1-8-2009 Sunyani, Ghana

Atta Mills

Nana Akufo-Addo doing the NPP dance, the "Kangaroo dance". Which originated for Michael Essien.

Hey everyone! I hope all is well! Im sorry that its taken me awhile to update my blog. I find it hard to think of topics to write about. So if you have any suggestions or questions feel free to email me and ill try and include them in my next blog! I would also like to thank: Mom,Dad, Aunt Linda, Uncle Mick, Aunt Cathy, Uncle Sandy and Beth for sending me Christmas gifts and packages!

A Ghanaian Christmas is a bit different from an American Christmas. Its pretty much strictly religious, which is how it should be spent. The few weeks leading up to Christmas were pretty much like any other week in Ghana, other than the Christmas music which i thought was a bit out of place. "Dashing through the snow" just doesnt work in a place where you wake up drenched with sweat on Christmas day. It kind of felt like ( in Wes' words) Christmas was taking a year off. On Christmas day me and Kwasi killed the two roosters i bought at the wednsday market the day before. Kwadwo cooked those into a tomato ( or Ntosi) stew over a bowl of rice, then into Adu's infamously delicious "Light Soup" over a bowl of fufu. I have to say eating waws the best part of christmas other than the few gifts i had to give out. I got into saying "Afriyeah paa" to everyone i saw and i enjoyed the "did the obroni really just say that?" looks. Afriyeah paa means Happy Holidays and in responce you say "Afinko Metwieh"(the spelling is wrong but you get the drift.) which means "Another year has passed and im still happy". I loved saying that coming from a country where you cant say Merry Christmas without getting sued. I was pretty homesick though. I missed my family alot, but that all part of the experience. I also havent had a Mt. Juliet Christmas since 2006 ( Though I loved our Hawaiian Christmas in 2007! Mele Kalikimaka J,Tracy and Kristen!), so that made me want to be at home even more! But other than the little annoyance i had for awhile, Christmas was great! Also the fact that i didnt have to go to school was awesome!

The Ghanaian Presidential election took place on December 7,2008. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate was Nana Addo-Donkwa Afuko-Addo, The National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate was J.E. Atta Mills and the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) was lead by Paa Kwesi Nduom plus all the other little dinker parties (that played a big role this year) that get like .123556168736523 of all the votes. When i first got here it seemed like the NPP was going to blow everyone out of the water. The Current President Kofour is NPP and has done(at least it seems like it) some great things for Ghana( I believe Ghana is one of Americas biggest African allies). So not only did i think they would win because of that but also because the last time the NDC was in office, J.J. Rawlings was president for 20 years and i think he did it by military force. So I figured the NPP (Who my older host brother works for) would win. The polls came in on Dec. 10 and the NDC had 47% and the NPP with 49%, but you have to win by 50% + 1. So there was a runoff, which incredibly the NDC won by 1/2 a point. I think that if some of the NPP voter wouldnt have messed up there ballot the NPP would have won. haha. My host dad had told me that everytime the NDC was in office a Democrat has been in office for America. So i figured John Mccain and Nana Akufo-Addo would win for Ghana. But i was completely wrong: Democrats are in office for both countries. haha. My host dad also told me that because alot of people are illiterate, some people just vote for the person with the most charisma. Some other funny things about Ghanaian politics are that every party has its own theme song and its own dance, which everyone would do! If i asked a NDC person who they wanted to win if they lost, they would say CPP, and that would be the same answer for a NPP advocate. So the CPP was the middle man. But what Ghana should be very happy about is that this election was the first peacefull non-violent African election in along time! So i am very happy for Ghana and i think they deserve alot of credit for that!

Thanks for reading and dont hesitate to email (Richpon09@gmail.com) me if you have any questions or suggestions!

-Rich