My Obsession with Civil Society in Africa: Rural Visit and work with APROFES

NOTE: PICTURES OF RURAL VISITS AT LEFT; THERE ARE TWO LINKS.

CIEE organizes a week of rural visits where the students can decide whether they want to stay with a Peace Corps volunteer or stay with a local NGO in a rural area of Senegal. Most of the students opted to stay in the “bush” with the PCV, but I was really torn. The question was, when would I ever have the opportunity to stay in the bush? But I chose to go work with an NGO because A)they were doing sweet things for women in the region and B) I am obsessed with civil society/NGO/Non-profit/Grassroots development in Africa. So, on Monday I and three other girls headed to Kaolack to work with APROFES (Association pour le PROmotion de la Femme Senegalaise). Kaolack is about 3 hours away, whereas most of the PCV kids had to travel 8 hours plus to reach their destinations.
First impressions of Kaolack: It was HOT! When I got to my host family’s house, the conversation consisted as such (directly translated from French/Wolof):
“The heat here is bad.”
“Yes, it is hot.”
“Sure is.”
(The power goes out)
“It’s hotter now.”
“Yup.”
“You want this fan? Because it is hot.”
“Okay.”
“Is it hot like this in your country?”
“I don’t know, I think so.”
“Because it is cold in Dakar. This is bad heat. We can’t walk down the street, we can’t go anywhere but stay here. You want to take a nap?”
“Okay.”
And that was pretty much a daily occurrence. I would wake up, have breakfast, head to the APROFES office, then to a village, where we would “Noppalu” (rest) during the hot hours which meant us laying on someone’s bed or couch and sleeping, and then head back, all the while complaining about the heat.
My host family was two brothers, 15 and 10, and a 25 year old sister who is my twin (we both have jaay fondey and are left handed), my host mom, Bintou Sall, who worked at APROFES with the micro-credit union and a host dad who worked for the salt processing company.
About APROFES: first, let me give you some background on my obsession with developing Africa from the bottom up. Working with CDD in Ghana and now APROFES makes it so clear to me that the best system of development on this continent is through active civil society organizations like those two who are dedicated to correcting the poverty and corruption in their respective countries. Who better to develop a country than those who live there and actually have a stake in the outcome? Granted, organizations like these need the funding and capacity building from the West, but they are the ones that know how best to use the money to actually effect change. Okay to APROFES. Their primary objectives are the promotion of women’s rights, establishing women leaders in various spheres, providing access to health resources and information, giving women economic power and reducing violence against women. They work with community based organizations, directly with the women and children of villages, victims of violence, women leaders and entrepreneurs and their established credit mutual and health mutual. A brief list of their projects: sensitization projects on AIDS/HIV and women’s rights; capacity building for women’s organizations in the region; training sessions that range from leadership and advocacy training to functional literacy courses; microfinance projects; a health insurance program; alternative energy and other positive environment programs; and prevention projects through awareness about violence against women (which includes Female Excision practices). They have many financial partners, mostly European and Canadian, and technical partners like regional and national women’s networks. They work thoughout the Kaolack region as well as Fatick and as far as the Casamance. (In other words, they are AMAZING)
We went to a conference hosted by a regional network of women about women in politics and the idea of equity and a presentation in a village for the 15 days of women celebration. The first village we went to, Kacathe, was the location of a farming co-op that had been funded through microfinance credit and capacity supported by APROFES. They were growing mangos, okra, eggplant, peppers and onions in the small perimeter. It was about 10 years old with 39 women working plots. The women use the produce for their own homes and also sell it on market day to the surrounding villages. The men help, but it is mostly the women who are doing the work here. They all benefited from APROFES’s sensitization programs, workshops, and literacy classes in Wolof. For more evidence about how successful and great micro-credit systems are, look at this village. They received 15,000CFA ($30) per woman in loans from APROFES. The established the farm, cultivated peanuts and, through the sale of their produce, turned that 30 bucks into $120 each and together bought horse carts and sheep. Now each woman has about 57,250CFA ($115) in their savings and the loans have been paid off.
The second village we visited, Ngane Ndiougou, also had a farming perimeter, but it was much larger and had another plot close by. They were also cultivating trees for re-forestation projects and had just started a program of raising bees for honey production. Their farming co-op idea was actually from the youths of the village who came up with the proposal to take to the micro-credit mutual provided by APROFES. In this village we met the chief and provided the villagers with entertainment as we tried to dance to their drumming. Here I also had the best attaya, which I realized I never mentioned before on this blog. Attaya is strong green tea with lots of sugar served piping hot. It is not easy to make actually; it requires skill at pouring and mixing just right so that it is all frothy on top when served in shot glasses.
The third village we visited, Ngathe, generated income from a very different source: by collecting salt from a lake in the area. Every fifteen days the lake dries up and the people move to another location to collect about 500 kilos a day of salt which is then sold to a Senegalese organization that cleans it. This is the only source of income for the area during the dry season and there were a ton of people out there, ankle high in salty water. We tried out the whole salt cultivation thing, but it was tough because there was so much salt that it was sucking our flesh dry and made walking quite difficult. There are salt plots that the villagers can purchase for $30 where the water evaporates faster and yields more salt. It was very strange seeing all this salt out in the middle of nowhere. APROFES assisted this village with education programs using videos and theatre troops as well as through micro-credit loans.
So even though I wasn’t “out in the bush,” I had an amazing experience. I learned about the effectiveness of APROFES’ programs (for example, through education, the number of child birth deaths dropped 50% in one village where they worked). A bakery started by a women entrepreneur with funds from APROFES was flourishing (and we would know, because everyday we had something from the bakery). My host family in Kaolack was hilarious, welcoming and comforting, and the girls I traveled with provided good company as we discussed how in love we were with APROFES and how we were going to help APROFES save the world. So in other words, my rural visit was well worth it.

tomorrow....

Well, my semester in Ghana is drawing to a close. Tomorrow I will leave the hostel forever at 4:30pm, head to the airport and leave Ghana at 11:30pm. Sad times...

The last few days I have just been rushing to finish things up before I leave. We have also been going out a lot on people's last nights in town. Indian food twice in one week, Italian restaurant, the Baze bar, Tyme Out on campus for Chinese. Saturday I had lunch at Prof's house with the other CDD interns. Sunday I went to Tema with my roommate to visit her family. It's interesting how cyclical life is...when we first arrived in Ghana, the dorms were empty, the campus a ghost town because we arrived two weeks before registration. Now, since we are leaving four days after the semester has ended, we are once again the only people on campus. Night market has even ceased to function except for a few stalls. The silence in the hostel and campus is deafening. I am not packed yet, I have not finished souvenir shopping, and I still have a long list of things to do before I leave. Hey I still have all of today and a lot of tomorrow. ;)
I will be spending almost 18 hours on a plane, which I am not looking forward to. In addition to that I will be spending two hours in London and four in JFK. I will be home more than 24 hours after I leave, but hey I will have a good book and a host of movies to select from on the British Airways flight.

Things I won't miss about Ghana:
1. Open sewers
2. the honks of taxi drivers
3. sweating all the time
4. no water
5. no power
6. men harassing you (I love you, I want to marry you, etc.)
7. pepe
8. men urinating wherever they please
9. being woken up in the middle of the night by my over-studious roommate
10. hand washing clothes

Things I will mos def miss...to be continued I am sure
1. Tro-tros
2. Lights out as an excuse to hit the town
3. Puuuure Water
4. Plantains
5. "oh! eh!"
6. a nice cold shower after sweating all day
7. music blaring everywhere, especially Celine
8. walking to where you need to go, and people staring
9. Night market
10. Burgers or Snappy's groundnuts
11. Kelewele
12. hawkers
13. "i'm coming."
14. the friendly people
15. cedis
16. traveling on weekends

I am running out of internet time, but I will probably think of more to add to the lists...

Why I love Ghana part 2: Kumasi

Last Wednesday was my last day at CDD…I can’t believe I will be leaving in one week! I still have so much to do!

Friday, We left ISH around 9 to the STC bus station to catch a bus to Kumasi. The next bus, however, wasn’t leaving until 4, so we had 6 hours or so to kill. So, Karen and I found a used book store, bought some classic literature for two bucks, then sat in the Paloma Hotel’s air conditioned lobby until 4. We left Accra at around 6, got to Kumasi around midnight. Stayed in the Guestline lodge right around the corner from the STC bus station, slept in a dorm room with an Australian girl and a Scottish girl for 55,000cedis per bed (which is kind of pricey, since the fan didn’t work).

Saturday, we left the hotel around 8, and following the map in the Bradt guide, began to walk to the cheaper hotel in the center of town. Travelers to Ghana will soon know that the Bradt guide is horrible, especially the maps, so of course, we got lost wandering around Kumasi, but it was okay because we got to see a lot of the second largest city in Ghana. Our hotel, Nurom Annex, was nice for 70,000cedis per room, very centrally located and had a nice clean toilet. We called the Anglo-Ashanti Gold Mines in Obuasi to see if they were open. They didn’t answer the phone, not at all a surprise, so we decided to head there to see if they were open to give “free” tours, according to the Bradt guide. We take a metro bus for about an hour south of Kumasi to the mining town. We get to the reception a little after 12 to just find out that the visitor’s center had just closed, but come back Monday for a tour! So we head back to Kumasi, check out the cultural center and Prempeh II’s museum there. We then attempt to check out the Ashanti sword, which is stuck in the ground at the place where the golden stool fell from the sky and if it is removed from the ground, the Asante empire will fall. The sword is on the grounds of this hospital. When we enquired about the sword, they said it was closed. Feeling pretty unproductive, we consult the Bradt guide map again to make our way to the Asantehene palace, Manhiya. In order to reach the palace, you have to either cut through or circumvent Ketjita market, the largest open air market in West Africa. And let me tell ya, I have never been somewhere so overwhelming before in my life! It was around 5, so it was extremely crowded with millions of people pushing you, pulling carts full of stuff, dragging sheep through the crowd, driving and honking in their vehicles, there was little to no sidewalk to walk as people were selling goods on the walkways and shouting prices at you (10,000 10,000 for shoes). I can’t even count the number of times I was wedged between people and a stack of crates, between a moving vehicle and the open sewer full of …. I didn’t feel like I could escape the hordes of people in the market. Whoa, it was insane! Not to mention, we were walking in the wrong direction to reach the palace, so we had to turn around and were fortunate enough to circumvent the petrifying market, but we never found the palace. We ate dinner at an Indian owned restaurant, Vic Baboo’s, which was really delicious and not too pricey.

Sunday, we got up and headed to Ejisu, Yaa Asantewaa’s hometown, to visit her museum and the shrine she prayed at before going to war with the British. We walked about 2km down the road to the shrine, which was small but interesting with a funny little man as the caretaker. We then went back to Ejisu and began to trek the 2km to the Yaa Asantewaa museum. According to the Bradt guide, it was a small orange building to the right of some cocoa boards. We saw a building that was orange but didn’t have a roof, and I didn’t see any of the so called cocoa boards, so we kept walking. A man in a car pulled up and asked what we were doing. We told him we were looking for the museum, and he said we passed it, get in he will take us there (now, I know we aren’t supposed to get into cars with strangers…but, he seemed okay). When we arrived at the building we had passed, he told us the building had been destroyed by a fire a few years back. He asked us where we were going next, we told him Lake Bosomtwi, and he said coincidently he was headed that way, he would take us. The lake is in a crater created by a meteorite. It’s pretty sacred, you aren’t allowed to use canoes on the lake, you can only use a piece of a log and paddle with your hands to fish. The man, Maxwell, hired us a tourguide who showed us around and told us the legend of the lake. We then ate lunch at one of the lake resorts. Maxwell said he would like to show us around and took us to a Kente weaving village, Bonwire. It was overwhelming as well, since it is the most touristy Kente weaving village in the Ashanti region. We pretty much got assaulted by boys trying to make bookmarks with our names on it or sell us a piece of Kente. Maxwell then brought us back to our hotel, problem-free.

Monday, we get up early to head back to Obuasi, but the bus took forever to arrive at the station, so we waited an hour, then it took an hour to get there. Upon arriving at the visitor’s center, we were told that we needed a car to take the tour (not a taxi, a car). Since we didn’t have one, we were kind of disappointed. We told the security guard our troubles, and he said that when he closed at 12, his brother would bring a car and he could drive us as long as we paid the petrol. We were very excited about this prospect, so we waited for Budu to close. He told us that we would need to get a guide from the visitor’s center, then we could leave. We went back to the visitor’s center, and the woman told us it would cost $15 USD per person, to have a tour guide. We were like what the….? Bradt guide said it was free, and we most certainly didn’t have 15 dollars to blow on a tour. Extremely disappointed at the waste of time and effort, we headed back to Kumasi. We didn’t have enough time to do anything before we had to be at the STC station at 4, so we headed there to wait an additional 2 hours for our bus (STC is never on time). When the bus arrived, it was an ordinary bus instead of the luxury bus it was supposed to be, which is fine by me for a couple reasons, A) no A/C at full blast, B) its cheaper. But apparently the Ghanaians were not happy about this. They really wanted A/C, so our bus only had five people on it. We each stretched out in our own row for the 6 hour drive. It was extremely bumpy (the Kumasi-Accra road is horrible and under-construction for the majority of the ride) and I was almost thrown from the seat a few times. We got to Accra at midnight, to darkness in the hostel, so we just went to bed. I love Ghana because, even though our plans failed, there was always a nice Ghanaian there to help us out.

Updates on campus life: for the past two weeks or so, we have felt the effects of water rationing the rest of Accra has been suffering through for months. The girl’s bathrooms rarely have water, so you either go to the boy’s (which apparently isn’t very acceptable by the African females) or all trek downstairs where the whole floor is girls, so there is a girls’ bathroom. We also were spoiled because we always had lights due to exams, but recently they have been taking the power a few nights, because of the rationing. I also learned that it is a kind of taboo for girls to eat at night market, as it shows that they can’t cook for themselves. They are supposed to be discreet about it, if they order food there, and get it take away. I always wondered why only Obruni females were sitting out there eating…

shower sell-out, conferences, botanical gardens, etc.

It has been a while since I wrote, so its time for an update. p.s. for togo pictures, please click the ghanawebshots link on the right side. I haven't put up the Cape Coast ones yet.

Nothing much has happened, I haven't been traveling or anything too exciting. October 16-17th I went back to Cape Coast for a conference on decentralization and district assemblies' ability to generate revenue for CDD. I was the designated reporter. Since Cape Coast is a bit of a distance from Accra, we stayed overnight at the Elmina Beach Resort (this is where the conference was hosted as well). I felt like a sell-out...We were in an air-con car with a driver, stayed in a nice hotel with air-con, satelite tv, and...hot showers. I guess i felt like such a sell-out because I felt like the uppidy people i am totally against here. and the hot shower...it was just okay (i.e. it was a nice addition, but not necessary). Anywho, I am really grateful I had the experience of attending the conference. There was a presentation on the Cape Coast Municipal assembly and how they are attempting to generate revenue (tax collection is hard, especially with so many people in the informal economy not contributing to the tax base, so the assemblies have a hard time implementing successful development projects, such as trash collection.).One suggestion was the construction of student hostels, since the University of Cape Coast doesn't have enough housing for their students (the same applies to the University of Ghana, Legon...where I have heard rumors of one room with 13 people in it...a room meant for four). At the conference was the Central Region minister(he had a personal bodyguard too), some professors from UCC, members of the district assemblies, the Director of the Non-tax Revenue Ministry of Finance & Economic Planning from the central government, and a host of other prominent people as well as students and those involved in NGOs such as CDD and one of its chief funders, FNF. It was a really interesting conference...the director from the ministry of finance gave a presentation on street naming and house numbering. You just never think about how something so basic as this can really affect the infrastructure and development of a city. Anyway, as the reporter I had to write down everything that was said during the Q&A session, which was difficult because some people were mutterers, others were mumblers, others didn't really make coherent arguements, and still others were bringing up interesting topics that had nothing to do with anything. I went to the conference with Prof, Buntu (South African who is CDD's international fellow), and Joe, who has become my boss here at CDD (and who got me invited in the first place). We talked about US Foreign Policy (popular, eh?) listened to the BBC Africa on the way back, ate some pineapple, and had a wonderful time. I think that the internship thus far has provided me with the greatest experience, because I am with Ghanaians and learning so so much about the Ghanaian government, the innerworkings of a NGO, and getting to go to interesting conferences (like the one I attended today about women in the reconciliation process, how the reconciliation process should take on a more gendered approach to consider women who were abused, humiliated, or oppresed during the military regimes and the totalitarian governments of Ghana's past).
The following weekend my roommate's mom took us out to eat at a popular chopbar called Asanka's. I had yam and palava sauce (boiled yams and a spinach sauce) which was pretty tasty. My roommate's mom is a professor of finance at UofG and she is trying to get a fulbright in the US to study international finance at NYU. She is from Nigeria and has four kids, one in the US studying engineering in Georgia. She took us for icecream afterwards.
The next day we headed to Aburi botanical gardens, about an hour away from campus. It was built by the british and houses a ton of trees and flowers from all over the world. There is this one tree that got eaten by some crazy plant and the tree is completly hollow inside. We climbed in and it was cool. The gardens were small, but it was a change because it was a higher elevation than Accra and the air didnt smell like noxious fumes from cars. That week marked the official halfway point, and now its all downhill. I am not ready to leave...I mean i want to see everyone, but i think that you should come here, so i can see you and enjoy my lovely life in Ghana!
Last weekend (20-22) was also laid back, but sunday I went to prof's house for lunch. I met some of prof's friends, a chem professor from UofG that studied at duke, prof's ghanaian-canadian neighbor, a lawyer working in NY for international transitional justice, a woman on CDD's board of trustees who is a professor in communications at UofG, and a female lawyer who studied in London and is a non-sitting district judge. Prof's real name is E. Gyimah-Boadi, he is a professor at UofG in political science as well as the head of CDD. He doesn't want people to know what the E stands for. Anyway, he is a great guy, funny, smart, religious neutral (which is a "God-send" (no pun intended, haha) in this OVERLY christian society). Just sitting there, listening, i learned so much about Ghanaian politics. Granted, sometimes I had no idea what they were talking about (idk what it is with Africa and its 100 million acronyms for everything i.e. CHRAJ, PM, CCMA, AMA, CPP, NPP, NDC, etc and those are only a few of Ghana's million acronyms), but I got the general gist, like their views on chiefs and their desperation to hold onto power i.e. the Asantehene (the chief of the Ashante) who recently issued a fatwa on some journalists who wrote an article where his name came up in discussion about a cocaine scandal. Chiefs play a critical role in Ghana's democratic development, but it is interesting to see how they interact with the central government (in other words, they do what they want).
Speaking of religion, tonight we are going to a singles/relationship conference on campus. We are mostly going because we want to learn about things such as 10 things that are wrong about sex, 15 reasons not to marry your classmate, but to marry your CLASSMATE (whatever that means), etc. It will be an interesting experience, even if we don't believe what they tell us. I have no problem with Christians, mind you, but here in Ghana it is a bit on the ridiculous side, with someone left and right always preaching to you about something. Not to mention, one of the first questions in conversation is are you a christian? because that really matters if you are only trying to get the lecture notes from class. They are way too "holier than thou" for me.
This weekend we are hopefully going somewhere...p.s. only three more weeks of class...crazzy.

high heights, chilling sights, chocolate spread OD

Last thursday I went out to eat with a colleague at CDD. We went to Redd Lobster. Haha. Oh Ghana. Jay-Z came on friday for a concert, tickets were 600,000 cedis ($60). It was a big deal here, especially amongst the students on campus. I didn't go.

This past weekend we went to Cape Coast. We left Saturday around 7, taking a tro-tro to Kwame Nkrumah circle then to Kaneshie and there we caught a tro-tro for 25,000 cedis to Cape Coast. As much as I love tro-tros i have to admit that was a very uncomfy ride. First, let me explain the anatomy of a tro-tro. A tro-tro is a mini-bus which has been rigged with a number of seats. In the back, normally can sit four people across, three people in the rows in front and then the driver and two people in the passenger seat. But thats not all. All of the tro-tros have rigged extra seats into the aisleway, so that from window to window in every row it is full. Your aim, therefore, is to sit near a window, so you will have the most space and not get stuck between two people. Also, it is not fun to sit in the back seat because you receive all of the bumps. The space between rows is very minimal and is even cramped for short me. I have no reason to complain, however; i feel horrible for my Norweigan friend who is 5'10 and has to cram in the same space I can barely fit in. The trip to Cape Coast was particularly bad because A) there was a ton of traffic and the temperature has been steadily increasing so it is quite warm at 9 in the morning. B) the seat back wasn't comfortable at all. C) I was sitting on top of the wheel which made for little space for my legs. We got to Cape Coast and immediately hopped on a tro-tro to Kakum National Park. Kakum is the home of the tallest canopy walk in Africa (maybe I made this up?). Kakum is also the most touristy place I have been in Ghana. There were two gift shops, a restaurant, lovely decorations. It cost us 45,000cedis to go with a group of Ghanaian students to the canopy walk. There was one student who was hiking to the walk in heels. (Oh, Ghanaian females ;) )When we got to the walkway, the guide told us that we couldn't fall because there was rope netting all around the walkway, it was reinforced with metal and wood, but despite this information, a ton of the Ghanaian students (all women) refused to cross the canopy. It was like 100 feet up and there were seven separate walkways each separated by a viewing platform. It was really lovely. Kakum is a real rainforest and it was cool looking down on it. we didn't see any animals but there were a ton of butterflies. It was also fun to rock and bounce the walkway to freak out the Ghanaian students (oops, did I do that?). It was a cool experience, but it wasn't that great. It was kinda an over-rated tourist place, but whatever.

The people on the trip were me, Karen (Norweigan) and Ryan (Iowaian/Californian). Ryan is a "drama kid" and knows a bunch of songs and can sing really well, so we often entertained ourselves by singing the soundtrack to Rent and other musicals. This was also very entertaining to Ghanaians who laughed at us alot. Karen and I thought it would be a good idea to bring chocolate spread with us, since we wanted to be cheap and eat bread for lunch. Well, all i can say is i totally overdosed on choc spread. I think I don't want it ever again, haha. "you are invited" - Ghanaians say this when they would like you to enjoy their food with them. We kept saying this as we passed around the choc spread (haha...). We met a Polish guy at Kakum who had hitchhiked his way from Poland all the way through west Africa to Ghana and was intending on making his way to South Africa by boat to Argentina/Brazil, then to the US then to Canada in the next four years, all through hitchhiking. Can I just say, Europeans do crazy stuff.After lunch in Kakum we headed back to Cape Coast to stay the night. We checked into Sammo's guesthouse, which is highly acclaimed by the guide book and our friends, and I would say it is quite a nice place, for 30,000cedis each. However, as we were sitting talking with the fan on, the power went out all over cape coast at 6pm (we get screwed, we can never escape the power outages). So we went to the rooftop bar and talked about various topics ranging from God to gender roles to US foreign policy. We hit the sack, got chewed up by mosquitos and woke up the next morning at 6.

We ate breakfast across the street, banana pancakes and tea (yum!). Then we walked to Cape Coast Castle. This castle was built in 1653 by the swedes then taken over by the danes then taken over by the british. Its place in history, however, is with the trans-atlantic slave trade. While there it was easy to distance yourself from its dark past. it was a gorgeous building, architectually, overlooking the ocean and beautiful beaches. but then you remember, thousands and thousands of Africans passed through this castle en route to the west; some going onto their inevitable deaths at sea or to forced labor in South America, the Caribbean, and of course the US. The museum at Cape Coast was impressive: did you know that the US recieved the least number of slaves compared to South America and the Caribbean? The dungeons were the most powerful aspect of the tour. Imagine, so many people cramped into a tiny space, with hardly any ventilation, defecating, urinating, menestrating, vommiting, everything on each other, terrified of what was going to happen, beaten, shackled, starved. What is most unsettling was that my ancestors could have passed through this very castle, through the door of no return.

From here we headed to Elmina Castle, which was built by the portuguese in the 1400s and is the oldest european built structure south of the sahara. It too was part of the slave trade, but mostly by the hands of the portuguese and dutch. Here the governor of Elmina would stand on a platform, force all the female slaves out of their cells into the courtyard and choose which one he wanted to rape. If she became pregnant, she was allowed to stay in Elmina and her mulatto child was allowed to go to school. Elmina was bought by the british and was used during periods of rebellion as a prison for Africans. For example, you can look into the story of the Ashanti queen-mother Asantewa who encited war against the british to protect the sacred gold stool. She was kept here as well as the Ashanti king Prempeh. After the castle we headed back to Cape Coast and then back to Accra. The tro-tro was uncomfy once again, but I didnt care, I slept most of the way.

Development, Hezbollah, Obrunis

Thanks everyone for all of the lovely comments. I really feel special that people take time out of their days to read my blog.
Last week was an eventful one of sorts. I was invited by one of my fellow interns to a cocktail at a German NGO's office (FNF). It was very classy...waiters bringing you drinks and little hors d'ourves. I munched down because it was free and A) wasnt spicy and B) very tasty. The organization, FNF, supports and partners with organizations in Ghana that want liberal government. Liberal, p.s., means something completely different here than it does in the states. Liberal means privatization of businesses and the economy, de-centralization of the government, democracy. Conservative, on the other hand, is equal to socialist. To explain further, conservative means keeping the status quo. The status quo in Ghana has always been socialist, authoritative regimes. Liberalism means change from the status quo. You can apply these simplified definitions to the US as well, just the opposite (the status quo has been capitalism, privatization). Anyway, the reception was nice and I met some interesting people. A lawyer who studied at Tulane told me that she thinks that Ghana should be able to play a larger role in its development. She complained that when the West comes to "develop" Africa, they send over a consultant who tells the governments what to do, then takes 10% of the "development" budget. Though this may be an exageration, it made me think. I have become increasingly discouraged with the idea of Western Development. A) I don't want the world to be like the US. B) What right do we have to tell another country how to develop? C) who determines what is development? Honestly, I don't think we should play a role in it at all. The only problem is we have all the money. And you do need money to do things. Its a tough dilemma, but i have decided that i don't want to do international development as a career. I don't feel right telling people how to live their lives or how to become developed.
Friday night I hung out with a South African fellow who is working at CDD also. He taught me some Xhosa (the clicking language), how Christianity is totally different there than it is here, how he got to hear Ian Smith speak(former white leader of Zimbabwe during the War of Liberation...yes I was telling him about my SURE research, oh i am so proud! ), good African books to read. I also tried palm wine, which is huge in West Africa. It was a bit sweet and unlike anything I ever tasted before.
Saturday started with a bang...literally. 7:30am, there is singing and yelling and chanting outside of the hostel. Then there is someone shooting an air rifle. It was startling because i had no idea what was going on. I look outside and there are 30 guys trying to get into our hostel, yelling something about Hezbollah, dressed in traditional outfits and shooting the air gun. Sound scary? Well, its actually kind of funny. The group, "the Republic," is infamous for their renaming of new buildings. Since our hostel was new, they had to "christen" it and the recently re-opened Night Market. Our hostel was named Torog, a cocaine dealer prominent in Ghanaian news, and Night Market was named Hezbollah. They name buildings on campus, and require that every student only call the buildings by those names. So that was my wake up call. Everyone was outside watching these crazy kids. Then a Christian parade marched through our hostel. They were singing and playing trumpets and other instruments. Then a man stepped forward and began to preach about how even though we are international students, we can still accept Jesus.
So, my saturday morning was extrememly eventful. Since we were tired, we decided to just chill on saturday and visit...MaxMart. Yes, I said it. I went to the dreaded Western grocery store. And, some of the items I saw...they made me very homesick. Like Duncan Hines blueberry muffin mix. Salsa. Cheese, real cheese like cheddar, sliced and shredded. Ben and Jerrys (get this...$10 a pint, good joke!). We went to the coffee shop and had cappuchinos, sandwiches with vegetables and mozarella on wheat bread. It was the greatest. But it was kinda depressing because it was only Obrunis (foreigners, mostly white) in the whole place.
Saturday night we went to a bar that was opened up by a friend of a friend's. It was a very nice establishment in Osu. Then we went to a night club that apparently only lets in Lebanese or non-African people (the friend we went with, TJ, wasn't allowed in until the owner of the bar (an Asian guy) told them he was with him). It was kind of strange, but I met the co-owner of the club who was African and she studied in London and wanted to be our friend. Everyone in Ghana wants to be my friend. haha. Crap. the purpose of this blog was to talk about the hospital visits of this week. um...I will write one on that tomorrow. haha.

"America is oppressive"

So as of today I have been in the country for a month. YAY! How am I celebrating? I had class at 7:30 and now I am at my internship. Maybe tonight we are going to get Indian food for dinner. mmm. Things for me have been good thus far. No sickness (knock on wood), classes are good, food is good. My top ten favorite foods so far: 1. Fried Plantains 2. Red Red and Plantains 3 . Waykie and rice 4. Fried Yams 5. Ghanaian chocolate 6. Omelette and plantain pancakes 7. meat pies 8. Burgers ground nuts 9. butter bread 10. banana cake. Two nights ago I fried my own plantains. they were amazing.
After a month of solitude in my room, I got a roommate. She is a med student from Tema, in Accra, and her mother is Nigerian. She wants to go into either hematology or surgery, i think. She wants to go out of the country so that she can specialize in something and she was thinking about the states. But she had quite an interesting view of the states that I wasn't expecting to hear. She said "America is oppressive." I ask her to explain. She said that in America she couldn't walk down the street and say "homosexuality is wrong." Here she could say that and everyone would agree with her. I think she means oppressive in that if you said that, someone would disagree and probably argue. I told her that there are people who would agree with her, but that just as she has the right to say that, someone else has the right to tell her they disagree. On a divergent note, can we discuss this homosexuality issue. Since you probably don't follow Ghanaian news, you wouldn't know that this has come to the fore front as a big issue because a group of gay advocates were trying to host conferences in Ghana and the government wouldn't allow it. It has been in all the newspapers, radio and tv. Homosexuality is not accepted in ghana, point blank. Politicians and church leaders have said that gays have horns and will ruin society if they come here to have their conference. There is no point arguing, it is totally unacceptable. So that is why my roommate knows that if she said it in the streets in Ghana, everyone would agree.
She also said that if she was in America she wouldn't be able to spank her children. This made me laugh as I told her I was spanked, many a times. I told her what I believe, that spanking will always be accepted as a mechanism for punishment in black homes (haha) but that yes, if you do it in a public place, you could get in trouble (I also found out that spanking is illegal in Norway). She also doesn't think that America is very Christian. She didn't think that she would ever be able to find a boyfriend because the boys in America don't go to church and wouldn't be able to challenge her and help her grow spiritually. She also didn't think that black men in America were very attractive, since they put all the attractive ones on tv. Americans, or white people as she said, are cold, unappreciative, unfriendly and selfish. She said that if a white was walking from a store that was closed and she was walking to the store, the white wouldn't tell her it was closed. I don't necessarily see this as rude, because how would you know she was going to the store? But I do agree that we are very individualistic and we try to figure out things on our own and as a whole we aren't very willing to ask for help and sometimes not very accepting when it is offered to us. We also don't pay for each other when we go out to eat (which is really common here, one person pays to take their friends out and doesn't expect reimbursement) and we will harass you until you pay us back if we do pay for you.
She also told me that she would NEVER approach a boy if she was interested...it was his role to approach her (she said that approaching him would compromise herself and send the wrong message....).
This conversation really enlightened me about Ghanaians. It also drew attention to issues that I wouldn't think about, but are very important to her where America is lacking. It is tough though, because I am holding my tongue on many things that she has said because I don't want to insult her or her culture. I do try to offer her some insight on my beliefs and thoughts without encroaching on hers.
This weekend we are going to Hohoe in the Volta region. We are hiking up the tallest mountain in Ghana (which is supposedly a hill, not much of a mountain) and going to Wli falls, the tallest waterfalls in West Africa. Hohoe is right on the border with Togo and is a five hour tro-tro ride from here. We are leaving tomorrow afternoon. I am excited, its the first time we are going into the country and not to the beach.

Cultural Exchanges

So this weekend was interesting but pretty low key. On saturday I went with two of the Norweigan girls to this hair salon where they met a woman last weekend who invited them to a festival. At the hair salon I taught the Nords a little bit about black hair ("why do you need to put so much product in there??" "Does it hurt to get it straightened??") They have been having a hard time finding someone to just cut their hair without putting grease in it (haha). So we met the lady, who turned out to be the daughter of a former Ga king. The Ga is the largest ethnic group in Accra. anywho, we went to her house and sat in a living room on a couch and sipped pineapple coconut juice and watched a thai, indian, and ghanaian films. then she brought us a sampling of what would be served later that night for dinner...some sort of palmnut soup with fish. This is when I figured out why I don't like Ghanaian food...it is very bland but at the same time very spicy. There is no flavor really, just spicy burnt mouth. Then we went down to the party and sat and watched funny dancing and got hit on by old men and young boys alike. It was a strange and interesting experience. I think that the Nords got invited because they are white, and they were most certainly a novelty at the party (people kept coming over to them, surrounding them while they danced etc). It is a weird experience, because I feel like I am not Ghanaian but I am not white, so I am not really paid attention to.
Sunday, I went down to my friend Tasha's room (rasta chick with cool dredlocks) and met her Ghanaian roommate. she said that she would cook for us, so I was totally down with some free food. Then she preceded to ask me a lot of questions about America. First, she said she was very surprised that we were dark skinned like her. She thought, based on movies and music videos, that all black women in America were light skinned. She was also suprised we had similar hairstyles as Ghanaians, and that we weren't "crazy" (which I think has to do with style of dress) and that we are very suprising to Ghanaians because we don't look like the stereotypical black female. I then proceeded to explain to her why light skinnedness is looked upon as better than black skinnedness in the states. She and her Ghanaian friend said I was beautiful (good for my big head, eh?). The food that she made was the best I have had since I have been here. She made some fried plantains (i wanted to start crying they were so good), a dish with a ton of veggies, tuna and pasta and chickpeas in a tomato sauce. I wanted to jump for joy, it was so tasty.
Last thing, I am at my internship now. I started today, but they haven't really given me any work. I am picking up where this girl left off on a project called "Ghana at 50." Ghana's 50th anniversary is next march, so CDD (Center for Democratic Development) is sponsoring a conference to discuss how far Ghana has come in regards to poltical, social and human development. I think my job will be to fundraise with international agencies and research possible topics for the conference. It seems pretty exciting, but like I said I haven't started or been assigned anything. I am just happy to have quick internet. This weekend we are thinking about traveling to the Volta Lake which should be fun (its on my top three list of places to visit while I am here, so i am looking forward to it).
P.s. classes were supposed to start on monday. No, they haven't. But its all good, I don't want to go to class anyway.