Cape Coast!

Farming and Schooling

Random Journal Posts #3

...On Thursday we visited the Monkey Sanctuary about three hours away. I was thinking it was a big tourist site blocked off sort of like a zoo. But it was just the jungle that bordered up next to a tiny little village. The experience was worth it from the first little monkey that came out and took some banana out of my hand. It was amazing! They would jump from branch to branch, then run over to us, get up on hind legs like people, and grab the banana out of our hands, or, if we smeared it, wipe it out of hands or lick it. They were the cutest, most fascinating little animals. It was incredible. The forest was also absolutely gorgeous, and we got to climb up the inside of a tree that was really unique and hollow. There was also another species of monkey that do not like to come near humans, but that you can see if you are quiet and fairly still. They are larger and hairier, and have long, long black tails. At one point, we all went off in separate directions because Lauren wanted a spiritual reflection moment, and after sitting for a few minutes alone, I heard some crashing in the upper branches of some trees just a few yards away from me. I quietly followed the sound, and was pleased to find a family of the large monkeys very high up in the branches, watching me back. It was such a beautiful thing, and I can see how people might become fascinated with studying animals...


...Yesterday, a deaf man approached me when I was writing notes and sitting on a bench. I waved, and he motioned for me to let him see my notebook and pen. He wrote hello, and that he would like to know my name. I told him, and we kept conversing in this way for about an hour. It was really incredible, he is a minister for a deaf congregation, and our conversation not only included things about my project, but also his inclusion of religion. I asked if his dad, a farmer I had just interviewed a few days ago, spoke sign language. He said no, and that sometime they wrote on paper to talk. I can’t imagine having a parent who could never communicate with you in your own language. The experience talking to him was really great, and I am glad to now have him as a friend. He showed me a picture of one of the BYU girls in the past, who had interacted with him, and wrote that she now was serving a mission to deaf people for the church....


...On Saturday, we went to a Presbyterian wedding, and then I left early to hang out with some of the senior high girls I had promised I would visit. I ended up chilling with them at their dorms, and it was fun seeing them out of their school uniforms, just hanging around and being less reserved since it was just all girls. It is sad though, because they often make comments about how pretty I am, my soft, light skin, and my naturally long and soft hair. They think Americans are gorgeous for these traits. I always try to say something like, well I would love to have your skin! They seem to not believe me, or say why? And I tell them they need to love everything about themselves. I really, really want them to. I felt a little how my mom must feel when she tries to make me realize I can know I am beautiful no matter what society and the media says. I just want these girls to not compare themselves to the West, to the media sources slowly creeping into their society on TV or in music videos, that tell them their skin is too dark, their features too wide, their hair too course. They are beautiful! It is sad how the Western mainstream media portrayal of beauty is monopolizing the world's perception of what makes one attractive...


...My best times here recently have just been interacting with the students. They are fun and hilarious and smart. One girl asked if I could freestyle a rap or song, I told her to instead, and she immediately started belting out a Rihanna song, and quite well too! They kept requesting that I freestyle and show my American “swag,” so I finally opened up my laptop and played the song Monster by Kanye, in which I know most of the Nicki Minaj rap. I rapped the verse and they all circled around keeping beat, and yelled approval after. It was so funny! 

We also had a big question and answer session, where they could ask me about America, and I would ask them about Ghana. It really was such a great time, and they asked some great questions. Why Obama supported homosexuality, what high school is like, if Americans actually expose themselves in the provocative ways they had seen in movies, if Africans are called black monkeys in America (I get that question all the time), when and who I would marry, how I felt when American killed Osama, what it is like to ride in an airplane, if pornography is allowed, etc. I also asked them questions, including if girls and boys were treated equally. One girl got up right away and said no, that men would be favored for jobs and such...  

My Jane Goodall Moment

Updates of the Utmost Importance

No time to choose journal entries - the power is out once again, and we are working off a generator with limited fuel.... But here are some interesting/humorous tidbits from the week...

-I officially have tasted and swallowed (unknowingly until mid-chew) cow face... and yes, it was like biting off a piece of leather, chomping to no avail, and swallowing with great reluctance 

-Lauren, Jackie, Natalie, Vicky (a 4'9'' heroic Salvationist from London) and I desperately hoisted ourselves through the back window of a trotro to beat the mad crowd from beating us to seats (In our defense, we'd already been boxed out of two) - If you don't understand, look up some Ghana trotro youtube vids and take a look at the back side windows 

-I have completed and transcribed four interviews, and am starting to gain more clarity about my project, and the complex issues surrounding it 

-I felt empowered myself watching the Form 3 girls stand up and vocally challenge problems they see in their social structure and government, while I observed a social studies class

-I taught junior high kids the Hokey Pokey, Chicken Dance, and Macarena with Lauren while their very serious teachers told them to carefully watch how we executed the footwork (haha), and then ate some spicy hot soup and washed my hands off in the rain and dried them on a window curtain (as instructed by one of the teachers) 

Its just little things like these that make my week, every week. I am living the life! 

Some Reasons Why...

[I wrote this in a family email, and was not very concerned about the writing quality, my apologies]

...I know I was in Peru for a couple weeks, and in Japan for even a couple months. Unfortunately however, I was less mature, and did not have aims for what I wanted to get out of those experiences, especially since I had not yet started to get deep into my major, anthropology, which has really drastically changed the way I go about thinking about my time, purpose, and perspectives in life.  Therefore, those trips were fun, and they sparked my interest in other cultures and travel, but they were just touristy, shallow experiences compared to the type of thing I am trying to pull off now. With my academic training and newfound passion for culture, social behavior, and the implications these things hold for God’s children and our eternal natures, this trip is already different. I am invested in the people I am meeting, viewing them more as my brothers and sisters who have so much to offer and amazing things they can teach me, instead of just as added décor in an exotic tour of a foreign place.

I know anthropology may not be that “practical” of a subject (if practical is to be defined as lucrative instead of useful or significant), but it truly is a study I wish everyone had at least some exposure to. It shows humans as the beautiful beings they truly are, and honestly combats prejudice, racism, discrimination, ethnocentrism, and whatnot in better ways than any primetime special about the civil rights movement. The training I had during my prep classes before starting this field study, along with basic social theory, has caused me to become incredibly cautious in the way I view other people, realizing that I am not one to judge, since each of our lives are circumstantial, and I cannot possibly hope to ever think in the same patterns as my neighbor next door, let alone a Ghanaian living in my small cocoa village.

Also, as an international development minor, I have been trying to conceptualize this experience based on the fundamental lessons I have received in social, economical, political, and ethical issues that affect the development industry worldwide – which is basically the groups, both governmental and independent of government, that are attempting to enter the Third World (Ghana included) and change things for the better – or what is contrived to be “better” by whatever group is involved. I have spoken to several of my Ghanaian friends here about development, and how so many of the Ghanaians I have met seem to be obsessed with the West, and dream of moving to America or Europe. Sometimes it is quite sad because, although I risk an overgeneralization, the people I have met here are God-fearing, highly participant in church and religious activity, and include praises and thanks to the Lord in casual conversation daily. They hold to many conservative, “old-fashioned” values, such as praying in schools, and respect to parents and grandparents. Yet, look at America – the most highly “advanced” and “developed” nation – struggling with these issues, allowing a blurring of ethical lines, and frankly forgetting God in almost everything, or completely abandoning an acknowledgement of his blessings and guidance. What I am trying to say is, “development” comes with large sacrifices. And they look a whole lot like the Pride Cycle I am reading about in the Book of Mormon. So, my aim in studying development is to hopefully become an instrument of change in ways that are positive, efficient, and that avoid the exploitation of another’s culture and the beautiful particularities of their lifestyle that may differ at times from the Western norm…

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