March 22 (a long one)

This blog is going up early again. I might start just updating on Monday instead of Tuesday. This is probably going to be a long blog so here we go:

So last week, I had a group project in Geography of Gender and Development. We met on Tuesday and did a little planning and then we were supposed to meet on Wednesday but only Emily and I showed up. I tried calling a person in our group but he never answered. He didn’t call back and I called a few other times and he didn’t answer. That was really frustrating because the project was due on Friday. I ended up doing some research on my own and making a power point because I couldn’t reach the others and I didn’t know how much they had prepared. Finally he answered his phone Thursday night. Turns out they had met at another time (didn’t bother to call us) and also finished a power point. We met Friday morning though and fit the two power points together so it ended up working out alright.

Tuesday I went to the art market in Accra. It wasn’t as crowded and closed in as the other markets that I’ve been to. There was just kiosk after kiosk of wood carvers, jewellery, fabric, etc. We stayed there until it closed at dark but I don’t think I made much of a dent in it. I’ll have to go back sometime. I got some things for family and friends. I’m honing my bargaining skills. I noticed for some reason it’s a lot harder for me to bargain with women than with men. Luckily most of the people there are men. I think women just play up their charm more, while with men I won’t fall for any of their tricks. It was really disorienting after a while to hop from shop to shop and having to keep the saying the same things over again “no, sorry,” “that’s too much,” “I’m coming,” blah blah blah. You get harassed a lot to buy stuff and it’s easy to burn out. Plus I had to keep my “Ghana goggles” in check. “Ghana goggles” is a phrase my friends coined for when you see something Ghanaian (clothing, souvenir, member of the opposite sex, etc) and you think it’s really cool or attractive but then you realize you would never really like it or wear it back in the states, it’s just your perception in Ghana has changed. I was skeptical when they first told me about Ghana goggles but now that I’ve been here half a semester I can understand. They’re real. There was a cat in one of the shops that was tied up on a leash. I was kind of wary to pet it but it was soooo friendly and wanted affection. I miss pets. L At one of the shops that sold purses, they had crocodile skin purses and the flap over the front was a real crocodile head and front claws. It was so bizarre. The eyes and guts were obviously taken out, but the rest of it was just dried up. It even still had its teeth and toe nails. I thought it was really amusing but Emily thought it was disgusting. If anyone wants one, be sure to let me know. I don’t know where else you’ll be able to get a crocodile head purse. J

Wednesday was St. Patrick’s day but I didn’t do anything to celebrate. A lot of people were going out to Ryan’s Irish Pub (an obvious choice) but I didn’t feel like going because I knew it would just be hordes of Obrunis and everyone would be a wreck. I’m all for that once in a while but I was pretty tired last week. I’ve been pretty worn out but I’ve had some weird dreams lately.. . I’ll share. I had a dream that my mom came to visit in Ghana and we drove up to Kumasi in the minivan and on the way I saw a McDonald’s (which astonished me in my dream because there aren’t McDonald’s in Ghana). I also had a dream last night that I led a revolution against the US government armed with AK-47s. Last week I finished The Friday Night Knitting Club and I also read Digital Fortress. Now I’m reading Stones from the River or something like that…

Last Thursday I got a package from my sister, Jackie. J Thanks Jackie! She sent some chapstick, People magazine, Time magazine, and a book titled What’s Your Poo Telling You? The book is very relevant to our health in Ghana. Everyone thought it was hilarious. Being in a program travelling together, we’ve become pretty open about our bodily functions so no one minds talking about it anymore. The magazines are also really nice because for the most part I never hear about current events, especially US news.

Friday night the power went out, but that’s not really a surprise. It came back on sometime on Saturday when I was gone.

On Saturday I got up early to meet Nana so we could go to a wedding in Lapas. Her friend Balaraba (aka Bibi) went too. We were supposed to be at the wedding at 9am but I don’t think we even left the night market until 9am. Being late is not something to be anal about in Ghana, it’s just how it is. So we took a taxi to Lapas and then walked around for a while because we didn’t know where the church was. We didn’t get to the church until 10:45am but fortunately (or not maybe), Ghanaian Christian weddings are about four hours. There’s pretty much a whole church service within the wedding. The bride and groom looked really nice. It’s not completely clear to me, but I guess the bride was the niece of a woman who also works in the night market. Maybe? After the wedding, we went to a reception outside of a hotel. It was pretty westernized. They had a DJ and a buffet line of Ghanaian food and they cut the cake… It started raining really hard after pretty much everyone had gotten food. The rain only last about a half an hour though. Then we danced a little.

After we left the reception, Nana and I went to Neema to visit a Hausa (a tribe from Northern Ghana) Muslim community. Nana knew them because she had lived with one of the girls when she was in secondary school in Tamale and was really good friends with her. We visited this compound which was only for women to live in together. I guess the women live there together when they have children and want help raising them or pretty much at any point in their lives even when they’re married. It’s just a community of women that support each other from what I gathered. I had a weird feeling of empowerment being surrounded by that many women (probably like 30 that I saw). I only saw men in passing. The women all seemed really strong too. Women in Ghana have a lot of responsibilities, more than men. They’re responsible for raising children, taking care of the household, and also generating an income. So we hung out there for a while. I sat in a room of elderly Hausa women for a while who really don’t speak an English and I know no Hausa. Then I sat out with some younger women and played with their kids. I also got measured for a dress. Nana had told me that she got fabric for me and would take me to get a dress. I think she had an idea of me getting something more formal to wear but I really didn’t know what style was appropriate so I let her pick. I think the dress is going to involve sleeves and ruffles so we’ll see how it goes but at least I’ll have something nice to wear to formal occasions.

On Sunday, Nana, Balaraba, and I were to go back to Neema for a wedding in the Hausa community. The wedding is actually four days long so it started on Thursday but apparently most of the preparation is just cooking for Sunday. In the morning I went to Nana’s house and hung out while she went to a meeting and got ready. I watched her mom bake some bread, her sister braid a girl’s hair, and read a little. I had some waakye for lunch and then we left for Neema. When we got there the compound was packed with women except for a few men drumming. We ate some TZ (short for Teezat or something… I’m not really sure how it’s spelled). TZ is very similar to banku and fufu but I guess you don’t know what those are either. TZ is pretty much a ball of maize dough (I think fufu is cassava dough) that you eat with your fingers and dip in a soup. I had never eaten it before. I had only eaten fufu. It was pretty good. The thing about those three foods is that you’re not supposed to chew them, you just let it slide down your throat which is kind of a trick. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t my favorite either. I’m at least thankful that it wasn’t really spicy like a lot of Ghanaian food is. The soup had beef in it which I was a little wary of eaten but it was really good and familiar tasting. After we ate, we went out to the street where they had a circle of chairs and a DJ.

They did this wedding activity/wedding presents thing… I don’t really know what you’d call it. Four women at a time would get up and dance to a song. Then other people could go exchange a cedi for some Nigerian bills and with the bills they would kind of throw them at the women dancing. I’d liken it to “making it rain” if it was a club. J So basically the idea of it was, the cedis that people give go as a gift to the bride. They used Nigerian money though just because they are smaller denominations so it looks like your throwing more. But after you exchange your cedi and throw the Nigerian money, the money is just picked up and used again. And it makes it a fun game because you can throw money at whoever you want. It be a fun game to play to bring home to use as a fundraiser or something but I don’t think American students can keep a throw-money-at-dancing-people game as innocent as Muslim women can. I got up and danced a couple times and people threw money at me. Once in a while the bride would come in and dance. I threw money at her once which is naturally when people would do it the most. Each time she would stop in at the party she would have new outfit on. She looked gorgeous. You’ll have to look at my pictures to see. Towards the end of the party people started handing out party favors. Guests would bring some party favors to pass out, like Nana brought a lot of little ketchup bottles. So I ended up with a lot of random party favors including: a cartoon of orange juice, a bottle of cocktail juice, some jelly biscuits, laundry detergent, dish soap, ketchup, and a little jar of mayo. I’m not really sure what I’ll do with a lot of those things. I tried to say no because I didn’t need them and I don’t think there was enough to go around but that was a rude thing to do.

There was some other drama in the International Student Hostel this weekend. I guess some girls started fighting and one got a bottle broken over her head and another got beat up. I don’t know… it’s crazy. They’ve gotten kicked out of campus housing but I don’t know what else is going to happen. This morning I went to class. Same old, same old. I’m skipping one class because it’s taking me so long to write this blog. I’m putting it up on Monday because tomorrow I’m going to go volunteer at a school. This weekend I think I’ll be going to Cote d’Ivore. I’ll need to get my visa on Wednesday so hopefully it won’t be too much trouble. I think that’s pretty much all that’s been going on with me. I’ll be posting some pictures and videos from the weddings.