Week of October 17
This week has been a week full of firsts again. It was the last full week of classes, but most classes were canceled for a number of reasons. The administration let everyone know Monday that there would be no classes Tuesday and Thursday because of the 60th anniversary celebration of the founding of the university. For this celebration, there were several activities. On Tuesday there is a thing called a float which is a celebratory event, I think for the students mostly. But what happens is the students and whoever wants to, go downtown at a meeting point and they all walk back to campus together. There are floats that accompany them and that some of them ride. The floats that we think of in a parade are not really the same here. The floats basically are trucks that would be similar to what would hold a float in the parade but there’s no decoration. It’s a bunch of people riding while there are lots of other people around the float walking. Most of the floats have loud music so people dance along as they go. But the walk was about 4 miles from downtown to campus. I wanted to go see what it was about so John-Doe went with me. We have some pictures which is what you see below. It was super hot today! The weather has been getting hotter since I got here. So we didn’t start at the beginning or did we stay for very long. We basically just took a taxi to meet up with wherever they were and we walked with them for a bit, mainly so I could see what it was and get some pictures. After that, John-Doe and I went and had a couple of beers at one of his favorite restaurants/bars called Meet Me There. So, on the last Tuesday of the last week of classes, instead of stressing out about all things, I was just having a beer while classes were canceled. It’s so different here!
Classes were also canceled for Thursday because that day is what is called the grand Durbar. This was a several-hour event where the president of Ghana came to speak, along with other dignitaries from the school. There’s a bunch of pomp and circumstance to celebrate. I actually got to go to this too, and made John-Doe go with me again. It was essentially an event where they were speakers and they talked about all the wonderful things that have happened at the University of Cape Coast over the past 60 years. I got to hear the chancellor of the university speak as well as some other people. And it ended with the president of Ghana, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, addressing us. So that was pretty amazing that I got to hear the president speak! Another interesting thing is that everybody got some special fabric for this event. And everybody had a piece of clothing made out of the fabric. It was specifically made for this event and it had the logo for the 60th anniversary all over it. That’s an interesting thing to me that I have seen here that does not happen in the US – for any special event, there is special fabric made for it and people have fancy clothes made for the event. Everyone was decked out in their finest attire made by this fabric, except me and a few others. But I did wear my 60th anniversary T-shirt along with my skirt made of African print.
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