The longer I stay here, the harder it is to find new, exciting, and funny stories to share because life is just becoming a new "normal" for me. The more I settle into things, the less of a need I feel to give updates. But with that being said, I hope this post will make up for my infrequency over the past few months.
This week, I traveled down to the Volta Region of Ghana to attend the Kente Festival in Tafi Abuife, where my friend Chris is stationed as a PC volunteer. I left Tamale on Thursday afternoon, spent the night in the city of Kumasi, and finally made it to my friend's village on late Friday afternoon. I traveled down with 3 other PC friends from the North, and needless to say, we had a great trip! I never look forward to extremely long, hot, and cramped tro rides, but we somehow found a way to enjoy ourselves. Between perusing hilarious books about suggestions for "the best new text messages to send to friends" and singing in the back of buses, the time passed quickly (it didn't hurt that the scenery was fantastic). We met up with about 20 other volunteers at the festival, which was great because I hadn't seen many of them since Thanksgiving when we all celebrated at the Ambassador's house. We danced, drank some cold cokes, and caught up on our lives over the past few months, which was exactly the vacation that I needed.
The next day brought more festivities, as everyone gathered for a durbar in which "big men" like the Minister of Tourism and the Peace Corps Country Director spoke and we all celebrated the history and production of kente cloth. Kente is a type of traditional woven cloth made in Ghana. I took some pictures on my camera, but I left my cord at home so I can't upload any, but I have pasted a photo to the right that shows what some typical kente strips look like. They are bright and beautiful and each of the designs has its own story and meaning. Besides hanging out at the kente festival, a few of us found some time to visit a nearby monkey sanctuary. I have never seen monkeys in the wild before, so this was a really fun experience for me. The guide gave us bananas and the monkeys ate them right out of our hands, which was slightly scary (I didn't want to get bitten!) but also awesome. The monkeys just chilled in the trees and wandered down when they saw the food. It's clear that this was a tourist location so the animals were quite comfortable with letting you get close to them, but it was still fun to see them suddenly jump from trees and run out toward you. I will post some pictures later.
One of the best parts about my trip was the incredible scenery. Since I live in the northern region of the country, I am not used to seeing many mountains or lush greenery. The further north you go, the more the terrain becomes flatter and less tropical. I don't mind that I live in the "high plains" area, especially because there are such drastic differences between the rainy season and the hot season in terms of what the scenery looks like. In the rainy season, things get far more lush, and we have a lot of tall grass and beautiful trees. In the dry season (which we are in the middle of right now), everything dies, so you have long stretches of what looks sort of like desert and very few green grass or leafy trees. The southern part of the country, however, is much closer to the equator and doesn't have as much of a "dry" season, so it rains year-round and is much more humid. This means that the landscapes are very tropical and they stay green throughout the year, so traveling down there was a nice treat for all of us "notherners." It made me really appreciate the beauty of this country and reminded me that there are so many differences between my experience at my site and the experience of others at their posts.
On our long trip down to the festival, I was talking with one of my fellow volunteers about the frustrations of some of our work. Specifically, I shared a story with her about a recent event that I helped out at with another volunteer. We taught a lesson on HIV to about 120 men who do road work. The lesson was great-the men where very attentive and asked good questions. We were excited about the lesson until we got to the end, where we decided to hand out some free condoms that we had been given to encourage them to protect themselves. As soon as we got out the boxes of condoms, the men who had been so calmly sitting in their seats and listening to the lesson became an uncontrollable mob. They were pushing, shoving, yelling, grabbing, and doing absolutely anything necessary to grab the condoms we were trying to pass out. There were plenty of condoms to go around, but there was a frantic feeling that seemed to pass over the crowd and each man wanted to be sure that he was getting his share. After many frustrating and fruitless attempts to make the men form lines, we ended up just throwing the condoms on the ground and allowing them to have a free-for-all because things were absolutely crazy. I shared this story with my friend, and noted that the men at that event reminded me of the children who come to my house and go crazy when I have any extra candy or trinkets to give out. Even the most docile of children will start yelling, pushing, and clawing their way to me in order to get as much as they can of whatever I'm giving. She agreed that she has witnessed the same behavior in her village and we discussed the reasons behind why this might be. I have been in crowds like this in America, where people are pushing and shoving their way to the front of a line or trying to grab the last of something that is being passed out. But I think one of the big differences here is a sort of "hoarding" mentality. It is not just that everyone is trying to get their fair share, but that every person is trying to get as much of the item as possible. The men at the event were shoving condoms down their pockets and grabbing for more, even though I know that many of these men don't even really care about the condoms and probably will not use them. The point is that they were being given something for free, and they wanted to get their hands on as many of these free items as possible. I am reminded of the way that many people growing up during the Great Depression have/had a tendancy to hold on to things for a long time and hoard items when the received them. I think this comes out of a fear that there will not be enough to "go around." It is something of a self-preservation technique for you and your family, and I am learning that in areas like the one in which I live, you must have a certain degree of this in your life. You have to be tenacious. It is better to take advantage of every opportunity, particulary when you don't have to work for it. Especially when the thing offered is being given to you for free. Now, I have MANY more thoughts on this subject, including the ways in which I think the West has amplified this mentality of chaotic "grabbing" in the developing world and how I believe that the traditional approach to "development" has actually magnified problems and encouraged societies of dependency in the developing world and societies of guilt in the developed world.... But I will save those thoughts for another blog post (or several). I look forward to engaging in some good conversations about these things when I visit home this summer! Until the next post, an ice cream cone for my sake-I have a major craving :)
