This past weekend was amazing! On Saturday I went back to Aburi Gardens with my friend Ben. This time we went hiking and biking on a 16k path through the area. We started out pretty much literally mountain biking uphill, and 5 minutes in I was wondering how on earth I was going to survive the next 3 hours. We were biking over rocks, tree branches, etc. on a somewhat nonexistent path! Eventually we made it to easier pathways and roads, though, and the challenge became just doing a lot of uphill pedaling. I felt a bit odd because our guide, William, was taking us through villages, and I thought we may have been biking through people's back yards, but I also got to see lots of people. There were tons of children running around yelling "oburuni! oburuni!" I was a bit slower than Ben and William, so Ben stopped a few times to let kids ride his bike.



Eventually we made it to a sort of open clearing at the top of a mountain and the view was breathtaking! We left our bikes and hiked about 10 minutes to Obosomase Falls (named for the village we were near). It was SO hot so we got in the water for a few minutes to cool off, but eventually we made our way back to the bike rental shop. I was exhausted afterwards, and I'm not sure I have it in me to do that too often, but it was definitely a fun day and I may go back if I find myself without anything to do on some Saturday.



On Sunday I went to church with Sarah and our friends Kofi and Michael. They go to a megachurch, which I would never go to back home. But here, all things considered, it was manageable and I could see myself going back. (By manageable I mean the sermon was just over an hour and the whole service was ONLY 3 hours.) I don't have a clue what the sermon was about because had trouble understanding the pastor, but oh well! I've been asking friends about Ash Wednesday services, but so far it seems only Catholics observe it here, so I may just go to a Catholic mass tonight with some friends but not take communion.



Yesterday was another somewhat awkward day at my internship. My coworkers were practicing presentations on various topics that they are going to be teaching in schools this afternoon. One girl, Esther, was giving her presentation about rape, and there were some very evident cultural differences how rape is taught and discussed in Ghana versus the United States. The first thing that bothered me was when Esther said one of the "causes" of rape is a woman dressing promiscuously. She could tell I was uncomfortable so she asked what I was thinking. I tried to explain that I feel like that reasoning puts some fault on the woman, and I don't believe rape is ever the survivor's fault. She and others in the office tried to then explain to me how in America it's more accepted for women to dress a certain way, so it's not a big deal for a man to see a woman dressed that way. In Ghana, however, apparently it's not normal and therefore men are unable to control their emotions if they see provocatively dressed women. So since men can't control their urges, women should dress conservatively to avoid rape. Esther kept trying to explain this to me, and I kept saying I disagreed. She said she would have my boss (who had left for the day) explain it to me so I could understand. I said I understood, but that I just had a different opinion about it since we are taught differently in the U.S. I wasn't trying to change anybody's mind about it, so I said it was OK if we had different opinions but I wouldn't be comfortable teaching that topic myself. We also talked about males being raped. Officially, most of my coworkers seemed to agree that it would theretically be possible for a male to be raped, but it wasn't discussed with much seriousness as though it were a very real possibility. So that bothered me a little bit too, but I felt like I had pushed the other point enough, and we kind of changed topics anyway.

The other thing that got awkward was discussing race relations with Esther during lunch (man, she and I certainly had a lot of different opinions on Monday!) The conversation started because she was asking how Americans perceive Africans, which is something I get asked a lot here actually. Before I could really answer, she told me white people always think Africans are like monkeys living in trees, and that the only Western media about Africa shows wars/conflict and people dying of starvation. I said that some people definitely don't have a positive view of Africa, and that much of the media is bad, but that not everybody has that view. As Esther kept talking, though, her words grew increasingly critical of whites as a whole and she referred to white people as "cheats" who come into Ghana, steal natural resources cheaply, and then sell them back to Ghanaians as expensive finished products. This is very true-in my development studies class we have talked in particular about developed nations taking rubber, then reselling finished tires at ridiculous prices back to Ghana. But I don't think ALL white people are bad or that ONLY white people do these things. Esther also said "You're OK. You're fine. I know you and you're nice, but other whites are all just cheats."

This is a fairly sensitive subject, and I've only really been mulling over it for the last 48 hours, but I'll try my best to communicate my thoughts. First of all, Esther's words reminded me exactly of what people in America say today. I don't really hear it said about African Americans anymore, but I definitely hear it about the gay community and Muslims or people of Middle Eastern descent. People say that all the time when they learn that one of their close friends is gay, for example. Why is it OK for your friend to be gay, but not anybody else? And how is it possible that I'm the ONLY halfway decent white person on the planet? I'm trying very hard to put Esther's opinion into context. Yes, white people have historically done lots of very very awful things to pretty much every group. And yes, we are still doing horrible things. And yes, white people probably need to be brought down a few notches and told that we're not all wonderful all the time. But I also thought it was fairly inappropriate for one of my coworkers to be saying these things to me. I would find it entirely inappropriate for a white person in America to say something to anybody else about their race, and I think it's equally inappropriate for her to say to me that I'm OK but my people are bad.

This is why I came to Ghana. I want to hear different perspectives, I want to see how the rest of the world views America, I want to be uncomfortable and challenged. I think what I'm struggling with here is the same thing I talked about in my thoughts on visiting Cape Coast Castle. How much do I have to own up to what my ancestors have done, how much do I do myself without even realizing it, and how much is it OK to maybe say "yes, bad things have happened, but I'm trying to make them better today, so stop making me feel guilty about things that I wasn't personally involved with?" I'm really glad that I had that conversation with Esther. I'm not sure I dealt with it very well, though, because I just kept repeating that not ALL white people are bad. Over and over and over again. I hope that we can continue to have these conversations, and that by the end of another couples months here Esther will maybe realize there are other white people who aren't "cheats." But I'm not sure I've figured out yet how to communicate that.