I’m back: a play-by-play

My track uniform, it's pretty embarassing!

Me and Gloria warming up
...on the dirt track

Things have really picked up this week, granted last week I was hampered by salmonella. I have started to get very busy, which makes the transition here so much easier. Let’s see, I’ve been doing so many things, I’ll do a play by play.

This weekend I laid low; I went to the market to buy groceries (bread, peanut butter, and jelly, pasta, tomatoes, crackers, and pineapple) and sandals. Saturday night, I went with a few friends to a movie, but not in a theater at “The Living Room.” We came in the door, picked the movie we wanted to watch and then were led to your own personal living room to watch on a fairly large screen, much fun! Sunday was a laundry day (and yes it takes a whole day to do laundry by hand!) and a talking to my sweet cake, Ben, on Skype day!

Monday I went on a search for a volunteer position in a nearby primary school. I found out school has been postponed till next week—surprise, surprise! In the evening I went to play some pick-up games at the basketball courts on campus. The best part of my day, however, was my long awaited talk with my mom. Talking to her helped me put my whole Ghana experience in perspective, sometimes I just forget why I’m here. Knowing Mom was proud of me reminded me that I’m here to do one thing: learn about myself. Recently I’ve been putting pressure on myself to get the most out of my Africa experience, but how I get the most out of my experience is unique to me. I don’t need to have 20 Ghanaian best friends, or travel to each West African country. I went to sleep so happy about my life, and so particularly happy that I was in Ghana.

Tuesday morning 5am, I ran with my residence hall cross-country team. We did about 4 miles all around campus. Then I went with my running buddy Adrienne for my favorite breakfast, called cocoa porridge—which is actually made of millet and is served with deep friend bean balls, yum! My favorite class, School Social Work met in the morning. The professor is a great lecturer, he doesn’t dictate at all like a lot of the other teachers here. The professor has incorporated a group project into the class, in which students are grouped and then do field work in nearby schools, evaluating the school’s social welfare needs. I liked the professor so much I decided to sit in on his next class—a grad course on human rights and social welfare. He spent most of the class explaining the meaning of values—concepts that society holds so dear that there is almost no question as to why they are important. He gave examples, such as family, and made points about prejudice and exclusion. Near the end of the lecture, a student asked about the gay and lesbian community (background info: apparently some LGBT group is trying to hold a conference in Ghana, and Ghana doesn’t seem to pleased, I saw a newspaper headline reading “The Gays are Coming!”). The professor then immediately replied that because gay people did not have their survival threatened, then there exclusion wasn’t a violation of society’s values. Now, I’ve been trying to keep quieter than usual in my classes, because there just isn’t as much discussion and I’m trying to be respectful; but I thought reply to the professors point, not to re-educate the whole class with my “developed” views but to bring up a view I wanted to prof to address. By the time I raised my hand, I was already sweating from nervousness…and then I said that the debate in California has been that the LGBT community has been denied the value of family The class seemed to nod their heads, so I was glad I said something. Then one of my classmates brought up a point that will stick with me as valuable life lesson—she said that in Ghana family means procreation, and asked the professor how different cultural values can therefore be reconciled. I had forgotten about the intricacies of different cultural values. Although I would still love to see Ghana stop denying the existence of gay and lesbians, I do understand that my culture has taught me a different value of family. What do you think?

Ok, onwards to Tuesday evening. One of my friends Liz was invited to dinner at one of the campus seamstress’s (Jane) house. I tagged along, excited to have a homemade Ghanaian dinner. We took 2 tro-tros to get to her home, took us about an hour. It was an amazing experience because I was able to see what a Ghanaian home is like, to see how, all the people I interact with day to day, live. Jane’s nephews picked us up from the tro-tro stop, we walked a little way on a dirt path, to her house, which was in a complex of 4 houses (it wasn’t technically a house, very very small kitchen, tv room, and bedroom, together about the size of a large US bedroom), the four houses shared a little courtyard, with a toilette in the middle. Liz and I helped Jane’s niece make fufu (pounded yam balls, I’ll try to put a pic up of what this looks like), but I wasn’t too good at pounding, so her nephew stepped in. And then we ate watching a Spanish soap opera with the kids, and helped with washing the dishes. We brought Jane a huge pineapple as a thank you so that was dessert. There was a little bit of a language barrier, so as usual I started acting silly to get some laughs and smiles.

Wednesday was another exciting day, my first basketball game! The game was freshman vs. continuing students. I played with the freshman because this is technically my first semester at University of Ghana. I had so much fun! There was quite a crowd rooting during the game, and I could tell they were all curious about the tall white girl on the court. I was able to play the whole game without a sub, which was something for me in the 3pm heat, and by the end I was finally sinking my shots (one of the rims was super crooked). After the game the director of the girls sports came up to me and one of my teammates and told us she’d like to see us play with the school team! Yea! I was so excited for the whole evening, even though I had to spend the whole night in my horrible stench because the water was still out in my hall.

Let’s see yesterday I was pretty sore, but then I had a track meet in the afternoon. I ran the 1500 meter event…well, and…I didn’t come in last, although I was second to last. :-)

Today the water and electricity are both on! I’ve already taken 2 showers and I might take one before I go to sleep, taking advantage of running water while I can. This afternoon was part 2 of the track meet. I ran the 800-meter race, and came in 3^rd…with 4 people total in the race. :-) But I kept a steady pace, and was proud of my effort. I also did the high jump, and no, I’ve never done the high jump in my life! As I was practicing I kept on knocking the bar down, the crowd was laughing at each of my attempts. But I kept practicing, and when I finally got over, there was a load cheer! I came in first in the high jump…out of 2. Ha! This weekend my wife Sadie and I are going to a nearby waterfall to hike and spend the night away from campus.

Stay tuned for more play-by-play adventures!