Weekend Adventures II: Little Kids Suck, but the President of Ghana is Pretty Cool

After leaving the crocodile pool, we made it over to this large New Year festival taking place in the city of Cape Coast. We found ourselves in a large parade that sadly reminded me most of the Country Fair, except it was authentic this time. We were following one of the local chiefs who was being carried on his palanquin with drummers and dancers all around.

After this we made our way towards the central area where speeches would be taking place. As we approached the square, the crowd/parade was forced to turn right, and we ended up being crushed together. I had already placed my wallet in my front pocket to be safe, and I had my hand right on top of it. I also noticed a few little kids ducking under people, and figured "Oh, that's nice, they're small so they can squeeze by." Then the crowd opened up, and I noticed my wallet was gone. I was doing everything right and they still got me, so I guess they know what they're doing. I didn't lose too much money, but it was embarrassing and inconvenient.
Here's a picture of a queen mother and her retinue. We weren't really supposed to be taking pictures so that's why all the people are in the way.This is the president of Ghana. Zarif and Sonny (one of the Ghanaians who works at the Aya centre and accompanied us to Cape Coast) ran out to the "official press area" and acted like they were supposed to be there and got a number of great photos of the president and other people. Sonny even got in the way of the president as he was making his rounds waving, and got lifted up by a security guard and moved. After a number of speeches in Twi, we took off and waited for our bus. I got a picture of this little girl selling bananas. I shoud have bought one too, but I didn't.

There were more bands and music, including some trombones here. It was pretty catchy and I wished I had mine. That evening we swam back at the hotel and made trouble, then we went to a party at a gas station down the street. I'm not sure why it was at a gas station, but there was a bar and live music, including apparently some of the top hip-hop groups in all Ghana. I couldn't tell what they were saying, but it was good. A couple of the girls from the program, Bethany and Beth, also managed to make their way on stage once a performer noticed them and yelled for them to get up there. I'm not sure what it was about, but I spent my time pretending not to know them.

Come back for part III tomorrow, which I haven't thought of a title for yet, but it involves a rainforest preserve and a soccer game.