Saturday, May 23, 2009

Today, Alanna and I woke up early and went jogging around the garden. It was a challenging task for the both of us, as it was hot and neither of us is in good shape. We also did some lunges, short sprints, high knees…basically like a mini track practice. I just realized that I miss really miss boxing, I hope I can continue next year, although I have a feeling I will be too busy for extracurricular activities. We went to lunch and had omelets…they are so good and cheap, the only item on the menu we can afford! And I tried Palava sauce for the first time, it is made with some sort of green leaf (I forget the name), palm oil and onion. I liked it, so sometime in the future; I will try it with green plantains or a baked yam.
We found an internet café in Aburi, thank goodness, but after an hour, the electricity went out, lol. This one boy was so upset, he just stormed out of the place, I presume he was in the midst of some important business. The manager was going to let me go for free, but I paid him 2 cedis anyway.

I must say that many people in the village haven’t been as friendly as I expected. We’ve gotten mixed responses…for example, we were walking down the street and Alanna stopped to take a picture of this huge lizard and this guy walking by us said, “Abruni” really loudly for no reason, it was just really unnecessary, I kind of translated it as, “Stupid Foreigners,” but who even knows. Other people just stare; it’s kind of uncomfortable at times. I think after they get used to seeing us, they may open up a little more.

There is one person, however, who seems to be completely fascinated by us. She is about 9 or 10 years old. She knocked on our front door this afternoon, Alanna answered but said she could only make out the word “Charlie” and thought she was looking for someone named Charlie, so she told her there was no Charlie here and closed the door. Alanna came back into the room and talked for a few minutes about how bad she felt for closing the door but that she didn’t know what else to do. I said not to worry about it and that if it was that the girl had to use the restroom, I’m sure she’d found one by now. About 10 minutes later, we were watching the BET awards and discussing how Trina and Plies are each surprisingly well spoken and Plies even went to nursing school, when Alanna looked over at me and started making weird facial expressions. She was freaking me out, so I hoped off my bed and she ran over to me and whispered, “the girl is just standing in the window by your bed, staring at us.” Alanna was really scared, lol, but I decided to go outside and talk to the girl. She was very pleasant and clarified that Charlie’s is a hotel and she wanted to know if we would rather stay there as opposed to here…I told her we are happy where we are and thanked her for inquiring. After we came back in, we thought for sure she was gone but sure enough 10 minutes later she says through my window, “ok, I’m leaving now.” Lol, I must say that was a pretty strange encounter…I have a feeling she may be back tomorrow. I actually think she may just want to be our friend…and I hope someone isn’t sending her here on some sly mission to scope out the place.

I’m not trying to be paranoid but the reality is, someone stole one of the girl’s laptops last year, so we are trying to be cautious. At the same time, we want to meet as many people and make as many friends as we can. In Ghana, crime is not a major issue, while there is the occasional petty thief, most people seem content with legitimate sales and hustling to make ends meet. While there are a handful of very wealthy Ghanaians, many of whom live in the large homes we passed on the way to Aburi from Accra, the majority of the population live in poverty. It is not the kind of poverty that you may be envisioning…these people don’t have much but they are not suffering, they have food, shelter, clothes…what they don’t have is the luxury of excess but it does not weigh on them because most people are in the same boat…there is no mansion next door to remind them every day of what they don’t have.

Alanna and I watched a special last night on BBC about the Dalats in India. They are the lowest in the caste system and they eat nothing but rice and the rats they find in the rice fields that they work. They are paid with rice and have been so severely oppressed that it is close to impossible for most of them to escape poverty. When they move to the city to pursue better work, most end up living in the slums where there is one toilet to every 800 people. While in the city, they face less caste discrimination but they still end up living in extreme poverty.

My observations have strengthened my belief that capitalism is the biggest bullshit success story I’ve ever heard. Statistically, capitalism only benefits the richest 10-15%, everyone else suffers and is made to believe that they are not REALLY being deprived. But honestly, there is enough food in this world that not one person should be starving or even malnourished. So, in closing, I don’t blame the people for staring at us and trying to hustle or even steal from us…fricking greedy Westerners need to be redistributing the wealth around the globe and stop trying to convince everyone that capitalism is the golden way because it’s not…it’s the greedy, selfish, destructive way. I’m not saying I have a solution…but communism or maybe even socialism doesn’t sound half bad to me right now.