The past few weeks have been an incredibly rewarding and exciting time for me as a volunteer. A youth group in the community approached me about starting a small sanitation project, for which we submitted the grant application last week, and the two girls who attended our tie and dye workshop were able to use money from some of my generous friends and family in America to buy more supplies and get a head start on growing their fabric-dying business. In the midst of this, I have been helping to plan and execute another HIV education and testing event that took place during the past week. On top of this, I am picking up my friend Robin (who is visiting from Taiwan!) today at the Accra airport, and the health, water, and sanitation technical training is being hosted in my village for the next two weeks. Needless to say, things are pretty busy around here.
Next month, a new batch of volunteers will be swearing in, and last week I had the opportunity to meet several of them as they were passing through the Peace Corps office on their way to visit their future sites. This was both an exciting time for them and a refreshing time for those of us who have been here for a while, because there is nothing like the perspective of a trainee who has only been in the country for a little over a month. It really reminded me of everything that I’ve learned over the past year and how far I’ve come, as well as just how much work we’ve been able to accomplish, because sometimes these things are hard to see unless you’re looking in from the outside. Things that used to seem foreign and daunting, like figuring out the best means of public transportation or haggling with street vendors, have now become a way of life. It’s normal to share a taxi with a goat, or ask the bus driver to pull over to the side of the road so I can use the tall grass as a makeshift rest stop. I say all of this because I’ve been reminded of the ways in which my perspective has changed, and I think a change in your way of life can be a very powerful (and good) thing.
One of my Peace Corps friends is currently hosting her older sister, who is visiting from America. I got to hang out with both of them last week and we were comparing notes about the social and cultural differences between Ghana and America. I mentioned that since coming back from my visit to America, I realized how much of a customer-driven culture that America has developed compared to Ghana. We were sitting at an upscale restaurant at the time, and my friend’s sister pointed out that all of the wait staff were just sitting at a nearby table rather than actually waiting on customers. The thing about customer service in Ghana is that it often doesn’t exist, or at least not our notion of what customer service ought to be. We joked around about the fact that in America, waiters and waitresses would never be allowed to sit around at an empty table and wait for customers to tell them when they needed something, or call them over when they were ready to order. In our culture, behavior like that merits a strong complaint to the manager, or at the very least, a lower tip. Here, it is standard procedure to have to summon a server over to you several times to ask for a beverage or place your order. If you ask for a special order at a food joint in the states, the staff are expected to honor your requests to the best of their ability, and apologize profusely if they can’t. Here in Ghana , your request for a variation on a menu item is likely to be greeted with a blank stare or the declaration that the item you are asking for is not on the menu, therefore is not served. It doesn’t matter if the server is being asked to hold the onion or add extra rice on the side, the concept of “what the customer wants, the customer gets” is completely foreign to most food establishments here. This extends beyond just the food industry as well. At many hotels I’ve stayed in here, I’ve had to approach the staff to ask if they had any towels and sometimes even if they had bed sheets (“oh, you want a pillow? Sure, I can find one somewhere...”). I recently put a bag in the back of a taxi only to find out that my driver had put an extra can of petrol on top of my bag, therefore turning my backpack in to a soggy, smelly mess. Imagine your response in America if your bag ended up soaked and utterly ruined because a taxi driver had knowingly put an open can of gas on top of it. Imagine the response of the driver, or the apology you would probably be issued by the cab company for whom the driver was employed. Well, after my driver opened up the back and handed me my wet bag, my response was “Whoa, what happened?” to which my taxi driver responded by simply holding out his hand and tapping his foot on the ground, the universal sign for “anytime you want to pay my fare would be great. I’ve got other things to do here...” I let it go and paid my money, knowing that trying to argue with the driver or claiming that he somehow owed me, the customer, the basic right to a dry bag, was fruitless and likely to end in an argument on the side of the road.
I say all of this not to criticize the Ghanaian way, but to point out the ways that different societies put priorities on different things. In American culture, we have put a high value on customer service, no matter what good or service is being provided. In Ghana, the idea of tailoring your business to the customer’s every whim or going out of your way to please said customer is ludicrous, and frankly, a waste of time and energy. I must say, there are days when I wish I was back in the states, where the supermarket attendant doesn’t scoff when you hand her a $20 bill and require $15 in change because a store is expected to carry cash (If you try this in Ghana you’re likely to get turned down flat –“Madam, we don’t have any change!” or have to wait 10 minutes while your driver/waitress/gas attendant/market vendor tracks down someone, anyone, who might be able to break your bill). But I can also appreciate the fact that there is less of a “face” put on for customers here than there is in the states. A high priority on customer service often ends up manifesting in a plastered-on smile and a front that fulfilling the customer’s every desire is a pleasure. This fake and forced sweetness can get old pretty fast, and it is refreshing to know you’re being served by people who aren’t being nice to you simply because they want a good tip.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
I'm Baaaaack!
Hello everyone!
Well, this has certainly been the longest time between posts, but if I know you at all, I'm sure you'll forgive me :)
First of all, I'd like to quickly say that my recent trip to America was absolutely wonderful! I enjoyed every minute of it, though it certainly didn't seem long enough to see everyone or do everything I wanted to do. I was so blessed by everyone's words of support and encouragement, and I left feeling refreshed and excited for the next chapter of this journey.
As soon as I got on the plane heading for Ghana, I felt a surge of excitement that still hasn't quite let up. It was even better than the first time I came to this country, because instead of coming to an all new, unknown place with a bunch of strangers, I felt like I was coming "home" to a place where I have friends, family, and a job that is both challenging and so meaningful. Yet when I stepped off the plane in Accra last week, I still felt a pang of the anxiousness that I felt when I first arrived here. It took me a few days to get from America back to my site (4 days of traveling, to be exact. YIKES), and during that time, I kept having the "first day of school" dreams, where everything goes wrong and you wake up laughing at yourself for actually believing in your dream, like I did, that everyone in the village has forgotten who you are when you return.
Anyway, I've discovered a few things about this country and about myself since I've come back. First of all, things can have a tendancy to seem much better when you've created some distance between yourself and those things. Let me clarify this: when I was in America, I tried to be as honest as possible about my experiences, struggles, and challenges in Ghana over the past year, yet I still found myself sharing mostly good memories, talking about how amazing this country is, and making light of my experiences with ornery taxi drivers and over-aggressive street sellers. By the end of my trip, I had forgotten most of the "difficult" parts of living here on a day-to-day basis, and could hardly remember how I'd ever gotten mad at a child for peering through my window. After all, they're just kids, and they just want to be loved, right? Well, it didn't take too long for my rosy picture of Ghana to fade slightly around the edges. In fact, as soon as I dragged my massive suitcase (with a broken wheel) out of the Accra airport and into the burning heat, I was jolted into a world of taxi drivers yelling incessantly and refusing to accept the fact that I did NOT want to pay an absurd amount of money to ride in their cars to a place I could walk to (or trudge to, in the case of my broken luggage) in less than 20 minutes. Then, once I did finally find the car I was looking for, I was once again thrown into reality when the driver charged me about twice as much as the normal taxi fare, demanding that I also add more for "luggage fees." The reality checks only continued when I got to my site: after about 10 minutes of being back home, I had children running up to my house demanding candy and adults coming to my place to greet me (and conveniently ask what I had brought for them from America). I say this with an air of lightness, because in the grand scheme of things, these are not truly terrible problems to have, but I also share this because I have realized that things tend to look a little shinier from a distance (like a nice, big American ice cream cone. Sounding pretty darn good right now).
The next thing I realized since coming back is the way that I live my life so differently here than in America. I knew before that I had a different lifestyle here, but going to America and coming back only reinforced my thoughts that I actually like myself much better here than I do in the US. I realize this sounds a little funny, but I think it's true: the lack of stimulation like television, the internet, and people always around to talk to makes me so much more self-reflective and aware of myself. Communication becomes so much more meaningful here, because I'm not constantly inundated with technology and the ability to vent whenever I want. Problems must be faced and resolved head on here, whereas in America I find myself zoning out in front of the tv, hiding behind a computer screen, or calling up someone to complain, which in reality, are all forms of diversion from reality. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE spending time with people. Technology can be so great, and it's fun to be able to sit down with friends and watch a movie sometimes, but all of that constant STIMULATION can also be exhausting and actually quite counterproductive. I already feel more connected to myself, to God, and to my community in the week that I've been back than I ever did in America, probably because with so much alone time and so few distractions, I don't have anything to hide behind. I am much more "me" here, and I look forward to discovering over the next year how I might take this version of myself and what I've learned here and apply it to my life when I come back to the states.
Okay, that was a lot of heavy stuff. I didn't mean for this post to be filled with ramblings about my inner self, but I think it's important to share what I've learned and continue to learn here, with the hopes that you will be able to relate in some way.
Now, for a few amusing stories since I've come back to the village. First of all, everyone has LOVED all of the gifts I brought back to them, and I have YOU to thank for those gifts. Whether you gave me money, small trinkets, or M&Ms (Aunt Sharon, that has been the biggest hit BY FAR haha), you allowed me to come back to my village with an answer to the question "what did you bring from America for me?" (the standard response being, of course, CANDY!) I have tried to avoid handing out things and allowing people to get in the habit of automatically coming to me to see what I've brought for them over the past year, but I have used the time since coming back as a big thank you to so many people in the village who have done so much for me over the past year. When I shared with the two girls in my village that I would be helping them buy some more supplies for the cloth-selling business that I have been mentoring them with, they both had tears in there eyes and said, "Madam, we don't know what to say. We don't know how to thank you, because 'thank you' is not enough..." Moments like those make me truly thankful that I do have the resources to help people who truly deserve it and show my love to them, even in a small way. I have been so amused by the reactions of Ghanaians to my American candy, especially when they taste Pop Rocks. I took a short video of some of the kids when they first tasted them, but their reaction was more confusion than anything haha. The best reaction came from several of my adult male friends, who jumped around, yelled, and pointed to their mouths when the candy cracked and popped in their mouths. Truly a priceless moment.
I have had many of these moments since coming back, and I have been overwhelmed by everyone's reactions to my return. People have invited me over, fed me, excitedly asked me tons of questions about America, and have sent their greetings along to all of you. They feel connected to you through me, and I hope you feel the same way about them. Thank you again for making my trip to America so special by encouraging me and inspiring me to make this year even better than the last.
Well, this has certainly been the longest time between posts, but if I know you at all, I'm sure you'll forgive me :)
First of all, I'd like to quickly say that my recent trip to America was absolutely wonderful! I enjoyed every minute of it, though it certainly didn't seem long enough to see everyone or do everything I wanted to do. I was so blessed by everyone's words of support and encouragement, and I left feeling refreshed and excited for the next chapter of this journey.
As soon as I got on the plane heading for Ghana, I felt a surge of excitement that still hasn't quite let up. It was even better than the first time I came to this country, because instead of coming to an all new, unknown place with a bunch of strangers, I felt like I was coming "home" to a place where I have friends, family, and a job that is both challenging and so meaningful. Yet when I stepped off the plane in Accra last week, I still felt a pang of the anxiousness that I felt when I first arrived here. It took me a few days to get from America back to my site (4 days of traveling, to be exact. YIKES), and during that time, I kept having the "first day of school" dreams, where everything goes wrong and you wake up laughing at yourself for actually believing in your dream, like I did, that everyone in the village has forgotten who you are when you return.
Anyway, I've discovered a few things about this country and about myself since I've come back. First of all, things can have a tendancy to seem much better when you've created some distance between yourself and those things. Let me clarify this: when I was in America, I tried to be as honest as possible about my experiences, struggles, and challenges in Ghana over the past year, yet I still found myself sharing mostly good memories, talking about how amazing this country is, and making light of my experiences with ornery taxi drivers and over-aggressive street sellers. By the end of my trip, I had forgotten most of the "difficult" parts of living here on a day-to-day basis, and could hardly remember how I'd ever gotten mad at a child for peering through my window. After all, they're just kids, and they just want to be loved, right? Well, it didn't take too long for my rosy picture of Ghana to fade slightly around the edges. In fact, as soon as I dragged my massive suitcase (with a broken wheel) out of the Accra airport and into the burning heat, I was jolted into a world of taxi drivers yelling incessantly and refusing to accept the fact that I did NOT want to pay an absurd amount of money to ride in their cars to a place I could walk to (or trudge to, in the case of my broken luggage) in less than 20 minutes. Then, once I did finally find the car I was looking for, I was once again thrown into reality when the driver charged me about twice as much as the normal taxi fare, demanding that I also add more for "luggage fees." The reality checks only continued when I got to my site: after about 10 minutes of being back home, I had children running up to my house demanding candy and adults coming to my place to greet me (and conveniently ask what I had brought for them from America). I say this with an air of lightness, because in the grand scheme of things, these are not truly terrible problems to have, but I also share this because I have realized that things tend to look a little shinier from a distance (like a nice, big American ice cream cone. Sounding pretty darn good right now).
The next thing I realized since coming back is the way that I live my life so differently here than in America. I knew before that I had a different lifestyle here, but going to America and coming back only reinforced my thoughts that I actually like myself much better here than I do in the US. I realize this sounds a little funny, but I think it's true: the lack of stimulation like television, the internet, and people always around to talk to makes me so much more self-reflective and aware of myself. Communication becomes so much more meaningful here, because I'm not constantly inundated with technology and the ability to vent whenever I want. Problems must be faced and resolved head on here, whereas in America I find myself zoning out in front of the tv, hiding behind a computer screen, or calling up someone to complain, which in reality, are all forms of diversion from reality. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE spending time with people. Technology can be so great, and it's fun to be able to sit down with friends and watch a movie sometimes, but all of that constant STIMULATION can also be exhausting and actually quite counterproductive. I already feel more connected to myself, to God, and to my community in the week that I've been back than I ever did in America, probably because with so much alone time and so few distractions, I don't have anything to hide behind. I am much more "me" here, and I look forward to discovering over the next year how I might take this version of myself and what I've learned here and apply it to my life when I come back to the states.
Okay, that was a lot of heavy stuff. I didn't mean for this post to be filled with ramblings about my inner self, but I think it's important to share what I've learned and continue to learn here, with the hopes that you will be able to relate in some way.
Now, for a few amusing stories since I've come back to the village. First of all, everyone has LOVED all of the gifts I brought back to them, and I have YOU to thank for those gifts. Whether you gave me money, small trinkets, or M&Ms (Aunt Sharon, that has been the biggest hit BY FAR haha), you allowed me to come back to my village with an answer to the question "what did you bring from America for me?" (the standard response being, of course, CANDY!) I have tried to avoid handing out things and allowing people to get in the habit of automatically coming to me to see what I've brought for them over the past year, but I have used the time since coming back as a big thank you to so many people in the village who have done so much for me over the past year. When I shared with the two girls in my village that I would be helping them buy some more supplies for the cloth-selling business that I have been mentoring them with, they both had tears in there eyes and said, "Madam, we don't know what to say. We don't know how to thank you, because 'thank you' is not enough..." Moments like those make me truly thankful that I do have the resources to help people who truly deserve it and show my love to them, even in a small way. I have been so amused by the reactions of Ghanaians to my American candy, especially when they taste Pop Rocks. I took a short video of some of the kids when they first tasted them, but their reaction was more confusion than anything haha. The best reaction came from several of my adult male friends, who jumped around, yelled, and pointed to their mouths when the candy cracked and popped in their mouths. Truly a priceless moment.
I have had many of these moments since coming back, and I have been overwhelmed by everyone's reactions to my return. People have invited me over, fed me, excitedly asked me tons of questions about America, and have sent their greetings along to all of you. They feel connected to you through me, and I hope you feel the same way about them. Thank you again for making my trip to America so special by encouraging me and inspiring me to make this year even better than the last.
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