"I been perchin'"
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Ongoing
Legon, Ghana
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Besides making silly dances and songs, I have been busy with lots of fun things. Last week a few of us went back to Alliance Francaise to watch an African Drum and dance ensemble perform and I ended up joining them during their last dance! It was so fun and funny cause most of the movement consisted of shaking your hips while bending over, and it quite an experience doing it in front of a group of people. A few nights after that Julia and I went out with some sweet Nigerian girls we met, which was fun because they brought us around to three different places. We then went bowling and out to dinner with 4 of them a few days later and it was really nice to hang out with people who are familiar with the area.
Last Sunday a few friends and I took a tro-tro to a coffee shop called Max Mart that serves brewed(!) coffee and sandwiches. The cheese here(and everything else at the grocery stores) is waay over-priced and the restaurants don't use much dairy but the coffee place had brie and all different kinds of cheeses. It was so nice to get brie and baguette bread and real coffee that I have been missing so much (you can only get Nescafe at most places). After eating we read a little bit, and it was the perfect setting to just relax and unwind in from the week.
I finally got my class schedule figured out! We had a drop/add period of two weeks and I didn't think I would need it but I definitely did because there were so many classes to choose from I had a hard time deciding on them. Before I came I knew I wanted to take mostly dance classes because that is a big reason why I came to Ghana so I am taking 200 level Traditional Dance and 200 Dance Technique as well as 300 level Traditional Dance. I'm also taking 200 level Traditional Drumming which started out slow but picked up quickly. I love the sound of the D'jembe but the Kpanlogo drum is native to Ghana and is the most common drum in Ghana so that is what we learn on. It has a lower sound to it and you play it with sticks and your hands. In addition to dance and drum classes I am taking Geography of Gender and Development (to count towards my Women Studies minor) and Conflict and Society in Africa. 6 classes + our 6-week Twi class is a lot but the dance classes are so fun and mood-elevating that I knew I had to dance every day of the week. In addition to the dance classes Julia and I are dancing in a student choreographed piece that we are performing at the end of the semester. I'm really excited because it is a modern piece, with an African twist. The dance is about death and resurrection, but only one part of it is about Jesus, specifically. I've never been in a religious piece (spiritual, maybe) but religion here is so engrained in the culture that I was not surprised that the piece had a religious undertone. In fact, we dance to Christian highlife/ Caribbean-sounding music in every one of our technique classes and everyone knows the words.
Speaking of religion... my experience here so far has really forced me to examine my own beliefs on the topic and I realized that I really haven't thought about why I am not religious in so long. I have not met any Nigerian or Ghanaian who isn't religious and who doesn't go to church every Sunday but some people are very open-minded and easy to talk to about religion. However, I have had a few experiences with people who weren't so open-minded. One guy came up to me about a week and a half ago and asked if I had gone to church that morning and when I told him no told me that I need to realize that Jesus is my savior. I said "please" to be polite and he understood and left, so it wasn't a frustrating conversation. My second experience was a little different.... a guy who I met in a dance class texted me one day and said "Hi, how are you doing? Hope you're doing well. Are you religious? Do you take Jesus Christ to be your lord and savior? Are you born again?" I was confused by the text but decided to answer him out of pure curiosity of his next text so I replied "good, how are you. No, I am not religious, why do you ask?" He responded with at least 5 different sayings from the bible about faith, a confession that he wanted me to repeat to God to forgive me for being a sinner, and an urging for me to read the bible and to invite him over so he can share the word of the Lord with me. He told me to tell my roommate to do the same, which doesn't make sense because he doesn't know who my roommate is and she is, indeed, religious. I didn't know how to react initially, in fact, because I didn't know really how abnormal that kind of behavior is. I learned from my Nigerian friends that although he was saying those things with good intentions, that it was over-the-top and a bit inappropriate.
I mentioned earlier that people here are freer in the way that they sing and dance and express themselves very openly but many people here, students too, seem to conform to societal norms automatically. What I picked up thus far from what students say in my Gender and Development class is that gender roles are very much defined and followed in the way that women cook and clean and men work outside the home and get upset if there isn't food waiting for them when they return. A good thing is it is now not uncommon for women to leave the marriage if they are unhappy so the culture here is becoming increasingly more progressive, but it is interesting to realize how used to being around socially progressive thinkers I have gotten. Here, they say that society, rather than the law "makes the rules" so not conforming seems to be considered more disrespectful than anything else.
The night before we left for our weekend excursion we met a few friends at Chez Afrique, a bar and restaurant that has live highlife music on Friday nights. It was fun to dance in a relaxed atmosphere and I definitely want to go back there. After dancing and hanging out for a little bit a few of us left to go meet our Nigerian girlfriends at Xclusive Lounge. It is indeed, exclusive (apparently you have to know someone to get in) and even though my friend told me to dress up I didn't bring high heels to Ghana with me so I wore flip flops. Lo and behold, I almost didn't get in, which wouldn't have been devastating- the lounge was about 1/3 full and the people that were there were mostly girls in skimpy, yet fancy dresses and creepy old white men staring at these girls. After I did get in I ordered a drink, not thinking anything about it, and when we left they tried to charge me 25 cedis, which is about 20 US dollars! They charged the guys that we were with 10 cedis each for 1 beer. It was so ridiculous but we worked them down so they only charged me 10, which is still pretty expensive. I am glad I got to see how some students here spend their weekends but I was definitely not prepared (mentally and clothing wise) for such a fancy place.
After a few hours of sleep, we woke up to start our trip to the beautiful Cape Coast area, where we visited Elmina slave castle and the Kakum National Park canopy walk. The slave castle is apparently the oldest European building outside of Europe, built in the 1400s. It was really a very sad and surreal experience to be in the actual place where so much evil happened. The tour was very informative and interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmina_Castle has more information on the castle. The canopy walk was very fun and not as scary as I thought it would be- It was very high but maybe I'm getting over my fear of heights. It was amazing to be alongside the tree tops in a rainforest and I would definitely recommend it for anyone traveling to Ghana.
Only one girl on our program has gotten sick so far, which is good considering the various illnesses that we have been scared into thinking we have every few days, especially typhoid and malaria. These sicknesses would be horrible for a few days but they are nowhere as serious as most people think they are. We have to take malaria medication because our immune systems aren't built up to fight it off, but people here get malaria like we get the flu. Apparently the reason why so many children in Africa (1 every 30 seconds) die from malaria is because their symptoms go untreated, either from lack of money to afford proper treatment or ignorance on the part of their caretakers. Ghana does have free basic health care and free public education, so Ghana, especially in comparison to other African nations is doing well in encouraging their citizens to gain an education and get proper healthcare treatment. In fact, a lot of the Ghanaian students here get help in paying for their tuition and they pay the government back by completing about a year of service after they graduate. For the service the student has to work somewhere and get paid minimally, but after that is done, they are dept-free and ready to start a career. I'll be paying back loans until I am about 70 years old... but I do realize how truly lucky I am to be here and to be able to receive a great education back home.
Alright, well that is all for now! I hope everyone at home is braving the cold well J Miss and love you all.
