Today I woke up to a flat back tyre on my moto (just to add to all of the moto problems of last week and to test my ever-growing level of patience) which has left me with a free morning, while I wait for a mechanic, to finally write up this post that I have been thinking about for the past few days! Last night I got the inspiration I needed to piece it all together...
Have I slowly over the past three months become immuned to all things Ghanaian, all things horrific and awful, all things impoverished?
Recently when I heard a story of a small girl being decapitated when out walking with her younger brother, I was traumatised, but not surprised! Especially when I heard the next part of the story that after being decapitated by one man, a second man came running out from behind the bushes where the men had been hiding and drank her blood from her rolling around head! To me this must have been a juju murder, a killing of sacrifice, which somehow here in Ghana acts as some sort of justification for taking the life of another!
When I met the small girl at the school for the deaf who had scars all over the right side of her face from where she had been battered and left for dead as a baby by her own parents who thought she was a witch, I shook my head to the person who was telling me the story to show my disgust and disapproval of the situation, but I did no more! I knew from things that Ghanaians had told me that a belief in witches was still an everyday phenomenon in today's Ghana, but on second thought when I was riding home that day, I was shocked to think that when I was entering my teens in my priviliged Western, educated World upbringing, a baby here in Ghana was born then for whatever reason was suspected of being a witch so was then battered and left for dead by the same two people that bought her into the World!
It is not only the extreme cases like this that I feel I am now immunised against, it is the everyday, now mundane things too! I do not look twice when I see women carrying stacks of wood, huge bowls of water or anything for that matter on their heads! I do not think for ages after when I see small children and women on their daily walk to boreholes where they pump and pump for hours just to get enough water to drink and wash with! I do not laugh to myself in fear when I see Ghanaians carrying anything from ladders to doors to rubbish bins on their motos (often infront of them so as to block their full view of the road ahead)!
Recently when I heard a story of a small girl being decapitated when out walking with her younger brother, I was traumatised, but not surprised! Especially when I heard the next part of the story that after being decapitated by one man, a second man came running out from behind the bushes where the men had been hiding and drank her blood from her rolling around head! To me this must have been a juju murder, a killing of sacrifice, which somehow here in Ghana acts as some sort of justification for taking the life of another!
When I met the small girl at the school for the deaf who had scars all over the right side of her face from where she had been battered and left for dead as a baby by her own parents who thought she was a witch, I shook my head to the person who was telling me the story to show my disgust and disapproval of the situation, but I did no more! I knew from things that Ghanaians had told me that a belief in witches was still an everyday phenomenon in today's Ghana, but on second thought when I was riding home that day, I was shocked to think that when I was entering my teens in my priviliged Western, educated World upbringing, a baby here in Ghana was born then for whatever reason was suspected of being a witch so was then battered and left for dead by the same two people that bought her into the World!
It is not only the extreme cases like this that I feel I am now immunised against, it is the everyday, now mundane things too! I do not look twice when I see women carrying stacks of wood, huge bowls of water or anything for that matter on their heads! I do not think for ages after when I see small children and women on their daily walk to boreholes where they pump and pump for hours just to get enough water to drink and wash with! I do not laugh to myself in fear when I see Ghanaians carrying anything from ladders to doors to rubbish bins on their motos (often infront of them so as to block their full view of the road ahead)!
Is all of this becoming my version of 'normal,' my version of reality?
Or is my Western World version of reality engrained in me forever?
After talking to other people recently who are volunteering here through organisations such as EWB and Peace Corps I realise that my volunteering experience is still very much one of Western luxury (which I am ashamed to say I do like)! When I close the compound gate on my return home everyday, I close out the sights, smells and sounds of Ghana and I enter into my Western reality of peace and quiet! To come back to a house everyday that has electricity; running water; a flushing toilet; a fridge and freezer; a cooker; fans and sofas sounds ridiculous when you compare it to the homestay life other volunteers are leading where the directions to the toilet are 'outside, turn left and under the tree!' To sleep in a comfy double bed, under a fan with socket points on either side where I charge either my netbook, phone or I-pod most nights is a level of living that I am used to in life so something I enjoy! But again when comparing it to the 'single mattress on the dusty floor where creepy crawlies tramp all over you all night long' way of doing things I feel like my way of life here in Ghana is a bit of a joke!
Should I be doing this the Western way or the Ghanaian way?
Or am I doing it the rich Ghanaian's way by living in a neighbourhood with doctors and lecturers who drive nice 4x4's and have watchmen to keep them safe at night?
Ghana's divide between rich and poor is ever-growing! There is a distinctive North/South divide where in the South you see ex-pats driving their children to and from school in Alfa Romeo's, you see Ghanaian women following suit in their BMW's and Mercedes! You see young Ghanaian workers smartly turned out in clothes that fit them properly (there is a huge second-hand clothes culture here in Ghana and I am still adamant I will see someone walking down the street one day in something I have thrown away, unwanted in the past)! You see houses with gardeners who mow the lawn on the weekends! In the North these are a rare sight, as even the rich are still poor by the standards of the South and if you go out into the rural communities you see it, you see the real-life Ghana that I have been sent here to 'save!' The second-hand clothes culture remains, but it is not a case of trying on fancy Western things and seeing what fits well, it is taking what you can, when you can and making it fit! School children's uniforms hang off them and I can't remember the last time I saw a school boy who was able to do up the zip on his shorts, instead using string or a shoe lace to keep the things from falling down!
Regardless of which way I want to do this, I am doing it this way, because it is the way VSO has chosen for me! I'm sure I could if I really wanted, do it another way, but clearly I don't want that way enough! I like my creature comforts and I like my way of life here, but I do want to dip my toe occassionally into the other World that is out there, the World where volunteers sit with a family each night sharing a Ghanaian dinner from the same bowl; where they are referred to as 'part of the family;' where they know that no matter what they will have at least a handful of people and a few animals in the compund when they get home from work each day; where they enjoy travelling and hotels and VSO houses because they offer them a snippet of their old life before they return to their Ghana life and the simple things that they have grown to love!
Or is my Western World version of reality engrained in me forever?
After talking to other people recently who are volunteering here through organisations such as EWB and Peace Corps I realise that my volunteering experience is still very much one of Western luxury (which I am ashamed to say I do like)! When I close the compound gate on my return home everyday, I close out the sights, smells and sounds of Ghana and I enter into my Western reality of peace and quiet! To come back to a house everyday that has electricity; running water; a flushing toilet; a fridge and freezer; a cooker; fans and sofas sounds ridiculous when you compare it to the homestay life other volunteers are leading where the directions to the toilet are 'outside, turn left and under the tree!' To sleep in a comfy double bed, under a fan with socket points on either side where I charge either my netbook, phone or I-pod most nights is a level of living that I am used to in life so something I enjoy! But again when comparing it to the 'single mattress on the dusty floor where creepy crawlies tramp all over you all night long' way of doing things I feel like my way of life here in Ghana is a bit of a joke!
Should I be doing this the Western way or the Ghanaian way?
Or am I doing it the rich Ghanaian's way by living in a neighbourhood with doctors and lecturers who drive nice 4x4's and have watchmen to keep them safe at night?
Ghana's divide between rich and poor is ever-growing! There is a distinctive North/South divide where in the South you see ex-pats driving their children to and from school in Alfa Romeo's, you see Ghanaian women following suit in their BMW's and Mercedes! You see young Ghanaian workers smartly turned out in clothes that fit them properly (there is a huge second-hand clothes culture here in Ghana and I am still adamant I will see someone walking down the street one day in something I have thrown away, unwanted in the past)! You see houses with gardeners who mow the lawn on the weekends! In the North these are a rare sight, as even the rich are still poor by the standards of the South and if you go out into the rural communities you see it, you see the real-life Ghana that I have been sent here to 'save!' The second-hand clothes culture remains, but it is not a case of trying on fancy Western things and seeing what fits well, it is taking what you can, when you can and making it fit! School children's uniforms hang off them and I can't remember the last time I saw a school boy who was able to do up the zip on his shorts, instead using string or a shoe lace to keep the things from falling down!
Regardless of which way I want to do this, I am doing it this way, because it is the way VSO has chosen for me! I'm sure I could if I really wanted, do it another way, but clearly I don't want that way enough! I like my creature comforts and I like my way of life here, but I do want to dip my toe occassionally into the other World that is out there, the World where volunteers sit with a family each night sharing a Ghanaian dinner from the same bowl; where they are referred to as 'part of the family;' where they know that no matter what they will have at least a handful of people and a few animals in the compund when they get home from work each day; where they enjoy travelling and hotels and VSO houses because they offer them a snippet of their old life before they return to their Ghana life and the simple things that they have grown to love!
Maybe I have become half-immuned to Ghana and I am holding back a little bit of my Western self as protection for falling too deep?!
Or am I simply protecting my heart by following my head?
...something I promised myself I would never do again following the end of mine and Daniel's relationship, which ended due to me following my head and not my heart! But at times we need to protect ourselves from what is going on around us otherwise we are simply sponges soaking up all the negativity and bad things that this World has to offer and eventually it just breaks our hearts!
So I must always try to keep my head and my heart open and positive to the future generation of Ghana who I am here for the next seven months to work with! This is the generation who through improving education systems will hopefully be able to bridge the ever-growing gap between the richest and the poorest in their country! But I still ask myself the same question whenever I see the beautiful symmetry of a Ghanaian childs face...
What difference can I really make to your future and what on Earth does that vast amount of time and space ahead of you really have to hold...!
Or am I simply protecting my heart by following my head?
...something I promised myself I would never do again following the end of mine and Daniel's relationship, which ended due to me following my head and not my heart! But at times we need to protect ourselves from what is going on around us otherwise we are simply sponges soaking up all the negativity and bad things that this World has to offer and eventually it just breaks our hearts!
So I must always try to keep my head and my heart open and positive to the future generation of Ghana who I am here for the next seven months to work with! This is the generation who through improving education systems will hopefully be able to bridge the ever-growing gap between the richest and the poorest in their country! But I still ask myself the same question whenever I see the beautiful symmetry of a Ghanaian childs face...
What difference can I really make to your future and what on Earth does that vast amount of time and space ahead of you really have to hold...!
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| A small boy I met at the School for the Deaf! He is the first child I have seen in Ghana with a hand-made toy car, which he was very proud of! |
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| Monica, the cleaner at work's, baby girl who is the youngest of five! I question every time I see her what her edcuation will be like, what her future as a girl in Ghana will be like, what her role as a woman will be! |
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| Akwea, the fruit lady from work's younger sister who can barely speak any English and has a very timid nature! She will no doubt be married and a mother by the time she is twenty! |
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