Junie's Online Thoughts
Saturday, March 15, 2003
After all that work....I caught a taxi to the school but when I got there, Vicki, the teacher, wasnt there. She had taken some time off because there was something wrong with her knee. I had sent a text message to her on Monday, but it was my fault for not confirming with her on Thursday. No one was expecting me....I just left all the supplies there and figured I would do it later. I called Vicki when I got home to make sure she was okay, and told her I would call her next week to see when she would return to class, and then I would return as well.
When I got home, I helped Jeremy make salsa, putzed around and got ready for the party. Drank a little too much, but had a really fun time. THere were TONS of people there, in fact I think every single white person in Accra came to the roof party. I knew about 20 of the 200+ folks there...but I dont think we ran out of beer until very late (we had 4 kegs).
Today Jeremy was hung over, so we are taking it easy. Bank, shopping, emails, and maybe Ryans tonight for the St. Patty's party. We got a car this last week from Jeremys friend Becky. Her friend was borrowing it and she worked out a deal where we could use it for the duration of our stay here, then her friend could just keep it forever after that. Jeremy had one lesson for stick shift from Erin, but I havent tried it yet. Hopefully it will all come back to me and I can just get over my worries about crazy Accra streets and just start driving. We might practice tomorrow....when the roads are more empty.
Friday, March 14, 2003
We're back at the new place, Connect Cafe, but for some reason it makes Hotmail move reeeeeeeally slow and I can barely check my email. Dont think I will be coming back here.
Today is the class. I reworked the lesson to where I talk about being an artist and thinking about what materials you need to use (cost, availability, restrictions). We are going to make beads out of flour, salt and water. (Thanks Angie for the recipe!) Im nervous as always, but also just want to get it over with. Im curious if it will go any differently. Im a bit worried....I will need to bake the kids' beads in our oven, but our stove leaks gas pretty bad. And if we are going to make jewelry next time out of the completed beads, I will have to buy all the string, extra beads and supplies. It gets really expensive......argh. There are just so many limitations to everything I want to do....either is so complicated and the kids have no reference for it, or the materials are very expensive and I have to foot the entire bill. I think I will see how this project goes, take a week off and then do one more project with them (the paper mache thing). Then I may call it quits with teaching. It takes so much out of me to prepare and psych myself up to go....that I am exhausted when Im done...and dont get feedback so I never know if what Im doing is crap or okay. ANYWAY, enough about that.
Tonight is a party on the roof with kegs and food. We are making salsa. Tomorrow is a ST. Patricks party at Ryans Pub, this Irish bar. Rumor has it that the beer will be free....and who can pass that up?
I started studying for the GRE with another gal. I tried to start French, but ended up having an awful time. When I talked to the other folks participating in the class, I was led to believe that although we would be on different levels, we all were beginners. When the teacher actually showed up at our house on Wednesday, two of the students were having an indepth conversation in French with the teacher...and I sat there, stunned. I said I knew twenty words, and I wasnt kidding. The class wsnt much better. Everyone, as it turned out, had had at least one year of French and knew a bunch of vocabulary. I have no training and no nothing. I coudlnt follow anything they were saying, and it was SO FRUSTRATING!!!!!!! I eventually explained that I wouldnt be participating in the next class and would instead opt for the April beginners class at Alliance Francais. Its just a yucky feeling when you are surrounded with people speaking a language you cant understand but desperately want to...and no one is explaining things in English for you.
Well, my times up....more later
Tuesday, March 11, 2003
We're trying out a new internet cafe today. Its closer than Busy and almost as fast. They play only Christian music, though, and the computers keep bouncing between my open windows, but other than that its okay.
This morning Erin brought us some porridge to try. She loves it, and its made of corn and ginger, and you can add peanuts. Honestly, it tasted like puke. And with the ginger, it felt like hot, sour bile in my stomach. My gut feels a little ooky now, and the groundnut soup we had for lunch didnt help.
Hotmail is freaking out. Argh. Nothing new....boring day......
Monday, March 10, 2003
So yesterday I read through my archival bloggers....weird. I was a pissy little thing back then. The sentiment was true and thats how I felt at the time, but it was hard to read now because they were all so ANGRY. Oh well, thats what happens when I live somewhere for a while and mellow out.
Im in a weird mood today. DOnt know if its homesickness or just feeling detached from the things I liked in my life before I came here or just hot and cranky. We have been so sleepy lately....I dont know how to fix that so I can get out of bed before 10 am. Feels like the whole day is wasted. I told Vicki I would come to class this Friday to make masks. STill havent made the sample one, mostly because I cant find balloons. But I think my time teaching will be coming to an end in April. It takes so much effort on my part to even go. I would rather do something Im really excited about. Thats it for today....
Sunday, March 09, 2003
Its sooooooooooooooooo hot today. Ive been writing down some experiences here in Ghana and its really fun and strange to recount the days when I first got here. It seems so long ago now, but its just over three months. I can recognize when I suffered from culture shock, when I felt irritation at things that regular Ghanaians would be irritated by as well, when I fell back into the tourist mode (which I sometimes am). It sometimes very hard to recount situations here, mostly because I know that if a friend were telling me a story of their trip to Ghana before I came here, i would have no real way to visualize it. I tend to get really wordy and confusing.....I guess I just need to become a better writer.
Anyway, one of the things I meant to write about---a few weeks back we went to see Lord of the Rings I at Busy Internet. At first I was worried that the Ghanaians just wouldnt dig it....the whole wizards and dwarves and mystical overtones....most folks here are pretty religious and I could just see how the conservative Christian right got all freaked out over Harry Potter and its allusions to witchcraft. But they totally dug it. THey were clapping and laughing and booing the bad guys....later, I should have known. Within current Christian or Muslim doctrine, I think there are traditional beliefs wedged in there too. The biggest thing that Im thinking about is the idea of this creature (i totally forget the name now) that exists as myth here in Ghana and was referenced at Kakum National park in its educational display. The creature is a dwarf, about one foot tall, and is normally white, red or black. Its feet are backwards so when humans see their tracks, they get confused as to which way they were walking. They live in the woods and know all the secret remedies and properties of plants and trees. When people go into the forest and step unknowingly in their urine, they become very lost and I suppose, eventually die. Its not such a long stretch from this little guy to all the goobley-doos in the movie.
The other thing was this dance-a-thon thing that erin organized. FOr the most part, despite any glitches, it was really impressive that she found a hosting dance club who offered her half of the door for those who came specifically for the dance for a chance, that she found 20 businesses to donate items for a raffle, when no one really knows what a raffle is, and that she got 25 people to come and pay 25,000 cedis each to get in and sold 200 raffle tickets at 5,000 cedis a pop. Thats pretty amazing. ANd she made this pretty cool video and tried to email it to Chicago so they could play it the night of the dance. The bad part was that most Ghanaians were pretty suspicious of the raffle and had to be coerced into buying a ticket. Those who won usually didnt like their gifts for some reason or another. Only white people showed up specifically for the dance, despite Erin giving out 400 quarter sheet fliers, paying 200,000 cedis to print 20 11 x 14 posters and doing a radio spot at the University of Legon. The video was too big and never arrived intact back in Chicago. She didnt really raise that much money and felt kind of like a failure. The whole night was kind of weird...she never thanked the businesses who donated, so many details fell through the cracks...and coming from my experiences of two years helping the fundraiser with the Feminist Womens Health Center and collecting all their silent auction donations, it felt totally chaotic and messy. But she tried and put in more effort than I ever would have.......
Going home soon to write more and chill.....
