In my last post, I talked a bit about my family, and I feel as if I did a decent job of giving a basic impression of what my family and family life is like. However, there was one big thing I forgot to mention, and that is the issue of honesty.
The integrity of my family, namely my brothers, first came into question last October, not all that long after I had arrived in Sunyani. Over a period of a few days, I had five Cedis (a dollar is worth 1.2 Ghana Cedis) stolen from my suitcase, as well as a Swiss Army Knife given to me by my grandfather before my departure that was very dear to me. In response to this I questioned all my brothers and alerted my host mom, but I wasn't able to find out who the thief was so I bought a padlock to guard against further theft. The lock seemed to have solved the problem until just about a month ago, at which time I received a couple boxes from the U.S. and theft reared its ugly head at me once again. The boxes contained a whole lot of books, which nobody but me seemed too interested in, as well as a lot of candy bars and other food items that everybody else were definitely interested in. When the boxes arrived I shared out close to half the candy bars as well as some delicious chocolate covered espresso beans, and I thought I had been pretty darn generous. However, candy bars and the espresso beans soon started disappearing in large quantities, and I realized that someone or multiple someones hadn't thought I was all that generous. At first I thought the problem was that the thief had found a key to my lock that I had misplaced, so I bought a new lock, but on the same day that I bought the lock more stuff disappeared so I then assumed the trickster knew how to pick locks. At that point I realized that I needed to figure out who the culprit was, so I immediately talked to all my brothers and let everybody know what was going on. As you might imagine this didn't really work, because believe it or not thieves don't particularly like to own up to their crimes if they aren't under any pressure. I honestly don't think I would have been able to get anywhere if it weren't for my host brother B.B., who commands more than a bit of respect from my younger brothers and who was able to get them to own up. It turns out that my brother Ben had indeed felt like I hadn't shared enough with him, and in response he had cut a hole on the bottom of a pocket on the top flap of my suitcase, and had been snagging candy bars and chocolate covered espresso beans through it. B.B. also was able to get two of my other brothers, Solo and Oraku, to admit that they had known what Ben had been doing for quite some time, although they had not known how he was getting the bars. At first I was furious and wanted to give Ben especially a bit of a slapping session, but after a bit I managed to cool down and realized the best thing to do would be to turn them over to my host mom and let her deal with them. Unfortunately, before I could make them do this Ben ran off, and Solo and Oraku followed saying they were going to bring him back. This was of course but more lies from them, and none of the three of them reappeared until after my host mom had gone to bed.
The theft ordeal was quite a difficult experience for me, but once it all had been figured out I made a conscious effort to put my anger aside so that I could think about the causes of the thievery. Before I had the self-control to do this, I was outraged that people I had considered my brothers and friends would steal from me, because as a member of a first world family this kind of behavior is unthinkable to me. But as I cooled down, I realized that the difference of course is that this not the first world, this is the third world and theft is unfortunately an incredibly common occurrence here, even with families and between friends. My family here is definitely solid Ghanaian middle class, not rich enough to be driving around Mercedes or BMW's like the rich of Ghana do, but comfortable enough to own a nice house and to send all the kids in the house to school. Despite this relative financial security, it is incredible to see just how little my siblings have in the way of material possessions. Before leaving the U.S., I had top pack all my belongings away for storage, and to do that it took numerous boxes and big black garbage bags. In contrast, I imagine that my siblings could pack all their worldly goods into a small suitcase. While I had to pack away multiple pairs of skis, bike gear, books, cds, and lots of clothes, all my siblings would have to pack would be a small pile of used clothing, a couple pairs of shoes, and there school bag and notebooks. So I suppose that because of this it is no surprise then that when my brothers see something that they'd like and can snag without the owner noticing, they do so. On top of that, this behavior is not discouraged because even when a thief is caught, there are no big consequences it seems. After I alerted my host mom to what my brothers had done, I expected that they would be in fairly deep trouble, but it never happened. It almost seemed as if she was a bit amused by the whole incident, I imagined she was thinking, "The little stinkers cut a whole in his bag just to get some chocolate?" Well, whatever she was thinking, she never thought to punish them in any way, and a day after I had found them out everyone but me was acting like nothing had ever happened. I will not deny that I am still a bit unsettled by this theft ordeal. I once and for all have realized that I cannot allow myself to trust people here, but unfortunately that puts me in a bit of an odd place as far as my family goes. As I said, they all seem to have forgotten the incident, but I am having trouble forgetting about it and for the rest of my stay I don't think I am going to be able to see my brothers in the same brotherly light. Whenever they tell me something, there is this little nagging voice in the back of my mind saying, "Is he telling the truth? You do remember what happened last time you believed him right...?", and that little voice makes things quite difficult. Recently during a phone conversation with my parents, I told them that I've learned that with people here, such as my brothers, I just have to look beyond the trust issue. Yeah, they can be liars and thieves, but it seems that that is almost part of being an adolescent boy here, and it doesn't necessarily make them bad people. I am trying to think in this way, and in many ways my life at home is still OK. I still laugh and joke with my bros, and I expect they feel forgiven. But in other ways, the way I feel about being in this family has been damaged irreparably. I have been brought up by parents who have instilled in me a sense of how important honesty and trust are, and I can never fully feel a part of a family that does not seem to value these traits. Time keeps passing quickly, and I know that I will survive my remaining four months just fine. But there is no denying that my whole being will be filled with relief when I am back with the family that I love and trust completely.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
The Osei-Mensah Family
Hello Dear Friends and Family,
Well to start with, since this is the first time I have written in 2009, let me wish you all a happy, happy new year! Life here in Sunyani keeps rolling by at a pace that continues to amaze me, and in just a few short days I will be at the five month mark of this journey of mine, almost halfway through already! Today, I am finally going to tell a bit about my crazy and huge family, the Osei-Mensah family.
When talking about my family, one word will always come up. Big. Over the holiday season when all the family had come home, there were over twenty people here, four times the size of my family back home. So to start with, let me just list off the names of everyone in the family. The head of the family is without a doubt my host mom, who's name I believe is Vida, but who we all call Auntie. Although my communication with her is somewhat limited due to me not being able to speak much Twi, and her not being able to speak much English, she still has been a wonderful host mother so far. I mean first off, she has welcomed me into her already crowded house with open arms, which is incredibly generous, and on top of that she feeds me and makes sure I am happy, so I really cannot complain. Her husband, my host father, is named Charles, but everyone calls him Papa. When he is around, he is a man of very few words, so I really haven't gotten to know him at all, but despite that he has been kind to me in his quiet way. They have four children, B.B., who is 23, Nase, who is 21and is away at university much of the time, Mame who is 16, and is away at boarding school much of the time, and Solo, who is 13 and is one of the brother's I share a room with. All four of them are very kind and fun people, and I have enjoyed getting to know them all. All the other numerous people who live at the house are either relatives or just family friends who needed somewhere to live, and I'll quickly just list them all off as well. The guys are Kweku (twenties), Kofi (19ish), Oraku (15), Ben (15), Seth (16), Eminem (19ish), and the girls are Addie (6), Mamia (19), and Angel (2). These are just the regulars who are around most of the time, during the holidays the number balloons, and also occasionally people will just drift in and stay for a few days or a few weeks. Of all my siblings, the ones I have become closest to are Solo, Ben, Oraku and Seth, they definitely have there moments when they drive me crazy, but for the most part they are great, fun company. I also really enjoy spending time with Addie and Angel, they both are great little kids, and it is fun to have young siblings to play and joke with.
Well as you can see by reading all those names, the family is indeed big, quite big, and really it is the size that in many ways has made my family so much fun, and has also made it a bit difficult at times. Let me first explain the good. My relationship with my family is really quite simple. I think that because there is a bit of a language barrier between me and them, and also just because we are so very different because of the places we have grown up, I have not gotten to know the members of my family on an individual basis as much as I might have in say a European country. Because of this, the joy I get from being with them isn't from having deep conversations or from sharing common interests, but from a more simple, ancient thing, the wonderful joy of human interaction. If I were to make a list of things that I enjoy about my home life here, it really would be a very, very short list, and that is not because I don't enjoy life at home, but instead it is because the life I am living is quite simple. The list would look something like this: 1- Spending time with siblings. 2- Eating (sometimes) 3-sleeping (if my brothers don't wake me up constantly). 4- Watching football matches on tv. 5-Sitting outside and reading. And that would be about it. Because there are so few things to in the way of recreation or entertainment, I feel incredibly blessed that I have ended up with such a fun and lively family. The best times I have here are times spent sitting with my brothers and sisters, laughing, joking, horsing around, just being simple people enjoying the profound joy of being together.
Just as the lively environment I love about my family is partly due to its size, the aspects to my family that I don't like as much are also largely due to its size. The first thing that I find difficult is sleep, or more accurately the conditions in which I have to sleep. I love sleep, I absolutely love it, and especially here, after a long day spent sweating under the hot sun, the feeling of laying down and falling asleep is wonderful. Unfortunately however, I share a room with at least four other brothers all the time, and they often make it very difficult for me fall asleep or to stay asleep. Back at home in the U.S., sleep is such a respected thing in my family, and we never wake each other up unless it is urgent, and if we have to go into a room where someone is sleeping we tiptoe and make sure not to disturb that person. Here, sleep doesn't really seem to be an activity that people enjoy all that much, and because of that they, or at least my brothers, have absolutely no respect for people who do enjoy sleeping. As many times as I ask my brothers not to turn the light on, they still have to turn it on whenever they come into the room. Sometimes they'll barge in and bang the door open, and I'll have to get up to close it when they leave, only to have them barge in and out again without closing it. They also have these incredibly annoying cell phones that double as music players, and instead of using headphones they blast their music through the phone's surprisingly powerful speakers. I have been woken up at one in the morning before by these satanic devices, and again I have asked my brothers many times not to play music on them while I am sleeping, but apparently the forget very fast. Basically, they just don't seem to realize, even after I have told them many times, that I like sleeping and would like to do so in peace, and they continue night after night to disturb me despite my pleas. I really only have on other big complaint against my family, well really mostly against my brothers, and that has to do with the area of manners and general politeness. As much as I like my host mom, I really don't feel that she does all that much parenting, and because of this I think my siblings have grown up not knowing really what manners are. For instance, recently I have received several boxes from home, and I have been able to share things with my siblings like chocolate and Kraft Mac N Cheese. Unfortunately though, sharing with them has not been very gratifying because instead of saying, "Gee Wes, thanks so much for this Reese's, I've never had one before its really good!", I instead get, "This is sweet, give me more," and that is not an exaggeration. There are many other small things like this that come up often, sometimes I'll be watching TV and one of them will come and just change the channel without asking me, sometimes while I'm away at school Addie will take my toothpaste and use it and then not put the cap back on so that it spills all over my toiletry bag, basically just lots of small things that result from them never having been taught simple things like saying "please" and "thank you". Other than these annoyances, I am for the most party a very happy guy when I am at home, and I really do feel that I have been incredibly lucky in ending up with such a good family.
Well there ends my first post for this year 2009, I hope it has been successful in telling you all at least a bit about my family.
Well to start with, since this is the first time I have written in 2009, let me wish you all a happy, happy new year! Life here in Sunyani keeps rolling by at a pace that continues to amaze me, and in just a few short days I will be at the five month mark of this journey of mine, almost halfway through already! Today, I am finally going to tell a bit about my crazy and huge family, the Osei-Mensah family.
When talking about my family, one word will always come up. Big. Over the holiday season when all the family had come home, there were over twenty people here, four times the size of my family back home. So to start with, let me just list off the names of everyone in the family. The head of the family is without a doubt my host mom, who's name I believe is Vida, but who we all call Auntie. Although my communication with her is somewhat limited due to me not being able to speak much Twi, and her not being able to speak much English, she still has been a wonderful host mother so far. I mean first off, she has welcomed me into her already crowded house with open arms, which is incredibly generous, and on top of that she feeds me and makes sure I am happy, so I really cannot complain. Her husband, my host father, is named Charles, but everyone calls him Papa. When he is around, he is a man of very few words, so I really haven't gotten to know him at all, but despite that he has been kind to me in his quiet way. They have four children, B.B., who is 23, Nase, who is 21and is away at university much of the time, Mame who is 16, and is away at boarding school much of the time, and Solo, who is 13 and is one of the brother's I share a room with. All four of them are very kind and fun people, and I have enjoyed getting to know them all. All the other numerous people who live at the house are either relatives or just family friends who needed somewhere to live, and I'll quickly just list them all off as well. The guys are Kweku (twenties), Kofi (19ish), Oraku (15), Ben (15), Seth (16), Eminem (19ish), and the girls are Addie (6), Mamia (19), and Angel (2). These are just the regulars who are around most of the time, during the holidays the number balloons, and also occasionally people will just drift in and stay for a few days or a few weeks. Of all my siblings, the ones I have become closest to are Solo, Ben, Oraku and Seth, they definitely have there moments when they drive me crazy, but for the most part they are great, fun company. I also really enjoy spending time with Addie and Angel, they both are great little kids, and it is fun to have young siblings to play and joke with.
Well as you can see by reading all those names, the family is indeed big, quite big, and really it is the size that in many ways has made my family so much fun, and has also made it a bit difficult at times. Let me first explain the good. My relationship with my family is really quite simple. I think that because there is a bit of a language barrier between me and them, and also just because we are so very different because of the places we have grown up, I have not gotten to know the members of my family on an individual basis as much as I might have in say a European country. Because of this, the joy I get from being with them isn't from having deep conversations or from sharing common interests, but from a more simple, ancient thing, the wonderful joy of human interaction. If I were to make a list of things that I enjoy about my home life here, it really would be a very, very short list, and that is not because I don't enjoy life at home, but instead it is because the life I am living is quite simple. The list would look something like this: 1- Spending time with siblings. 2- Eating (sometimes) 3-sleeping (if my brothers don't wake me up constantly). 4- Watching football matches on tv. 5-Sitting outside and reading. And that would be about it. Because there are so few things to in the way of recreation or entertainment, I feel incredibly blessed that I have ended up with such a fun and lively family. The best times I have here are times spent sitting with my brothers and sisters, laughing, joking, horsing around, just being simple people enjoying the profound joy of being together.
Just as the lively environment I love about my family is partly due to its size, the aspects to my family that I don't like as much are also largely due to its size. The first thing that I find difficult is sleep, or more accurately the conditions in which I have to sleep. I love sleep, I absolutely love it, and especially here, after a long day spent sweating under the hot sun, the feeling of laying down and falling asleep is wonderful. Unfortunately however, I share a room with at least four other brothers all the time, and they often make it very difficult for me fall asleep or to stay asleep. Back at home in the U.S., sleep is such a respected thing in my family, and we never wake each other up unless it is urgent, and if we have to go into a room where someone is sleeping we tiptoe and make sure not to disturb that person. Here, sleep doesn't really seem to be an activity that people enjoy all that much, and because of that they, or at least my brothers, have absolutely no respect for people who do enjoy sleeping. As many times as I ask my brothers not to turn the light on, they still have to turn it on whenever they come into the room. Sometimes they'll barge in and bang the door open, and I'll have to get up to close it when they leave, only to have them barge in and out again without closing it. They also have these incredibly annoying cell phones that double as music players, and instead of using headphones they blast their music through the phone's surprisingly powerful speakers. I have been woken up at one in the morning before by these satanic devices, and again I have asked my brothers many times not to play music on them while I am sleeping, but apparently the forget very fast. Basically, they just don't seem to realize, even after I have told them many times, that I like sleeping and would like to do so in peace, and they continue night after night to disturb me despite my pleas. I really only have on other big complaint against my family, well really mostly against my brothers, and that has to do with the area of manners and general politeness. As much as I like my host mom, I really don't feel that she does all that much parenting, and because of this I think my siblings have grown up not knowing really what manners are. For instance, recently I have received several boxes from home, and I have been able to share things with my siblings like chocolate and Kraft Mac N Cheese. Unfortunately though, sharing with them has not been very gratifying because instead of saying, "Gee Wes, thanks so much for this Reese's, I've never had one before its really good!", I instead get, "This is sweet, give me more," and that is not an exaggeration. There are many other small things like this that come up often, sometimes I'll be watching TV and one of them will come and just change the channel without asking me, sometimes while I'm away at school Addie will take my toothpaste and use it and then not put the cap back on so that it spills all over my toiletry bag, basically just lots of small things that result from them never having been taught simple things like saying "please" and "thank you". Other than these annoyances, I am for the most party a very happy guy when I am at home, and I really do feel that I have been incredibly lucky in ending up with such a good family.
Well there ends my first post for this year 2009, I hope it has been successful in telling you all at least a bit about my family.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Photo Update
Many of my host brothers enjoying a bowl of fufu.
A scaly little night time visitor that one of my Brothers nearly stepped on.
My host mother, who we all call "Auntie," with a ball of banku in hand
They were very afraid of people.
Little baby monkey posing for the camera.
What a face!
Monkeys like Bananas, surprise surprise.
These guys were slightly less friendly and stayed up in the trees.
Our Group, Rich, Me, our guide Henry, and Benjamin, A friend of our fellow AFSer Mari, who is taking the picture
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Merry Christmas From Ghana!
Hello My Dear Friends,
Well to start with I would just like to wish you all a merry, merry Christmas, and a prosperous new year. May you all enjoy wonderful times with family and friends, as well as lots and lots of wonderful Christmas food and drink. As I sit here in shorts and t-shirt, and as I look outside and see the hot, hazy Ghanaian air, it is hard for me to believe that today is Christmas eve, and that tomorrow is Christmas. Even though we very rarely have a white Christmas in Bellingham, I still asscociate the holiday season with cool, wet, Pacific Northwest weather, so it is taking a bit of work to convince myself that it really is December 24th, despite my sweaty brow and the palm trees outside. The fact that it is already Christmas also just brings home to me how fast the time has flown by here, I remember when I arrived here Christmas seemed ages away, but now I realize just how fast the past 3 1/2 months have zipped by.
Here in Ghana, Christmas is already here, as they celebrate the holiday for pretty much a whole week surrounding the 25th, the dates differ depending on who you ask. Exactly what they define as celebrating Chirstmas however, is a bit of a mystery to me, because so far here in Sunyani there are virtually no indicators that it is Christmas. From the adds I have seen on TV for Christmas sales in Accra in Kumasi I get the impression that the holiday is at least commercially a bigger deal in those places, but the stores that put those commercials out are not present in Sunyani, and walking the streets here I have seen no Christmas items or sales. I think in Ghana people still take the holiday very literally, a time to celebrate the birth of Christ, so a large part of the celebration is just going to church even more often than usual. So far at my house life goes on mostly as it has for the past months, the only difference being that a few family members who were at boarding school have come home. I have asked my brothers what we do here to celebrate, and it sounds as if the extent of celebration is a nice meal here sometime in the next few days. I think that although people here are not confronted with a financial crisis like many people in the U.S. are right now, they are confronted with the reality of living in a developing country. In a family like mine, feeding twenty people each day is enough of an expense, and I'm sure there isn't money left for gifts and other Christmas activities. I think that in many ways though they have it just right, the whole family is here to celebrate and to enjoy eachothers company and some good food, and really isn't that the most important part of the holiday?
I have now been off from school for a week and will be until January 13th, and really this year that is the best Christmas gift I could have received, almost a month off to relax and travel. A week ago today my fellow AFSer Rich and I took our first trip for the break, a day excursion to a nearby monkey sanctuary. It was a wonderful trip, definitely the most excitement I've had so far in my stay here. Not only did we get to see a ton of lively monkeys, but we also got to enjoy a beautiful 250 year old forest, as well as a couple helter skelter taxi rides. We have two other trips planned for the break, the first being a couple days in Kumasi at the beginning of January, hopefully with a few other AFSers from around the country, and then at the end of January AFS is sponsoring a trip to the Volta region, both should be great fun. Here in Sunyani I have fallen into a very regular routine, a routine that when I first got here I would have deemed incredibly boring, but at this point in my stay I am very content with it. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Rich and I go to town at 8am and buy a wonderful breakfast of an egg sandwich and a mug of wannabe coffee, and then after that we come here to the Internet cafe for an hour. The rest of my week is spent chilling at home, and as boring and lame as that may sound, I have come to enjoy my time with my family immensely. A lot of my time is spent with my brothers bagging sachets of purified water and sugary drinks that my family manufactures, in fact last night I was up til three in the morning with them working, yikes! I also have taken a couple fishing trips with my younger brothers to a nearby muddy little creek, where with sticks and string we caught an amazing amount of palm sized little fish, which despite there size, we of course ate. Other than that, my days really are incredibly lazy, I spend a lot of time sitting out in our yard under a big coconut tree, often with a little grey and white cat in my lap who has become a fast friend. Just sitting does sound boring when you say it, but I have learned to enjoy my time under the tree, sometimes a nice breeze is blowing and I can close my eyes and enjoy its cool touch, or if there is no breeze to enjoy then I can just enjoy time with my little feline friend and I can spend time time contemplating this crazy world around me. Usually around twelve or one I take a nap, then around five I head out for my daily five-ish mile run, and really that is the extent of my daily activities. Boring as my routine may sound, I really am learning to enjoy it. I think perhaps that is another Christmas gift I have received this year, the gift of learning to enjoy small things immensely, I wont deny that I am longing for a good day on the ski slopes right now, but it is valuable to learn that I don't necessarily need that kind of excitement to be happy.
Alright, well as it is Christmas eve, I am sure you all have much better things to do than read my ramblings, so I will cut this email off here. Again, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year, I am thinking of you all and wish I could be there with you to celebrate and make merry.
Best Wishes,
Wes
Well to start with I would just like to wish you all a merry, merry Christmas, and a prosperous new year. May you all enjoy wonderful times with family and friends, as well as lots and lots of wonderful Christmas food and drink. As I sit here in shorts and t-shirt, and as I look outside and see the hot, hazy Ghanaian air, it is hard for me to believe that today is Christmas eve, and that tomorrow is Christmas. Even though we very rarely have a white Christmas in Bellingham, I still asscociate the holiday season with cool, wet, Pacific Northwest weather, so it is taking a bit of work to convince myself that it really is December 24th, despite my sweaty brow and the palm trees outside. The fact that it is already Christmas also just brings home to me how fast the time has flown by here, I remember when I arrived here Christmas seemed ages away, but now I realize just how fast the past 3 1/2 months have zipped by.
Here in Ghana, Christmas is already here, as they celebrate the holiday for pretty much a whole week surrounding the 25th, the dates differ depending on who you ask. Exactly what they define as celebrating Chirstmas however, is a bit of a mystery to me, because so far here in Sunyani there are virtually no indicators that it is Christmas. From the adds I have seen on TV for Christmas sales in Accra in Kumasi I get the impression that the holiday is at least commercially a bigger deal in those places, but the stores that put those commercials out are not present in Sunyani, and walking the streets here I have seen no Christmas items or sales. I think in Ghana people still take the holiday very literally, a time to celebrate the birth of Christ, so a large part of the celebration is just going to church even more often than usual. So far at my house life goes on mostly as it has for the past months, the only difference being that a few family members who were at boarding school have come home. I have asked my brothers what we do here to celebrate, and it sounds as if the extent of celebration is a nice meal here sometime in the next few days. I think that although people here are not confronted with a financial crisis like many people in the U.S. are right now, they are confronted with the reality of living in a developing country. In a family like mine, feeding twenty people each day is enough of an expense, and I'm sure there isn't money left for gifts and other Christmas activities. I think that in many ways though they have it just right, the whole family is here to celebrate and to enjoy eachothers company and some good food, and really isn't that the most important part of the holiday?
I have now been off from school for a week and will be until January 13th, and really this year that is the best Christmas gift I could have received, almost a month off to relax and travel. A week ago today my fellow AFSer Rich and I took our first trip for the break, a day excursion to a nearby monkey sanctuary. It was a wonderful trip, definitely the most excitement I've had so far in my stay here. Not only did we get to see a ton of lively monkeys, but we also got to enjoy a beautiful 250 year old forest, as well as a couple helter skelter taxi rides. We have two other trips planned for the break, the first being a couple days in Kumasi at the beginning of January, hopefully with a few other AFSers from around the country, and then at the end of January AFS is sponsoring a trip to the Volta region, both should be great fun. Here in Sunyani I have fallen into a very regular routine, a routine that when I first got here I would have deemed incredibly boring, but at this point in my stay I am very content with it. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Rich and I go to town at 8am and buy a wonderful breakfast of an egg sandwich and a mug of wannabe coffee, and then after that we come here to the Internet cafe for an hour. The rest of my week is spent chilling at home, and as boring and lame as that may sound, I have come to enjoy my time with my family immensely. A lot of my time is spent with my brothers bagging sachets of purified water and sugary drinks that my family manufactures, in fact last night I was up til three in the morning with them working, yikes! I also have taken a couple fishing trips with my younger brothers to a nearby muddy little creek, where with sticks and string we caught an amazing amount of palm sized little fish, which despite there size, we of course ate. Other than that, my days really are incredibly lazy, I spend a lot of time sitting out in our yard under a big coconut tree, often with a little grey and white cat in my lap who has become a fast friend. Just sitting does sound boring when you say it, but I have learned to enjoy my time under the tree, sometimes a nice breeze is blowing and I can close my eyes and enjoy its cool touch, or if there is no breeze to enjoy then I can just enjoy time with my little feline friend and I can spend time time contemplating this crazy world around me. Usually around twelve or one I take a nap, then around five I head out for my daily five-ish mile run, and really that is the extent of my daily activities. Boring as my routine may sound, I really am learning to enjoy it. I think perhaps that is another Christmas gift I have received this year, the gift of learning to enjoy small things immensely, I wont deny that I am longing for a good day on the ski slopes right now, but it is valuable to learn that I don't necessarily need that kind of excitement to be happy.
Alright, well as it is Christmas eve, I am sure you all have much better things to do than read my ramblings, so I will cut this email off here. Again, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year, I am thinking of you all and wish I could be there with you to celebrate and make merry.
Best Wishes,
Wes
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Ghana Q & A Part 1
A lovely bowl of plantains and a leafy sauce of some sort that has been cooked for several days...
Bagging a sweet "juice" aka sugar water w/ artificial flavoring drink that my family makes and sells.
From left to right: Innocent, Iris, and Jessica.
Apple tree in Washington, Coconut tree in Sunyani!
Looking out at the rusty metal roofs of a residential part of Sunyani. Note the small mosque in the center.
Hello again everyone,
To start with, I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving! I was drooling all day just thinking about turkey and mashed potatoes and apple pie... It will taste so amazing next year I am sure. Well, since I last wrote, things have been going well for me here in Sunyani. School is still definitely the most trying aspect to my life here, but I am really enjoying life with my family, which makes up for the hours of agony in school. I know I have written very little to date about my family, but it is my plan to write the whole next newsletter on my family life, hopefully in two or three weeks. As far as today, as I said last time this will Ghana Q & A edition! Thanks so much to all of you who sent me questions, unfortunately I can only work in a few today, but somewhere down the line I am planning to do Ghana Q & A part two.
What kind of smells do you encounter day to day in Ghana?
After being here for nearly three months, the smells here now seem very commonplace to me. When I first arrived however, that was not so, smell was HUGE, because well, Ghana is a pretty smelly place. There are several prevalent smells that infest my nose on a daily basis. Walking through town is probably the most aroma rich part of my day, as there are tons of food vendors selling food like meat kabobs, fried rice, fried plantains, and many others. Unfortunately, those nice food smells are also mixed with a healthy helping of exhaust, as well as the wonderful smell of garbage filled open sewers. Lining all the roads, there are these big cement gutters, and it seems they were poorly designed because they are always full of stagnant water mixed with garbage, rotting food and vegetables, and probably a fair dose of urine. Another very prevalent smell is smoke. Ghanaians love fire, and use it for cooking and burning pretty much anything. The cooking fires aren't so bad, as they are usually just burning charcoal, and plus the smell of cooking food is always pleasant. The smoke that I find slightly less pleasant though, is the smoke created by the burning of plastic, and of piles of green grass and leaves. The other day I came home and my host mom was throwing some old phones and tires into a fire outside our house, yuck can you say carcinogens?! As prevalent as the smells I've mentioned are, the thing that probably fills my nose the most is lovely, red african dust, but I guess maybe that doesn't quite qualify as a smell..
I'd love to know about other AFS kids there, from what countries, how often do you get together, and how do you feel the local support is, like is anyone unhappy with a placement, etc.
There are three other AFS students in Sunyani, two who are participating in the high school year program like me, and one who is taking part in the shorter community service program. The girl who is doing community service is named Barbel and is from Italy, and because she is not attending school I do not see her very often. The other two are Rich from Tenesee, and Iris from Belgium, and they are both wonderful people. Rich lives about a five minutes walk from my house, so I spend a lot of time with him, and I definitely am thankful for his company. Iris lives in a different part of town, but we still see her every school day since we are all in the same class at Twene Amanfo. As far as support, it is somewhat minimal. Our contact person here is actually Rich's 29 year old host brother, and although he is a very kind, nice guy, he hasn't organized too many activities or anything of the sort yet. I know though, that if we were in trouble or needed help he would be there for us in a second. As far as support from the national office, Rich and I have heard from them twice, and Iris hasn't heard from them at all. This doesn't really bother me as I haven't really needed any help, but what does bother me is that for the whole ten months they only have one group activity planned for us. Ghana does have poor roads and such, but still, I think they could do a bit better than that. All of us were lucky enough to be placed with great families, so there have been no problems there.
Internal Family relationships -- how the children relate to their parents and vice-versa.
I'll cover this more in my post on my family, but I'll go over it briefly here. Wow, family relationships are crazy here compared to what I know at home, or at least they are with my host family. The biggest thing I would say, is that there is really no visable affection showed between my host parents and siblings. It seems that they interact more as maybe a boss and an employee do, a boss who doesn't feel much affection for his employees. Beyond telling her kids to do chores or reprimanding them, my Mom really does not talk to my host sisters and bros, and certainly doesn't ever hug or kiss them. My host dad lives in Accra during the week, and when he is home on the weekends he barely talks to anyone. In the few words he has said to me he has of course been polite, but today for instance, all I got was "good morning." This has been a bit tough for me, because I come from such a wonderful, loving family, and it has taken me a while to get used to the fact that I am never going to really feel like this is my family.
How has Obama's win been viewed there?
Obama's win has been huge in Ghana, and throughout the whole of Africa as well. As they rightly should, people here are very proud that "one of them," as they view it, has been elected as president of the most powerful country in the world. Before the election, tons of people asked Rich and I if we supported Obama, and now even after he has won people continue to ask us if we support him and if we are happy he won. It is a little amusing at times though, because as much enthusiasm as they have for him, very few people know anything about him. Like before the election, most people I talked to did not know who he was running against, and I even got some funny and kind of confusing questions like: "Is Barack Obama from the U.S.?" Or one particularly funny one, "Is Barack Obama a man or a woman?" That said, there are also many well informed people who when I spoke to them knew a surprising amount about him and the state of U.S. politics. One teacher right after the election came to our class and spoke with us, saying that "George Bush is a bush man!," and that it will do the U.S. a ton of good to have change and a new administration in control. I have to say, I agree completely, and common, who can't laugh at "George Bush is a Bush man!"
Friday, November 7, 2008
More Pictures!
The Sunyani Municipal Hospital. Its closed on sundays..
The neighborhood football pitch.
My host sister Mamia pounding the traditional dish "fufu" w/ one of my host bros. Fufu is served in a spicy sauce and you swallow it immediately w/out chewing. Not one of my faves..
A village outside of Sunyani.
The neighborhood garbage bin
My host bro's Oraku and Kweku cutting up some freshly killed chicken.
On the left is my host brother BB and fellow AFSer Iris from Belgium. On the right is Iris' host sister Alice, and my fellow American AFSer Rich, from Tennessee.
My host brother Solo, and my adorable 2 year old host sister Angel.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Being a White Guy in Ghana
One of the billions of lizards that inhabit ghana.
Four of my host siblings, closest is Addie, the dude is Paw Kwasi, the little girl is Angel, and the girl in black is Mamia
Our tuesday and thursday treat... egg sandwitches and "milo," a wonderful malt coco drink. the guy who helps us is awesome and has made that enormous milo can tower
Bakoniaba road, the driveway to my host home is at the top of this hillWell the days continue to slip on by here in Sunyani. I have now almost been away from home two months, which seems already like an incredibly long period of time, especially considering that before this I'd never been away for more than a couple weeks. Life is going pretty well for me here, I have become semi used to the flow of Ghanaian life and I am adapting fairly well I'd say. That said, I knew that this year would be a challenge before I left, and having now been here as long as I have, I can see that it indeed will be. In my last post, I explained how school is a very trying aspect of my life here, and today I am going to explain an equally trying aspect, and that is the experience of being a white guy in Ghana.
Walking around as a white person in Ghana is roughly the equivalent of walking around in the U.S. wearing a tutu and a gorilla mask. It makes you an instant novelty. The difference however, is that while most people would avoid a person wearing a gorilla mask and a tutu, Ghanaians certainly do not avoid white people, or in twi, "obrunis." Other than my two safe havens of my host home and my classroom at school, I am verbally confronted everywhere I go, and by anyone and just about everyone. The majority of the banter thrown my way sounds harmless when explained on paper. Most often, the conversations are simple and short, polite questions, such as: "Obruni how are you?" "Obruni where are you going?" Obruni, what is your name?" So obviously, the reason I feel semi assaulted is not because of the content of what people are saying to me. The problem instead, is with the frequency that I am confronted and the frequency with which I must answer to there, "Obruni..." questions. It really is almost incessant, especially when in town I am greeted by a large portion of the people I pass. Considering that most the people are well meaning, I know it sounds rude on my part to say that I am starting to find all these conversations annoying, so instead I will just say that I am starting to find them tiring.
The other problem with these constant interactions aside from their frequency, is the way in which Ghanaians choose to attract my attention so that they can start a conversation. Often "obruni," or "obruni bra,"(white man come) are used to attract my attention, and as I've already mentioned obruni is not on my list of favorite words. The most common way people grab others attention, however, is by hissing. So, I'll be walking through sunyani and I'll feel as if I am surrounded by hordes of hungry snakes. As much as I would like to just tune the the hissing out and ignore it, I cannot because here in Ghana that would be quite rude. It is funny, because at home it would be rude to call over a complete stranger and demand a conversation, but here I am required by courtesy to at least say a few words. Most often the conversations are short and the people well meaning, as I mentioned before people most often just want to know where I am from, how long I am here, etc. There are however, slightly more annoying people, and those are the ones who like to use obrunis to get a good laugh. This often comes in the form of marriage proposals, requests for me to assist with hard labor, and the most common and most annoying, people who speak to me rapidly in twi and then break into hysterical laughter. I have learned that the best way to deal with these comic obibinis, (black men) is to just smile, nod, and continue on my way.
There is one more kind of interaction I have on a daily basis as a result of being white, and that is requests for money. Obrunis are not only seen as a source of amusement, but also as a source of money. The most difficult part about these requests, is that they most often come from children. I have seen next to zero beggars in Sunyani, but there are an abundance of school children who would love to have a little more spare cash in their pockets. Oftentimes, I'll just be walking to or from school, and kids of varying ages will come and grab my arms or hands, and then ask for money. As hard as it can be, I have to deny them all. I am going to be here for eight more months, and I definitely cannot afford to gain the reputation of being the obruni who is always leaking money. I do not have that hard of a time turning down the older kids, because they are often completely tactless. Apparently white people are so rich that you don't even need to be polite towards them, often they just say, "Obruni give me money!," and I have little difficulty turning them down. I cannot help but feel a bit guilty however, when I turn down the small, big eyed children who grab my hands so fervently.
Well friends, that brings me to the close of newsletter #4, I hope it has been enjoyable. I had intended to send this off more than a week ago, but I have to admit that I have been having quite a few problems with writers block, and hence it took me a bit longer to complete. The writers block was positive in one way however, and that way was that it gave me an idea. I realized that with each passing day life here is becoming more and more the norm for me, and there may be many things that you my readers might find interesting, but that I no longer see as so. My idea then, is to do a Q & A edition, or an edition that is at least part Q & A. So, please, if any of you have any questions for me that I have not covered yet, please send them to me so that i can incorporate them into my next newsletter. Also, if you have any suggestions as to how I can make these newsletters better please let me know!
Walking around as a white person in Ghana is roughly the equivalent of walking around in the U.S. wearing a tutu and a gorilla mask. It makes you an instant novelty. The difference however, is that while most people would avoid a person wearing a gorilla mask and a tutu, Ghanaians certainly do not avoid white people, or in twi, "obrunis." Other than my two safe havens of my host home and my classroom at school, I am verbally confronted everywhere I go, and by anyone and just about everyone. The majority of the banter thrown my way sounds harmless when explained on paper. Most often, the conversations are simple and short, polite questions, such as: "Obruni how are you?" "Obruni where are you going?" Obruni, what is your name?" So obviously, the reason I feel semi assaulted is not because of the content of what people are saying to me. The problem instead, is with the frequency that I am confronted and the frequency with which I must answer to there, "Obruni..." questions. It really is almost incessant, especially when in town I am greeted by a large portion of the people I pass. Considering that most the people are well meaning, I know it sounds rude on my part to say that I am starting to find all these conversations annoying, so instead I will just say that I am starting to find them tiring.
The other problem with these constant interactions aside from their frequency, is the way in which Ghanaians choose to attract my attention so that they can start a conversation. Often "obruni," or "obruni bra,"(white man come) are used to attract my attention, and as I've already mentioned obruni is not on my list of favorite words. The most common way people grab others attention, however, is by hissing. So, I'll be walking through sunyani and I'll feel as if I am surrounded by hordes of hungry snakes. As much as I would like to just tune the the hissing out and ignore it, I cannot because here in Ghana that would be quite rude. It is funny, because at home it would be rude to call over a complete stranger and demand a conversation, but here I am required by courtesy to at least say a few words. Most often the conversations are short and the people well meaning, as I mentioned before people most often just want to know where I am from, how long I am here, etc. There are however, slightly more annoying people, and those are the ones who like to use obrunis to get a good laugh. This often comes in the form of marriage proposals, requests for me to assist with hard labor, and the most common and most annoying, people who speak to me rapidly in twi and then break into hysterical laughter. I have learned that the best way to deal with these comic obibinis, (black men) is to just smile, nod, and continue on my way.
There is one more kind of interaction I have on a daily basis as a result of being white, and that is requests for money. Obrunis are not only seen as a source of amusement, but also as a source of money. The most difficult part about these requests, is that they most often come from children. I have seen next to zero beggars in Sunyani, but there are an abundance of school children who would love to have a little more spare cash in their pockets. Oftentimes, I'll just be walking to or from school, and kids of varying ages will come and grab my arms or hands, and then ask for money. As hard as it can be, I have to deny them all. I am going to be here for eight more months, and I definitely cannot afford to gain the reputation of being the obruni who is always leaking money. I do not have that hard of a time turning down the older kids, because they are often completely tactless. Apparently white people are so rich that you don't even need to be polite towards them, often they just say, "Obruni give me money!," and I have little difficulty turning them down. I cannot help but feel a bit guilty however, when I turn down the small, big eyed children who grab my hands so fervently.
Well friends, that brings me to the close of newsletter #4, I hope it has been enjoyable. I had intended to send this off more than a week ago, but I have to admit that I have been having quite a few problems with writers block, and hence it took me a bit longer to complete. The writers block was positive in one way however, and that way was that it gave me an idea. I realized that with each passing day life here is becoming more and more the norm for me, and there may be many things that you my readers might find interesting, but that I no longer see as so. My idea then, is to do a Q & A edition, or an edition that is at least part Q & A. So, please, if any of you have any questions for me that I have not covered yet, please send them to me so that i can incorporate them into my next newsletter. Also, if you have any suggestions as to how I can make these newsletters better please let me know!
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