Bawjiase

I spent the first half of this week at a village called Bawjiase near Cape Coast with my coworkers from my internship. It was definitely one of the coolest, and weirdest, things I've done since I've been here. We spent a couple days meeting with different representatives from the community to talk about various human rights issues they are facing, and we were helping them construct a set of bylaws to try to tackle their problems. We spent Monday discussing education and child labor, specifically in relation to female children. Tuesday we debriefed and began drafting some suggestions of laws to review with the community members. Wednesday we went over the laws again and started talking about domestic violence. The entire meeting was in Twi (about 6 hours a day), so I didn't have a clue what was going on until our debriefing sessions when everything was explained to me. I found out that after 10 minutes of discussing domestic violence, somebody pointed out that Ghana has a national law on the subject, so we should just look that up and use that. So, the other 5 hours and 50 minutes was apparently an opportunity for the people present to voice all of their concerns in general about the community. Which was really funny, because I realized that some things are the same everywhere, and being in a new culture or on a new continent doesn't necessarily change much.

Here's what I mean. Here's what some of the complaints/points raised were:

1. One man thought anybody on a bicycle after 6 pm should be arrested because there aren't street lights and it's dangerous/likely to cause accidents. Somebody else was upset about the "indiscriminate parking of vehicles" on the road and speeding, so speed bumps and rumble strips need to be installed.
2. Many people thought children shouldn't be allowed to attend funerals and wake-keepings (in Ghana they are overnight events several nights in a row). When kids go, they are too tired to go to school. So then somebody asked "Well what about 20-year-olds who are still in high school? They are adults so shouldn't have the same rules as kids, but then they would also be too tired for school." So one of the police officers pointed out that a law is a law, and if a ban were created then any school child regardless of age should have to adhere to the ban. Then another police officer said laws are designed to protect peoples' rights, not take them away or cause confusion, and we should all keep that in mind.
3. Other people complained aobut disturbing public peace/playing radios too loudly at night.

Anyway . . . I could imagine the exact same kinds of conversations happening at a community meeting in the States too, which is why I found it kind of funny. It was interesting to see how the same kinds of issues bother people everywhere.

Also, it was really great getting away for a few days with my coworkers. There were very challenging moments - and I actually burst into tears on the phone with my parents my first night there because of how I felt I was being treated. My coworkers kept serving food to me first, even when there wasn't enough for everybody, and they brought me bottled water while everybody else was drinking the purified tap water in plastic sachets (which I drink all the time). I kept trying to say I wanted to eat with everyone, and I drink the sachet water, but I still felt like I was getting special treatment. I really hate that. Whenever I ask for directions to find food/water here, people automatically point me to the nicest restaurant or hotel in the area, rather than the local food stand. It's very frustrating when people assume I need these things, when I'm actually happier doing as the Ghanaians do. There never was a great opportunity to really discuss all of this in detail with my coworkers, but I intend to at some point. I think by the end of the trip, though, I had made one friend. I was sharing a room with Salomey, and we got to talk several times and have plans to hang out in the next couple of weeks. She's always been very curious as to what life is like in the U.S., how school is different, what my family is like. We talked about all of those things and I learned a lot about her too. So, anyway, even though there were tough moments, I would say overall the trip ended on a great note.

Also, on an entirely unrelated note, I realized I don't think I ever said what classes I'm taking here. For the first 2 months I was enrolled in a Twi language class, but that has finished. I'm also taking a course in conjunction with my internship about development studies in West Africa, and Ghana in particular. Then I have two classes on campus: Human Rights in Africa and U.S. Foreign Policy Towards Africa. Classes are VERY different from back home. The on-campus classes have about 800 people in them. Professors read lecture notes the entire time, and everybody copies them down word for word in paragraph form. I did this for about 2 days until I realized the notes usually come directly out of my assigned readings. Except for development studies, I don't have any homework assignments (other than to read), and my entire grade will be based on the final exam I take at the end of the semester. I'm not too worried about them except for the fact that things are always confusing on campus, and it seems like us international students always get information about 6 weeks later than we're supposed to. (For instance, I'm apparently supposed to register for my exams online. I found this out last week. The deadline was February 6.) So while the exam itself shouldn't be difficult, figuring out when and where and how to take it may present a challenge. Oh well, I'm an expert at chaotic adventures by now!

A final note before signing off . . . I think I'm going to Togo next week! I have a sort of unofficial Spring Break. This past week I had "midterms" (sort of, in the classes that chose to have them) . . . and next week I have a "midsemester break" in some of my classes (even the ones that didn't have a midterm) . . . so I have 5 or 6 days with nothing to do, and thought I might just hop on over the border to Togo. Some of my friends have already gone and said it was frustrating not knowing French because you really need it to get around . . . so I'm excited I'll get to practice my French! I haven't had to use it much in the last 2 years so it'll be a good brush-up :)