Pictures from Ghana

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Required reading

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at the home/pool/yard of the Ambassador, and he and his wife could not have been more wonderful. I want to tell you all about it, but first I want you to hear this true story. You will understand why I can\t give names, locations, or dates, but trust me on this one. One of our PCVs, hereafter known as Saint PCV, was assigned to a small village. We went to our sites August 15. We were expected to spend our first three months integrating into our villages, finding out who the players are, where to shop, how to shop, etc. Certainly interact with everyone who might be involved in your project, but no specific activities yet. Well, after a while in his village he asked about a small girl he had seen several times, and who seemed in dire straits. He said she was so thin her bones were like sticks, with not even flesh left for the potbelly that signals malnutrition, she was dirty, and seemed totally neglected.

Because she was. Her mother was dead (don\t know those details) and one day, probably not for the first time, her father beat her. Perhaps in a frenzy caused by an aneurism, who knows, but the next morning he was dead. So obviously she took her revenge. The people in the village believe she is a ju-ju child who caused the death of both her parents, they were afraid of her, and the village decided to completely shun her, not give her access to food, and she would eventually die. If not from starvation, something else. Saint PCV, a man probably in his late thirties, not one of the new grads, knew he had to step in here. He realized he couldn\t move her into his quarters, but he brought her food, bathed her, got her clothing, etc. Villagers warned him that he could jeopardize his position in the village, but he did what he had to do. He just kept feeding her, and the week before Thanksgiving, after working his way through all the cultural and bureaucratic jungles, he got her settled in an orphanage where she will be cared for. Saint PCV saved a life, and we can all give thanks for that.

And this could still play out a lot of different ways for Saint PCV. The village might find it hard to trust him...maybe her evil rubbed off on him, maybe his ju-ju is stronger than hers, which could be another problem, maybe he is just a crazy obruni and they will all go right back to where they were. It\s hard to know. I have lived in two villages, each with a large Christian presence, but in both there was a seamless acceptance of the fact that someone had been cursed, or had put a curse, or something. In one case the elders, including the methodist pastor, worked to have the woman agree to remove the curse, and she did. There are at least two "camps" in Ghana for women who have been cast out of their villages for witchcraft. Usually old, but not always, no job, no source of income, and even the family is afraid of them..or afraid to help them because they might also be cursed. A female PCV has actually started a beadmaking class at one of the camps, so the women may have a skill and a source of income, although they will probably never be allowed to leave. And that wasn\t even her project, either. She just started it on her own as a second project. And the Daily Dispatch, a regular newspaper in Ghana, had a story a couple of weeks ago about a pedophile who had been arrested, and who they quoted as saying, *I never had a hankering for young boys until after my stepmother put that curse on me." (I think the translater might have been watching too many cowboy movies, because *hankerin* just doesn\t sound Ghanaian, but that\s another topic.) And we know it\s always the stepmom\s fault, but the point is witchcraft, sorcery, etc., is as real to many people as their daily bible classes. Or their Koran, because there is the same sort of parallel belief system further north where the villages may be almost totally muslim. Not just uneducated people, or people in the bush. It's part of the fabric of life and acts as a subtext to a great deal of thought and action, and should not be dismissed as just tribal nonsense. I have at least two other such stories that I will post when I have better computer access, but I want you to have this one for the holiday season. That child is being cared for, and the universe is a bit shinier for that.

Sorry it\s been so long between updates. I will have a new computer soon!!! and will be able to write at home and then just download here. Until then, love what you do and do what you love. Cheers, dw