There was a short presentation in the middle of our quad here in ISH II last Friday announcing that there would be a praise and worship concert on Sunday March 25th. A few of my friends and I were very excited about it and decided to go!
I assumed, after watching the acapella choir in the quad, that it would be a fairly laid back event. However, like so many of my assumptions made here, I was wrong.
We walked into the national theater and felt the cool rush of air conditioning indicating we are in a nice place. We got there right at 3:30 pm when the flyer said it would start and of course the theater in mostly empty and the band is just finishing up practice. It helps us get good seats though, so I don’t mind!
Once seated and waiting for some time, more people begin to show up and we are handed, not a folded piece of paper, but a full booklet as our program guide. As I flip through the program I see that this event is sponsored by companies such as Ecobank, the Accra Mall, Africa TV and many more big names in Ghana. Its now starting to get through my thick skull that there is a reason we paid a whole 10 GHC to come to this event.
Around 4:15 pm or so the show begins to start. Only 45 minutes late. Not so bad. After the opening prayer the president of one of the choirs comes on stage and reads a welcome letter straight off his paper. I begin to get nervous, but the event quickly turns around.
We start the praise and worship and everyone around me immediately gets up and starts dancing. And when I say dancing, I really mean dancing. No swaying with eyes closed or a simple hand in the air, but full on moving your body getting down. I loved every second.
After 30 minutes or so of dancing, the music ends and we all take our seats once again. Someone announces that the next act is performed by the literary family as people in costume file onstage into formation. A narrator begins her speech about a king and his son and their two realms. Quite obviously the begin to do a cute play about the beginning of time, creation of man and Jesus. The whole shebang.
The entire thing was actually incredibly cheesy (Making the Devil a lion and whatnot), but it was also quite funny. What made it even better though, was watching it all with Ghanaians. They were cracking up at what I am sure are jokes I didn’t understand, talking back to the characters and reacting in all the right parts. It was great.
Once that was over and a few sponsors got a plaque, the program reads, “first package”. Of course at this point I was hoping it was food. I really hadn’t eaten much of anything that day. However I am still excited when the real choir comes out, 150 members strong.
They switch off lead singers, all of whom are so good they put pop stars to shame. Some songs I recognize from CDs my mom used to play in the car when I was young, other I have never heard, and some are Twi (which I am trying to learn). We go from standing to sitting to dancing to swaying throughout this 90-minute performance. By this time it’s getting a little late and I realize we aren’t even halfway through the program!
We are back to the sitting position as the director of the choir comes onstage to announce the new Cwesi Oteng music video. Even though I don’t know who this is, everyone else must because they scream and shout and sing along. And wouldn’t you know it, at the end of the video, none other than Cwesi himself comes onstage and begins singing! He only sings 2 songs before his time is up, but it got the crowd incredibly excited!
We get to sit for a while now as we watch a short film on the organization the choir is sponsoring this year. We then begin offertory for the cause and people come in and out of the theater to get water or snacks. We run outside for a bit to run to the washroom, get some water and eat a meat pie before we head back in.
We are finally onto the second package (guess what it is?!) which of course is more singing and dancing. You would think that about 5 or so hours into this people would be tired, but again my assumptions are always wrong!
We sing and dance like we just started and by the time they bring on the final guest, people are in the isles, crowded up front and even on stage. We finally have our closing prayer around 9:45 pm and we follow a bunch of people outside to the buses that go back to campus.
We’re exhausted as we relax on the bus and meet some new people who invite us to their church. Before you know it someone starts singing praise and everyone quickly joins in on a local worship song. This one is much slower. No one is dancing anymore, but instead they have their heads bowed or raised to the heavens. I relax and listen to the melody, wondering what they are saying and before you know it, I’m back in ISH.
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