Kaaulah!

My apologies to the loyal blog readers who haven’t seen anything new in days. We have been having all kinds of internet problems, making it impossible for me to post stuff. (What did we all do before the Internet anyway?) But I’ve tried to keep up with things, so there are several posts. Nearly every day here, there are many ups and downs. So let me state now before you read that no, I do not have a mood disorder. Enjoy!

Some more culture: When you are born in Africa, you are automatically a member of some tribe. (kind of like Indian caste system) There are many different ones, and they are scattered all over, but certain countries tend to have more of certain kinds. The main tribe in Tamale is Dagomba. Ghana itself also has another one, which happens to be the largest one of all of Africa, called Ganja. Hamza is a member of this one. Apparently so is the president of Ghana. Hamza and his friend Paul were explaining to me that if 2 tribes are known to be allies, then all those constituents will automatically be friends, and will never be enemies (like Hamza and Paul, who is Dagomba). On the other hand, if 2 tribes are known to be enemies, their constituents tend to be in competition with each other, and in modern day, tend to bring each other down whenever possible, say in a job, or some other context where another person might be viewed as competition. Also, it is frowned upon by the old school folks to marry outside of your tribe. People do it, but they often have to get past their families first. I asked Hamza what if he and Paul just happened to not like each other. What if you just can’t stand the individual who is in your sister tribe.  Hamza said it doesn’t matter- they will never be your enemy and will always be your friend. Interesting.

Here are some Dagomba words I have learned while here. Most of these are my phonetic spellings of course!

Kaaulah= Hello (kaa-ooo-lah)

Naa= Hello back to you (naw)

Impaya= I am grateful (im-pie-yah)

Baba= baby (bub-baa)

Jopaha= sister (jo-pa-haa)

Imbyellaye= brother (im-be-yell-ay)

Desbaa= hello (dez-baah)

Anidora= fever (ann-y-dora)

Azoyarrah= headache (a-zoe-yar-uh)