Livin' and Learnin'

“The darkest thing about Africa has always been our ignorance of it.” – George Kimble

A productive day! I spent the day planning and preparing for the Reading class I will be teaching, which I will only teach every other week, but hey, it’s something. In addition, every week I will be responsible for two classes supporting students with the development of teaching and learning materials. There is still a lot of time that needs to be filled, but I’m working on it. At least some ounce of purpose has been provided for me.

I have the luxury of being provided breakfast and lunch each day in the staff common room. For breakfast today, I had porridge made with millets (type of corn) served with a large, round, sweet roll. Bring your own mug for breakfast or, like me, you’re left standing there looking ridiculous. Lunch was rice made with beans and served with a red stew soaking in fish heads, and hard-boiled eggs on the side. The stew had not arrived yet, so I filled my bowl with rice and began eating. Several men came and said, “wait for the stew!” and looked at me like I was crazy for wanting to eat only rice. Then, another woman questioned why I was using a spoon, because I should be using my fingers. Hey! The men next to me were using spoons too, so I just followed suit. A very informative lunch indeed! De! (Delicious in Twi, yea that’s right, I’m bustin’ out some Twi).

As I was didi (eating in Twi), most of the conversations taking place are in Twi, but whenever I hear, “obruni”, I know they are talking about me, because that word means white person. So I told them that I know they are talking about me when I hear that word since I’m the only whitey there, and that got a few chuckles from the crowd. I was assured that anything being said was not at all negative. Hopefully this is true. Also, when I’m greeted, I am often called Abena, which is my day name since I was born on a Tuesday. Apparently, the day you were born really matters here, and it becomes part of your name. I didn’t have a clue what day I was born on, only the date. So I had to do some internet research in order to have an answer for these Ghanaians questioning me about what day I was born and gasping when I said I didn’t know. Everyone is happy now!

I seem to have made a friend, Ameyaw, who has offered to teach me Twi. He has definitely been the most helpful in terms of slowly pronouncing words and breaking it all down for me. I think I’m also going to attend a class here at the university so I can maybe start to have at least a clue of what is being said when I venture out and about. Regardless of how ridiculous I probably sound, the Ghanaians seem to really appreciate my attempts.

This evening I walked down the road to the school for the deaf to meet a peace corps volunteer working there. She showed me around and we were mauled by masses of children that were completely mesmerized by the new obruni on campus. I even managed to learn some sign language along the way. Kaitlyn did not know any sign language until her arrival in Ghana four months ago, and now she can effectively communicate as an art teacher. Amazing. I was very impressed. My university shares a wall with this school, so Kaitlyn showed me a shortcut through the cassava and plantain farmland. When I arrived back to campus, I encountered a community of college students bustling with activity. Girls washing clothes, sweeping and chilling outside their dorms. A large pack of male students in military formation jogging through campus shouting African chants. The sounds of African drums filling the night air and mosquitoes buzzing by my ears. And to top it all off, when I got in my room, a little lizard was crawling up the wall towards the gaping hole in the corner where the electrical lines are running through. Tomorrow, it’s off to Kumasi! In a trotro!