africana

if you are friends with me on facebook you have probably seen the video i posted of playing the shakey-shaker thing with a drumming group. but if not, let me tell you alllll about it. got your tea/coffee ready? pretend we are sitting for a chat...and you don't get to say anything. man, i love those kinds of conversations....HA HA!i have known faisal since 2006. we had a gal sort of serving with SIM but not really named chelsea. anyways, chelsea is the life of the party. she loves to dance, loves to talk, loves to laugh. if she is around, you want to be next to her because she is so cool and vivacious. i secretly hoped her coolness would rub off on me. well, she found this dancing/drumming group, called africana, practicing and since it wasn't far from where she stayed she would often go. they open up their rehearsals for outsiders and if you want to join you pay a small fee and try. i say try...i went once, or twice, i can't remember...but i do remember the way i felt the next day. p90x has nothing on the soreness i felt after dancing with them. every inch of my body was in pain. and i am talking don't make me laugh, or touch me, or make me move suddenly sort of pain. apparently, chelsea was so good they even asked her to be a part of africana! many of the people who are part of africana are artists and have shops where tourists go. as i am often with short termers who buy the touristy things,  chelsea and i went and we met up with some of the africana group. now, chelsea has gone but i am still here and still take people to the touristy shops and meet up with africana peeps, faisal being one of them. faisal makes jambe drums. he and some other people always tempt you with these drums to join in and play. my friend margaret stepped in and played and then i did too. so then faisal was like, "you should come and i will give you lessons". uh, whatever. then another associate i had knew how to play a little bit so she asked if i would take her to get lessons and me, being the lovely person that i am, took her and tried my hand at the drumming again. i find i really like it, though, don't think that rhythm flows thru me like it should to be really good.so since 2009-2010 i have been getting lessons every so often. i should really be amazing by now but it is more fun talking and hanging out with africana people than drumming...and i always get yelled at for not practicing:) thankfully, i have associates who want lessons and they get me from being too busy and we all go. side note--- associates think i am so amazing when we drum,,, when really i can only play a few rhythms...but they don't need to know that!sooooo, faisal's cousin had a fancy-fancy wedding and invited me and 2 associates, ashley and grace. we were only there for the reception and africana was asked to play. so, here we are sitting at the nice white covered tables waiting for the bride to come (we are white people so we came on time unlike everyone else on ghana time) and africana is setting up. faisal comes up to me and says, "you want to join us?""excuse me??i can't drum!""we need someone on the maraca. you can do it.""are.you.serious??""yeah, feel freeeeeee! come and join us.""uh, YEAH!!!!!""ok, go and get your costume."so the girls helped me take off my shoes and dress and put a wrap on and tied my headscarf around my head. i was so nervous. but they were excited and that made me excited.so i came down the stairs and they gave me the maraca and i sat next to the drummers. they started. inside i was FREAKING OUT!! often times with faisal i get off beat and lose it so i was concentrating so hard on not "losing it". people walking around or entering were looking at me and smiling. ashley took lots of videos and as i watched them when i got home i noticed i looked so serious in them and it's because inside i was focusing on keeping the beat and trying to look cool!!! oh, the stress of it all. i wanted to smile, and i should have but i thought i would've looked like an idiot with a huge grin on my face. i was seriously in heaven shakin' it up with this group. it was theeeee coolest thing ever.ok, yes, let me admit, i did get off beat. faisal at one point came drumming over to me and was like, "1, 2, 3..." and i would make it look like, "of course this is what i am doing".so, was it because it was africana? was it because i was part of a group, i was "in"? was it because a friend asked me to? i don't know what made the experience so cool. maybe because we see this traditional drumming and dancing to be very african, and i live in africa and i love africa!can i just say again what an incredible experience that was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it is in my TOP 5 list of great ghanaian experiences. thinking of TOP 5, i should really write those 5 down...i guess that is for another post.