Hi All,
So it's day four of our group being in Ghana and I have already experienced more new things then I have in the past year. After a very long travel it was nice to be able to arrive at the Dagbe Center and feel so welcomed. All the people here have been so kind, warm, and welcoming towards us, especially the staff here at Dagbe.
Yesterday our group got to witness two treats. The first was the local Kinka group held a practice that we were able to witness. This is special because they only practice and gather like that every so often, so it was cool that it aligned with us yesterday. The level that the drummers play at here just blows my mind, they are all so full of talent and skill. The other treat was that we got to go across the street from the Dagbe Center and watch a local soccer match for a little while. I was probably the most excited out of the group to go to this due to my soccer ties at home. It was funny watching the game here because it really exemplified how universal a game soccer is. There were subtle differences in the way they played, but one thing that was very much the same was commentators on the sidelines. Here, the main language is Ewe, nearly everyone also speaks English. So, on the sidelines, spectators would comment and shout at players in Ewe. Myself, being a passionate spectator, should let out the occasional comment and i realized that even if I can't understand the local language, I still knew what the locals were saying about the play because I was thinking similar thoughts. The soccer game was the first time I truly understood what was going on in front of me in my time here, and that was a comfort to me.
Today was our first day of lessons and it was intense. It's only midday here, so we haven't had our afternoon lesson yet, but boy did we have our morning one. Fir the morning session we danced and when I say we danced, I really mean that we danced, like for the whole two hour session. We worked on different variations of Agbekor, which is traditionally a war dance (which I know Aidan is speaking about in his post so if you want more explanation, go check that out). It is a dance we all came in knowing how to do, but were quickly taught that we really didn't know it entirely at all. I'll just leave it at that it was a very good workout and with the staffs corrections to our movements, the dance feels much stronger already and I can't wait to continue to work on it. Our afternoon session will consist of drumming, I'm preparing to have my mind blown.
Anyway, that's my update for you today about our adventures in Ghana. Thank you for reading and following along with us on our journey!

Talk Soon,
Liz V.