Saturday, May 21, 2011

May 18th

D: "Oh please don't shave your hair!"

M: I won't, cause I want to see how long it can get. "It's a love/hate... curious/hate relationship" I have with my leg hair.

Update: All three of us are still holding out with the shaving contest-- Michelle wins for longest leg hair, Deidre is in second and I'm in third (but I swear it is only because a lot of my hair is blond so you cannot see it). One thing I'm coming to LOVE about Ghana is the rain.... "I miss the rain down in Aaaaa-frica....... I don't know the rest of the song.....". It has rained 8 out of the 14 days we have been here, and I am loving it. The sound of the rain tinkling on the tin-roof, or the sound of the rain hitting the inside of the buckets we put out to catch the rainfall; or how it cools the temperature down magically; or how everything becomes quiet, even the roosters stop crowing.

--------- WEEKLY UPDATE------------- CORRINE'S SENIOR PROJECT------------------

So I'm in Africa to study dance right? Well, it is all turning out to be somewhat different than what I imagined-- not in a bad way though. My bishop (or church leader over my congregation) back in Utah gave me words of advice before I left. One thing he promised me, no doubt inspired by God, was that the hiccups and bumps I meet along the way will be for the better. I keep reminding myself of that as I try to get my game plan situated for my project. I've been thinking a lot about going to Kumasi and visiting the university there-- to talk with their "cultural studies" people about dance-- good idea or bad? What do you think? I think it is worth a shot... particularly since, according to Esther, they don't teach dancing here in the schools.

Besides that, I am learning a lot about what it means to be an ethnographer, and how to go about actually documenting my experience here.

ethnographer: I think it depends on who you ask what this actually means but from my understanding-- it is what you call a person doing field research (basically, it is what an anthropologist is called when actually doing research... and anyone who isn't technically an anthropologist can be called this as well). Here are several other definitions from a book I've been reading, Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes, of what an ethnographer actually does:

a. "the ethnographer seeks a deeper immersion in others' worlds"

b. "anthropologists [and/or ethnographers] are those who write things down at the end of the day"

c. my personal favorite::: "the ethnographer's task is to write description that leads to an empathetic understanding of the social worlds of others"

May 14th

So to send our emails and do some shopping, we had to go to... *dun, dun, dunnnnnn* KUMASI!

Kumasi: The second largest city in Ghana, and is crazy to navigate. Just picture New York City, with vendors selling shoes, clothes and sunglasses; only here, you got to add locks, floor tile and fabric as common things to be selling. Kumasi is known for its large outdoor market that is called the Kejetia Market.

**** All in all, we liked Kumasi better this time around. But the reason I'm writing is to tell you a story- an experience we had there. Here it goes:

After emailing, Michelle, Deidre and I headed to the Opoku Trading Market to buy some supplies for our Nut Soup Esther is making us tomorrow. (Ps. This soup is A-MAH-ZING and we get to eat it with fu-fu.....)

fu-fu: I think that is how you spell it. You make it by cooking plantains and casava, mashing it up in a bowl by pounding it with a stick. Once they are all mashed up, one person continues pounding while another person folds the dough over and over until it is done. It is a beautiful thing, the rhythm of it all. I really like foo-foo but my body can only handle so much starch! It is not Michelle and Deidre's favorite thing about Ghana.

**** Anyhoo, we were on our way to the market, in fact, right across the street from it, when we came across a woman selling peanuts and what looked like peanut butter. We asked her how much it was- "5 cedi, 50 pesewa". "Um...," Michelle said, "That is kind of a lot... We are going to the store so we will check there first and then come back". The woman raised her voice, stood up and said, not in a harsh way mind you but firm... definitely firm "Not the market! This is better quality! This is very very good quality!" She then grabs one of the containers, twists off the top and points the lid towards us so we can have a taste. We all "oh and 'yum'" our way through the pinkie-swip of peanut butter that we have in our mouths and again tell her that we don't really need it so if we have money left over, we will think about buying some.

We do our shopping at the market, only to realize that we really do need the nut paste so off we go, heading back in the direction of this woman so we can see if we can get it for cheaper (we really like trying our hand at bartering with the vendors-- well, Michelle and Deidre do. If you know me, then you'd know how terribly bad I would be at that). We say hello to her and we tell her that indeed we want to buy some peanut butter. She asks us where we are from, we say "America" and that was a magic word or something because she went off saying things like "oh America, we like America!"

"America is good, good, good, good, good" (To which we respond "No, Ghana is good, good, good, good".... They liked that)

"America, and Ghana, and Britain.. the same mother and father", clasping her hands together in unity. She repeated this sentence in different variety probably four or five times.

"We like America, and Ghana, and Britain"

"Not France" shaking her head in a negative way

**** We shook our heads in agreement, even with the French comment (and I swear... I like the French... it just seemed like we needed to agree with her) :) Overall, she was animated and quite enjoyable to talk with (I'm soooo sad I can't remember her name). However, the conversation drifted back to the peanut butter.... we tried bartering and she wouldn't budge. She insisted that it was worth GHC 5 (that is how they write their money, it just means 5 Ghana cedi) because it was such good quality. I think to help prove her point even more, she gives us each a handful of her peanuts,,, they were really really good. Thanks to Michelle, we wouldn't budge either till finally she said we could get an even smaller one for GHC 3 and 50 pesewa. Deal! She found a smaller container, added the peanut butter and then we parted ways. The end.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

MAY 13th

May 13th:

So I realized tonight that I might want to explain who the KEY PLAYERS are in my life right now (those in Ghana) so when I talk about them, you can picture them in your head.

Me: My name is Corrine. I'm 23 yrs old, from North Carolina and am an Anthropology Major at BYU. I have a buzzed head (pretty awesome... I know), wear skirts everyday since I've been in Africa, and haven't shaved in eight days.

Diedre: She is 21 yrs old, from Idaho and is a Public Health Major at BYU. She is uber cute, has light brown hair that is always in a ponytail and one of her favorite things to talk about is food. Deidre also has not shaved in eight days.

Michelle: She is 24 yrs old, and definitely the mother of the group. She is from St. Louis and is a Geography major. Her hair is brown and almost to her shoulders but you wouldn't be able to see it because she is always wearing this "I'm headed to the beach" looking hat that she wears all the time. Michelle loves to schedule things and has a really cute laugh. She hasn't shaved in eight days either.

**** Us three lovely ladies who decided it would be a good idea to spend the summer in GHANA, also decided to see who could go the longest without shaving- hence that detail added at the end of each bio. (Don't worry-- I'll be sure to keep you updated on that status as the summe progresses.... it looks like Michelle might be caving already!) Besides having shaving contests, eating baked ground nuts, and doing our laundry by hand, we ALSO will be studying the people and learning more about the culture. Me, I'm studying dance; Deidre is studying maternal health; Michelle is studying the health clinic and its self- sustainability. Where in exactly in Ghana will we be doing all of this fun stuff? We are residing in a town called WIAMOSE.

Wiamose: This lovely town, roughly seven hours from Accra, is both charming and steep. (I'm telling you... it is going to take me all summer to be able to run up the hill that goes into town... it's so long... and steep!) This town has around 11,000 people and everyone is so nice... They have just about everything here-- a health clinic, several schools, a market place, and even your normal assortment of churches to choose from! They speak Twi here and laugh everytime we say what little Twi we know.

*** I think we are really going to like it here. All the children run up the street when they see us, in their school uniforms which I swear makes them a million times more cute, shouting "obruni, obruni" (which means "white person" in Twi) and saying "how are you?". We reply and then they run off. So cute! In the town of Wiamoase, there is a lovely woman named Esther who lets us rent two rooms in her home.

Esther: She is our host mother. She has medium-length brown hair with golden highlights and bangs. She is always wearing beautiful dresses and greets us every night with a smile. She is one of the busiest women I know--she is up every morning at 5:30am cleaning, or cooking, or doing laundry. From there, she leaves to go teach at the secondary school all day and is back by 5:30 or sometimes 6:00pm. She is one of the nicest women I know-- always thinking of others (particularly me, Deidre, and Michelle) and will cook us food, when we don't have any, no matter how tired she is!

**** Already we have come to LOVE Esther and rely on her like she is our mother-- in a lot of ways, she will always have a place in our hearts as such. So this blog is dedicated to the journey of my summer in Ghana and because tomorrow (our EIGHTTH day in Ghana) will be our first day at the INTERNET CAFE, and it'll probably just be a weekly thing so enjoy..... the adventures have only just begun. And please, I know you are all dying to see who shaves first!

MAY 5th- MAY 7th

May 5th:
I woke up today with butterflies in my stomach. "What are these butterflies here for?" was my first thought. Then, like a ton of bricks it hit me- I'm going to Ghana. In less than three hours I will be on a flight headed across the Atlantic Ocean to a place that has always been but a dream. So right now, I'm sitting in seat 35B on Delta Airlines headed to Atlanta, GA. I'll have a three-hour layover and then it's off to Accra (pronounced Uh-craw). I'm not nervous, I wouldn't say that I had really ever been nervous about spending my summer in Africa-- partially because I've wanted this for so, bu the other part is because I feel as if I know them-- I know the people of Ghana. And because of that feeling, I love them. Feeling love for people I hardly know is something I learned to feel on my mission; what an incredible experience it is to sincerely love and wish the best for total strangers but it is one of the gifts of missionary work. And I'll tell you, it feels so sweet to be able to feel it again for the Ghanaian people... in fact, it does kind of feel like I'm going on a mission-- a three-month one. I must admit that I relish in this feeling for purely selfish reasons (I miss the feelings of missionary work more than anything, and I would do anything to feel them again... part of me wonders if that will be one thing that will keep my going during my stay in Ghana).
So with my knowledge and love in tow, I'm heading off for an experience that will forever change my life-- and this I am confident about-- that the Corrine that is writing this post will not be the same Corrine three months from now. Boy am I excited about that!!

May 7th:
Things already learned:
1. Ghanaians know what they want to do, and start doing it-- even without your permission. I cannot tell you how many times our bags were jus grabbed and we had to say "whoa, whoa! what are you doing with those? where do you want us to go?" It is not in a "I'm going to steal your bags" type of way but this is how they do business; it may be aggressive but we have learned that it is okay to be aggressive right back.
2. We have spent the entire semester pronouncing our town "Wii-ah-mwoah-say" just to come here and realize that no one knows what we are saying. Well, it is not because people don't know where it is but because we are saying it wrong! HA! They pronounce it: "Ny-ah-mah-say". Pretty different huh? It's a hard habit to break but we are working on it.
3. We are going to LOVE it here!! We spent the morning walking around the college campus we stayed at and just loving life. Sure, we might be in the honeymoon stage of this experience but it's a good stage to be in. Everyone is helpful whenever we ask them questions, etc.
4. Everytime I have talked to someone on the phone, whether it be Esther or Bro. Boakye (a member of the branch presidency), they always say "buh-bye for now". I wonder if this is something that is common-- we'll have to see!