Durbar Day and dancing

Here's the latest blog from Cheshire Fire Cadets who are out in Ghana, Africa. This blog has been written by Tom Smith and Hannah Gibson.

Durbar Day

This morning the Cadets had another 6:30am wake up call. After the usual breakfast at the hotel, the cadets and leaders were ready and enthusiastic for the long day ahead.

After picking up the Achana family (and of course lunch) we headed to the village. Vivian taught us a traditional religious African song, which was easy to learn, as it only had 3 similar verses, despite this some of the cadets could not pick it up as quickly as others. But by the time we got to the school, we all knew it.

We got off the bus to hear drums and singing blasting out from a set of big speakers, which were hired by the community. And so the Durbar Day began.

After 3 hours of continuous speeches from the elder Ghanaians (yes Ghanaians love their speeches!) and traditional dancing accompanied by drummers it was finally the cadets time to shine.

Dancing

Happily led by Robyn Taylor (a leader from Macclesfield ) and Chris Volpicelli (a leader from Holmes Chapel cadets) the music started and we attempted to do the cha cha slide (even after nights of practice some people still did not understand the moves) after a large round of applause we moved on to the Macarena except this time we got the village children involved.

After a further 2 songs (Time warp and Oops upside your head) all the cadets were exhausted but received a loud round of applause from the villagers and the speeches started again!.

Presentation

Every speaker thanked the Cadets for their support for the community. The cadets were pleasantly surprised to be presented with handmade scarves with their individual names on them (which were kindly made by local villagers and presented to us by Vivian Achana) the ceremony finished and we said farewell to the community and headed back to the bus.

After another late lunch we were finally on the road, and arrived back at 4 o’clock. Nearly every cadet headed to the pool, for a cool off and then fun and games. After a quick change we were back on the bus and picked up the Achana family who were our guests for the evening at the restaurant. Everyone had a good time.

We dropped off the Achana family at home and headed back on the unique Ghanaian roads to the hotel. Now all cadets are peacefully resting ready for another early morning for the local festival at Kpotoe tomorrow.