Fighting Fears

So, I have to confess, amidst the feelings of excitement about flying off to Ghana for a quarter of the year, I have been experiencing my share of anxiety. Of course when people ask if I am feeling nervous or excited about the trip, I respond yes to both. However, in all honesty, lately it has been mostly nervous. But, so as not to risk looking like a wimp I usually do not expand on this sentiment, but keep it to myself.

My biggest fear so far is not the sweltering heat. It is not the risk of getting malaria or some other taxing illness. It isn't my cultural or lingual incompetence. It's not even a fear of sleeping in a strange bed, in a tiny village, in a foreign country. All of these things are enough to singularly make one nervous, but I have experienced them in some degree in Peru or Japan and know that they can be survived and overcome.

My number one biggest fear is maintaining courage and emotional health as I exist in an isolation I have never really known for an extended time period. I am a social person by nature, I love my friends and family and the daily interactions I share with them. This is part of the reason I love anthropology - I am thrilled and fascinated by the bonds that can be forged and perpetuated through human relationships. In Ghana, I will have one American roommate with whom to relate. I am confident I will love the Ghanaians in the village, and will strive to create meaningful relationships with them. However, for my own selfish purposes I will not have constant communication with friends and family who share my culture and context and can comfort me in the ways I am most familiar with. This loss will be compounded by the fact that I live in the year 2012, and have a quite possibly unhealthy dependency on things like my texting and Facebook.

Recently, I was blessed to receive some needed comfort to help assuage my fears to some degree. My friend Lindsay and I were out to dinner and had some time to talk about things. Lindsay recently returned from a Spanish speaking mission to New Mexico, where she spent a lot of her time in El Paso, Texas very near the Mexican-American border. She commented that with my lack of means of communication and with such a culturally immersive experience I was sort of headed into a mini-mission situation. Realizing that Lindsay could probably identify with some of the fears I have about isolation because of her mission, I expressed how nervous I was. She began to describe some of her mission experiences and related that there were times when she was basically forced to her knees because the one person she could turn to was the Savior. She went on to explain that when all of the layers are stripped away - the sources I would usually turn to in a time of need (friends, family, or even other superficial means of escape) - all that is left is God.

After talking to Lindsay, I felt a comfort I had not really felt before. I could almost physically feel my anxiety lessening. I am still pretty scared, but I know that God will not leave me in complete isolation. I am excited for an opportunity that will challenge me, and even my current lifestyle. I hope to grow closer to my Savior, and build a more familiar and reliant relationship with Him while in Ghana.

Medicine

Yesterday I got my immunizations finally, and picked up my typhoid and malaria pills. Throughout the day I was feeling fairly good, except for being abnormally achey. However, by the time I went to bed I felt extremely achey and tired. I woke up at 2:30 a.m. with violent chills and feeling extremely cold even when I piled on layers of clothing and blankets. I could not fall asleep and just lay shivering for a long time. I must have finally dozed off, because the next thing I knew I woke up basically sweating and extremely hot. Thus, so far I have had a lovely time facing the yellow fever shot symptoms.

This small burden of feeling sick from the shot just made me think about one more thing that I often take for granted as an American - the fact that our country provides extensive medicine and immunizations that prevent against disease and illness. In the U.S., some might feel bad for themselves when they contract a small cold, while malaria is just as prevalent and common a sickness in Ghana.

These are the types of things that I think make development practices worth it. The point of international development should not be to make a people conform to behave or live just as Americans, but it should be to help provide opportunity and options for things such as advanced medicine that improve quality of life for all humans in general.

I think it would be interesting for me to talk to Lauren and Natalie a little more about their projects. I am very ignorant about medical studies, and my project does not include any medical application. I want to ask them what their research has taught them about third world medical situations, and what may be some appropriate development practices within the field of medicine.

Coming of Age

It is so crazy that I have less than a month left in the States, and then off for a three month residency in Wiamoase, Ghana. Looking back, I am fairly satisfied with the progress I have made thus far. Of course, I could always try a little harder academically, but I do feel a lot more anthropologically capable. This year has been a unique couple of semesters at college. Freshman year I floundered around in generals, hating my science classes, and wondering if I should teach American Literature to high schoolers (good thing future students of mine missed out on that fate - they probably would not have appreciated my burning passion for The Grapes of Wrath, which I would have undoubtedly made required reading), or if I wanted to enter the Humanities, another passion of mine, but one with even less career opportunities than the social sciences seem to offer. It was not until my Freshman Academy mentor asked what I liked, and I likely responded, "to travel," and she told me about her sister in a major where all she did was learn about worldwide cultures.

That pretty much had me sold. I even got through Anth 101 with a certain professor who I wont name out of courtesy (but I will say has a nicely cultivated faux British accent) - this is usually the first ring of fire for potential Anthropology students - the department really should reconsider how the opening course to the major is presented. However, the next obstacle was my theory class. With one dry (and i mean DRY) professor and my first 20-pager due, it's a wonder I continued to feel passionate about anthropology. Finally, after Buonforte taught a linguistics class I had randomly signed up for, I no longer had any lingering doubts. My mind was probably opened more by the two classes I took from him than it had been for my 4 years of high school "education."

Anyway, the point of this post is to say that it all brought me to where I am right now. Studying methodologies and becoming excited as I realize what practical applications await me in the field of ethnography and development. Ghana will be sort of like an anthropological "coming of age" as I attempt to conduct real field work and apply the theory and methodology that has been pounded into my head. Hopefully the Ghanaians will be able to forgive me of my many, many inevitable blunders. I am sure by the time I am through, I will forever be grateful to my new friends for allowing my intrusion as I attempt to learn the ways of the anthropologist.

Jihad vs McWorld

I had to do a book review of the book "Jihad vs McWorld" for one of my sociology classes. In it the author argues that the duel spread of globalism and technological uniformity (McWorld) and tribal separations and hostility based on religion, ethnicity, race, etc (Jihad) combats democracy and is a threat to the sovereign national state. Barber begins by defining globalism by giving a myriad of examples of capitalism and technology that have become uniform nearly worldwide. This includes the trade of natural resources, the global advertising of companies such as Coca Cola, and the international television broadcasting of American based media such as MTV music videos. He then goes on to discuss what he calls Jihad, the boundaries and separations caused by international tribalism. He draws examples from places like Islam, China, Russia, and the Pacific Rim. Throughout, Barber emphasizes that McWorld and Jihad are inevitably linked and dependent, globalism spawning from colonialism, and tribalism the backlash of the same. Both McWorld and Jihad threaten democracy, the former making nations dependent and weakening their sovereign power, and the latter splintering nations into sects, which then become more dependent on McWorld.

The book made me recall a conflict I have thought about before: the beauty of diversity vs the hatred and resentment it seems to cultivate. Often, I have felt extremely depressed about the seemingly natural proneness humans have towards ostracizing those different from the majority, and assuming that the way they live/look is by default the "correct" way of living/looking. This has led to inconceivable amounts of sadness and suffering throughout the world in all areas - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. However, some of the moments in my life when I have felt the most exhilarated have been the times when I was experiencing new culture, different from my own. The beauty behind the variations in human existence is mind-boggling, and provides for an inexhaustible way of looking at things and behaving. So, what would be better? Living in one giant, homogenous world to prevent against the pains of negative group mentalities that foster ethnocentrism, tribalism, racism, etc? Or continuing to encourage diversity and cultural differences because of the massive benefits they bring to humanity?

In my opinion, although the world is far from ideal, diversity is worth it. I am so excited to visit Ghana because I feel I can learn so much from a new experience of place, time, behavior, materialism, etc. New doors will be opened in my mind that would have remained locked while remaining only under the American ontology. Cultural exposure opens up new spiritual, psychological, and even physical routes. I think it is one of the most significant and effective ways of gaining an education.

Group Relations

First and foremost - my IRB has been approved!! YES! So glad that stress is finally over.

So this post will be somewhat similar to the one prior about beauty perception. It is about an issue I have encountered time and time again here in America, and I am wondering if similar issues exist in Ghana. I think comparing and contrasting between what I known and what I will discover is effective in better understanding a foreign culture.

Actually, my post is about race relations, which is not a singular issue, but encompasses a world of issues that have perpetuated in America since its conception and remain today. Racism and related problems are basically always on my mind, but have been brought to the forefront of a lot of my news reading lately with the whole Trayvon Martin case. Although I realize it is often bad to come to hasty conclusions about murky scenarios, like what happened in Trayvon's gated community the day he died, the official information about the case is still enough to make me feel sick.

Basically, Trayvon, a black boy in a hoodie, was on his way back to his house in a gated neighborhood after walking to the store to buy skittles, was followed by a neighborhood watch volunteer, and eventually shot dead by the man before making it to his front door. The shooter claims he killed in self defense, because he was attacked, although witnesses claim they heard the boy yelling for help. The shooter says he had initially followed the boy because he looked suspicious, although he was just wearing a casual hoodie and tennis shoes, and the only things in his hands were skittles and iced tea. The shooter, although a neighborhood watch volunteer, did not have the legal authority to even be armed. When the boy's body was picked up, the shooter was not arrested, and the victim remained unidentified, some speculating because authorities could not believe a black boy in a hoodie actually lived in the gated community.

Now, a huge nationwide backlash has occured against the police department of the boy's city in Florida, criticizing the way the case was handled since the shooter has yet to even have been arrested, let off merely because he claimed self defense. An online petition gained over 800,000 signatures calling for justice for Trayvon's death. Many say had the shooter been a black man, and the victim a white boy, or of any race for that matter, he would have immediately been arrested, and harsh legal action would have been attempted against him. As much as I hate to say it, I basically agree.

I could go on and on about the deeper issues this story and similar ones say about the long, LONG way America has to go before it becomes post-racial, but this post is meant to relate to my project. This is where this post becomes similar to the beauty perception post. I am very interested in whether racial or ethnic differences affect society and culture in Ghana in the same large ways it does in America. Do Ghanaians treat others differently based on various racial, ethnic, or tribal identities? Are some groups faced with a perpetual perception as guests in their own country, or the fear of being viewed in the negative light of suspicion or condescension? How do these issues affect social classes, community structure, government, etc? These are some other issues I would like to at least passively keep in mind and observe during my time in Ghana.

Here is a fairly unbiased version of the updated story of Trayvon Martin, as of today:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/27/justice/florida-teen-shooting/?hpt=hp_t1

Beauty Perceptions

Last week I was talking to my friend Katherine who had the privilege of visiting Tanzania, Africa for three weeks for an observational study. She shared some of her experiences with me, and expressed how excited she was for me to live in Ghana. One of the things she related was simple yet thought-provoking. She said I would be surprised how much I would stop thinking about my external image, my clothing, my body shape, etc. I do not believe she meant at all that I would not care about being physically healthy. More she meant that with the absence of Western media saturation and the affects this takes on young minds in relation to body image, I would not worry so much about how my physicality was being perceived. This led into a conversation about the detrimental affects of American media shaping the way youth, and especially women, think about their bodies. Girls think they must conform to a certain body type/skin type/hair type/dress style etc, an impossibility for many, which leads to eating disorders and low self-esteem. Boys think that a certain body type/skin type/hair type/dress style is the epitome of beauty or should dictate attraction. I told Katherine about how I had felt the affects of this here at BYU, being one of the few students of African descent, I simply cannot fit in with many of the mainstream traits esteemed as beautiful in Provo culture. Even if I was as healthy as I possibly could be, I will never be as stick thin as some others of a different ethnicity. My genes give me irreversible curves and thickness. My facial features include a wider nose, and fuller lips. My hair is extremely curvy, and my skin is dark. Maybe I am overly sensitive, but I have often felt almost ashamed of some of my differences in relation to my homogenous surroundings, especially since the media glorifies the beauty of tall, white, stick-thin women, and I can see the affects of this on the way beauty is perceived in my own community.

I wonder how this will change in Ghana. How will beauty be perceived differently due to a very different racial and ethnic majority, as well as due to the lesser prevalence of Western media influences? How do these differences affect the way females in particular view themselves, and how do they affect courtship and attraction? This is something I would be interested in observing although my project does not address these issues.

There is definitely a lot to think about when you realize that beauty and attraction are so relative, that just by moving to another location you could be viewed as either less or more attractive according to cultural influences.

Here is a somewhat harsh site that really brings up some relevant issues about the recent onslaught of white indie culture in the U.S. that has pushed the prevalence of rail thin, retro white girls - think the type of girls you would see the majority of the time in Urban Outfitters advertising -

http://www.carefreewhitegirl.com/

IRB

I have recently been working on IRB classes in 3 of my 6 classes. Joy. Two of them have been for my project in Wiamoase, and one was for my class with Professor Bibb, where we have been planning a pretend development project in Apamea, Syria.

As much as I have hated the IRB process, I have also appreciated it. Besides agreeing that it is necessary to prevent unethical study practices (although I think there is room for improvement especially for the social sciences, whose studies are completely different from something like a medical experiment), I also think the IRB application has allowed me to get a better grasp on my project, and what I will actually be doing in Wiamoase. For example, writing out my research aims and questions, and a literature review, has helped me to solidify what research I will need to collect, at least initially. Also, writing about mundane things such as how I will gain consent, if I will use a translator, how I will maintain confidentiality, etc, has helped me better understand what measures I will have to take in the field to conduct my research. I have realized how important it is that I will be organized, with my notes, and audio recording, and any other tools necessary. I also have been impressed with how much I will need to learn to successfully connect with the people, and how fully I will be dependent on them. If I want to talk to someone who only speaks in Twi, I will need another Ghanaian friend to translate, for example.

Anyway, I turn in my new and improved IRB draft on Tuesday. Although I have learned from the application, I have my fingers crossed it will become approved. I may have learned from it, but I definitely not in love with it.

Power Dispersion

For my Anthropology of Development class, we have been reading development books by Nolan and Escobar. Although I enjoy Nolan's because of its practical advice and simple outlining of concepts behind development, I enjoy Escobar a lot more. He is somewhat cynical with his view of development, but he brings up facts that cannot just be ignored by Western students going into development.

The chapters that I read for Wednesday were about power dispersion. Escobar argues that the power Western countries gained and continue to hold after colonialism has affected development in detrimental ways. When development projects occur, or even the framing for these projects, they evolve out of a Western-dictated context. Since international power is unequally dictated, the countries in need of "development" do not get a significant say in what happens to them, while powerful Western countries get almost all of the say. Escobar states that this does not lead to sustainable change or sound judgement about these countries, but instead can aggregate third world issues in some instances.

Additionally, the way the West conceptualizes developing countries can be damaging to the way development is enacted. For example, Escobar points out that development rhetoric can be dehumanizing and objectifying towards third world inhabitants. A mother, who is a human being with thoughts and emotion, is reduced to an illiterate starving body, with way too many children, and an unseemly dependency on men. Or Western developers will point out the apparent flaws of the developing world, but because of the power dispersion that allows them ultimate say, they are saved from having their own similar issues pointed out. Such as when Western developers state that the problem in third world countries is there population growth, which must be curved. However, they fail to point out that some of these countries have larger human populations than some in the "developed" world, but actually consume less. So what does that say about the developed world?

I think this whole issue of the dispersion of power relates to my project because it might give me more insight into how I might mentally conceive of or envision countries in Africa, and Ghana specifically. I have been consuming the Western rhetoric we are all fed throughout our lives through school and the media. How has this affected the way I view inhabitants of the "third world?" Have I objectified the African people, or dehumanized them through some sort of "social imagination" about the way they exist? Have I thought about them as some intangible glob of people needing assistance or reform and failed to recognize them as individual human beings with the same capacity for thought, feeling, and action as myself and my American counterparts? I probably have been guilty of all of these things. However, as I increase my understanding of anthropology and development I am working towards erasing these negative habits, and attempting to view humans in the humanistic way they all deserve.

GurlGoestoAfrica

It is interesting preparing for my field study and project in Ghana while simultaneously taking my first development classes. While my project will be conducted under the main intentions of accumulating research and data for a written paper, it is still a preparatory process for my potential future in development. Therefore, it is helpful to notice the obvious similarities between classes, and how attempting to understand culture is inextricably connected to effective developmental changes and improvement in "third-world" societies.

On Tuesday, my Intro to Development teacher displayed a picture of three African children playing in water, unclothed. They all had large smiles, and seemed to be enjoying themselves. My class was asked if we could tell whether these children were in poverty, or qualified for "first-world" assistance. This question was impossible to answer from the cursory glance we were given into these children's existence. This scenario reminded me of the iceberg analogy. Anthropology, sociology, development, and related fields of study are complex. Surface observations do not provide the data needed to make judgements on a society, whether they be moral judgements or judgments about whether or not one should provide "assistance" or "opportunity" to another group of people. With each class I am being further impacted by the complexities intrinsic to ethnographic studies, and more convinced of the necessity of being careful to not be overly confident in my ability to extract accurate meaning from a foreign culture.

However, this does not trivialize anthropology or sociology in the least bit. I have experienced the scary mental break when one realizes that cultural relativism, and the inevitability of personal bias based on upbringing, means that certain conclusions are virtually impossible to find. Nevertheless, I also understand that ethnography, development, and other anthropological studies are more about the process than the product. Geertz tells us that we do not have to know everything to understand something. Those somethings are the reasons it is important to continue studying culture. To even get a feel for what lies beneath the surface on the submerged part of the iceberg is important, because it brings humanity closer, and provides the understanding that causes humane behavior.

(Random throw-in: I found this interesting satirical tumblr that seemed to reflect at least some of the sentiments from the "What Students Don't Learn Abroad" article. I do not necessarily agree with much of the harsh judgement displayed on this tumblr, but it definitely got me thinking and made me make a double-take on my intentions for going abroad to Ghana. http://gurlgoestoafrica.tumblr.com/ )

Swimming in Context: The Cultural Iceberg

I really appreciated the iceberg analogy we talked about in class. It was a great way to conceptualize the theory I have been consistently learning in my anthropology and sociology classes. I realized the lesson of the iceberg applies not only to relating with differing cultures on an international level, but also to relating with everyday aquaintances. Navigating the waters of contrasting internal realities between all human beings can be extremely intimidating, but realizing that personal context is a mini-culture in itself, and then connecting this to the iceburg analogy can put things into better perspective. There are a number of things I see when I first meet any person - their physical appearance, whether they are outgoing or shy, the body language and vocal cues they employ - but realizing that this is just the tip of their iceburg can help me be better prepared to relate to them as a fellow human being. I believe this realization can translate into the field as I encounter a culture and people foreign to me. Practicing with individuals who have been shaped by a variety of environmental factors, and who share my general culture, will allow me to seek the submerged part of the iceburg in Ghana, the deeper elements that shape the culture and society I will be experiencing. This will allow for better fieldnotes and an overall greater project and learning experience.