Ghana Logs – Day Seven.
The past days have been exhausting! Start early in the morning and then day-long conference workshops. Monday’s workshop was being facilitated by my organization – so we had to be extra sharp in the morning. Of course, there’s always last-minute things like needing extra copies of handouts and the friendly photocopy person taking her own sweet time in pushing a few buttons. I wanted to go up to her and say, ‘Oye..Mami..please let me do this’ (insert african accent) :)
Oh, I should tell y’all about the ‘Opening Ceremony’! So – in Africa – things don’t start, unless there’s a 5 hour opening ceremony (usually scheduled for 1-2 hours, but then runs overtime for reasons described below). There’s usually a stage with a podium. (Pics on picasa). Seated at this stage are the ‘distinguished’ guests. It usually starts with a prayer or the national anthem. Then we go into introductions. This opening ceremony started in the morning and ended at 1pm! The first hour was introductions! I mean – the first person introduced the next who introduced the next and so on – till we go to the most senior person – the ‘Chairperson of the meeting’.
THEN came the speeches. OMG! The longest things ever! I mean – this one guy was allotted 15 minutes – he talked for an hour! (What did I tell you about Africans and verbosity?) I kept having an internal giggle-loop about things and wish I could telepathically have a conversation with someone about the speeches. Hehe!) Anyways – my butt was so numb at the end of this all! The highlight of all this was a traditional African dance at the end! It was amazing, guys! So full of energy and life! We were all moving/tapping our feet etc at the end of it all. (Kait – now I know why you love west African drumming so much! I was thinking of you the whole time – I’ll send you a video clip I took for you)
Oh, I should mention food. Dude – the food here is amazing! Dishes (like most cuisines around the world) are comprised of a starch and protein. They have this spicy curry looking thing – and they serve it with rice. Then they have this watery soupy (again spicy) one that they serve with corn-meal mash – called fufu. Then there’s banku and kenkey – which are variants of fufu. Oh, and fried plantains! YUM-MY! I’m going to gain so much weight! Ha! The food here tastes so fresh and tasty. Like yday I had pineapple – the best pineapple I’ve had! I love sampling food from everywhere – and this trip is definitely hitting my foodie spots. :)
Other than that – nothing much to report – the rest of conference has been good. We’ve had several power outages both during the day and the speakers make the best of the situation. At night, it’s a different story. Taking a shower in the dark with a candle brings back memories. :)
Interviews are going well. I am using every available ‘free’ minute to grab people outside of meeting rooms to hold this qualitative survey on family planning. It’s exhausting. But rewarding when I think of the impact that this information will have in helping to bring family planning commodities to African countries. I’m looking forward to the weekend – the conference ends on Thurs, and I’ll have Sat/Sun to do some sightseeing. No idea what I’m going to do – and where I’m going to go. BUT I can’t come all this way and not see/do something, so watch for my next update on the weekend adventures! :)
Thanks so much to those who’ve been writing – I love hearing back from you! I have pretty reliable email access and have communicated with a lot of you - even been able to video-skype with some!
Much love and hugs from this end of the world! :)
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Africa notes: Part deux
M'ma ache! (Good morning!)
Day Four in Ghana. May I just declare it's been lovely so far. I still can't believe I'm here. It hits me every so often when I pause to reflect. I'm simply amazed of where I am and how I got here. I mean – who am I? Who would have thought that me - a simple girl from little Mombasa - would get the opportunity to study what I did, where I did and do what I do. Craziness, if you must ask me.
So..Saturday was my 'day off'. I got connected to a friend of a friend who lives here. She very graciously came to get me around mid-morning so we could go 'roam around town'. While I was waiting for Victoria (she was an hour late..hehe..African-time! Y'all better not complain when I'm like 10 minutes late for things!), I started chatting with this woman over breakfast. A native of Cameroon, but living in Harare, Zimbabwe - she'd come to Accra to facilitate a workshop. Such an interesting vivacious lady! A lawyer by training - she was a World Bank consultant working on the issue of strengthening systems in developing country governments, and how to build good governance from the ground up. Anyways - she was leaving for Harare on late-night flight, and had the day to 'roam around' - so I invited her to join me and Victoria.
Victoria, a shy graceful woman in her mid-20s, is working on her 'National Service' (an internship mandatory for those who go through public education in Ghana to 'pay the government back'). Throughout the day, I got the most interesting conversations with these lovely African women. Both so different in socio-economics, age, background, education - and yet - here we were - a Kenyan-Indian-soon-to-be-American, Ghanaian, and Cameroonian - spending the day sharing about our respective backgrounds and what motivates us to be where we are. And all this, in the midst of a jostling crowd while in a busy open-air market on a hot day. I was loving it!
There's more stories - like how we ate at this local restaurant with live chickens literally being slaughtered right outside! And how exciting it was to be on a trotro packed with more people than fingers on all my hands/feet. But let me not bore you with more minutiae. Again - it helps to "process" by writing. You unwittingly are someone that I'd love to tell these stories to right now, so here - you got this email! :)
This next week will be full of meetings - lots of listening/writing. Wish me luck - I'm conducting interviews with 20+ country health leaders who are at this conference that I'm attending. I did two yday evening. Talking with Africans is always joy - simple questions can take 1hr’s worth of long convoluted answers. (Wow. I know how YOU feel when you talk to me! ha!) Processing/analyzing these interviews will be fun when I get back.
Meda ase (thank you!)
Day Four in Ghana. May I just declare it's been lovely so far. I still can't believe I'm here. It hits me every so often when I pause to reflect. I'm simply amazed of where I am and how I got here. I mean – who am I? Who would have thought that me - a simple girl from little Mombasa - would get the opportunity to study what I did, where I did and do what I do. Craziness, if you must ask me.
So..Saturday was my 'day off'. I got connected to a friend of a friend who lives here. She very graciously came to get me around mid-morning so we could go 'roam around town'. While I was waiting for Victoria (she was an hour late..hehe..African-time! Y'all better not complain when I'm like 10 minutes late for things!), I started chatting with this woman over breakfast. A native of Cameroon, but living in Harare, Zimbabwe - she'd come to Accra to facilitate a workshop. Such an interesting vivacious lady! A lawyer by training - she was a World Bank consultant working on the issue of strengthening systems in developing country governments, and how to build good governance from the ground up. Anyways - she was leaving for Harare on late-night flight, and had the day to 'roam around' - so I invited her to join me and Victoria.
Victoria, a shy graceful woman in her mid-20s, is working on her 'National Service' (an internship mandatory for those who go through public education in Ghana to 'pay the government back'). Throughout the day, I got the most interesting conversations with these lovely African women. Both so different in socio-economics, age, background, education - and yet - here we were - a Kenyan-Indian-soon-to-be-American, Ghanaian, and Cameroonian - spending the day sharing about our respective backgrounds and what motivates us to be where we are. And all this, in the midst of a jostling crowd while in a busy open-air market on a hot day. I was loving it!
There's more stories - like how we ate at this local restaurant with live chickens literally being slaughtered right outside! And how exciting it was to be on a trotro packed with more people than fingers on all my hands/feet. But let me not bore you with more minutiae. Again - it helps to "process" by writing. You unwittingly are someone that I'd love to tell these stories to right now, so here - you got this email! :)
This next week will be full of meetings - lots of listening/writing. Wish me luck - I'm conducting interviews with 20+ country health leaders who are at this conference that I'm attending. I did two yday evening. Talking with Africans is always joy - simple questions can take 1hr’s worth of long convoluted answers. (Wow. I know how YOU feel when you talk to me! ha!) Processing/analyzing these interviews will be fun when I get back.
Meda ase (thank you!)
Friday, February 18, 2011
In Africa!
I made it to Ghana okay! Just checked into the hotel and discovered that they have free (VERY SLOW) wireless in the room! Woo hoo! So - I'll be able to check emails for a couple days. (moving to another location (conference center) on Sunday - and the internet situation there remains to be seen).
It's sooo weird being back! It is HOT! I had forgotten what African heat was all about. I'm already sweating buckets! hehe! AND everyone is black (duh!). My Swahili keeps bubbling forth! I've already started speaking Kiswahili with people and the moment I say 1-2 words and get a blank stare - I realize I'm not in Kenya! :(
The flight was good - I got a bulk-head seat with no one next to me, so I was able to sprawl out (sort of). Got a lot of work done on the plane and slept. Uneventful. But I was so glad that my flight landed during the day in Accra - seeing the red earth on the roads, green rolling hills, and houses with red roofs built African style was sooo good for my soul! My heart was doing little flips. :)
Driving from the airport with Ghanaian music blasting off from the radio and watching graceful women balancing their wares on their heads to be sold along the road-side makes me feel like I'm home. I almost want to move back to Africa for another job! :)
Ooo..can I just declare that I had a Ghanaian (or maybe Nigerian) family behind me in line at Atlanta airport that came to drop their family off to the airport - African-style. It felt like the whole village was there. I kept thinking in my head - "here we go..start getting used to this". Hee..hee.
Anyways - forgive my rambling..but I feel like "chatting" and telling people what I am seeing, etc! I've already taken a few pictures - will upload them on to picasa when I have better internet. Thanks for listening and feel free to write back! I'll try to send out little updates as I can - you all can be my little journal-buddies on my first back trip to the fatherland. :)
Monday, February 14, 2011
The One Thing
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)