Funeral in Bolgatanga

The funeral behind our house on Sunday...

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You can see why kids look forward to funerals...

Funerals are the glue of the community, as odd as it may seem to those who are used to sombre, one hour affairs. The funerals in the Upper East Region rage for a week. I woke to the sounds of Beyonce blaring from loudspeakers at 6 a.m...it was just getting going for another day...and then drumming on all sides all day. You can see some groups drumming on the roof of a local mud-brick home.

The rainy season is supposed to have started weeks ago, but there has hardly been a drop. There is a belief that drumming keeps the rain away and there are quite a few angry locals calling for a ban on drumming and, by extension, funerals, so that the rains will come and they can plant.