OUR SECOND LETTER from GHANA

Father Mark George Writes.....

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all of these images are from Brofayaw, the ridge I live in, which overlooks the fishing town of Moree.  The priests, brothers and sisters live in three different compounds at the top of the ridge. 

 

This picture shows me with the one of the Ghanaian Holy Cross seminarian-brothers, Steve.  Because of the Holy Cross connection, they are Notre Dame football fans, as you can see.  When I saw Br. Steve wearing that shirt, I had to put mine on, and get a picture.  It is the official 2005 ND shirt, Spirit of ND.  (For you non-ND people, the Holy Cross priests, brothers, and sisters are all located in South Bend.)  Our religious compounds are lovely and spacious with trees, flowers and birds, as you saw in the photos I sent last week.  The trees on the Jesuit part of the compound were planted by my tertian director Fr. Don Hinfey.  This picture shows the one very majestic tree, however, that was native to the place. 

 

 

 

 

The surrounding village of Brofayaw however, is quite poor.  It has a dirt road going up the hill, and small houses very close together, well constructed, of something that looks like adobe.  There are lots of goats and chickens running around.  The picture on the left is a typical scene on that road.  The goats are a very small variety, very cute, about the size of an average dog, although some of the ones in that picture may even be babies, I’m not sure.  The picture on the right is a close-up of a goat I recently saw.

 

 

This picture shows  some boys from the Brofayaw school, along that same dirt road, hamming it up for the camera.  Note the green uniform shirt with yellow trim.  Virtually all elementary and secondary schoolchildren in Ghana wear uniforms. Here is a picture I took of  a pickup soccer game in very small courtyard.  There are plenty of full-sized soccer fields as well, most which are just dirt, no grass.  This photo is in Moree, the fishing town I mentioned earlier, down below us.

 

 


 

This last picture shows a billboard along the highway that goes to Cape Coast.  The religious language on a sign for a political party is interesting.

 

A final note about language here.  As you can see, the sign is in English, and English is the language of official business.   But most common folk in Ghana speak a native language, mostly either Twi or Fanti.  Here in the Cape Coast area, it is Fanti.  When native children see me walking down the road, they will say, “Bronny!” which apparently means “white” or “white man.”  It is not a derogatory term at all.  The other thing they inevitably say to me is “How are you?” which seems to be about the only English phrase they know.

 

The only other Fanti word I know is “Akwaaba,” which means “welcome.”  While the newspapers are all in English, the political cartoons are interesting, because they almost always contain a mixture of English and native colloquial speech.

Click here to read Father George's first email to us!