I cant believe its already been 2 months! Im already done with 1/5 of my stay here in Sunyani! I already feel as though ive matured so much. Ive realized that there are so many things in my life that I take for granted, but never really noticed it, and I wont take for granted of them when I return home. You don’t know what you have until its gone, and that’s the truth! I have so many new found respects. Ill name just a few: legal minorities in the states, because I feel like im always being watched here in Ghana. School at home, its waaaaaaay better than I thought and if youre still in school, don’t take it for granted! Sanitation at home( ill follow this up a little later), an I used to worry about a mcdonalds(oh how I could eat some mcdonalds now. Haha) bag on the side of the road!
Communication is a bit different/difficult here. Everything is kind of indirect. I sometimes cant get a straight answer. And it doesn’t really help that I don’t speak much Twi, and sometimes peoples accents are pretty hard to understand. I didn’t think there would be a language barrier, but there is! A lot of times im not even able to understand people, I always end up saying Menti a sia(I don’t understand). Mainly it’s the pronunciation of things. Ie. “th” is not “th” its “duh”. Like “there” would be “dare”. Or “barber” would be “baba”. But im actually surprising myself by picking up a good amount of twi. Im able to converse with my family a little bit in twi. And im able to ask simple questions. Its just small stuff, but itll add up after 10 months.
So at the beginning of my stay I hated fufu. I felt like I needed to gag sometimes. Cause its pretty weird to eat. For one thing you just use your hands, and the soup is usually boiling hot(Ghanaians are like immuned to heat. Haha), then you just pinch some of it off and swallow it. And theres like bones and eyeballs from the fish. The actual fufu itself isn’t weird. Its just smashed up cassava and plantain. Its just the method you eat it is whats weird. Google it or youtube it, theres probably somewhere you can find it. But now I love fufu. I remember I was eating ampesi and plantains one dinner and I asked myself “Why aren’t we eating fufu?”. It was just one of those things I needed to get used to. Im going to miss it when I get home! Haha.
Ive never been hated on because of my color( at least I don’t think I have) until I got here. On two different occasions its happened. One: my ceramics teacher was teaching us about the formation of clay(him and the ecomonics teacher always pick on us three exchange students to answer questions, and im not joking. I don’t think they realize that there are 40 other people in the class) and he asked me “Richard, where did clay come from?” I answered truthfully “I don’t know.” And then in the most sarcastic way he said “ Well if the whiteman doesn’t know than how should i?”. I guess he was just joking but it really hurt me inside. Hes and older man so I think maybe he might have some resentment against the UK for colonizing the former Gold coast. Then on another occasion I was on my dialy run before school and I ran past 3 guys. And as I ran past, one of them said “look at the white man, he thinks hes so much better than us!” then they started laughing. That pretty much killed my day! I know they were just joking but they wouldn’t have said it if they didn’t think it was partly true. Maybe I need some tougher skin. But I think everyone is equal in the sight of God. Whether someone’s race, religion or gender is different than mine. One of these days God will prevail and all prejudices will finally vanish.
Going back to the trash thing earlier, I never really realized how beautiful Ghana really is. I always was just always saying to myself “look at all the trash everywhere!”. But I never looked past it I just never realized ghanas natural beauty. Its rolling hills and lush green vegetation its very beautiful. As the saying goes: Don’t judge a book by its cover!
Take care,
Rich
Communication is a bit different/difficult here. Everything is kind of indirect. I sometimes cant get a straight answer. And it doesn’t really help that I don’t speak much Twi, and sometimes peoples accents are pretty hard to understand. I didn’t think there would be a language barrier, but there is! A lot of times im not even able to understand people, I always end up saying Menti a sia(I don’t understand). Mainly it’s the pronunciation of things. Ie. “th” is not “th” its “duh”. Like “there” would be “dare”. Or “barber” would be “baba”. But im actually surprising myself by picking up a good amount of twi. Im able to converse with my family a little bit in twi. And im able to ask simple questions. Its just small stuff, but itll add up after 10 months.
So at the beginning of my stay I hated fufu. I felt like I needed to gag sometimes. Cause its pretty weird to eat. For one thing you just use your hands, and the soup is usually boiling hot(Ghanaians are like immuned to heat. Haha), then you just pinch some of it off and swallow it. And theres like bones and eyeballs from the fish. The actual fufu itself isn’t weird. Its just smashed up cassava and plantain. Its just the method you eat it is whats weird. Google it or youtube it, theres probably somewhere you can find it. But now I love fufu. I remember I was eating ampesi and plantains one dinner and I asked myself “Why aren’t we eating fufu?”. It was just one of those things I needed to get used to. Im going to miss it when I get home! Haha.
Ive never been hated on because of my color( at least I don’t think I have) until I got here. On two different occasions its happened. One: my ceramics teacher was teaching us about the formation of clay(him and the ecomonics teacher always pick on us three exchange students to answer questions, and im not joking. I don’t think they realize that there are 40 other people in the class) and he asked me “Richard, where did clay come from?” I answered truthfully “I don’t know.” And then in the most sarcastic way he said “ Well if the whiteman doesn’t know than how should i?”. I guess he was just joking but it really hurt me inside. Hes and older man so I think maybe he might have some resentment against the UK for colonizing the former Gold coast. Then on another occasion I was on my dialy run before school and I ran past 3 guys. And as I ran past, one of them said “look at the white man, he thinks hes so much better than us!” then they started laughing. That pretty much killed my day! I know they were just joking but they wouldn’t have said it if they didn’t think it was partly true. Maybe I need some tougher skin. But I think everyone is equal in the sight of God. Whether someone’s race, religion or gender is different than mine. One of these days God will prevail and all prejudices will finally vanish.
Going back to the trash thing earlier, I never really realized how beautiful Ghana really is. I always was just always saying to myself “look at all the trash everywhere!”. But I never looked past it I just never realized ghanas natural beauty. Its rolling hills and lush green vegetation its very beautiful. As the saying goes: Don’t judge a book by its cover!
Take care,
Rich
Pics are of my Backyard, Miracle Junction(Where I live),my hallway(my rooms the first on the right, note the directional arrows and the windows to the hallway. haha),and me washing clothes.
2 comments:
looks like you are doing an excellent job washing your clothes!You'll need to teach Uncle Mick how to make fufu.I'm sure he'll enjoy that.
We're very proud of you Rich. Just remember to take things with a grain of salt!
Love you!
Yeah, it's hard to be hated and judged just because of your color, but you seem to be putting it in perspective. Some people would just build up a hate or anger in reaction to such comments. But I think you'll just be that much more mature and empathetic to all people who have gone through the same thing.
Sometimes through loving-kindness and respect to someone who is prejudiced against you, you can suprise and disarm them.(Easier said then done though, I know.)
P.S. I'm loving reading your blog!
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