Just Living Life

My funeral dress was a success...the spaghetti straps were a good call. As my dad likes to say it was pretty "balmy" outside. Ghanaian funerals are quite the experience. While you still wear black cloth, you would think that you’re at some kind of festival or party. Music is blasting, people are dancing, and alcohol is flowing. I could feel the bass throughout my body…more so than at a concert. I’m surprised there aren’t more deaf people here. Noise ordinances don’t exist here so if you ever want to throw a pretty great rager, head over to Ghana. That being said, people still do mourn at funerals, just not like we are used to. I kind of like that funerals here seem to be more of a celebration of life than mourning a loss. I think it’s a pretty great way to grieve. But everyone has his or her own healing process so you have to respect that.

On Sunday I didn’t go to church, again, but instead I had a long conversation with my mother and cousin about religion. It was pretty insightful, for me. I don’t know if they quite understand the points I was trying to make, but they are still talking to me so that’s a good sign. When I first got to site I went to the Methodist church with my family, but I have stopped going. For one, it’s all in the local language so I don’t understand anyways, and second, I am not a religious person. At least I haven’t found a religion that resonates with me. Maybe one day. But having the inevitable religion talk was bound to happen and it ends up being a good cultural exchange. I can just put a check mark next to Peace Corps Goals 2 and 3 (2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served and 3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans). The missionaries did their work in this country. I haven’t met a single Ghanaian that isn’t religious. I can only hope that Peace Corps Ghana is as successful as the missionaries were.

Sunday afternoon I went to a local football match with my brother, Kofi aka Prince Harry (that’s really his English name) and my sister, Akosua aka Louisa. Afere has a football team and on Sunday they qualified to Division 1 so the whole town was celebrating. After dinner I went out with my Akos and one of the teachers, Kofi or Frimpong, from the JHS. We went to a local bar, which is known as spots, and sat outside and chatted. That didn’t last very long because the music started blasting Azonto music. I swear I felt like I was at a nightclub. People came up from the woodwork and they all crammed together on the dance floor. If you haven’t already, youtube Azonto so you can see what I’m talking about. I’m fascinated by this dance. All Ghanaians are spectacular dancers so I love to watch them dance. I could sit there for hours and just watch.

I was at the JHS all day again. I really enjoy being around the teachers there. They are so nice and easy to talk to. They are the rare few who don’t constantly propose to me. But when I told them I probably wouldn’t get married and have kids until I’m in my 30s, they thought I was crazy! Ah cultural exchanges! I explained to them it’s important that I have money and complete my master’s degree first (cough cough, now Dad buy my plane ticket back to America for Christmas). They were also shocked to find out that “Hayley” doesn’t carry a special meaning and that I was just named after Hayley Mills. Of course they didn’t know who Hayley Mills is so that didn’t really help my case.

I met with my girls group and the hygiene club in the afternoon. I wanted to reintroduce myself and make sure people were still interested. The girls club is going to be strictly girls and since all the teachers are men I had to find a couple of willing girls to be my translators. After much prodding, I finally got three girls, Bernice, Emelia, and Veronica to volunteer. I don’t know how well they can speak English, but it’s probably a lot better than my Twi. My community mobilizer brought me some educational materials this evening. My local NGO gave the community mobilizers flipcharts and other teaching tools so I’ll be able to use those with the clubs at school. It should be easier to teach if the students have something to look at.

This evening I was supposed to meet with the Hairdressers Association and the Tailors Association. However, the electricity was out all day so the chairwomen were unable to make an announcement over the loud speaker. Africa. So we are rescheduling for Wednesday. Hopefully it works out this time.

I’m headed to Wiawso tomorrow to meet up with Gayle and Heather. Wiawso is about an hour taxi ride from here, so not that bad for Peace Corps standards. Gotta get my ipod all charged and ready to go!

In honor of Memorial Day, thank you to all of the men and women who have served and are currently serving our country. I'm proud to say that my little brother is a member of the US Army.