Perceptions of America

Sunday morning I took the early lorry to go to Sandema for market. I was in a rush while leaving the house because I woke up late and though I thought about grabbing my rain jacket since it's now rainy season but I didn't. I later regretted that decision big time. The lorries that come to our village are these dilapidated Benz buses that have many windows missing. Even though I was sitting one seat away from the window once a storm came as we were on our way it blew sideways and all over many of us. The whole right side of my body was soaked by the time we reached our destination; it's the first time in a while I've felt cold. A high school student who was returning to school (most board here) was sitting next to me and told me 'This is Africa' at some point which I had to laugh at because I've been here a while I wanted to but didn't reply 'Yes I know where I am- thanks!' Rather than be snarly I decided to be a gracious representative of America. We talked about a few topics and then he told me heard that the lights haven't been off in America for 35 years. This is one of the more radical rumors of America I've heard so I quickly educated him that it wasn't true and the power goes off for us because of storms, work on the lines, and snow (that was fun to explain).

One of the goals of Peace Corps is helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served. I find that dispelling myths about America is big part of that and after the question about our electricity I decided to share a few more. I was discussing politics with someone recently here since it's campaign season for the upcoming Presidential election in December and the guy said he'd heard that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic candidate instead of Obama. People are amazed to find out that Americans don't eat nor have ever heard of fufu, TZ, gari and many other foods here. They think it's strange that I eat pasta (or macaroni as it's called) alone since it's mixed with rice here since it's rather expensive. I get asked a lot of questions about our farming practices (which I should probably do more research about) and it always leads to a discussion on mechanization. I explain that we grow peanuts which are similar to the groundnuts they grow here but that we'd never eat peanut soup like they eat groundnut soup. It's strange to Ghanaians that polygamy is illegal, that homosexuality isn't illegal, and that men don't have to pay a bride price if they want to marry a woman in the States. I always surprise folks when I mention that in my hometown it also gets very hot though doesn't quite match the heat here. But then I explain how we don't 'suffer' as much since we have air conditioning. I've told people about tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Obviously it's a fact that all Americans are rich and that after graduating from university we have jobs waiting for us without applying or interviewing. People are surprised to hear that malaria once existed in the past and it's an encouragement for them to hear it was eradicated through the use of control methods. Besides explaining the weather, the 4 seasons are a topic of great interest. Sometimes I mistakenly make statements such as “I'll be going home in the summer” when I realize people have no concept of summer.

As I mentioned before, it's now rainy season here thank goodness. The weather is much better now- mostly in the 80s and one day I even saw it dip down to 79. The farmers have started preparing their land to sow and some of them have even begun sowing millet and maize. Last Friday it rained in the morning and since students walk to school (some over an hour one way) it starts late on rainy days. I've also heard on really rainy days school is canceled completely. This week is the second full week of school so more students are coming now and effective teaching has begun. Many students miss school during the sowing season similar to the harvest season since their parents need them to help farm. Attendance is always a challenge here especially on Fumbisi market days many students miss to either sell items in the market or just to go “roam.” Last term I tried giving a test on a market day hoping to give them an incentive to come to school but many students still missed.

I have two funnies to end on. During my travels down south for the conference last month I saw a banner somewhere announcing the opening or launching of a new institute of some sort. It read “Lunching! Lunching! Lunching! Institute for ...” This week I worked on setting up on of the donated computers in my house so I can show students what we're studying plus have some of them start learning how to use it. First I got one of the nice flat panel monitors out of a box and got it all setup. Then I opened on of the bigger boxes with the system unit inside. Only then did I realize that there wasn't a keyboard or a mouse. All the other boxes looked the same so initially I didn't try looking in any of the other big boxes. I decided to fire up the system unit just to see that it turned on; when I did the message displayed on the screen was “Keyboard not found. Press F1 to continue.” Um thanks but I can't. I later opened all the book and realized I have terrible luck; I chose the 1 box out of 5 that was missing the keyboard and mouse.