I still love Ghana.

So spring break was absolutely incredible. Yeah....

Tuesday night, my first night back in Ghana, at dinner with the group, just as we were about to finish dinner, Tanesha stood up to address everyone and ask us if after being back from spring break we were happy to be back in Ghana or if we were ready to go home. It was so obvious that she was asking the group this because the table she was sitting at had a few girls that absolutely despise being in Ghana. It’s so sad and unfortunate because I really love it here. I happened to be sitting with a bunch of people who LOVE it here so that was good. But people were straight up saying that if they had the chance, they’d go home yesterday. When I was on spring break, I loved talking about Ghana with everyone and telling them about my new temporary home. I started to miss it so much so I was so happy to be back so hearing that people were so unhappy to be back made me sad. I just realized that you have to want to be happy where you are and if you’re not in that mindset, you’ll be just as happy or unhappy as you want to be – and for these girls, I think they’ve made up their minds to be unhappy here and don’t want to give Ghana another chance. I just wanted to say we still have two more months here, make the most of it! You’re going to regret it so much if you don’t. And thankfully little Gaby did just that. I don’t think the people who dislike it here were even listening but whatever. We all (the happy ones) aren’t going to let the downers bring us down, because we’re having so much fun and really enjoying it here. I actually bought a little notebook the other day to start writing all the things I’m going to miss about Ghana… even the annoying stuff haha, just because.

Wednesday, we had a very interesting photo class with a female Ghanaian photojournalist named Mardey who talked about how she’s trying to expose the slums of Ghana to show the government how things are getting better, but they’re still not good. Then we had recitation with none other than wonderful Auntie Busia, my new favorite person. She is so interesting. First of all, I had no idea she was so important in Ghanaian history… rather her father. I read the readings on the plane home from spring break and was just in awe of her writing. She gave us a history timeline of Ghana that she wrote, an essay about photography that she wrote, and a few other readings dealing with Kwame Nkrumah and other things from Ghana’s history. From the readings and from simply being in Ghana, I was getting mixed impressions of what people thought of Kwame Nkrumah. I also picked up from the readings that her father was the opposing party’s (United Party) party leader against Kwame Nkrumah. So, in class, when we first got there, Auntie Busia asked if anyone had any questions… my question for her was, “What do people actually think about Kwame Nkrumah? Is he good or bad?” Her answer to me basically took up 75 percent of the class. I had no idea how complicated the answer would be. And really, I’m not going to be able to do the answer justice that she gave me. But basically, to some he’s a hero, and to some, he’s a villain. She said, “Kwame Nkrumah is what is both wonderful and terrible about charismatic leadership.” Who talks like this? She’s just so well spoken and educated and incredible. She said I’d never get the same answer from two people about what they think of Nkrumah. She explained that the reason that her father was so important in the development of the country was because he “united all the fragmented all the opposition parties.” She said there are so many reasons why she should hate Nkrumah, but she still respected that he brought the country freedom, although he was directly and indirectly involved in the deaths of The Big Six. She said that what Kwame Nkrumah was doing was defining what Ghana is, just like our founding fathers did for the USA – “what I say is who we are” – Kwame Nkrumah. She talked about how there is no “rhyme or reason” why the United States should work. We all come from different backgrounds, countries, etc. but because of our founding fathers and the foundation they set, our country works. And because of this, she says she really understands the need for something like the Pledge of Allegiance. She explained how when in Ghana, Ghanaians refer to themselves as being from their specific region, but when abroad they are all simply Ghanaians. We also discussed how there are certain natural boundaries within Africa, like Lake Volta, but then the Europeans came in and arbitrarily divided the countries how they wanted to. They didn’t pay attention to the history or cultures that reside in these places, but rather just did what they wanted. She explained that this is why there are Ewes in both Ghana and in Togo, when really they should probably all be one nationality. This is about all I (/Tina) wrote down from the class, because Auntie Busia was literally talking TO ME the whole class and I didn’t want to be rude and start writing notes during her lecture. I have so much respect for this lady and I’m still so thankful that I’m in this recitation course. Sorry that was so scatterbrained and in general probably meant nothing to all of you unless you’ve read up on your Ghana history.

Thursday, I went to class as usual, then after class, Mike, Tina, and I went to La Enobal School, where Tina teaches, to help with the after school program that Gaby set up. Gaby wanted to implement the arts for these kids because all they are exposed to in class are subjects that are strictly academic. It’s a really great program and even after the one time that I helped, I felt so good about what I was doing, more so than I ever did while at AACT (which, by the way, I’m going to talk to the director and tell her I am not going to go back). For our after school program, Gaby told us to do something with music. So Mike brought his guitar and we decided that we’d sing them one American song, have them sing us a Ghanaian song, and then they’d write their own song and sing it for the group. We were kind of worried that they wouldn’t really go along with it, but these kids were so into it. It was so wonderful. We sang “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash for the kids, they sang a song for us, and then we got them into small groups to write a song. They were all so good! Three out of the four groups wrote about something religious, one of the groups rapped in Ga (another one of the traditional languages here), one of them sang about how they only wanted love from their family, not money, cars, or shoes, and one of them wrote a gospel song. When it was time to perform, they were all racing to go first. They all did so well and everyone was so into it. It was so great. On our way home we talked about how if you asked a bunch of American sixth to seventh graders to do what they did, they’d never do it because they’d be so self-conscious, unless it was all the theatre-ish kids… I mean, I know I probably wouldn’t have done it. Basically, I had a really good time and I’m going to go as much as I can.

Friday, Mallory, Gaby and I went to Makola market to buy fabrics and gifts for our friends at home. We had so much fun. Most of the women at the market are so outgoing and fun and love to bargain with us. I bought a bunch of fabric, some beads, and some notebooks that I’d been looking for for a while. It was so nice, a bunch of the ladies in the market recognized me becase of my birthmark. They said, "Hey! You were here a couple months ago" and when I asked them how they remember, they'd point next to their eye. The best part of the afternoon was Mallory’s lesson to one of the lady’s we bought batik from. Initially, Mallory asked the woman if since she was buying a lot if she’d give her a discounted price. After Mallory had literally picked out like 6 fabrics and had her cut different amounts of each, the woman gave her a total of 35 Ghana Cedi… precisely the amount that it was worth. So Mallory tried to go down to 25 and she was having nothing of it. Mallory just kept saying, “You’re not even bargaining with me”… “You told me you’d lower the price”… and as we were leaving (Mallory ended up paying the 35 Cedi), she told her never to agree to lower the price if she wasn’t going to because it was rude and not good saleswomaning…basically. It was so funny. Hopefully she learned her lesson. On the tro tro ride home, the whole tro tro was enjoying our obruniness and basically laughing at us the whole time. It was so funny. They loved that we knew a little Twi and that we knew a little about Ghana. The guy sitting next to Mallory gave each of us a handwritten note saying, “Hi my name is Danny, I want to be your friend. This is my number …. And my email”. We asked him why he didn’t just talk to us and he said he didn’t want to interrupt which was nice, but how funny is that? I almost felt like he was one of those deaf people who pass out notes asking if I’d like to buy their stickers or candy… but really he was just trying to be polite. Men are so forward here it’s quite funny.

Some recent texts from my new Ghanaian male friends:
“A shining angel stands beside ur silky bed, pouring flowers on u, calling ur nice name n wishing u gud9t.” - From George

If someone could please interpret this, I’d be ever so thankful.

“I’m fine n u. I jux wanted to know if u were safe n back in Ghana. I hope u enjoyin ur stay here n I hop 2 see u again.Greetings 2 ur all.U luk pretty in my eyes.” - From Philip

So it seemed normal… until the end.

Andrea also had some incredibly funny texts… I’ll post those sometime…..

Anyway, that night we attended a funeral for a man we know nothing about… not even his name really. It was pretty bizarre. All we knew was that we should wear white, not black and red like most funerals, because he died over the age of 80. That he was a famous Ghanaian musician. That it was going from 6pm to 6am. And that it was at the State House. John Collins, our African Popular Music professor, told us about it yesterday during class. He told us there would be tons of people there and that there would be lots of music, dancing, and fun. It sounded like a party. Basically everyone in NYU in Ghana was going to attend. Seven of us left a little earlier than the rest to see what it was all about. Gaby, Tina, Mallory, Marlee, Jackie, Caroline, and I all dressed in our whites/pale yellows and grabbed a taxi for the State House. We asked Debbie and Chris (our CRAs) if they knew anything of this… they didn’t. We asked the taxi driver if he’d heard of it. Nope. Basically, we all looked quite silly in our all whites. (Kind of like we were going to Pi Phi Initiation… I just missed it by a few weeks and a continent away.) We got to the venue. Hundreds of chairs set up. Red and black awnings… we got worried that maybe we were inappropriately dressed. But then we saw a bunch of people in white attire so we knew we were in the right place. Just about right when we got there, a dancing group started. They were all dancing in front of this wax figure of the musician… or so we thought. The music and dancing was so upbeat, and they were all paying their respect to the dead. (We still didn’t really know his name at this point.) Some people even got pictures in front of it! After this dance was over, we saw Professor John Collins and asked him about the service. He said he was about to go on stage with his son and that the wax figure that was displayed in front was in fact Guy Warren (Kofi Ghanaba). Guy Warren was dressed in this white, iridescent traditional Ghanaian outfit and looked like he was playing drums. It was actually quite eerie. I’ve never seen a dead body… I don’t think. So Guy Warren was my first. Professor John Collins went on stage and I really enjoyed his music. Then after him came some other interesting musicians/dancers – playing Fur Elise in a very Mario Kart/Nokia ring tone type fashion, and interpretive dance to go along. We decided to go because the funeral wasn’t exactly what we had expected and we had How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days waiting for us at home. As we were leaving, we saw Christa, the director of the NYU in Ghana program, who told us a little bit about Guy. She said that his family was actually very upset about the funeral, especially having his body displayed, because they said Guy was a very shy man when all was said and done and that he would not have appreciated the way his death was dealt with. This was interesting to hear, and kind of sad, because here we are, knowing really nothing about this guy, and we’re attending a funeral that he probably wouldn’t have wanted us at. Oh well… it was an interesting experience and we got to hang out with a dead guy (no pun intended).

**Note: We just found out that Guy Warren actually died in December. So his body has been hanging out for over three months.


Saturday, Leah and I wanted to work on our documentary-making project. But yet again, the key to the editing room was nowhere to be found. So… we have to do the whole FESPACO project on Monday. After hanging out in the Academic Center for a while looking up classes to register for for my first semester of senior year, bahumbug… we made some yummy hummus and then headed off for the Togo vs Cameroon World Cup Qualifier game. We were told so many different times that the game was possibly starting at. We got to the stadium around 3:30 and had the taxi drop us at the ticketing office. INSANITY ENSUED. There were soooo many people outside of the ticket office. And people were basically moshing and pushing us around and everyone was trying to get to the front of the line. People reaching in our pockets, touching our legs, just craziness. Some guy kept rubbing Mallory’s legs. It was so weird. At one point, this guy seemed to be asking Mallory if he could pass by her so she moved out of the way and nodded, but really he was asking her for her water bottle… upon realizing this, she immediately exclaimed, “Oh, no this is my water bottle.” It was pretty funny. After waiting a pretty long time in the 3 Cedi line… we saw a VIP 10 Cedi line. We gave all of our money to Eric to get tickets. He was gripping our money in his hands so tight it looked like he was going to puncture his palms with his nails. We waited, and waited. Eric came back with no tickets. So that was a no go. We could hear the game starting. We heard the first goal scored. There was no way we were going to not get into this game. Mike and Danny tried bribing the police officers. People tried to knock down huge iron doors. We tried pushing our way in, until the police officer brought out a taser gun… then we were out of there. Tried buying from a scalper outside, he didn’t have enough for all of us. Then finally we found a door that was open with not too many people outside. Everyone paid off the police officer… and for some reason, I got in for free, so did Mallory. Finally we were in. It was half time, but it was so incredible to finally get inside the stadium. The energy in there was crazy! Everyone was decked out in yellow, green, and red… those are both Togo and Cameroon’s colors (and Ghana’s! They won their game on Sunday too! Yay!). We walked around for a while until we found seats half way up midfield. Perfect seats. Right in the middle of all the Togolese craziness! We were all rooting for Togo, since they are our neighbors, and most of us have been there (I’m planning to go in a couple of weekends). When we got to the game it was already 1 – 0 Togo winning. When I looked it up online Cameroon was predicted to win 2 – 0. So I was expecting someone to score… actually hoping someone would, from either time. But unfortunately, no one scored while we were there. The game ended and the Togolese were SO EXCITED. It was so cute. They were squirting their sashay waters as if they were champagne bottles and screaming and dancing and hugging us and just so funny. I got some great videos on my little camera of these people – they were hilarious. Oh, and we were a total tourist attractions. Everyone wanted a picture with us. They all wanted our phone numbers too. I feel kind of bad, except not at all, but I gave like three people a wrong number because well I don’t know them. One of them was spelling my name in his phone – Trefen. We left the game got some drinks, then went home, help pound some fufu and eat groundnut soup with fufu, and watched a movie. What a fun day! Oh and did I mention that there was a little person completely covered in red, yellow, and green body paint. What a sight.

Since nothing too exciting since then besides writing my paper for Abnormal Psychology on eating disorders and working on our FESPACO documentary.. some thought provoking reading: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/28/pitts.black.america/index.html

Oh, and spring break update to come soon. That’ll probably be even longer. Geez, I better get writing.

Love love love love love.