You're Not Slaying Dragons

One week til my half-way point, and I can’t help but feeling like I’m in some sort of limbo. I have found that I’ve adapted well enough to get myself around and to successfully do my job, and now I don’t know how to make this a successful trip. My perspective has changed in so many different ways, it’s hard to know how to make decisions with it.

When I first arrived in Ghana, I very much had the American “if-it’s-broken-I-can-fix-it” attitude. I think most American’s have this attitude. In a sense, we’re raised with it. We’re taught to be ambitious and think outside the box in order to succeed. Our own government does it, deciding to march into Syria or Iraq to solve their civil disputes, putting everyone with little money on welfare, etc.

Coming to Africa with that kind of perspective was not going to help anything, I quickly realized. There is too much to DO with that kind of perspective. You see open sewers with black sludge going down the streets. You see people dumping and burning their trash on the side of the road, with no organized trash collection system. Half-completed buildings lay scattered across Ghana’s villages, uncompleted due to the government forcing people to come in and get permits before they build and no one comes in. I go to these schools where children are taught math, science, social studies, English, French, and other subjects, yet no one knows about how to appropriately wash their hands or brush their teeth. I go to the Junior High with kids ranging from 15-18 years old, and most of the kids don’t know how STI’s work or how you can get them. Because of this, many of the kids are already having unprotected sex and already have symptoms of STI’s.

It’s overwhelming. If I wanted to change the Ghanaian culture to what I perceived as the superior “Americanized” way, nothing would ever happen. The thing is, most Ghanaians know that they could have life better. Most desire to have an easier life. But they don’t know of anything different. They don’t know that they could have those sewage systems covered, for instance, or that they could have cheap, easy access to health care and their child wouldn’t die of malaria or tuberculosis. America is seen as the golden country of opportunity and wealth, but no one can afford to travel there, and America makes their visas difficult to get because the government knows people won’t go back once they get to the UnitedStates. As an American, I definitely am a picture of extreme wealth. Just my being here says that I had enough money to travel, whereas most Ghanaians could never make enough to afford a plane ticket in their lifetime. Everything I have says I’m wealthy. But what I’m trying to say is that if I want change, it is simply too big to handle on my own, and I am too much of an outsider. I’ve realized that if Ghana/Africa is going to have a higher way of living, the people have to want it and demand it on their own. Change has to come from within. America tossing them financial aid may help temporarily, but even that has a negative element because it encourages the attitude of hand-outs. I talked with my dad about this on the phone the other day, and he gave me a lot of comfort. He said that not every day is going to be like “slaying dragons.” You listen and observe so you can better understand how to apply yourself, then go from there. With the “helping profession”, you must look at your successes from the small changes people make. In my case, if I can get a boy to think twice about using a condom, then I’ve done my job. “Even Mother Teresa got discouraged”, my dad said.

I have found that I feel a lot of fulfillment when I teach, despite the discouragement and not knowing how to fully help in this county. I’m not sharing anything super complex or profound, but it feels really wholesome to me to stand back and watch how the children have participated and absorbed what I have taught. I like to think I did a good job when people ask a lot of questions, because I see that as their mind solidifying around the subject. There are such simple things that people don’t quite understand, and I’m sure has everything to do with culture. Last week I taught about Typhoid Fever to the village of Nyame Bekyere (Nyahmeh Bechray=God Provides). When teaching about how and when to wash their hands, a lady told me she saw on TV that you should wash your hands with running water, and she was asking if it matters whether or not you use a bowl to wash your hands or if you always use running water. For someone who came from a country where I ALWAYS had running water, of course I never personally asked this question. Just yesterday I was teaching HIV/AIDS/STI’s at the junior high, and I got so many questions about menstruation that my mom or teachers had answered for me years and years ago. Girls asked if pain in the abdomen was normal during their periods or if breast tenderness was normal. Girls who had just started their period didn’t know if it was normal to have a little blood one time, a lot another, or to go a few months without having a period. They didn’t understand ovulation or what hormones were. A junior high kid asked me if blood in his urine meant he was sick, and he didn’t know what I was talking about when I mentioned his kidneys or bladder (I was using a translator, for the record). I even had a teacher ask me what it meant when you pee and you have two streams instead of one, and that the popular belief meant that if you had two streams, you were having twins. There are so many small things that people never get to ask questions about, and it simultaneously shows to me just how many potential health problems people have here. It’s sad to see how much knowledge people miss out on. Heck, if I ever wanted to know something, I had a library full of information or I could get the internet at any time at school or home, not to mention I had educated parents and siblings who taught me well. They only have their teachers, their parents, their peers, and centuries-worth of myths, suspicious, and taboos to learn from. So in a way, it’s reassuring to know I can teach with my basic knowledge. Heaven knows how unqualified I feel for this job.

Baba Yetu

I’ve been having some potent thoughts lately this past week that I wanted to write down. It might come across as racist or judgmental, but I swear I mean no harm by it. What I want to say is from thoughts formed with profound respect and admiration, not condemnation or superiority.

I’ve been in Ghana for one month now, and I’m convinced I’m walking among the people most in touch with their ancient ancestry. Africa was where we can first date back to our earliest human life, and from what I’ve observed and experienced, Ghana’s rich in culture because they were the start of it all. Africa is where we all began, where we can mark the beginning of human life. Everything that man experienced to become the dominant, intelligent life form is manifested in the African culture. Maybe you can call it being “earthy” here, but there isn’t such a thing when your entire existence, your entire culture is submersed in what Americans call “earthy”. It seems like all that ancient knowledge of survival is still ingrained in the people.

Ugh. Let me see if I can explain better what I’m trying to say.

Ghana’s culture is very different from America’s. At first I thought of it as a little sexist, simple, and a little behind on the times. Now when I look at it from another perspective, I realize their whole culture revolves around the same type of early survival we believe early humans experienced. For instance, I was really humored by how Ghana is largely a Christian nation, but it’s still infused with their traditional beliefs centered on superstition, taboos, witchcraft, spirits, sacrificial rituals, and paganism. My friend Emmanuel tells me how he goes to Catholic and Methodist church, but he also has scars on his arms and hands where he cut himself for “protection against evil spirits.” Does this not show a deep level of adaptability? Maybe I’m stretching it, but it makes sense to me. After being the earliest wanderers, completely vulnerable to the changes in weather, food source, and shelter, you had to learn to adapt. When white men came to imprison and torture you, you adapted to their religion in hopes of a better life and a shred of mercy towards you. Even when it comes to the amount of violence Africa is well-known for, was there not violence between clans and tribes to eliminate competition for resources and danger for your family? Not that I’m saying the violence is good, it just makes sense for how it’s always BEEN. Africa is a difficult, changing country. In a country where you have to survive malaria, drought, hunger, and heat, you had to be incredibly adaptable. You were always on the move, and you survived by having small clans or tribes that could move together.

 Perhaps this loyalty and closeness with tribes also brings about how people interact here. Family heritage and ancestry still plays a big part in their major belief system. It is believed that their ancestor’s spirits can help or punish the living considering their daily acts. There is no sense of privacy or personal space when it comes to your village. If there is one, it is far more relaxed than the American perspective and I have yet to find the personal boundary line. Everyone wants to know your business, and if you don’t tell them directly, they’ll find out anyway. Maybe this is more because I’m an Obruni and I am a very curious specimen here, but everyone seems to know everything. Taxi drivers know I live in Essuekyier with Auntie Matilda. People know I am with ProWorld when I haven’t told anyone, and they know I work in Kakumndo with HEPENS. Everyone knows the ins and outs of my host mother’s life, and they tell me all they’ve discovered about my fellow interns that are stunningly accurate. Word gets around, you see. People just talk. Villages are unified together, and there are still Chiefs elected to represent the village and care for the villagers when Ghana has actual presidents to care for the country.

I’ve been impressed with the deeply ingrained wisdom Ghanaians have about the earth, and their sense of unity with the earth. Maybe I shouldn’t use the word unity because it implies equality….what I mean to say is that Ghanaians/Africans have been here longer than anyone, and know this land better than anyone. They have a deep understanding of how easily the world can change, and how we are all vulnerable to the earth’s changes. There can be no rain for months and months, which means no food. Fisherman are susceptible to the every changing tides of the sea, and may have prolonged months where the fish are rare. You use every part of the animal and eat every part you can, for you know not when you might get it again. You cultivate as many crops as you can in a season in hopes that they will all grow well, because if the rains don’t come this year, how will you feed your family and village? And if it rains come without ceasing (the “season where the clothes never dry”, my coworker says), then your crops are flooded out of their gardens and disease becomes rampant. The vast, untamed nature of Africa delays and inhibits trade and commerce, so you buy and eat when you can. Perhaps that’s why being fat here is a compliment, because it means you are well-fed and food has been in plenty.

These are photos from HEPENS Beach cleanup on Friday. When we were finished, we watched the fisherman pull in their nets for the morning.

They pulled for almost 2 hours. The net was bigger than I could have imagined, and they couldn't let go or the tide would pull it back in again. I was mesmerized by the fisherman's stamina.

There is so much humility and grace in Ghanaians. You wake up between the hours of 3 and 5 in the morning to beat the sun. They are constantly cleaning, traveling, lugging water, and selling until the sun goes down, and even then they are still cooking and working into the night. . I never see Ghanaians shy from hard work, because it’s just what has to be done. There aren’t any options of having someone do it for you. If society is going to function, everyone has to do their part.

This was considered a small load of fish for the day, but the big fish would go for higher prices.

 I really am growing a profound appreciation for Ghana and their culture. I love watching people work, I love seeing how they move and interact, and I love learning from them. And oh, they have so much to teach me. I have a feeling that when it's time for me to return to America, this post will be need to be edited for all the new things I've learned and new perspectives I've had.  I still have so much to observe and think about.