….Today I sat in on a different English class from Fobi’s
classes. The teacher was giving a lesson about debate, and it was very
interesting hearing the various debate topics he gave as examples. They were
actually very culturally telling. The first one was about homosexuality, and
whether gays should be allowed to marry or not. He even brought up that Obama,
a man “of African blood” had made his support known for gay marriage. I have
heard several people bring up the fact that Obama did this. They seem very
surprised, which I can assume is because they do not have any idea about gay
relations and controversy within America. Anyway, the other debate topics
included whether boys or girls were smarter, if mixed gender schools or single
gender schools were more conducive to learning, and –the topic for this year-
if traditions are holding people back from progressing…
…For one, I fought a spider that literally could be close to
being classifed tarantula if it had just a little more hair. I didn’t think it
was possible, but I did. And I may exaggerate the sizes of creepy crawlers in
the States, but I’ve got pictures to reinforce the validity of this monster.
The same night that thing was crawling across our walls, a lizard friend also
joined the part on the ceiling. And of course that was the night we did not
have electricity, so all the fun happened by the light of my flashlight…
…The next day I was able to go to a wedding celebration for
a woman Natalie works with at the clinic. She is a member of the Savior Church,
which I was surprised to discover practices polygamy. We did not know what to
expect at all, and the actual ceremony had occurred the night before, so this
was like their equivalent of a reception. We sat down and waited for things to
begin, and were treated to something truly wonderful. The older women wore
veils, and the men wore long white robes, and one of the men started singing
solo, with the others joining in with beautiful harmonizing that sounded like
Muslim prayer chants. Then a small group started playing instruments, and the
women began coming out for a large dance. It was a special kind of dance that
used just a subtle shuffling of the feet, and the waving of a kerchief in the
right hand. This dancing was joined in at different times by the men, young
girls who had vowed chastity till marriage, and even us for an obruni dance!
Everyone was laughing and smiling and having a wonderful time, and it really
was a beautiful experience…
…However, in the ICT class, I met a very sweet girl named
Evelyn. She is 20, and told me she really wanted to be a police officer.
However, her father wants her to train to be a nurse, so she was in the study
topic to be a nurse (home economics). She told me however, that she hated
blood, and laughingly told me a story of pounding her sister’s hand while they
made fufu, not being able to take the sight of blood, and her mother becoming
angry with her because her sister needed to take her exams the next day. She
also asked me how old I was, and like others who have asked me, seemed
surprised. She said, “God has made you people special, you grow big in body,
but are small in age” haha...
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