February 27, 2010. Redistribution in Ghana
This time we’re talking about weight. I now weigh exactly what I did when I first married, but the distribution seems to be quite different. The waistline has definitely not gone back to that magic number of yore, and my new bra size appears to be 36 long. But people want to know the secret, and I am glad to share. I am pretty sure any of you could lose 35 pounds if you just gave up bread and dairy for a few months. We’re not talking here about wheat toast and a little yoghurt for breakfast. We’re talking about crusty French bread smothered in drippy cheese, or that good Italian bread soaked in olive oil just before the rich, creamy parmesan sauce appears on the pasta. Or scones with real butter. Or that second bowl of ice cream just before bed. I can do a version of mac and cheese here, but it involves powdered milk, wedges of Laughing Cow, and mustard from one of those little packets from the hot-dog stand in the US. It’s not the same. The other problem involves cooking for one with no refrigeration. I have lived alone and eaten very well for many years, some might say too well. But I could always make a great stew, or a ratatouille, and if I didn’t want to eat it for a week I could freeze the rest for later. Now, putting more than three ingredients in a single recipe makes too much for one meal, and there is no way to keep it safe. It’s also possible that one- or two-item dishes just don’t seem that appetizing, day after day and I now understand why Ghanaians do not eroticize their food the way we do at home. So give it a try, but this is probably just a temporary state of affairs. I like my new body, however, and really hope that when I get home and have access to all that good stuff I can hold the line at no more than 10 lbs. We’ll see.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Dark days
February 22, 2010. Just came through a really hard two weeks, but I think it will all be fine. We knew that the Cadbury Foundation had approved funds for our grant, but didn’t have any details. And it would come to us through another NGO that seemed to be obfuscating. At home most, if not all, non-governmental organizations operate as non-profits. We know that it’s pretty easy to not make a profit…just fly all the execs first class, or buy a new limo, or whatever. But in Ghana the profit thing isn’t so clear, and I know of at least a couple of NGOs that are making money. It’s all very confusing.
Anyhow, it seemed that the priorities were shifting around, and that a big chunk of the grant will come off the top for management fees, or whatever, for the NGO and because of “budget constraints” there is nothing left for the electricity project. Then I was “disinvited” to the meeting where all would be explained. That whole scene actually felt like the time in Seventh Grade when you’re in a stall in the girls’ lavatory and you hear the other girls planning a party but trying to figure out how to do it without specifically inviting you. Remember that one? So I was in a pretty dark tunnel for a while there, but I think I’m past it now. And of course, it feels so good to be getting any money at all that nobody wants to make waves by questioning anything. And I get that, as well, it’s just so frustrating.
So I just started thinking about secondary projects I could be doing, and I’ll be so busy I won’t have time to think about the crummy stuff. I am starting an after-school English club, and am prepared to bribe kids with snacks and juice boxes to get them to show up. For one hour we will speak only English, but they can choose any topic. A movie, a TV show, a book, what somebody’s little sister did, etc. Just as long as it is English. The kids in my village need a lot of help with that, but it is the official national language and they will never make it out of the village without better skills.
And we are hosting a Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) conference here in August! I am really excited about it. Five days, girls ages 13 to 16, with some older girls as quasi-counselors. They have to be good English speakers, and be recommended by a teacher, but can come from anywhere in the Eastern Region. We will have workshops on everything from setting goals to five different ways to say no. And it will be the first time my village has been entirely on their own to host a conference. No NGO, just us. It will be great!
Anyhow, it seemed that the priorities were shifting around, and that a big chunk of the grant will come off the top for management fees, or whatever, for the NGO and because of “budget constraints” there is nothing left for the electricity project. Then I was “disinvited” to the meeting where all would be explained. That whole scene actually felt like the time in Seventh Grade when you’re in a stall in the girls’ lavatory and you hear the other girls planning a party but trying to figure out how to do it without specifically inviting you. Remember that one? So I was in a pretty dark tunnel for a while there, but I think I’m past it now. And of course, it feels so good to be getting any money at all that nobody wants to make waves by questioning anything. And I get that, as well, it’s just so frustrating.
So I just started thinking about secondary projects I could be doing, and I’ll be so busy I won’t have time to think about the crummy stuff. I am starting an after-school English club, and am prepared to bribe kids with snacks and juice boxes to get them to show up. For one hour we will speak only English, but they can choose any topic. A movie, a TV show, a book, what somebody’s little sister did, etc. Just as long as it is English. The kids in my village need a lot of help with that, but it is the official national language and they will never make it out of the village without better skills.
And we are hosting a Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) conference here in August! I am really excited about it. Five days, girls ages 13 to 16, with some older girls as quasi-counselors. They have to be good English speakers, and be recommended by a teacher, but can come from anywhere in the Eastern Region. We will have workshops on everything from setting goals to five different ways to say no. And it will be the first time my village has been entirely on their own to host a conference. No NGO, just us. It will be great!
The non-proposal
February 1, 2010
A standard farewell in Ghana is to say “I will come visit you there” so when a cab brought me home last week I wasn’t surprised to hear the driver say that. We had talked briefly about how it was for me in Ghana, and he had said he wants to visit America, and etc. Everybody wants to visit America, and almost every time I am on a tro someone says the same thing. Earlier that same day a man traveling with his young son, but who might have been drinking, said he thought I could get him there somehow. After much discussion about how expensive it is to fly, hard to get a visa, etc., I told him that frankly there aren’t any free tickets to the US, and he was on his own as far as I was concerned. I reached home and forgot about both conversations. That’s just standard stuff you get all the time from Ghanaian men, who frequently also say they want to marry you. I usually tell them I have too many husbands already, and it’s kind of a game, but sometimes you just get sick of it. My latest response is that I have two husbands at home, but if this guy has a good enough job to support all of us I will consider it.
So imagine my surprise when the cab driver showed up yesterday, with a female classmate. She didn’t speak the entire time they were here, so I don’t know what that’s about. He couldn’t believe I didn’t recognize him right away, and had to keep reminding me of our conversation. As in, you are the grandmother, so you are too old for it to work, but I know you have many young white women in the Peace Corps and I thought you were going to introduce me to them. I ask, “Are you saying that you want to meet one of the white women so you can get to America?” “Yes,” and he was so relieved that I finally got it. Again, however, he had to emphasize “..but you are too old for it to work so you must introduce me to a younger woman.” I asked about his studies, he is probably around 22 or 23 and goes to high school, which is not uncommon here. He is studying agriculture, but wants to study engineering. I showed him on the map how far away from my site the younger white women are (just the ones really far). But he insisted he has seen them around Kukurantumi, so I was probably holding out on him. I explained there had been several week-long training sessions last month, but they are all back at their sites now, as I am. He realized it was probably a lost cause, but he is really disappointed. By that time I was cranky, and I advised him that maybe he could get to the US on his own. He should study hard, learn to read and speak English well, and try for a scholarship to study engineering at a university in the US. He thought that would be much too hard, but I think there’s a better chance of that than there is that some white chick with an extra ticket would stop him on the street and take him home with her. They left, and I would love to know what his companion understood or thought of all this. And I sort of wondered what he has that won’t work because I’m too old. But I’m not curious enough to want to have another conversation with him.
A standard farewell in Ghana is to say “I will come visit you there” so when a cab brought me home last week I wasn’t surprised to hear the driver say that. We had talked briefly about how it was for me in Ghana, and he had said he wants to visit America, and etc. Everybody wants to visit America, and almost every time I am on a tro someone says the same thing. Earlier that same day a man traveling with his young son, but who might have been drinking, said he thought I could get him there somehow. After much discussion about how expensive it is to fly, hard to get a visa, etc., I told him that frankly there aren’t any free tickets to the US, and he was on his own as far as I was concerned. I reached home and forgot about both conversations. That’s just standard stuff you get all the time from Ghanaian men, who frequently also say they want to marry you. I usually tell them I have too many husbands already, and it’s kind of a game, but sometimes you just get sick of it. My latest response is that I have two husbands at home, but if this guy has a good enough job to support all of us I will consider it.
So imagine my surprise when the cab driver showed up yesterday, with a female classmate. She didn’t speak the entire time they were here, so I don’t know what that’s about. He couldn’t believe I didn’t recognize him right away, and had to keep reminding me of our conversation. As in, you are the grandmother, so you are too old for it to work, but I know you have many young white women in the Peace Corps and I thought you were going to introduce me to them. I ask, “Are you saying that you want to meet one of the white women so you can get to America?” “Yes,” and he was so relieved that I finally got it. Again, however, he had to emphasize “..but you are too old for it to work so you must introduce me to a younger woman.” I asked about his studies, he is probably around 22 or 23 and goes to high school, which is not uncommon here. He is studying agriculture, but wants to study engineering. I showed him on the map how far away from my site the younger white women are (just the ones really far). But he insisted he has seen them around Kukurantumi, so I was probably holding out on him. I explained there had been several week-long training sessions last month, but they are all back at their sites now, as I am. He realized it was probably a lost cause, but he is really disappointed. By that time I was cranky, and I advised him that maybe he could get to the US on his own. He should study hard, learn to read and speak English well, and try for a scholarship to study engineering at a university in the US. He thought that would be much too hard, but I think there’s a better chance of that than there is that some white chick with an extra ticket would stop him on the street and take him home with her. They left, and I would love to know what his companion understood or thought of all this. And I sort of wondered what he has that won’t work because I’m too old. But I’m not curious enough to want to have another conversation with him.
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