Junie's Online Thoughts
Saturday, March 22, 2003
Today I went with Heidi to the cultural center. She was looking specifically for these brass lidded bowls that are used for weddings. The bride puts all of her belongings in them and they are given to the grooms family to hold for her until they are married. For a Saturday, it was pretty relaxed when we got there. Usually the vendors can get really aggressive, but Heidi is funny and doesnt get all uptight like I do when pestered by the people. After browsing, we found the bowls (i forget the ghanaian name) and she was a fair but hard bargainer. SHe settled on 400,000 for both--these huge bowls with a 2 1/2 foot diameter--and the guy dashed her three waist beads and dashed me two...and I was just standing there. She could have probably gotten them a little cheaper, but as it was, it was more than half off his starting price. Im usually terrible about bargaining because I feel bad and dont enjoy the "game" of bartering. I figure I can afford it and its petty to squabble over a dollar, even though I know its part of the rules. I looked into a necklace, but when the guy quoted me a price of 150,000 cedis, I said, wow! I didnt want to pay more than 35,000. We walked away, and the guy chased us halfway across the center. He asked me again to buy it for 100,000. I repeated, no, I dont want to pay more than 35,000. I wsnt even trying to play hardball...I just didnt want it that badly to pay that much...but he chased us again and finally settled on 40,000. Yeesh! I didnt buy much else...one more necklace and a little figurine of a lady with a baby on her back pounding fufu. (shes pounding fufu, not the baby.)
We walked home and I helped Heidi carry a bowl on my head. (Its really the easiest way.) What a fuss! Constant comments or laughs or honking or chatter...Ghanaians do it every day with no hands and with much heavier loads....such a big deal when a white person does it with something light. Anyway, it was a pleasant walk home despite the heat. When we were showing VEra, the seamstress who has a shack right by our complex, a woman came by and scolded us for not hearing her hiss at us for the last few blocks. SHe was trying to tell us that those bowls attract electricity so even in a house, they must be covered lest they make lightning strike. The other ladies were nodding and agreeing....okay, whatever. We thanked her and off she went.
Stopped for roasted plantains and groundnuts....dropped off the stuff at home and returned to the internet cafe. Dont know where Jeremy is...hopefully writing grants for Emory money...the deadline is Monday. Ive been having a lot of fun with this pedometer. The day before yesterday, when I was feeling a bit sick and inactive, I still clocked in over 7,000 steps and travelled over 2 miles. Today (its 2:00 pm right now...still got some walking to do) Im all the way past 10,000 steps....whooo hoo....I KNEW I walked a lot here....now I can prove it.
Watching some Christian healing show on tv right now.....some paster made a crippled guy walk and the audience is hopping around. Tonight we are going to see some Lebanese dancers and singers at Alliance Francais. Went there last night expecting a Ghanaian story teller, only to find that nothing was going on. Bummer....since we were too late to catch a movie at BUsy.....and spent over 22,000 in taxis to get there.....grr......tonight will be better though. Thats it for today....
Thursday, March 20, 2003
Yesterday afternoon was nice...I hit a Zen point where everything was okay...I totally dug my surroundings, myself, and for about thirty minutes felt great. Then I read the newspaper. The (at that time) looming war in Iraq made the front page of the Daily Graphic. I searched high and low for my own copy but had to settle for photocopying the first three pages.
We listened to the BBC until about 1 am, then finally went to bed. I woke up feeling like total crap--stomach issues and starting to get a cold. We turned on the BBC to hear that the U.S. had started bombing Iraq that morning and listened to the radio until we left the house at noon. It ws interesting hearing reports througout Europe--all those folks condemning the war and Bush's actions, then reports from the Middle east, from Asia.....the majority seem to be against it, but waht have they done? Someone needs to stand up, you know? U.S. is just a big bully....it really sucks. Folks here are very sad about the war. They have seen how war can destroy communities and cities and know the pain of death and bombs and hate. Ghanaians generally are very politically aware and understand all the complex issues surrounding whats going on in the world. There have been no negative effects here...Ive felt no hostility and quite frankly, feel safer here than back at home in ATlanta. If anythign, folks just ask questions or talk about the war. I think everyone just feels down and frustrated. There are some people trying to organize an antiwar protest/gathering/vigil this weekend. Its kind of thrown together and the main girl is tryign to have Alliance Francais host it (since France is so verbally against the war, maybe they will be more willign to help.) Anyway, I hope it works out....it may make people feel like they are doing something...open up communication...something.
We forgot that we needed to start the car every day even if we didnt go anywhere. When jeremy tried to drive yesterday, he found out the battery was dead. I dont think it will be hard to find jumper cables, but we pushed the car closer to our house and out of the way. For now, Jeremy needs to concentrate on writing a few small grants for Emory funding. We will deal with the car next week.
Wednesday, March 19, 2003
Whew! What a full day and its not even halfway over!!!!! I feel so virtuous for getting up as early as I did. Heres a quick recount: Woke up at 7:30 so I could leave for the bank by 8 am (out of cash). We were supposed to meet Erin but she was running late, so we hung out and chatted with the complex mates until she was good to go. We all took a trotro to the National Museum/ARchives where Jeremy left us and I followed ERin. She had spoken with the board and curators of the National Musuem yesterday and they were all gung ho about her creating a show about adinkra, this historic symbol structure that was typically used to decorate funeral cloth but is now ubiquitous--on water bottles and plastic chairs and jewelry and notebooks. Erin is studying the modern usage of adinkra and the museum for some reason, decided she was qualified to make her own museum show. Well, she went today to deliver a letter requesting the space and what her plans were....of course, this is ghana...and things aRE nOT as easy as they initailly seem. Now the guy changed his story saying there was no space in the gallery, that she would have to pay $150 to use it (even though she is a student doing this all on her own and will donate all the materials to the musuem when the show is over) and that she needed some special Cape Coast letterhead on her letter. So silly.
Then we walked to the branch of the embassy so she could get her mail. En route she got into a viscious screaming match with some crazy poor street guy and the conversation deteriorated into him screaming "F*CK YOU!" over and over to her, her screaming back at him, and me screaming that he needed to stop cursing at us and leave us alone. We finally escaped him and made it to the embassy. Most of the mail was for jeremy and myself (THANKS MOM THANKS TRISH THANKS TRISH THANKS TRISH) and it felt like Xmas all over again. (Its funny...Jeremys mom, TRish, sent us an oven thermometer so we could tell how hot our stove gets, and the air temperature actually measured on the thermometer....a toasty 96 degrees thank you very much.) We hooked up with some lady at the bus stop who decided she would accompany us and show us the market we wanted if we would pay the taxi. She seemed to take a liking to ERin (commonly asking her for her phone number) and showed us one version of the market. There are two different sections of Obruni Way-Wu (literally meaning the white man is dead)...a second hand clothing market. The one Olivia showed us was known as "first rate" and had nicer, higher priced clothing. We decdied to cut Olivia loose and look around for a while (bought two shirts and some gift waist beads). Then walked to the "third rate" Way-wu, the one we've been to before.
Its very very strange and almost defies explanation. Okay, when you first enter the market area, you walk down a path. Along one side of the path is a long line of people with clothes draped over their arms. They will shout and grab you and try to make you look at and buy what they are selling. Usually, this gets me pretty pissed right away becaust I dont want some strange man giving me a death grip on my list and refusing to let go unless I yank my arm away. Grrrr....Anyway, you walk a bit and you will see a long line of cages chock full of live chickens and guinea fowl and other birds ready for sale. (35,000 cedis baby, and I could have my very own pet chicken to play with....) After you sneak through the barn-smelling bird land, you will enter a roofed series of stalls and shacks with etiher nicely hung clothing of every kind imaginable---suits and jackets and shirts and mens shirts and dresses and bras and shoes and jeans--OR you will find the cheaper section with huge messy piles of clothes to pick through, again of every kind imaginable. We meandered a bit...I was scouting for some cool retro t-shirts..(this guy named Brad always finds cheap choice tshirts here...Im not as lucky as he is, I guess). I didnt want the pile of second hand panties, so I went straight for the men's clothes...found three tshirts for a dollar and called it a day. (I have a really short tolerance for this market...its very aggressive and HOT and people start to drive me crazy after about 20 minutes).
We walked to this part of town called Tudu, where Erin practices volleyball with the Ghanaian team and I could score some tasty fallafel and baklava at the Lebanon HOuse. Tim told us about it yesterday and I couldnt pass up the opportunity for $1 falafel sandwiches and $1 for a huge plastic box of baklava. FOund it (hidden where I never would have seen it were it not for Erin), ate lunch, felt sick because it was so hot, walked to Tema station and took a trotro home.
Its relentlessly hot today...but I couldnt nap. Had to email, thank folks for sending us treats in the mail, return to the bank and make copies. Whew!!! Tonight we are going out for Ethiopian with Tim and his girlfriend Zapka. YAHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tuesday, March 18, 2003
Good god, Im overheating today. Its hot hot. Worked out in a rush so Jeremy could come to the internet cafe so I didnt get a decent cool down. Now Im sweating like a big fat pig. Ugh.
Finishing some writing today....buying more groceries, odds and ends. More later.
Monday, March 17, 2003
Having a bad day today. Will write later.
Sunday, March 16, 2003
Wow.....what a day. Woke up...worked out hard without breakfast, ate lunch, took a long sweaty nap, played Scrabble (which deteriorated into Jeremy and I making up nonsensical words, after he traded me a U for an R so I could make a legitimate "equation" worth 104 points), took a nap, practiced some vocabulary for the GRE, met up with Tim for supper although he opted out, went to Tip Top Chinese fast food for okay dinner and am now emailing. And still, all I want to do is sleep.
Tomorrow I may try to go to oburoni Waywu for second hand clothes.....try to be more productive than i am today.
