Day 14 - Day Names, Dancing, and Dresses

Today, we started our morning at SIT with breakfast and a guest lecture by Prof. Fidelis Quansah. She is an entrepreneur and a professor at the University of Professional Studies, Accra. She spoke to us about entrepreneurship in Ghana and how it serves as a catalyst for development. Entrepreneurship is the backbone of the Ghanaian economy, with micro, small, and medium-sized businesses making up 70% of the country's GDP. Key sectors for innovation in Ghana include agriculture, mining, and services, all of which drive economic growth.


Entrepreneurship is essential for combating unemployment because it creates much needed jobs and allows people to establish their own enterprises to support themselves. Prof. Quansah also emphasized that marketing and communication are critical for a business to succeed—having a great product is not enough to stand out.


Next, we had a lesson with Akwasi to learn Twi (pronounced like "tree"), one of Ghana’s regional languages. Ghana has a vibrant culture with more than 80 spoken languages, in addition to English. While English is the country’s official language, there are 10 additional officially recognized cultural languages. Twi is the most widely spoken of these and has regional variations. Although it shares a common base, pronunciation can differ across regions. We learned that Twi is very tonal, and meaning changes depending on how words are spoken.


During the lesson, we practiced introducing ourselves and saying where we are from. We also discovered that Ghanaians often have multiple names: a day name, a hero name, and a family name. Each day of the week is associated with male and female names, and a person’s day name is determined by the day of the week they were born. For example, I was born on a Friday and here my day name would be Afia Grace. Each day is also associated with a traditional deity; people born on those days are thought to possess traits linked to the deity. Many people on our trip were born on a Monday, a day associated with being calm and lucky.


After lunch, we continued immersing ourselves in Ghanaian culture by learning a traditional dance! Outside our hotel, we met an energetic and encouraging dance instructor who played a traditional drum to keep time and help us follow the tempo. We started with small sections of the routine, practicing each move until we got it down. Piece by piece, we managed to shuffle, hop, spin, and shake our way through the entire routine. We had a lot of fun laughing and dancing together this afternoon!


Our adventures didn’t end there. After we returned to the hotel from dinner, one of the locks on an apartment door broke, trapping some people in their room! Fortunately, Kwame, the property manager, had a screwdriver handy and passed it over the balcony to the stranded residents. They used it to open the door from the inside. 


Later that evening, the seamstress arrived with custom dresses designed for the women. We had a fitting session and finalized details for our outfits. We finally made it to bed to prepare for another exciting day of travel.


Grace F.

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