a different culture

as i was sitting among three hundred of Ghana's finest i felt as if i was in a movie. at 5pm this past saturday night i strolled into the international conference center here in accra to celebrate the 236th birthday of the marines. as you can see from the picture we were all dolled up in our long flowy gowns, but let me assure you we were still aware of reality. how? well right before we entered into this beautifully prepared room my car died. yes the new car i bought so i wouldn't have quite as many car problems as the white car, that's the one. thankfully though, and i mean seriously...thank the Lord, we didn't die out on the major highway and my sweet friends didn't have to push the spacewagon in heavy traffic on Liberation in their high heels!

once we enetered the 236th Marine Ball we sat down at our assigned table #12 and took in the scenes of Colonels, Majors and Atashays (?sp) for the Marines, Navy, Army and Airforce as they chatted it up together talking about planes and using acronyms that i still don't know what they mean. but all in all these conversations were actually quite fun, they joked about being dressed in uniforms that basically cause you to have good posture and the dinner conversation kept going back to the fact that our friend stacey had brought three dates. or shall we just say .... 'the harem.'

now last year when tates, amy, sherri, jane, lindsey, stacey and I were hanging out we laughingly reffered to ourselves as stacey's harem. never really actually did i feel like a harem as it is defined. oh but saturday night when one of stacey's bosses said, 'introduce us to 'them'" it rang in my ear that yes, we really could be percieved as 'the harem' poor stacey is often ridiculed by his coworkers for hanging out with all of us girls, but apparently he must not hate it too bad!

the music choice of saturday night was interesting. there are six marines that gaurd the US embassy here in Accra and they chose the music selection from what i've been told. let me add they are all around 20 years old, so i got caught up on the newest rap songs from america. i realized that i am in fact out of touch in two areas, the music to which college aged students are now shaking their rear area to and the words to these songs. both of which the 20 year old marine knew all too well. i will say as i looked around the room full of an eclectic mix match of people i wondered what some of the 60 year olds were thinking, but then i noticed a couplde dancing either the mambo or east coast swing in the corner and they in fact were having a splendid time. or so it seemed.

one of the couples at our table were from california and looked asian. they have three kids the youngest 4 months, but that didn't stop either of them from breaking it down on the dance floor. they were definetly my favorite dancers of the night!

my favorite dance was to thriller. we did have a couple of songs interjected into 20 year old marines' favorite rap song choices. two of the 'other' songs that stood out to me were Madonna's Holiday and the electric slide... to which i found myself amazed at how many Ghanaians were doing this timeless dance classic we American southerners play as a 'must have' at our weddings.

i didn't take my camera saturday night because i knew mariah and suzanne would take enough pictures to fill my bedroom wall. but i didn't get any good pictures from suzanne's camera of people dancing so those will have to wait until we see what mariah took, however i am posting some of the four girls i went with ....and well....stacey the harem date. too bad i don't have any pictures from the creepy guy who was going around pointing to areas that shouldn't be focused on and snapping shots. this guy made me really mad, but for some reason i didn't approach him to ask why he was being so creepy. ?

i do have to add that my dress was made by amanda. she has made several ghanaian dresses/clothes for me and does an outstanding job. for the most part my 236th marine ball dress was ok, minus the bulges on the hip area. but thankfully my friend gifty saved the day and came to my house where she re stitched up until the last minute so the dress would fit 'well enough' my lesson i've learned this weekend...if you expect perfection...you will always be disappointed. we had fun, we had laughs, and we got to see just how diverse the people are here in ghana. hob knobbing with the military and the ambassadors seemed to be the theme for me this weekend. it was nice to get a look into that world of fellowship.

sunday at 5pm i went with others to support our friend jane. she sings with a group called accragio and they teamed up with the tema youth choir a group from about an hour away comprised of youth who have a heart for music and are using their amazing voices to glorify God. sitting at the French Ambassadors residence watching and listening to these mixture of ghanaian and expat voices i truly loved the moment. one of my favorite parts of living internationally is the culture eveeryone brings. you never lack for something artistic here. it's nice.