Today I celebrated my birthday in Ghana (my actual birthday was in the 11th), and trust me, I am definately bringing Ghanaian birthday customs back to the U.S.! A bunch of the librarians threw me a birthday/welcome to Ghana celebration at 'The Spot,' a local hangout that only serves drinks, which we are at atleast twice a day! And by 'librarians,' I don't mean a bunch of old ladies with wire rimmed glasses whose only sound you ever hear coming from her mouth is a high pitched screeching "SHHHH." No, here the librarinas are a group of 20-something, super fun guys.
When we got to the spot, they had a whole speach planned out where they said how happy they were that Annie and I had come to Ghana and that even though they didn't have much money, they wanted my birthday to be special. Then they gave me some gifts, which were small but extremely thoughtful. Then Lucas (one of the librarians) mentioned something about a baptism that I sort of just ignored--I thought he was just being weird :) The rest of the night we talked, hugh out, alughed ALOT, danced (they taught us some African dances, which seem like a combination of the running man and the funky chicken, and we shwed thme how we dance in the U.S., which included head banging and sort of just flailing around). Then all of a sudden everyone got quiet and Annie busted out her camera--I turned around just as Darius (another librarian) started pouring a bucket of 'pito' on my head (pito is a local drink)! It's supposed to prepresent birht and renewal, but Isecretly think they just enjoy having an excuse to dump pito on someone! :)
Overall, I can't think of any better way to have celebrated my birthday. Even though I missed my friends and family back home and I was sad that I could not spend this day with them, the people here made my birthday special and memorable. They made me feel welcomed and loved in a place I had only known for a few days, and I couldn't be more grateful.
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