It was a pleasant experience for us The Friends of SVDGhana from St Margaret Mary Dansoman to be part of the 2011 annual SVDGhana Family feast celebrations which took place on the feast of St. Joseph Freinademetz. Activities actually commenced on 27thJanuary with an opening ceremony at 2.00pm. This was followed by games some of which were “fill the bottle with water from your mouth”, “egg and spoon”, volley ball and so on. The main teams for the games were Sts Arnold Jansen, Joseph Freinademetz, Blessed Helena and Josepha.
The evening was a mix of prayer, good meal and variety of indoor activities including the screening of a documentary, musical chairs, dance, charade among others. These activities went deep into the night which may have caused some of us to be unable to join the early morning walk.
The festivities culminated with the celebration of Holy Mass commemorating the Feast of Joseph Freinademetz. It was impressive to see an inculturated liturgy which we can integrate into our liturgical celebrations in our Parish.
The occasion was our first experience as lay people to join a religious congregation in their social activity. We were in the minority but were not invisible. We participated as much as was possible and hope that more of our membership will join in the 2012 family feast to mount an “ampe” and football teams against the ‘SSpS ampe’ team and SVD Football Club respectively. The big luncheon and variety of merry making that concluded the day cannot be forgotten.
The following are some observations of some of our members:
I like the competitive spirit of the games but I was a bit scared about the volley ball especially for some of the older members of the teams. Though there was no casualty will it be possible to consider something a little gentle for the older folks who have less physical exercise? I am sure there are such games from the different countries confreres come from.
The evening variety entertainment was interesting but there was a lot more “catching up” with friends than full attention given to the performances. I felt the planners were having a little challenge in getting volunteers from the different teams to perform.
A lot more attention was on the food and drinks and “catching up” rather than on the entertainment.