A Royal Visit

The Nayiri is the man in the red sitting next to me

Yesterday I met the Nayiri.  He is the paramount chief of the Mamprusi empire and his palace is located in Nalerigu.  Each village has a local chief and the Nayiri is the head chief of all of them.  He makes all the major rulings in the area when it comes to law and order, etc.  I was supposed to meet him when I first arrived, but things are been so busy that we finally got around to meeting him now.  He had a large compound in the main part of town.  You are not supposed to walk or drive in front of the palace.  The first month I arrived a volunteer and I drove in front by accident.  These men ran out after us with sticks, but I told her just to gun it and not stop.  I did not really want to be in trouble my first month here.  When I met Nayiri yesterday I did not mention that little infraction of the law.  His palace is a huge compound made of painted white stone and is very distinct from the rest of the structures in Nalerigu.  He was very kind and grateful of all of the work we do at the hospital.  He asked me if I would consider staying another year at the hospital.  I told him my mother and father would miss me too much.  I was not sure culturally how I was supposed to answer that question.  We had to take our shoes off when entering his viewing area and then you need to squat as low as you can and clap when greeting him.  He does not speak English so we had a translator speak for us.  He seemed to have a sense of humor and enjoyed the meeting.  We gave him a gift of a bag of rice and a jug of oil.  In return he gave us a present of a guinea fowl. 

 



With our guinea fowl