I'm now in beautiful sunny northern California, listening to the birds chirp in the redwood trees in my backyard. It's so unbelievably grounding to be back home with family in the fantastic environment I grew up in. CA will always be in my heart!! Right now, though, I am missing Ghana, the kids and my teammates.
As for this trip, it's time to close the journal with one final entry. As promised (mostly to myself)- I wanted to write my musings and observations about race and social differences between Ghana and the US. This will be a long entry, and you'll see how my Chinese-American and Berkeley educational upbringing kick in.
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April 29, 2008 (as noted in my journal)
Tory and I are sitting in the back of Jeff's classroom. It's our favorite class to teach, Class 3. He's finishing up a lesson on Natural Science, the subject of the day is "Community." I'm taking notes as he writes on the chalkboard - I'd like a Ghanaian education too!:)
The community, Jeff tells his kids, is like a family. There is the Chief, the Assembly + women, then the elders and Priests. Parallel to that is the (Ghanaian) family head: father, then mother, then elder brothers/sisters and younger siblings.
Ideally, the leaders ensure peace and harmony within the members of the community. Why should we (Ghanaians) be nice to foreigners? Who are foreigners? Your art teachers, Tory and Tina, are foreigners. We should be nice to foreigners so that when we go to their countries, they will be nice to us- treat others as you want to be treated, as it says in the Bible. (Here I almost choked thinking about how cold the US can be to immigrants, specifically remembering racist remarks/actions done against my parents and even myself...a natural US citizen.)
We should also be nice to foreigners because they enhance the development of our country. (There have been Chinese, from China, working and living in Ghana. I've seen handfuls of Chinese men here and there, working with Ghanaian men in construction jobs along the road. I find out later that the Chinese come to design and oversee road construction. All the major roads and turnarounds were directed by the Chinese.)
Who is the chief of Labadi? (Labadi is the town this school is in.) Xhi Kpobec Tete Tsuru III. We need to work hand in hand, together, to have development.
BOOM BOOM BOOM* The sound of drums signifies breaktime, and Natural Science class is over. As the kids rush out to play in the courtyard, I'm left feeling sad that Jeff is wrongly mistaken about his concept of the world. It would be an ideal and beautiful picture to have the rest of the world countries treat foreign visitors/immigrants as generously and warmly as the Ghanaians treat their visitors. For any Ghanaian wanting to visit or relocate to the US, I would definitely give them a cultural lesson for preparation.
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In fact, once when I was on a tro-tro, a radio announcer was stating the international peace ratings for different countries. The US came in 97, the UK around 76, and Ghana was 47. I was not surprised that the US was so low, and I wonder then, which country is no. 1 in peace.
Ghana is described in travel guides to be a most warm and hospital, generous and welcoming place. I found this true throughout my travels. Whether in the villages or the city, the Ghanaians gave respect to foreigners. It was expected for you to be polite and greet people with "Good Morning" or "Good Afternoon"- especially amongst friends. They looked out for each other. If someone was in need of help, you'd generally be able to find a willing stranger to lend a hand.
In regards to Ghanaians respecting foreigners, even though they'd call out "Obroni!", "Blofonyo!" to us (White person!) it was not said with malice. How contrary it'd be if we were to shout out "White person!", "Black person!", etc. in the US or the UK. With this in mind, you can see how my fellow volunteers and I would wince inside each time they singled us out. It took some adjusting to really realize that they were just stating a fact. Almost like..."green dress!" or "straight hair!" At the first village I stayed in, Frank our host said we could say "Obibini" back to the Ghanaian. "Obibini" means "black person." Are you SURE we can say that? Definitely! he said. It's just stating a fact. Wow! I love how there is no negative racial implication behind such an exchange.
Personally, I hate being singled out. Even though I adjusted to "Blofoyno!", "Obroni!" (I kind of miss hearing that now?!)it still grated on me that I was a foreigner. To make it worse, because I'm Chinese, I would get "China/China Woman/Chinese/Japo(n)" <Wince> I think my hyper sensitivity to not wanting to be different comes from experiences where being different was bad, even hurtful. I hope I'm less sensitive now, and able to embrace being Chinese- American.
Being Chinese there was also beneficial to the kids/teachers. They wanted to learn Chinese, so I taught them the handful of characters I knew. They loved it! And actually, their accent is quite good, as the dialects there have many intonations as well. Being of a Chinese-American background came in handy on a personal level as well. As I was adjusting and learning about the Ghanaian culture, I realized there were many commonalities between my Chinese culture and theirs. It seems that both are more intuitive and indirect in ways of communicating, and the communal mindset and respect for hierachal society is there. Also, the types of food weren't so out of my league, for as the saying goes, Chinese people eat everything. Mostly. I once ordered the Ghanaian dish of light soup (a delicious tomator based broth) with fish. The fish (tilapia) came out whole, lying in my bowl. Great! I started digging in. My UK friends looked in horror. A whole fish, with the head and tail...! Ah, but you see, Chinese people also eat the fish eyes (not I personally) and at this, they were shocked even more. I asked the Ghanaian cookes if fish eyes are eaten in Ghana, and they said, some people eat them. So boiled yams, boiled plantains, whole fish, and other Ghanaian foods were really quite easy to adjust to for me.
Lastly, I will write about skin color. I was delighted to hear my Ghanaian friends remark how being black was beautiful. When Tory was leaving, Derrick, the school director, said she couldn't go back just yet because she wasn't dark enough. Of course we were surprised to hear that, and told him she couldn't get much darker due to the pigments in her skin. He understood, but already the value for dark, black skin had been stated. Wow! This blows my mind because from my college days of discussion on race and ethnicity, on the social "system" of the US, etc. it was pretty much defined that dark skin worked against you in the US. A fact that I absolutely hate. (Actually, in China/Taiwan, it is the same- royalty had whiter skin, working class had dark skin.) And I was raised with to be politically correct in my awareness of when to use the word "black" for describing things. And so it was a breath of fresh air to see my Ghanaian friends be proud of who they were.
I think this pretty much wraps up my thoughts. Not all, but most. If I've written something contrary to what you think, I'm open to hearing it. EG- if I wrote something wrong about Ghana, let me know!
Thanks for being a part of my trip...
~T :)
