Carvings and Controversy, AIDS and Aid

Tuesday, November 28^th

I went to bed somewhat late last night. I wanted to get a little more studying done before I crashed. I think I fell asleep between 1 and 2. My final isn’t scheduled until 3:30 in the afternoon, so I was able to sleep in without losing too much studying time.

I finally woke up around 10, but lazed around in my pajamas and studied in bed for a while. Eventually, I found the strength to roll out of bed, and get some lunch.

When I walked out the door, Matt asked me, with his goofy smile on his face, “Have you seen the letter?” Oh no. Apparently, Francis and Ryan got into a significant verbal fight over Ryan smoking cigarettes in the hallway. The letter, which was a complete joke, grouped all of the EAP kids together, making all of us guilty for the “crimes” of a few. This really flamed a lot of us “white folk,” so instead of going to lunch, I pounded out a draft of a letter that we will post around the hall in the coming days.

After a bit of lunch and some more studying, I walked over to On the Run to use their lovely restroom. On the way there, I saw something I thought I would never see here – a pair of tornadoes. They were small – very small – but I saw both touch down, and then go back into the clouds.

At On the Run, I ran into Duncan and his mom, who chose to cash in on Two-Timer Tuesday earlier. I stayed for a couple minutes with them, but then had to get going. I had to take my final for Poli 305 – Government and Politics in Ghana This is the class that I haven’t attended for the last eleven weeks. In all, it was pretty easy. There was one minor section which I knew nothing about, but everything else, I had a pretty firm idea of what I was saying. I would be shocked if I got anything less than a B or B+ in that class, but I’m expecting a little higher than that.

I returned to continue working on this letter. This thing is going to put their letter to shame. So far, everyone seems okay with it. After some minor edits, I played some cards with Duncan. I’ve been dominating at Spar, but I don’t know if it’s because the cards are running lucky or if I’m just a better player. I’ll give Duncan the benefit of the doubt and say the cards are just coming my way right now.

Around 8:30, I went over to see some of the girls at Volta. Brianna and Isis – one of the girls involved in the accident – are going home tomorrow. It’s for the better that they go home. Being around family and a stable environment will help them a lot. I said my goodbyes after eating some pizza and watching a bit of “Mean Girls” (not my favorite movie).

The rest of the evening was dedicated to tying up a final version of this letter. I should be able to have it printed tomorrow. It should be very interesting to see what kind of response we get.

Wednesday, November 29^th

If today can be characterized by one thing, it is the computer. But the reality is, despite sitting behind this machine for the majority of the day, it was still very productive.

My first priority was printing my independent study research paper. I am so glad to have that beast off of my hands. In the end, it was twenty-pages, including a couple pages of pictures. It isn’t perfect – no piece of written work is – but I think the bulk of the content is interesting and well-written.

Priority number two was the printing and the hanging of the obruni response letter to the block lord. Simply put, our letter refuted and rejected every single point that he made. As our good Ghanaian friend, Aziz, said, “You have definitely won the battle.” The proof is in the pudding; most Ghanaians agree with our letter and that idiot of a block lord decided to take all six copies down. He’s a coward, but it doesn’t really matter. The letter got forwarded to the Dean of Students, the Hall Master, the student body president and the Legon Hall president. When it comes down to it, our block lord’s credibility is wrecked; mission accomplished.

In the afternoon, my work continued on the computer. I started cropping some pictures of Ryan and Joe. The crowned jewel of our apartment in San Diego is going to be woodcarvings of our faces. There is something that is so funny – so preposterous – about getting a carving of your own face. How pompous are we? Needless to say, this will be amazing when it is all done.

The last computer mission was to send some pictures and some formatting to Eva, a very close family friend. She and her husband, Adam, might as well be family. Eva is formatting my blog pages into a book, which is very cool, and Adam is going to print it. I’m really excited for this. It’s going to be really cool to go back and read all of this years later.

With all of my work on the computer done, I started working toward tomorrow’s main objective – ordering the woodcarvings. I took the pictures of Joe, Ryan, and myself, put them into black and white, and pulled out the darkest of darks and the lightest of lights. What remained was a very accurate caricature. It will definitely make the job easier for Nic.

Thursday, November 30^th

Today started very early, and by very early, I mean 1:10 AM. Craig Edelman, a UCSD grad who I introduced to Africa Aid last year, called me. He had sent me an email yesterday concerning the School Lunch Program, which has been non-existent. He was shocked and disappointed to learn that no progress was made here over the last seventeen weeks.

The call was good; I really needed to vent, and I didn’t care if I woke people up doing it. I expressed my complete displeasure and anger with Africa Aid. He, too, has been somewhat disappointed recently, and he understood my point very well. He asked me a perfect question: “If we sent money tomorrow, would Camp be ready?” Would they be ready? They’ve been ready for three months. I told him that if money were sent immediately, it would be put to use immediately.

After a fifty minute conversation, I went to bed.

I was told last night that Nic would be showing up sometime between 10 and 12, which was perfect. I knew he wouldn’t be showing at 10; it’s very un-Ghanaian to show up at the beginning of a time slot.

Nic arrived at 11:30. Quite frankly, I was surprised that he hit the time slot at all, but I will give credit where credit is due. I put in my order for the three faces and a set of wall shadows, which is this really cool set of twelve or fourteen figures. I saw them when I went to Aburi a few weeks back, and really liked them. I wasn’t going to get any, but the fact that it kept rattling around in my head must have meant something.

I bargained hard, and ended up getting the three faces, plus the set of wall shadows for 230,000 cedis (25 dollars) and a set of beat-up shoes that I would be leaving here anyway. It is a lot of work, and the faces won’t be easy, so I don’t mind paying a good chunk of money for them. It’s well worth it.

Francis and Duncan also put in some orders. Francis ordered a whole slew of things and Duncan ordered a couple more masks. After this, Duncan and I played some Spar. The cards have swung his way, and he is starting to beat me up a bit.

Duncan and I made our way over to Volta Hall. He had some things to pick up from Sandra the Tailor, and I had to drop of my laundry with the guy behind the hall who has a machine. Everything was fine, except one thing – the power was out, which meant no laundry. A bummer, sure, but not a big deal. The big thing is that I walked over with these buckets of clothes and didn’t want to waste my trip down the four flights of stairs. I met Duncan at Sandra’s to buy some scraps of cloth for a friend. This, I think, is my final piece of business with Sandra. I have everything I want and, honestly, I can’t afford to buy any more clothing.

After hauling my clothes back up the Legon Hall stairs, Duncan and I went over to Chicken Inn, which is right next to Bonjour (formerly known as On the Run). Both of us were hungry – we each got hamburgers, which is a treat – and both of us needed to use there facilities. My trips for meals, sadly, revolve around when I have to use the restroom. Considering the state of the bathrooms – the toilets have been flushed once in the last three weeks and we know have mushrooms growing in the urine trough – you can understand why I will literally walk a mile to use a clean restroom.

On the way to Chicken Inn, I received a piece of great news: Africa Aid has decided to send a thousand dollars to the refugee camp immediately. Thank God. This trip has been amazing but this is truly the cherry on top. While it is not perfect, it is something. I am so glad that I’ll be around to see this program get officially put into place. I’ve worked two years to see this happen, and now, it’s so close to happening. Even though I told Jeremiah that I wouldn’t be returning to camp because the lack of need to go there, I have reason to return now.

From Chicken Inn, we went to the Performing Arts Center, where Duncan picked up a pair of really sick drums which come from Northern Ghana. They have a distinctly different sound than the Southern drums.

Prior to some meeting we had to attend, a thief was caught stealing a cell phone right outside of Annex A. In a place were so many have so little, thievery is simply not tolerated. Typically, a thief would receive the Ghanaian justice of “pounding and ponding” – a beating and either being thrown into a pond or having water thrown at them, which hurts, bruises and scars. This particular thief got slapped in the head a couple of times and then was taken to the police station. What seemed like a riot settled very quickly.

At 5:30, we had an “emergency meeting” with Professor John Marcum, the UC-wide Director of EAP. Without being told, we knew the meeting would revolve around last week’s accident. What it turned into, at least the way I heard it, was a complete ripping of EAP and the program. At the same time, though, everyone stressed that the program should not be cancelled – it just needed to be changed in important ways. I don’t think the meeting was particularly productive in terms of finding solutions to the problems. It wasn’t a complete waste of time, but it wasn’t a particularly effective use of time either.

By the end of the meeting, the electricity had returned, so Duncan and I made our way up to the internet café to check emails and load pictures.

We ended the night by shooting a couple of games of pool.

Friday, December 1^st

I can’t believe it’s December. I remember looking at the calendar when we first arrived and I thought, “We need to get through four months and then we’ll be close to going home.” Well, now we’re close to going home. I also recall saying to people that once we hit November, the rest of the time will fly. I really don’t know where November went. It was like a blink.

The bed was feeling particularly comfortable this morning. It’s really hard to find the motivation to get out of bed when I know I have no class and no exams for the next eleven days. But there were still things to get done.

I walked over to Volta to make sure that the laundry man was there. This is only the second time that I will be having my laundry done, and I’m only getting it done by someone now because I ran out of Woolite. He told me that my laundry – twelve shirts, a pair of shorts and five pairs of pants – would cost me 30,000 cedis. Not too bad, especially since it is machine washed.

From Volta, I made my way to Western Union to pick up some money. In the wake of losing my ATM card, Western Union has been a savior. The power of technology is such that someone can send money online to a place and it can be picked up almost instantly.

Duncan and I grabbed some French bread Pizza at Pizza Inn, then headed to the EAP office to have one-on-one meetings with Professor Marcum. I gave a few recommendations on how EAP can be improved, but stressed the importance of keeping the program here, a question which he had raised last night. Simply put, there are lessons to be learned here that can’t be taken out of any book or learned in any classroom; these are the lessons that are priceless. I also had a small meeting with Auntie Irene, bringing up the same issues that I brought up with Professor Marcum.

I returned to Volta to drop off my laundry, and on the way back, filled up a bucket with water. We’ve had running water once since I’ve been back from Egypt, and according to people here, there was no running water during the time I was in Egypt. That means our toilets have been flushed once in the last three weeks. I don’t need to post any pictures for you to imagine the disaster that is our restroom.

I received more good news from AfricaAid: a thousand dollars was sent today to the refugee camp and was picked up by Jeremiah. I will make my way out to Camp tomorrow morning to discuss the issues and to ensure that everything is going okay on Camp.
For the evening, most of EAP showed up for a traditional African funeral for Brenna. Like I’ve said in posts prior, African funerals take on a much different tone than American funerals. The night was full of dancing and singing, much like our first week here. And yes, as with any African funeral, there was plenty of akpoteshie to go around.

After a beer at Bush Canteen, Duncan and I headed to Rich Love for some late-night dinner. We downed a fantastic 20,000 bowl of rice, chicken and tomato-pepper sauce, and turned in for the night.
One more note: today is World AIDS Day. Africa, more than any other place in the world, is hurt by AIDS. There are currently 25 million people in Africa who have AIDS; many will not receive proper, if any support. Further, there are more than 10 million children who are orphaned because their parents died from AIDS. So today, I recommend a couple of things. Firstly, take some time to learn how dire the situation is here. I highly recommend watching the movie “Yesterday.” It was a film produced by HBO and it does an incredible job of showing the issues of AIDS in Africa. Secondly, I encourage everyone to find something to contribute to the cause. Recently, I purchased a (RED) campaign phone; a portion of the funds go to the Global Fund, which works to put an end to Tuberculosis, Malaria and AIDS. In one way or another, find a way to give to this cause. Too many people are affected by a disease that is preventable and treatable.

Saturday, December 2^nd

I will admit this – it is hard to have a perfect day in Ghana. Usually, something manages to go wrong, whether it be a tro-tro breaking down, or whatever it is. Something usually doesn’t go to plan. But I can honestly say that today was a perfect day in Ghana.

I woke up on the early side and made my way out to Buduburam. I was incredibly excited for this meeting. The wheels of our school lunch program were finally in motion.

I arrived early, and Jeremiah meet me at SHIFSD at 10 AM sharp, as planned. We waited a bit of time for Mr. Zakama, who oversees the program. By 10:20, our meeting was underway.

The meeting went absolutely perfectly. We discussed how to cut some items out of the budget and how to maximize the money that would be coming in from AfricaAid. We reinforced the fact that they were completely in charge of how money got distributed toward food. After all, Americans should not be deciding what Liberians should be eating. But most importantly, we started bouncing around the idea of building a kitchen specifically for SHIFSD. After an initial assessment in San Diego months ago, we threw that idea out the window. But the fact is that it makes much more economic sense to have their own kitchen. Plus, in having their own kitchen, SHIFSD can bring in parents of the children to do the cooking. The distribution of money would spread even further.

This was probably my last meeting at Buduburam While the end result is good, I can’t even begin to express how underutilized I feel by the non-profit. It’s not everyday that a San Diego non-profit will have someone in Africa at their whim for five months. I feel like they wasted me as an asset, but it’s their loss.

I will say, though, that seeing all of this happen has really been the cherry on top of this trip. I thought that the Lunch Program was a lost cause, but now, it’s like a child growing up in front of my eyes. I am so gratified by seeing all of this happen.

On the way back to Legon, I stopped at Circle to pick up a couple of items: a Michael Essien jersey for a friend and a Ghanaian flag for me. I actually got pretty reasonable prices. The two together cost less than twenty dollars, so I can’t complain.

Once I got back in Legon, I started putting together some emails and documents that would be important for the success of the school lunch program. I also picked up my laundry from Volta. This was probably the last load of laundry here – just another realization that this trip is winding down. Oh, and the guy lost one of my shirts. There goes my perfect day, but still, nothing is taking me down off this high.

LDG

BH