette’s daughter, who currently lives in California. I also met some of Antoinette’s other friends who came and joined us for a bit. It was fun to have dinner and drinks with them by the beach and just relax.
I finally feel like I’m starting to have a bit of a social life and some friends around. At this point I am starting to feel like the homesickness is letting up and my daily and weekly schedule is picking up so I have a lot more going on. Starting to get into a groove!
These are a few pics from our hanging out at the beach restaurant called the Shipyard. It’s also a pic of the tilapia I ate. I’m warming up to the fish here, which is good since it’s a major part of the food scene.
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