The Salah

On Monday the 21^{st of September, I celebrated the Salah, which is the local name for the celebration of the end of Ramadan. As a white woman, I tend to create quite the stir in general but as a white woman in a head scarf praying toward Mecca, I was the talk of the town.}

I attended the Salah with my friend Rukaya and her two sons, Ferica and Meroof (They are 9 and 5 and I claim both as my husbands, which helps me fight off the dirty old men.) Rukaya lent me a small simple white head scarf of her own, we got the boys washed and dressed in their matching orange outfits, and we were off to the celebration with Rukaya's neighbor and unhappy baby girl in a fluffy dress in tow. It was a very hot day and of course there was no shade. The concrete expanse of the Police Training Center was outfitted with rows of prayer mats. The rows closer to Mecca were for the men and behind them by a space of about 20 feet were the rows for the women.

As we waited for the celebration to begin, we sat in what shade we could find and the men and woman began to segregate. But before Ferica could go off with the men, an old woman made sure to question his love for her. He sat smiling and giggling beside me and said, "but can't I love you both?!" in reference to both me and the old lady. And in Ghana it is true, especially in the north, that he can love us both and have as many wives as he wants and can support. We laughed at the boy, who would later that day rewind "Total Recall" to show his friends the woman with three breasts, and sent him off to be with the men.

The segregation of men and women to me fells both degrading and empowering. There is nothing more powerful feeling than a group of women with common goals and interests yet we are a group of women who are 2nd rate citizens. We are further from Mecca, we are further from the Imam, we are behind, not beside, the men. I had the same sort of feeling while wearing my head scarf. I was hidden yet drew extra attention. I felt demeaned yet like I had a special power bestowed on me.

Led by the Imam, who stood in front shaded by a man holding an umbrella, we begain the celebration with prayer. Later when I wipe the dirt from Rukaya's forehead, she says, "It is because we pray with our foreheads." She is proud. Then a talk by the Imam and a collection taken. All the while the young boys run wild playing in the space between the men and women. The young girls are quite behind the women. There are young girls to the side selling homemade "ice creams" and cold pure water sachets.

Then the celebration was over. Photographers walked around snapping photos that they would bring around a week later to those in the photos and sell them 5 for 4 cedies. I am in countless photos undoubtedly hung up on the walls of homes all over my village. Then it was back to Rukaya's for feasting and a movie marathon. The boys prefer any action film. The less talking and more Kung Fu the better.

And so went my first venture into Muslim culture. I don't know much about it yet but learning will help me understand those around me just a little bit better.

Let's Talk Ghanaian Food

After receiving the mother load of a package of Amer8can food goodies from my lovely parental units back in my homeland, I have been inspired to tell the world a little about Ghanaian food.

I live in northern Ghana, which is savannah, but southern Ghana is tropical rain forest. Therefore, the variety of food varies greatly from north to south. But if you are willing to pay (50 or more peswa for a coconut that in the south would cost 5 peswa) you can get anything that is grown in Ghana, at least right now during the rainy season. So in the north our main crops are maize (corn), rice, millet (that's right zoo friends that's what we feed the Budgies), soya beans, bombara beans, red beans, black eyed peas, ground nuts (peanuts), yams, tomatoes, onions, okra, garden eggs (like a small egg plant), alefo (leafy stuff), cabbage, hot peppers,green peppers, and mangoes. Right now I can also get (in the regional capital market and for a price) pineapple, coconut, oranges, bananas, apples, grapes, pears (avocados), green beans, carrots, egg plant, plantains, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, cassava, popcorn, pasta, and probably more. Chicken and guinea fowl eggs are also widely available. Cattle is milked by the Fulani people (a nomadic cattle herding tribe from further north, many of which have seemed to settle in Ghana) but milk and cheese are very rare. Processed foods (boxed or canned) are rare and expensive. Although Ghana is the second largest producer of cocoa, chocolate is hard to find and not very good. Ghanaians don't do candy or desert.

A typical Ghanaian menu looks something like this:

Breakfast – porridge, oats, fried egg sandwich, tea, hot cocoa

Lunch/ Dinner – wakye (beans with oil and ground dried cassava), red red (beans living it up in palm oil served with plantains fried in palm oil), plain rice with a tomato paste stew, jolof rice with meat (jolof is rice cooked in a spicy tomato mixture), rice balls with ground nut soup, tzed with alefo/ground nut or vegetable stew (tzed is traditionally made of millet flour and is a ball of starch), fufu and palm nut or light soup (fufu is a ball of starch made by pounding any combination of boiled yams, cassava, and plantains together, light soup is like tomato soup), banku and okra stew or hot pepe with little fish (banku is a ball of starch made from fermented corn flour), water, mineral (soda)

Basically Ghanaians love balls of starch that you don't have to chew, dipped in things. I don't cook Ghanaian food. Its an all day process and I would rather leave it to the professionals, Ghanaian women. So I basically eat like I would at home in the US only without cheese and more creatively. I also seem to have lost my sweet tooth over the course of the last 4 months. Even soda overwhelms my sweet sensors.

The Peace Corps Volunteers of Ghana have something called "the achievement of the trifecta." Achievement of the trifecta is attempted by many, achieved by few, and mastered by only the most serious. Achievement of the trifecta makes you Ghanaian. To become Ghanaian you must successfully be able to eat two rice balls, two balls of fufu, and two balls of banku. I can rarely eat one ball of any of these.

Talk of food also brings us to intestinal unfortunateness. This is also of course caused by water. Growing up in the United States with our wussy sterilized environment makes us United Statesians as susceptible to intestinal unfortunateness in Ghana as the native peoples of North America were to small pox. Perhaps even more so. What does intestinal unfortunateness entail you may be wondering? Bouts of diarrhea, constipation, explosive diarrhea, vomiting, fever, projectile vomiting, worms, severe stomach cramping, and of course surprise pooping of the pants and surprise vomiting all over. I have yet to get worms.

And with that I will end my lesson for the day.

One Month at Site!

One month at site! How bout that.

I have started what will eventually be my garden. I am currently
clearing land. In about two hours, I cleared a 6' x 8' area. The
current plan is to work a little every day and eventually I will have
enough land cleared for a garden and a few nursing beds. Pictures are
in the future!

I have bought a bike. It is golden yellow, has three speeds, a
basket, a bell, and a rear rack. It is everything I hoped it could be
and more! It takes me everywhere over the beautiful rolling hills of
the Upper East.

I now consider my room finished and sufficiently homey. It is
complete with kitchen area, living/dining/office, and bedroom areas.
Video tour on its way.

My women's groups are uh... groupy. They are great ladies. They have
a massive amount of need and usually just give myself pep talks during
their meetings (besides of course the dancing I do during their
meetings). One step and one day at a time and we will figure out the
best solutions for these lovely ladies.

Anywho life is good. You should send me letters and silly things.
That would make my life!

New Photos Posted

There are new photos posted on my flickr account. To see them click on my photo to the right!