Religion seems to be a very important part of life in Ghana - and rather hard to ignore given the numerous signs along the roadside proclaiming "God is Love Hairdresser", "God's Hand Furniture Shop" and "Lord of Life Bakery" - just an example of the thousands of signs you can see. Christianity would be the most common religion, with various denominations including Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian. But there is also a reasonble number of Muslims - you can hear the chanting from the mosques at 5am! I'm also looking forward to hearing the singing on Sunday morning from the churches, because I suspect there might be some quite cool Gospel-style songs!
The people here have some lovely bible-inspired names like Endurance, Patience, Promise and Charity. Being a long distance runner, Warren particularly liked the name Endurance - I think he may adopt it as his "African name"! "Jacinta" is a bit difficult to say and remember, so now I seem to be called Mama Jessie or Madam Jessie - which is quite nice. Although one man told me that they have a similar name in Ghana - Jesita (unsure of the spelling) - which means God's Gift - so I'll claim that as well!
People will quite often say God Bless You as a farewell or thank you - which always gives one a warm fuzzy feeling! However, religion is not forced upon you in any way - if you're not religious that's fine; if you don't go to church - no problem. Whatever goes really!
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