After having spent nearly two years in Africa, I kind of prided myself on being culturally competent and generally knowing what was up. One day there was a nice little breeze outside, so I lifted up my arms to the sky and put
both hands behind my head to enjoy it while tilting back my head. A Ghanaian man came up to me and said, “No, no! Don’t do that! It means your mother has died!!!” He explained that is the
mourning/grieving stance, especially when the mother dies. We actually laughed about it pretty hard
because he was so intense and I was so shocked. Also, here we don’t wave with our left
hands, because it is offensive.
Also, there was a day nobody went to work. I asked why, and was informed that it was "African Unity Day." I went around wishing people Happy African Unity Day and got some strange looks. According to the people I talked to, it is (1) ironically only
celebrated in Ghana and (2) celebrated exclusively by nobody going to work, but still getting paid for it.
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