Encountering A New Year Without Ed

Well, I think this is the first time I've seen a New Year come without spending a week with my campground friends since I was able to call myself a teenager :( But, as things go, I had nice New Years anyway, even without any ghosts.

For those of you who aren't among my "campground friends-" we've been having a New Years party for years. I think it actually started at someone else's house (Carrie's house? Seans? I'm not sure) but then it was moved to our old house at the campground- "the cottage"- which is now just offices. FInally Adam was shoved into Crazy Ed's and the party followed him.

Crazy Ed's is a mobile home that my brother lives in, which was purchased by my parents. Crazy Ed was a local man, infamous during his life, and legendary after his disappearance. He was the previous owner of the trailer before my brother moved in. We still believe we can list him as a current inhabitant. In fact, whether he makes a supernatural appearance at the party or not, Crazy Ed plays major role in our New Years parties. He's everything from our party mascot to entertainment to host- the party is even named after him- "Crazy Ed's New Years Bash."

So how did I bring in the New Year without Crazy Ed and my faithful friends? Well, the plan was I would spend a day by the pool, have lunch with Auntie Naana, and go to club that night. As it turned out, I fell down the enormous hill that Auntie lives on, destorying a pair of shoes and also a decent portion of skin on my knee. I stodd up from the fall- it jarred me in a weird way, I don't know- it was like I hit my head, even though I didn't... Well, I thought I was going to either fall down again or throw up for a minute- which scared Mus more than just a little. So he called the trip to the pool off, dragged me home best he could (with assistance) and cleaned up my knee and sat me down. Soon I was feeling fine- just some bruises, but he was firm- no pool. Probably for the best with that scrape.

He allowed me out of the house to go to lunch with Auntie Naana- I limped a bit, but we went to Hans Cottage to eat yummy food and look at crocodiles. Afterwards, Mus and I both decided we weren't in the mood to go out, so we decided to get treats from town and have a romantic night at home.

We ate cheese and tomato sanwiches (on something like french toast- it's soooo good!) and Ghanaian chocolate (you have no idea how yummy) and pringles and fake champagne (fizzy peach juice). I dressed up in heels and makeup and my fanciest clothes. We toasted the New Year and danced under the stars while listening to Norah Jones on the laptop Adam and Carissa donated to the library. Very romantic. We even kicked "the kids" out- meaning the puppies. They were locked out of the courtyard, where they whined and pawed at the door. They hate to be excluded.

So all in all, not a bad substitute. But still a substitute.

Mus's Roots

Okay, so this blog isn't going to look all pretty pecause the photos are acting weird... But you'll get the idea.

These first photos are photos of Mus's hometown. See, in Ghana, when you ask "Where are you from?" they won't tell you where they were born or where they were raised... They tell you where their ancestors lived. This is the village of Mus's mom and her ancestors...

























Which is right next door to Mus's father's village. From L to R- Mus, his grandmother, and his dad's sister. Mus's grandmother is over 100 years old- no one's quite sure how old, since she was born before Ghana started using the European calender. They just know that she was born before a certain recorded event (a war, I believe) and that happened over a hundred years ago, so she's even older. He said she could walk up until just a few years ago- and she can still see and has most of her teeth.


She was one of several wives of Mus's grandfather, who was the chief of the village. Mus's ancestors discovered the mountain that the village was built on- I think it was his great-great-great grandfather. When Europeans started imposing the custom of having surnames, Mus's family took this famous ancestor's name as their surname. Because they are Twi, though, the stool of the chief is passed matrilineally, meaning that the Queen Mother nominates who gets the stool, to be approved by the elders. The Queen Mother is not married to the chief- often they are her nephews or sons. So if your father is a chief, you don't necessarily get to be chief, and rarely do, in fact.

His grandmother, though she isn't the queen mother, still holds a lot of influence in the town. She is the last of the previous chief's wives who remains alive (Mus's granfather has died, and so there is a new chief). She controls a lot of land and the new chief has to pay respect to her- they say that proverbally he has no power over her house, because he's outside of the family, and her family is the one who controls the stool.