Happy 51st, Ghana!

Around this time every year (or at least for the last couple), the Ghanaian community in Uganda gets together to celebrate Ghana’s March 6th independence. Lucky for us, the AFFORD Chief of Party (official title) also happens to be Chief of Ghanaian Independence Parties (unofficial title). So, despite our non-Ghanaian nationality, Rachael, Janani and I got the special “friends of Kojo” invite.

We found out just days before that the event was being held at the Ghanaian Consulate and that the dress code was formal….Ghanaian or African. For some reason that I can’t for the life of me recall, I left my much loved and rarely worn Zambian chitenge outfit back in Baltimore, so Saturday morning Rachael and I scurried down to the shops on Buganda Road, on a mission to find something, anything, that qualified. We went into shop after shop, rummaging through racks and the occasional suitcase of outfits by and large designed and sewn by the women selling them. The shopkeepers went above and beyond, holding up pieces of material for us to change behind in the absence of dressing rooms and providing embarrassment-saving guidance on what was too casual, what was for grandmas, which materials would last, how to properly tie a head scarf. There weren’t a tremendous number of options for those of our proportions, so we tried on garments too big and garments too bright and garments too patterned until we achieved a high enough level of consumer satisfaction to justify the transaction. Actually, we were suckers, and even let ourselves be talked into buying jewelry we wouldn’t otherwise purchase or wear.

So, we rang in Ghana’s 51st Independence Day in true African style. In addition to drinks and dancing and stuffing our faces with all sorts of taste-bud-pleasing Ghanaian food (reportedly cooked by the men, as Saturday was International Women’s Day – cheers, ladies), we watched a (many part) documentary on the country’s independence and were privvy to a Ghanaian fashion show. More pictures are up on http://picasaweb.google.com/jen.orkis.

You’ll notice that Janani and Rachael went hott. I did not. Not visible here are the spandex shorts underneath my wrapper. I don’t think I’ll ever overcome my fear of becoming accidentally de-wrapped in public.