Cause it's witchcraft, wicked witchcraft

Today started off fairly well. For once, my shower's water heater was actually working so I was able to take a hot shower! Only the third one in the past five weeks. Yeah, this cold shower business...not too cool. And yet it is. The water pressure in my shower basically consists of about 10% actual pressure and 90% gravity, so the shower's more like a trickle. I'm never complaining about water pressure back home again.

I've been feeling a major sense of relief after mailing back the surveys yesterday (they're currently in Britain right now). Now begins more of the computer analysis, which tends to go slowly as a lot of debugging is required. Think in terms of guided missiles: ready, fire, aim! I was able to start the imputations on the first try (yeah!), but quickly ran into some bugs. Still going at it, but it's looking to have great promise.

I also walked around a good bit of the city, and was able to buy some very colourful Ghanaian fabric that my mom's agreed to sew into curtains for next year. Like my shirt (see below), it's a very traditional, geometric style pattern, but it has more blue, green, white and orange in it. I hope to pick up some more cloth (perhaps woven instead of just printed!) when I head to Kumasi or perhaps in Eastern Volta (where I hear it's cheaper). I showed the hotel staff, and they said I was already becoming an authentic Ghanaian. Now if I can only get myself hired as a tro-tro mate...

This afternoon I basically stayed in and watched my laptop run imputations. And repeat. But I was nicely interrupted by a huge parade going on right at the Market Circle across from the hotel! (I will post pictures when I get back to Accra; the internet cafe frowns upon me using my USB drive.) There were two trucks and a bus carrying very colourfully-clad members of this religious song/dance group called the Good News Effort. They had a full entourage of 12-piece brass band, drummers, dancers, and every car in the vicinity was honking its horn. People in the street were dancing, singing in Fante and just having a great time. It was insane. I'll see if I can post the video on Facebook or something.

So I'll be leaving for Accra Monday morning (then I can finally do laundry the right way...), so I've been having extra meals with Mensah and other friends from around here. A couple nights ago, when Thomas was still around (he is back in Accra already), the topic of witchcraft came up, and both these guys believe its still very powerful around here, though its effect has been diminished with modernization. So I listened to a couple stories for about an hour.

Apparently, a few years ago at Tema Port, an Italian ship had run aground because it misjudged a lighthouse. They tried to tow it with tugboats. Didn't work. They tried to get another cargo vessel to tow it. Didn't work. They even brought in a super-tug from Nigeria. Also fruitless. So one of the local staff suggested they go to a Ga medicine man, bring him some schnapps, a live goat for sacrifice (no joke) and some herbs, and see what he can do. The Italian captain was, naturally, skeptical. But he needed to get out of port eventually. So after some convincing, he assented, and the medicine man arrived on shore, sacrificed the goat, did some double double toil and trouble ... at which point the water around the ship started boiling. The Italians were freaking out. And then the ship started moving, and the captain was able to take it back to sea. I'm sure they got away as fast as they could...

I was pretty skeptical about the veracity of this story, but both Thomas and Mensah were very adamant about the truth of it. Neither of them seem like the kind of guys who would be super into such things, but they were very serious. They also told me about this market in the border town of Elubo, near the Cote d'Ivoire, in which the market literally never closes. Even when the traders leave, they just leave all their goods out, without packing it away. They tell me that there's some kind of spell in the town where if anyone steals anything in the night, the snakes of the town will follow him all over amongst other misfortunes. But what if you steal snake repellent ...

So that was definitely a bit of an intense dinner discussion. The Bradt guide advises travellers to pass through Elubo as quickly as possible because it is such a hectic border town, and I believe it even mentions that one of the hotels has a reputation for witchcraft and human sacrifices. I wonder if you can earn Hilton points from there.