"Congregation" or Graduation Day

Today was "congregation" -what we would call graduation- at the University of Ghana. There were cars, people, police all over campus. It was very much like a graduation day at a university in the US: proud families, graduates in gowns, lots of excitement.

After a walk around campus, which included a stop at the bookstore and the bank, I stopped at the music department compound which was fairly quiet since it was Saturday. As I was waiting for my xylophone lesson, a large group of people came and set up a graduation party in the center of the compound. A group of musicians and singers arrived a little while later and began performing as part of the celebration.
The songs they performed were religious; they sang "everyone should be happy because God has forgiven us our sins" translation from a Ghanaian student I had just met...

Learning the Ghanaian xylophone (the gyl) is proving to be a bit of a challenge. Because the instrument is so different from a Western xylophone, I am having to really concentrate on the music and the instrument. There are similarities between the instruments and I am picking up things quickly...it is just really taxing my brain!

More later...

PS. I am starting to get the hang of the hand-shake-snap thing...I can't wait to use it when I get back!

Best to all,

Patrick