Talk about Karma…

On Sunday, I was forced to practice open defecation. On Monday, I got typhoid, a fecal-oral infection. So, there you have it. (It’s not bad though. I went to the clinic. I’m already feeling better.) I’m also slightly anemic. And I had a fever. And a cold. I’m taking meds for all of that.

It’s the rainy season. The torrential rain swept our trench chickens away.

My Auntie has chosen a boyfriend for me. I haven’t agreed to this. I haven’t met him. But I have met my “in-laws”. I guess I’ll meet him sometime, though.

Speaking of boys… I haven’t been on a date in 3 years. Actually, I’m not sure I’ve ever really been on a date with someone who wasn’t my boyfriend, or, at least, I didn’t consider it to be a date even though the other person did. There are two main reasons why I don’t go on dates:

1.     I’m not very good at it.

2.     I’m not particularly fond of it.

So, as much as I would like to tell you that I’m only 90% sure I went on a date this week, I’m afraid I have to say that I’m 100% sure. And as much as I would like to tell you that I’m 100% sure the date went badly, I’m afraid I have to say that I’m only 90% sure. We ran out of things to talk about ¼ of the way through, but I still got an “I love you” text at the end of the night. If you want more details about that, text me, because it’s a somewhat interesting story. At the end of it, though, he asked me if I wanted to pay for his dinner. No, no I do not, seeing as I paid for you last time when we were just friends, and I know that men are supposed to pay on dates in Ghana. I had to text him back saying I didn’t love him. I just wish all this would stop.

You want to know why? Because I’d rather be looked at as a piece of meat than a stack of money. Might sound horrible, but it’s true. Actually, if I could pick, I’d rather be treated like a fun and worthwhile person. And, if I tell someone to stop touching me, I’d prefer it if he backed off, instead of getting offended and mad and trying to assert his power by brushing my face once more before leaving.

On Sunday, the girls I live with and I all went to Accra. We had to wake up at 4 am so that we could get to the bus station to get the earliest one and beat the traffic going in.

When we got there around 7:45am, we called a taxi driver that Proworld had suggested to us who agreed to kind of be our chauffeur for the day, for 20 cedis each (not bad at all).

We first drove for a little while, and the driver showed us the University of Ghana campus. It’s huge! And it’s really nice. And you can learn anything there.

The first stop was the Kwame Nkrumah Museum, which was … AWESOME! I got to see everything I’ve learned about in my studies on Ghana. I even got to see Nkrumah’s inaugural chair! He actually sat there in 1960 when he became the very first president of Ghana! And, I got to see these heavy iron bangles that the early Portuguese conned the early Africans into thinking that they were highly valued currency in Europe, so the Portuguese just bought everything in Ghana for super cheap. But the bangles were actually used as currency in Ghana for a while. I love that story.

As we were driving away from the museum, we passed by the President of Ghana’s house. It looks like a temple, and it’s maroon and gold colored and very intricately designed with metal. And we passed by this arena that the President gives speeches in. Weird, because I had déjà vu again when I saw that arena, because I remember it being in on of my dreams once, except for I was sitting on a pink cloud.

As we were driving, I was noticing all the billboards on the side of the road. The messages are really clear and easy to interpret. You can look at a billboard and immediately think to yourself, “Okay, so if I buy this brand of chocolate milk, my child will be energetic, happy, good at soccer, and will thank me for being his mom”. What I mean is, although all advertisements are really selling you a way of life rather than a product, it’s a lot easier to decipher those messages the way the advertisements are here, the clearest example of this being the slogan, “It’s not just water… it’s life”. Plus, although I’d say that most of the billboards do portray women, they are hardly ever sexualized. The only example I could find was one for Bailey’s, in which the woman was looking sort of seductively out at the traffic. But that was the only one. The rest of the women were just… happy people, not objectified at all, and in fulfilling relationships with their partners and families.

It’s enticing because there seem to be two standards of female beauty here. I know I already mentioned being “big”, but there are also women who are skinnier and wear more Western style clothing. Both types seem really confident and both look nice. I just wonder how one would go about choosing which body they wanted. The process is reversible, I guess, but it would take a while if you changed your mind… Well, as I was people watching with two of my co-workers, they pointed at an overweight white woman and said, “She’s fat. She’s obese.” I asked if that was a good thing and they said absolutely not. So I’m confused. One of my friends suggested that maybe the point is to be curvy but not fat.

Anyway, we also went to the Accra Mall. I was shocked. I felt like I was in the United States. The shops were similar, the atmosphere, AND… nobody yelled out “Obruni” when we walked by. There were Black people, White people, Asian people, Middle Eastern people… I don’t remember seeing any Hispanics… but anyway, a lot of Chinese people live in Accra. I know a little bit about that but not a whole lot so I won’t go into that here…

The taxi driver decided to introduce us to his aunt, who is one of the most fascinating people I have ever met, plus she once went to my hometown in California so that was super exciting. She also has an amazing house - it’s gorgeous.

Well I guess I don’t have a whole lot more to say, except for that some kids tried to run me over with their bike the other day. And some little boys decided to hit me. I figure it’s just because of my color, which doesn’t make it any better. I’m being bullied by 4-year-olds. What’s that all about?

Also, the drivers here are amazing. I mean, they are really good. Do I feel like my foot will be run over every day? Yes. Do I feel like I’ll be in a car crash every time I get in a taxi? No, but sometimes I do. But that never happens; these guys have quick reflexes! They have to, since people cross the street whenever and wherever, the roads aren’t always super wide, and there aren’t many street signs or lights around.

Well, I guess I’ll just end with what I’m doing at work these days. My boss has deemed me to be is SRA (Senior Research Assistant) which means I had to go through all the flat files on NGOs and write down their names and mission statements. This is so that we can go through and find the top 5 missions of NGOs in the Cape Coast Metropolitan Area, which we will present to all the Proworld volunteers and staff pretty soon, then we’ll have a discussion about what’s working and what more could be done. We’re also writing an outline for a meeting of assembly members that will happen soon so we can try to motivate them to adhere to our new bye-law on day-cares and to see what they think about it. We’re also still trying to think of how to make the attendant training a little more interactive, which is not particularly easy.

Well, it’s about that time again to say,

Yoh, yen koh!

Love, Ekuwa

Wait, PS, I love the dubbed TV shows here. They’re so dramatic.