Ghana, Day 107 - Thanksgiving Photo

Hi Ruth!

This is the only picture I managed to take at Thanksgiving at the Ambassador's residence.

The guy in the shorts is the Ambassador.  I thought that the lady was his wife, but it turns out she wasn't - I don't know who she is.

They made a big deal about how they'd cooked 16 turkeys!  I bet Aunt Sharon's turkey was better, though.

Ghana, Day 107 - Thanksgiving

Hi Ruth!

I'm still in Ghana, and it's not Thanksgiving here - Thanksgiving is a holiday only for the US.  Well, and in Canada they celebrate a holiday a lot like it, but in October.

It's hard for me to believe that this is the fourth Thanksgiving you're having already!

And that I've missed two of them.

I've always liked Thanksgiving - I've always liked food!  But I don't remember it being that big a deal back when I was younger (not as little as you, but younger).  I remember in college it was always a time that all my friends from high school would be in town - but since Grammy and Grampy had moved since I'd started school, that wasn't really very many people!  And it got harder for everyone to travel up to Great-Mem and Great-Pep's house, and then after I moved to Washington, DC we all started coming to Aunt Connie's and Sharon's, which was great!  I feel like I got to know Aunt Connie and Sharon a lot more than I had when I was littler.  But Great-Mem didn't always come, or Aunt Cori.

So, I guess Thanksgiving was always something I liked, but it didn't feel like as big a deal as something like Christmas.  But having missed it with you twice (once when you were still much smaller, when I was in Congo), I don't think I want to miss it with you and Mommy again.  Or with Grammy and Grampy and Aunt Connie and Sharon.

Plus, I keep missing the pie you and Mommy make!

Ghana, Day 106 - Huevos Ghanani

1. Make some red-red (see below) two nights ago.

2. Get up real early and go to yoga.  Man, yoga is early.

3. Man, yoga can be painful when you haven't gone in over a month.

4. That means it's working, right?

5. On the way back, stop by Night Market -the new stalls make it nicer.  Check out the avocados.  GHS1.50?  Saa.  But, you know, you really want avocados.  The market woman will try to give you two very ripe ones, but ask for one for right now, and one for tomorrow.

6.  Remind yourself that GHS1.50 is about $1, and you would think that was an awesome price for avocados back home.

7. Fry up two eggs.  Leave them a little bit soft, if you're so inclined (I am).

8. Scoop out a bunch of the red-red - it doesn't really matter if it's cold, if you're like me, you'll eat anything cold, but hey, heat it up if you like.

9.  Plop.  Eggs!

10. Slice open the avocado, and sprinkle some salt on the eggs and avocado.  Not too much, there's already salt in the red-red.

11. Oh, you have papayas too!

12. Eat.

Suggested side:  Doxycycline.

**********

OK, so red-red.  The basic components of this are the same as most Ghanaian food - hot peppers, ginger, a bunch of tomatoes, palm oil, and simmering.

1. Stop by your favorite market lady.  Wonder if it would be polite to ask her name.  She hasn't offered.  Is that a thing here?  Smile.

2. Hey, she has black-eyed peas!  Buy some.  You will also need tomatoes, about GHS2 worth.  If you're following along at home, sorry, your best bet is probably to get canned diced.

3. The day before, soak the beans, about a pound or so, probably about the amount you get in a bag of dried ones from the grocery store if you're trying to replicate this in the US.  I like this way, from Bittman's book.  Cover the beans with water, and bring to a boil.  Let them boil for about 2-3 minutes, then turn the heat off.  Check a few hours later.  They may be all set to go.  If not, simmer them for a bit.  For this, you want them to pick up some of the flavor, so don't do them all the way all the way.  Stop just short of soft and creamy.

4. Get a big pot.  Put some palm oil in it and get your onions (1-2) sauteeing.  Do them until they're soft - if you haven't been reading these, don't bother trying to caramelize them, it won't happen in palm oil.

5.  While the onions are cooking, chop up some ginger (I use about a Tbs, but maybe less if you're at home, Ghanaian ginger is weak), and put in some curry powder.  I don't really think it's very authentic, but I like it in there.  Oh, and a bay leaf!

6.  Doot-de-doo.  In the US, this is where you can drink your wine.  There's no good wine in Ghana.  Seriously.  None.  Give up hope.  None.

7.  There's some OK wine.

8. When the onion is nice and soft, throw in your mess of tomatoes, along with some of those small green hot peppers (try habaneros in the US).  Slit them first, you get better flavor (but also more heat, so be careful!).  Cook until they start to break down.

9.  Throw in the beans, bring to a boil, then simmer until the beans are nice and soft and cooked through.  Adjust the seasoning (it'll probably need some salt).

10. Eat!

11. Do not eat if you're planning to see a member of the appropriate gender you're hoping to impress within the next 2-3 hours.

Ghana, Days 104-105: Macho Macho Men

Hi Ruth!

I'm still in Ghana... yeah.

Yesterday, I finally went down to the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College to teach my session on civil-military relations.  I think it went pretty well, and they had on cartoons in the break room that I waited in before it was time to teach!  We talked a lot about how soldiers should act around people who aren't soldiers, and only two people fell asleep!

Plus, the college is down near the beach, where we played in the tide pool at Next Door.

Today, I met with some students who had questions about my classes before they took the exam.  Then Dr. Helen and I went to lunch at the Ethiopian restaurant - that isn't as good as the one near you and Mommy!

And now I'm home missing you and there's no water.  Oh well, not every day can involve big concerts or stuff like that!

Ghana, Days 96-102: Homecoming Week

Hi Ruth!

I'm still in Ghana.  This past week, it was Homecoming Week at the University.  In the US, I think Homecoming week usually has something to do with sports teams, I'm not really sure.

Here, it was a chance for everyone at the University to show off what they do.  I thought it was going to be very annoying, but really a lot of it was pretty fun!

Also, every day during the week, I told my students that I'd be in my office all morning, in case they had questions about the exam they have.  Only one came!  I hope the rest do OK on the exam.  A lot of teachers don't mind if their students don't do that well (not most of the ones I know!  But I hear!), and think it's all the students' fault for not studying enough or working hard enough.  But I feel bad any time people don't do well - it's my job to teach them and help them learn!

Anyway, the homecoming started on Monday with a faculty durbar.  We set up in the gardens where you and I played while Grammy and Grampy were in the Botanical Gardens one day.

All the departments in the Faculty of Arts had big banners talking about what they did.  Here's ours!

The symbol on there that looks like a bird standing on a house is actually an adinkra symbol.  The bird is "sankofa," which means learning from the past; the thing that looks sort of like a house or a fork underneath it is "hwemudua," the measuring stick, which means careful examination.  Together, they are supposed to mean that you should look back to history, but always ask questions instead of just listening to it.  I think it's a pretty good symbol for a Philosophy & Classics department!

Of course, things got started late... so I talked a little with Dr. Hudu and Dr. Ani until the durbar started.  It wasn't a real durbar - the king and queen were played by students from the dance department.  But it was still pretty cool to watch!

After the durbar there were speeches from alumni (people who already finished school) about how much they had enjoyed and learned here.  Plus, there was music!  I wish that we had more drummers at meetings I have to go to when I'm at home.

Then some students from the English department did some songs and poetry.

And there was more dancing and drumming (I couldn't get a good picture of the dancers):

Tuesday, we started our department's own thing.  There was a talk from Dr. Helen, who is in charge of the department, and then some students started the main thing we were doing - a marathon reading of Plato's dialogues!  Most people who do philosophy now (like me) write books that are just like explaining things to someone.  But a long time ago, not everyone wrote that way!  Some people, like Parmenedies, wrote their philosophy as long poems or songs.  And some, like Plato, wrote little plays and stories that talked about philosophy.  So our students read the stories and plays so that anyone could come and watch - and I was a little surprised, but people did!

Wednesday, it was my turn to read - I was reading the part of Socrates, who was Plato's teacher, from part [Book II] of a story of Plato's called The Republic.  The Republic is about a dinner party where everyone talks about what's fair, and how you should put countries together.  The part I was reading was about what's so good about being good, especially if you were a good person who everyone thought did bad things - and whether it would be better to be a bad person who everyone thought did good things!

Afterwards, Mr. Kimathi, one of my students, gave a presentation about how laws work.  And then I helped our students get ready for their debate the next day.

Thursday, we had a debate with the Religious Studies department.  A debate is kind of like a friendly argument, or an argument that you make a game.  Each person is trying to convince everyone that they're right, and then judges give you points on whether you spoke well, and how convincing you were, and whoever has the most points wins.

The debate was about something that's a little bit complicated to explain [Adults: "Resolved: the prevalence of same sex relationships is a threat to the socio-religious culture of Africa and as such the sooner it is purged from the continent, the better it will be for the African people."  Yeah, sometimes the politics here are bullshit too.].

Most of the time, boys fall in love with girls and girls fall in love with boys (when you're older!), and if they get married, they get married to each other.  But some boys fall in love with boys, and some girls fall in love with girls - it's called being "gay" or "homosexual" (I know, a big word).  And some of them would like to get married.  In America, where we live, it's not against the law [recently!] for a boy to fall in love with a boy or a girl to fall in love with a girl.  And some places they're allowed to get married.

Here in Ghana, it's not the same.  It's illegal for a boy to fall in love with a boy or a girl with a girl, and they can't get married.  Lots of people think that, in Africa, that sort of thing should not be allowed, and that it's people from places like America trying to force them to change their culture [Adults: Our students found a bunch of examples of pre-Christian homosexual acceptance, but of course the judges didn't seem to give a shit, and the Religion dept. just said we were lying.].  Mommy and I think that it should be OK for anyone to fall in love and marry whoever they want to (or not get married if they don't want to!), as long as they're grown-ups - we just think it's nice that people fall in love, and we shouldn't make it harder for anyone.  Of all the things there should be more of, it should be people falling in love!  If a girl (or woman) we knew - or even you, when you grow up! - were in love with another girl, it would make us very sad to think that they would have to hide or pretend they weren't in love because they were afraid it would make other people upset.

Anyway, the Religion Department - they study people going to Church and Mosque and things - was arguing that boys and boys and girls and girls shouldn't be able to fall in love, and should be put in jail if they do.  The Philosophy Department was arguing that it should be OK.  I thought our students did a very good job, but the judges said that the other people won.  That's how it sometimes goes!

[Adults: Then there was supposed to be a joint faculty lunch, but the Religious Studies profs had lunch with the two of the three judges who were Religion alums and wouldn't say two words to the Phil & Class folks.]

Finally, on Friday, some of our students put on part of an ancient Greek play called Lysistrata, about a woman named Lysistrata who gets together with the other women in Athens and Sparta - two ancient Greek cities - to stop them from fighting each other.  It's an old play, but pretty funny!  But probably you'd understand it better when you're bigger [Adults not familiar with the play: Of course, it's an ancient raunchy sex comedy about ending a war - and really, funnier than you might think an ancient Greek play would be.  We need more raunchy anti-war sex comedies.  If Zach Snyder had wanted to make something "feminist" after working on the fascist 300, he should have done Lysistrata instead of Sucker Punch!]

Then, yesterday, I mostly worked.  There was a big funeral going on near the flat - when people die here, there are often big celebrations so people can remember how much they liked them when they were alive.  This one had bands, and music, and big tents for hundreds of people.

And I stopped by Miss Gloria's, because my second shirt was ready!

It's made from the cloth you helped me pick out when we went to Madina Market before you left - I really like it, and I'm glad you helped me find it!

I miss you, but I'll see you soon.

Ghana, Day 103: We'll Meet Again

Hi Ruth!

I'm still in Ghana, and I'm trying to catch up on the blog!  Today I'm mostly working - I just finished writing a long email to one of my students about how laws work, something I think is really interesting but I haven't gotten to talk about for a long time - and I might go to dinner with Mr. Bill and Ms. Theresa and Dr. Carl and Ms. Anna-Marie later tonight (but I don't know).

But!  Today is a very special day - in exactly one month I will leave to come home for good!  It will be one month and one day until I am home, though, since I need to take the plane and sleep on it at night, just like you did.  And I know I put up a lot of music yesterday, but I haven't put up a Johnny Cash song on a Sunday for you in a while, so here's what I was listening to while thinking of seeing you and Mommy soon:

[Adults: I resisted the impulse to put up the video set to the stock footage of nuclear blasts from the end of my favorite movie of all time Dr. Strangelove.]

I had some papaya (paw paw!) and pineapple for breakfast, and thought about eating fruit with you under the tree near Night Market.  We should maybe have "fruit outside for breakfast Sundays" when I get home (and it's warmer! We can have "fruit inside under a blanket" until then).

Ghana, Days 91-95: Bring Out the GIMPA

Hi Ruth!  I'm still in Ghana, alone now.

Mommy left on Day 72.  You and Grammy and Grampy left on Day 90.

On Tuesday (8 Nov., to get us back on track) I got a call out of the blue while I was helping Grammy and Grampy get ready to head home with you.  It was from someone at the Ghana Institute for Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), who had gotten my name from the Embassy, inviting me to an event at GIMPA being put on in conjunction with the Institute for Defense Analysis, about building civil society in West Africa.  "Civil society" is about all the people who don't work for the government, but try to make sure that the government does good things, or that people get help when the government can't or won't help them - there are lots of things that it can mean!  This was a meeting talking about how to make it easier for people to put together groups that can help people, and why there may not always be so many of them.

The meeting started with dinner on Tuesday, but I was making sure that you and Grammy and Grampy got safely back home.  And then on Wednesday I had to teach.  But I told them I could come on Thursday, and I'm glad I did!

First, though, when I looked at my map, it looked like GIMPA was pretty close, only about as far from here as the train station is from our house.  So I decided I'd walk over there, instead of calling Mr. Lartey or Mr. George, especially since GIMPA is inside the Achimota Forest Reserve, so I thought it might be a nice walk.  And it was!  Mostly.   I wish I'd thought to bring my camera with me!

When I got close to where I thought I was going, I discovered that one of the roads on my map was... not really there.  There was some construction, and as Ms. Anna-Marie might say, "it is my hope, my wish, and my dream that this may be a road some day."

I could see on my map that, to avoid walking in a long loop around, I'd also have to walk across about twenty feet of what looked like lawn when I looked at the satellite maps.  Wrong again.  I crossed the construction zone, but then I found out that it was only about twenty feet... through incredibly dense foliage covered in prickers!  I got about two feet in and then saw that there was also a high wall there that I hadn't been able to see.  So I just decided it would be better to walk around.  I'm not sure they would have liked me coming to the meeting by jumping over the wall!

GIMPA itself is beautiful.  I hate to say it, but part of what makes it so nice is that it's a lot less dirty and dingy than things can be here at the University of Ghana.  But GIMPA gets lots of money from outside, and is very expensive to go to, while University of Ghana at least tries to keep things inexpensive so that anyone can come [but, adults, its admin has real problems - I wish I could say, "hey, GIMPA is spiffy, but we're the people's Uni..."].

The meeting itself was pretty interesting.  We spent the morning talking about schools in Africa, and then I had lunch with a bunch of Ghanaians who had lived near us in Maryland before coming back here to live!  In the afternoon we talked about how to make the civil society groups more influential - one of the people from the US talked about how they should join the agenda of international organizations, and try to raise money to get celebrities like actors and football players involved in their campaigns, both of which I think are really bad ideas!

After the meeting was over, we were all invited for dinner at the Rector's house, which was pretty impressive!  It was a huge place, and dinner was very impressive.  They had a highlife band [adults: and, free of charge, everything from Star to Courvoisier] and lots of food.  I sat with Mr. Tai, who is another Fulbright person, at GIMPA, and Ms. Ofie, who was there because she helped organize the event, but is mostly a singer!  She invited me to come and bring my friends to the restaurant she owns half of, Taverna Tropicana.  Apparently they have really good fish - I wish I'd known about it when Grampy was here! [Her other part-owner is Serbian. ME: Oh, my brother is engaged to a Bosnian. OFIE: He tells me that they're all pretty much over that by now. ME: Yeah, don't say that to my brother's fiancee...]
Here's Ms. Ofie singing at her restaurant.

They even gave me a free ride home!

Friday, I mostly just worked, but then I got to talk to you and Mommy on the computer!

Saturday, I worked during the morning, but then Mr. Bill, Ms. Theresa and I went down to Osu and walked around.  I got a surprise for your and one for Mommy!  Then we had some Chinese food for dinner - it was OK - and went to a free concert we'd heard about, part of a thing called the High Vibes Festival.  It was outside of a very big expensive place to go hear music (and eat) called Citizen Kofi - normally it's so expensive that I couldn't even afford to go inside!

When we got there, they immediately showed us to the very front, past the ropes into a section for special people - we think they thought we were from the French Embassy!  And then, who did I see show up, but... Ms. Ofie!  It turned out she was singing in the concert!

The concert itself was a tribute to an important Ghanaian musician named Mac Tontoh, who played trumpet and was one of the first musicians from Ghana who got really popular outside Ghana, with is band Osibisa (their symbol was a crazy flying elephant!).  Unfortunately, he died last year, and so people were celebrating his life and being sad that he died by playing music.

Here's some video from a while ago of him playing music with his band!



So, lots of different Ghanaian artists, some of whom knew him when he was alive, got up and played music and talked about how much they liked him, or were influenced him.  Don't tell Ms. Ofie, but my favorite one was Nana Yaa (Ms. Ofie was pretty good too!):


Nana Yaa, Girls Speak Out 2010 in Ghana from SHOKOLA on Vimeo.

Anyway, Ms. Anna-Marie and Mr. Carl met us there, and we watched the music until we were too tired!  We had to go home but they were still going strong!