It may be long to get me there... but you know that I'll be coming home

Friends, family, and countrymen:
I'm not sure who is actually reading this, but hello to all! These couple of weekends have been quite interesting indeed! I think I've come up with this terrible pattern where I update every two weeks. I always get so behind. I feel like there is SO much to write about and the small details I write here will never do my experience here justice. I can't wait to come home and share all my pictures with you all and fill in all the gaps. =)

And so let's rewind a bit back to the weekend of February 14th. So in Ghana they decided to change the name of the holiday and call it "Chocolate Day" because it is the day where the most HIV/AIDS infections happen. Really intense. So I thought we made a big deal about in the states, you have NO idea what it is like here. There are events, posters, gifts, the whole bit. So in my house we invited some people over and we cooked a HUGE breakfast- fresh fruit salad, french toast with this INCREDIBLE home made bread and cinnamon sugar, scrambled eggs, omelet with onions and peppers, and a whole lotta love. It was so wonderful to cook together and share a morning with some really great friends. After that we watched 10 Things I Hate About You. After that we went to Margaree who is the seamstress, and we picked out some more fabric and designed some other dresses we are making for ourselves. Speaking of which, NO ONE has sent me measurements or dress/shirt/skirt designs! Still waiting! Any way, at night we went to this Italian restaurant and had PIZZA!!!!!!! it was actually.. INCREDIBLE. I can't believe I'm saying it but... SOMETIMES I sort of really miss things like hamburgers and pizzas and fries. lol So after a few glasses of wine and a whole lotta of Valentines Day cake- we went back to our place and ended the night with laughter and love. Great day. =)
The next day was pretty relaxing... we went to this beach called Twala where there is this bar owned by a Miami native! Crazy! The water was filled with plastic bags and the sort.. which really made me sad. Supposedly the Ghanaian president is trying to launch a campaign to eliminate the use of plastic bags. Seriously though, EVERY little thing you buy.. they give you a plastic bag to carry it. Even when you try to politely reject it, they insist. SAY NO TO PLASTIC.

Any way, that relaxing weekend ended and then school started up again. We had this INCREDIBLE gust speaker in my African Women Speak class, Abena P.A. Busia a Ghanaian who studied at Oxford, was exiled from Ghana, and now is the Associate Professor of English and Woman's Studies at Rutgers. She is incredible. Look her up online.

This past weekend I went on my homestay. My host mother's name was Katherine who had one son, and was recently remarried. She lived in a beautiful home with a dog, parrots, and incredible exotic plants. It felt like being in a farm house in Colombia.. it was so peaceful. We spent the first night getting to know one another, she told me about all the places she has traveled, all about her great grandfather who sat under the head chief of the Asantehene (the chief of the Ashanti tribe) and had 15 WIVES!, about her work as a furniture and interior designer, and all other sorts of things. The next morning we woke up early to prepare food to package and send off to the Ghanaian psychiatric ward. Once we made over 200 packages, we packed up the van and went off to the ward. When we got there, one of the head nurses told us how a lot of the children are just deserted by their parents and never visited again. In Ghana there is this strange stigma that exists amongst those who are mentally and physically handicapped. It was so sad. The nurse told us that although they are funded by the government, they never have enough glove and disinfectant soaps. Something SO simple. I'm trying to organize some sort of fundraiser with my friend so that we can get them some more supplies. When we were passing out the food, some of the little girls would grab my arm and plead for me to pray for them. It just broke my heart. After a pretty exhausting morning and afternoon, we went back home to just relax. That night I went out with Katherine's son to the Accra mall where we ate dinner and I was introduced to some of his friends. The next morning, after eating fresh papaya and pineapple, we got our things together and went off to the Golden Tulip hotel for brunch. IT. WAS. SO. GOOD. The food was just OUT OF THIS WORLD. I had flan!!! And avocado salad! And jasmine rice! And steak! After spending over two hours at the restaurant with Katherina and her son, laughing and sharing stories ranging from topics like politics to fashion... I was driven back home where we said our goodbyes. I honestly had such a beautiful weekend with her. It felt so great to be around a family, and it really made me miss the one I have back home. I learned so much from that weekend and I can't wait to hang out with their family again. It was so humbling to see how no matter how successful you get, there is always room to give generously. Wonderful.

Last week I had my Drama in Education class where the professor(randomly) started talking about homosexuality and the discussion came up about how being gay is a social disorder (being gay is illegal here so I wasn't too surprised when this was brought up). It was just so difficult to sit there and stay quiet. I kept looking around the class for someone to speak up, but everyone just nodded their heads in agreement. Talk about being a minority. How can you try to change the mind of a group of students who have grown up living in a male dominated society where being heterosexual is not only supreme, but absolute. Sigh. All I can do for now is soak in all I see and hear and let that fuel the changes and difference I can make back home in the U.S.

This week has been pretty great.. Abena P.A. Busia lectured again in my African Women Speak class (3 hour lecture!) and I was GLUED the entire time. She is just so passionate and well spoken and SOO knowledgeable. It's like she's a historian/feminist/activist/mother/daughter/writer/poet/politician/professor all in one. So powerful.

Last night we watched a movie in my recitation called "Traces of the Trade." When we were walking back a few people were saying how they really wanted to blog about their feelings on the movie but I really don't want to write about my impressions until everyone sees it. I HIGHLY, HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend watching it. I don't even want to say too much about it. Watch it.. I would love, love to talk to someone about it. Here's the website where you can find out more information: http://www.tracesofthetrade.org/

My community service has been going MUCH, MUCH better. I taught the kids poetry the other day and they enjoyed it! Or at least they made it seem like they did! Next class we are going to start constructing our own poems after having looked closely at a Shel Silverstien poem and identified all the images that can be illustrated through descriptive word choices! I had them look at the Georges Seurat's painting, "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte" and identify and describe the images they see and they were SO into it. My favorite was when this little boy was like "there is a woman with a large buttocks" hahahah They are great. The one thing I will say though is that it's really difficult being there when they beat the kids. The other day one of the headmasters comes in and lines up these children who were late for class and whips them each with the bamboo stick. They all begged me to ask him not to do it, but I knew there wasn't anything I could really do. I had to step out of the classroom for a bit to get my thoughts together. Granted, he wasn't hitting them extremely hard or anything, but to see a MAN hit a young girl just disgusts me. I have to immerse myself more into this school before I can make any other judgments though. For now, all I can do is share my love with these kids.

And so this weekend we are heading to Kumasi where they have the largest market in all of Western Africa and other great attractions, like the palace of one of the chiefs. I'll be sure to write soon and upload pictures.

By the way, I'm giving up facebook for lent for real. I wasn't going to, but I decided I'm up for the challenge. If you want to contact me, e-mail me gmt235@nyu.edu or write me here. Also, I'm looking for a job opportunity for this summer so if you have heard of anything please let me know!

I miss you all and think of you often. I feel like I always end like this but it's so true.

CHANGE GONNA COME,

gmt