Part 1: Leading up to the wedding

In my New Year post I had given an update about getting ready for my wedding and my dad coming to Ghana. About a week after he arrived my mother also came. My parents have been divorced for almost 20 years and in a way I was kind of dreading having to entertain them both together at times just in case some things became awkward bu all was pretty fine there.

We had about 4 or 5 days at the resort before we went north to Tamale for the traditional marriage and courthouse.

When my mom came she brought Dzigbordi her rings as a gift from us. The wedding band is 18k gold and was from my Great Grandmother, my mothers Grandmother. And the engagement ring was one that my father bought my mother.

It turns out that my Great Grandfather was a cattle rancher and central eastern Oregon and when it was time for him to go to the city to buy the ring the best way to do that was by train. If you loaded a cattle car full of cows to go to the market you get a free train ticket with them in 1917. I imagine he sold the cows to buy the ring and his return ticket. The place he bought the ring was unknown when my father bought my mom the engagement ring in the 70's, they found out later that he in fact bought it from the same jewelry store in Portland, Oregon as my mom's grandfather. It is also interesting that Dzigbordi's mothers side come from Mossi Royalty in Burkina faso which are a long line of cattle farmers also and if we went by her mothers tradition for the bride price I would have had to present some cows. But in this case it looks like my Great Grandfather sold those cows for her ring over 100 years ago.

This is Dzigbordi feeling excited and relieved to be home again at the Tamale airport.

We took the remainder of that first travel day to relax and rest. The next morning we went to check the final measurements on Dzigbordi's dress with one of her aunts who is a seamstress.

From there we took a yellow yellow into the market to get a few things before the big day.

Dzigbordi needed a few beauty items and I was more interested in getting some grains to plant at the farm like Sorgham, black eyed peas, and millet.

From there we took my parents to Red Clay studio which I have posted about before on my last trip to Tamale. But the great thing is that there was a new exhibit this time so we were able to see new things too.

I got a shot of Dzigbordi in front of a tapestry made from bio plastics. TZ or tzert is a food eaten by people in the north that is similar to fufu this artist used it to make a thin film with different colors added which dries and makes a thin plastic film. The substance all over the floor is gari or ground cassava.

The Parliment of ghosts this time was covered in a thin layer of soot which is common to see in the areas around Tamale this time of year. There are accidental turnings and others intentionally to keep snakes away.

Some views did not change.

Dzigbordi was able to reconnect with some old friends.

One of the exhibits focused on some plants in interesting planters. While we were checking this out one of the youth workshops was going on for young ladies from the surrounding communities. To me it looked like it incorporated togetherness, teamwork and multimedia art. They were all in t-shirts that were sown together into one so they had to move together. They also were making drawings on the each other about what the observed.

This multimedia collage was supposed to represent something like a horse with different bits and pieces around.

The archive which we have visited in one of my prior posts this time set with mats on the floor for the workshop.

My parents learning about the northern laborers who go to the south of Ghana to work and they identification tattoos they usually have.

Very old Smock shirts.

And a drawer that I did not see before with very old kente cloths inside.

From the archives we went to check out the airplanes on the property. They are used for workshops on technology, art and drones.

To top off the visit Dzigbordi's old friend did a podcast interview with us all in the parliament of ghosts. Topics ranging from art to how they experienced the visit to Red Clay studio.

The day was basically over by then, the sun was low in the sky with hammattan grit thick in the air, the cows were enjoying the cooler weather and we took it easy after dinner.

Part 2 will be the day of the traditional wedding and courthouse wedding. Stay tuned for that one soon.

All shots were with my Google Pixel 3xl.