Today was our day for “paying tribute to whom tribute is due.” We went to visit the new king; and such a hoop-fa-laa it was! Talk about ceremony and tradition. He holds the title of Ya-Naa. He is the second most important king in Ghana. Not only did we give our gift of a water cooler but we made envelopes with money for all the people involved in the meeting and greeting process. We made an envelope for the Ya-Naa; the man who lead us to the Ya-Naa; the Ya-Naa’s elders; his linguist; his Nazos (personal servants); the body guards and the Ya-Naa’s wives (he has 8 wives). After we got to the palace we had to give additional gifts to the linguist of the wives and his wives elders and the security guards that were guarding the wives.
The new Ya-Naa presented Steve a traditional Fugu which is sort of like a smock/shirt that has a long billowing skirt which comes down to his knees. Of course Steve had to put on the Fugu and show it off. I took a picture of Steve and the new Ya-Naa. I don’t think the picture will turn out very well because it was very dark in the room. Several people went with us to the palace; Timothy Niligrini, Divine, Zorash, Mr. Iddrisu, Nazo, Red and Zimilin (Nazo’s 10 year old son). While we were visiting with the Ya-Naa we were given kola nuts to chew on. It is part of the tradition when someone visits the king he must give them kola nuts. Kola nuts are full of caffeine and bitter; we don’t like them but we have to take them and take a small bite; which I usually hide in my cheek until I get outside. Timothy and Divine are not of the Dagomba tribe so they don’t know anything much about the traditions. They wanted to go to see what it was all about. They were surprised at how costly it was to visit the Ya-Naa. They have chiefs in their villages but when we visit them we only give a little money.
The new Ya-Naa was surprised when we told him that we knew the late Ya-Naa. He did not realize that we came to Yendi in 2001.
The Ya-Naa wanted to let us know that he had sent a small baby to the Child Center last week and he wanted to make sure that we took very good care of the baby. This is the baby that was abandoned in the garbage heap. The baby was newly born and the umbilical cord had not yet been cut. They have not found the mother yet. They suspect that the mother was a young unmarried girl. Steve assured him that we would do the best we could for the baby. The baby came to the Center on Monday and was gaining weight and doing fine.
We got bad news about the air conditioning unit in our bedroom. The repairman could not fix the leaks. He is going to see if he can find a used condenser and repair it. At this point we are ready to buy a new one but he wants to try to repair it because we just put a new compressor in it.
Take care and thank you for your help!
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
