A funny thing happened on the way to the altar

I was about to sign off, but I forgot to write about stuff from today.

Anyways, on Sundays, much of Ghana shuts down, and there's little to do but go to Church and wander around. Which is precisely what I've been doing today (but I did find the only open Internet cafe in Takoradi...woot).

It was refreshing to see that the Catholic mass (about 16% Catholic population ... biggest group!) is basically universal but with some nice local flavoring, depending on where you are. Here in Ghana, they use typical Catholic hymns, but the instrumentation and rhythm is of a very African style and feel. Music in southern Ghana is very percussive, so choirs--in addition to the organ--are accompanied by traditional drums, tambourines, lots of clapping, etc.

Much of the mass is quite similar, but one notable difference, which I also noticed at the Methodist service I attended two weeks ago, is that the offertory (money) collection is done in a special way. Here in Ghana, Akan tradition (the umbrella ethnicity that characterizes half the population, including Ashanti, Fanti, Akuapem groups, etc.) holds that children are named according to the day of the week on which they were born, a system that supposedly can also predict a person's character and what not. Since I was born on Wednesday, I would be called Kweku (my assistant is also a Wednesday, so we call each other Thomas Kweku and Joe Kweku, good stuff).

For offertory rather than passing the basket pew by pew, the congregation goes up to two central baskets at the foot of the altar according to the day they were born, and of course there's lots of singing and clapping, with people dancing on the way back to their seats. And this is a Catholic service! Anyways, I definitely stuck out in the crowd (you know, the American accent), but dutifully went up when Wednesdays were called up.

But next week, I think I will be daring and introduce myself to more people. How? Well, when they call the Wednesdays I can just be like, "Hey Kweku, what's up?", or for Fridays, "What's shakin', Kofi?" I could meet like 40 people like that. I mean, you know the names of all the people who are going up there (and consequently, their income level...), so it could work.

Aside: at the end of mass they announce how much each day group donated. I think it'd be interesting to do an economic study on churches here to see if the Akan belief about people's characteristics corresponding to their birth day holds up with donation evidence--and if it holds across different religions. Mmmm economic anthropology. Maybe for a different paper ...