Journal Entry 37: Becoming Bitter

I recently had a conversation with a few of my European and white American friends about their experiences in Ghana. One said, "Being here has made me more of a racist. I'm getting a little defensive". They expressed that they are constantly being reminded that they are different and that it causes them to feel a little bitter. They're tired of people overpricing them because they are "obronis" and don't like being mistreated. This was absolutely fascinating to me, because it is almost as if they were having a little taste of the resentment many people of color feel in the Western world. "That is a similar feeling for African-Americans" I said. My white American friend said, "What do you mean?". I continued, "When you experience racism enough, it's so easy to feel resentment and anger towards an entire group of people, and it becomes more and more difficult to think of people as individuals instead of generalizing entire groups". They nodded their heads. "But there are still a lot of nice people here too--it isn't everyone" they started to say. No--it never is, but it only takes so much ripeness to make any type of fruit bitter. 

Journal Entry 36: Whoa

There is a rap song that I like entitled “Whoa” where the artist lists a bunch of things that makes him say “Whoa”—I figured I’d do the same for the things in Ghana that make me say “Whoa”.

Dogs fighting: Every night at the same time the dogs would start fighting with each other and barking loudly.  It is a horrifying sound. They will start screaming, howling as if they were in pain and dying. One night, all the dogs were howling at the same time, howling and howling. Very, very scary.

Accepted internalized racism: People openly express ideas they have about inferior skin colors. I have also been told once (from a Ghanaian) that colonization helped Ghanaians because they didn't know what to do with their resources.

Toilets as holes in the ground: There have been a few times (including at villages and restaurants) where I or my friends have gone to use the bathroom to find a small dark room with a little whole in the ground. One time when I went to Labadi Beach, I wanted to use the bathroom (and it was night time) and it was just a little wooden wall with a whole in the ground behind it, covered by grass (and because it’s dark, it’s very hard to see what you’re aiming for or stepping on). I decided to wait until I got home…

Drains in the ground: There are many random gutters in the ground that people can easily fall into/get stuck in. One of my friends almost fell in one…not fun!

Interesting Customer Service: In the U.S., the customer gets priority. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been my experience in Ghana. People could care less about whether or not you’re happy with the service and tend to be a little on the stingy side with their money. To make things even more difficult, it’s hard to demand better service because unlike the U.S where you can say “let me see your boss” and get a quick response, there doesn’t seem to be a way to hold people accountable here, providing them with no incentive to provide better customer service.

Peeing: Men openly peeing on the side of a main road as the cars just fly by.

Trash cans: Only available on the campus--hard to find elsewhere.

Crazy drivers: The cars here will hit you if you let them—they go so fast and get SO close to you that you constantly have to look behind if you’re walking beside the sidewalk for whatever reason.

Line cutting: People randomly cutting lines (and not caring if you notice)

Street Vendors: People shoving stuff they want to sell in your face

Teachers: Teachers that randomly don't show up/cancel class and wonder why their students don't take the class seriously

Interesting habits: People picking their noses in public and guys constantly grabbing their crotches

Tro-tros: Tro-tros that are overpacked

Child Labor: Small kids working with their families on school days

Child sickness: Kids with a hernia 

Overcharging: People overcharging obronis and thinking it's okay

Pushing: People bumping into you/stepping on your feet and not caring

Goats, chickens, and lizards: My wonderful animal friends just walking around and living freely.

Religion: People asking me if I'm Christian, and automatically assuming I'm Muslim if I say no. 

No refunds: There are no such things as refunds because many people own their own businesses and it's very difficult to hold people accountable.

Breastfeeding: This may not necessarily be a Ghanaian thing (because sometimes you just don’t notice things when you’re home), but I noticed women tend to breastfeed in public places often here.

Billboards: The most interesting ones say things like "Repent, Jesus is coming soon" and "Retards Development" (of course the Abstinence Ads are always interesting as well)

Surprising Questions: Ghanaian’s asking me what part of Africa I’m from, and looking at me like I'm crazy when I say “I don’t know”.

Instability: Things can always change last minute, and there’s nothing you can do about it--you just have to go with the flow

Giving Directions: People don't seem to be very good at giving directions, so they'll often times just tell you to follow them to your location, or will point in an unclear direction and walk away.

Journal Entry 35: Secrets of Financial Empowerment

Friday I attended a church service entitled the “Empowerment Summit” with a Ghanaian friend. I could tell by the name that it wasn't a regular church service, but I didn't realize it would be held in a large stadium. When we entered, people were chanting loudly and dancing with full on energy, a little shift from the last church I visited. I didn’t pick up on everything that was said because there was an issue with the speaker system where the voices echoed, but the little I did pick up on was very note-worthy. The Bishop said, "One day Africa will have a new identity" and went on to preach about how he was in America, but God told him to come back and teach his people in Ghana. He continued, "I'm going to teach you the secrets of financial empowerment." I picked up on a few of his latter statements. "Christ already paid for your enrichment, your financial and economic empowerment", "You can't have a voice without being economically empowered", "Financial empowerment is our dominion in Christ", "The point of slavery has been removed from your life", "If you understand what the Bible says, you wouldn't be a burden to everyone, you'd be a blessing to everyone". 

 My friend handed me a piece of paper and said, “Here, write down what you want God to do for you”.  The most interesting part of the service was when everyone started praying, and loudly. Although the majority of it was done in the local language, I recognized that it was pretty much just like a stereotypical Black Baptist church, only a little turned up. They were shouting loudly, dancing a little, and moving their bodies in a way they probably wouldn't in a non-religious setting. As we were leaving, my other Ghanaian friend said to me, "God is going to answer everything you put on your list". We'll see...

Journal Entry 34: Shopping in Chaos and Making Kente Cloth

One weekend my exchange program took a trip to Kumasi, a place well known for making Ghana’s popular kente cloth. We first stopped at the Central Market to shop and it was not the most fun experience for me. It’s the most chaotic market I’ve been to in Ghana thus far. People were pushing me left and right, people with shops were shouting at me “Ayy Americana!!” or “Hey! My sister!” and the strong stenches of pee and fish that filled the air didn’t make the experience any more pleasant. I had to be sure to look at the ground and my surroundings simultaneously as I was walking, because the ground was not clean at all and if I didn’t look around me, I could easily be knocked over (especially by someone carrying something very large on their head—as is often done in Ghana). I made sure to stay close to my friends, holding their hands tightly and stepping over little kids and dead chickens. It was definitely a once, and only once in a lifetime experience.

We also went to a kente weaving village where we were taught how to make kente cloth. I was fortunate enough to be one of the volunteers chosen to demonstrate how to break up the wood that would be used. After, we were able to choose fabric and stamp our own symbols on it. We were taught that all of the symbols have a meaning and I wanted to make sure I got something good. The two symbols I stamped on my cloth were “Going back to your roots” and “All-powerful”. A couple of guys in the village agreed to help me and give me a gift, and a couple of kids also said they had a gift for me as well. Based on my past experiences (from my "Ghana Gone Gangsta" blog entry), I knew that couldn't be a good thing, and of course I was right when I saw how they responded to my refusal to accept their "gifts". They surrounded me and my friends as we tried to pile onto the van, almost shoving their items in our faces screaming "My friend, my friend!", "I'll reduce the price!", and "Come, look!". 

Lastly, we went to a little shop that sells a lot of the traditional African print and learned about the different types of kente cloth. I paid a good piece of change on my three pieces, but it was well worth it! But I must admit, shopping isn't my favorite thing to do, especially not in Ghana!

Journal Entry 33: V.I.P.: "My Baby"

One of my friends from my exchange program knows someone who was involved in the production of a music video for one of Ghana's most famous music groups: V.I.P. She asked if I would like to join her in being a part of the video (with the promise that we wouldn't be doing anything that would harm our political careers of course). My first thought was, "Well, how many people can say they came to Ghana and did a music video?", so I told her that as long as I wasn't asked to do anything I was against, I'd join in.

I participated for two days of the filming. It was fun getting dressed up and putting on make up, but of course the long time that is involved just waiting isn't always fun. It was also very interesting to me that they wanted us to wear all white, even though they didn't tell us that ahead of time and therefore tried to get people to wear each other's clothing. Nonetheless I had a good time and didn't do anything I'd regret. The song is called "My Baby" and the video should be released soon, so look out for the light-skinned Ghanaian with the cheesy smile!

Journal Entry 32: The Seamstress of St. Francis Street

Earlier this month I was asked to sing in a theater production on campus entitled "The Seamstress of St. Francis Street" (based off of the film). It is an African-American production that takes place in Missouri in the 1950s, so I was very excited to see how it would be performed in Ghana. I had the opportunity to learn a little about how Ghanaians perceive African-Americans as they played some stereotypical roles and acted out a little finger-snapping and head shaking every now and then.

The production took place from Thursday to Sunday for two weeks and there were even two guest artists from the States who served as alternates. One was Andrea Purnell from Missouri who actually plays the main character in the film, and the other was Professor James Fay from New York who also played a big role for a few nights. I was actually quite impressed by how well the Ghanaian actors picked up on various cultural markers and societal challenges of that time. There are different scenes and attitudes in the play that would be difficult to translate to the audience without some general understanding of the experiences of the characters.

More importantly, I gained friends from this experience that I will stay connected to for a lifetime. For a while I forgot how good it feels to be surrounded by artistic people with outgoing personalities. I have met some of the most generous people in these few weeks alone, and I can't wait to come back to the States and show off their work. 

Journal Entry 31: STRIKE!!

I woke up one Monday to discover that there were no more University classes running because the teachers were on strike. Apparently, they haven’t been paid in months, regardless of the University’s promise to pay them by a certain deadline. This is pretty fascinating for me because I’ve never experienced a school strike. Some professors agreed to teach only international students so that we could still get credit. At first this kind of annoyed me because I saw it as the privileged kids always getting their way, until I found out that we (international students) actually pay a lot more in tuition than Ghanaian students because their tuition is covered by the government (and of course we have a contract that cannot be extended). The strike lasted for three weeks in total, but caused even more chaos. The international students for the most part will be learning the same material that they learned during the strike, and no one is really sure what to expect for the exams. The schedules are now all scrambled, and it turns out that the Ghanaian students will have to stay in school until January 6th, only getting Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off. To make things even worse, the teachers didn't even achieve their mission of getting paid. It's pretty fair to say that I've been on vacation thus far, but in some ways, a very hectic one!