Getting Into the Swing of Things: Discorvering Normal Daily Life Amidst a Different Cultural Context

The following post will be a little different seeing as I started writing but didn't finish a single post on more than one occasion. I will edit down my writing from other sittings, to make this post less overwhelmingly large. Also as another note, I will mention those events again, if they come back up, but for now, for the sake of finishing this post I will avoid getting into those unless they are pertinent.

Wednesday August 21st:

This is technically the second week but the first week of classes/the semester.

I am a little tired right now and it is getting harder to get up in the morning, clear signs that my body is adjusting to the time schedule here, which is both good and bad, but something that is unavoidable. I am finding it hard to put into words, my present mood and feelings. It is a mixture of fulfillment and emptiness. I will attempt to describe it as best as I can understand it at the moment. 

I am feeling the disconnect that I often do from those around me. I find myself, not facing issues having to do with being in Ghana, but just the same old issues that I've always had to fight. Part of it is from being away from my closest friends, and not having a lot of contact with them. This isn't a constant or even direct struggle for me, though, it is more of a lack of social connections among the group here, especially with the contrast of having spending a two-week period at one of my best friend's house before leaving for Ghana. That is all I can see of this emptiness at the moment; I will continue to explore these feelings as the next week comes on. Perhaps, I felt slightly more connected to people when we were doing activities as a whole group everyday, and so now, as school is starting, it is easier to spend time in smaller groups, which is wonderful, but I may not have reached a further point of closeness with anyone in the group yet, which could be part of the issue. It may be one of those things that will take more time and effort on my part.

As for the fulfillment, I am loving the courses that I am taking, so far as what I've had at this point which is at least one period of each. I am excited for most of the guest lectures for our Peoples and Cultures course, excited for the African Literature course which will cover both works that I have read before and haven't even heard off, and incredibly excited for the Twi, and African Drumming and Dance courses. I even bought an Asante Twi Bible yesterday to exercise and expand my ability with Twi. I think this is probably the most excited I've ever been for courses. I don't quite yet know what that means for me, but will definitely keep an eye out for dropped hints from above or within(referring to where my soul is aligned with Jesus' Holy Spirit, not my own by itself). 

As I mentioned, before, I am still experiencing that heightened sense of spirituality and closeness to not just God but to his creation. However, I am realizing that certain things are dragging me away from it, subtly, but surely doing so. 1) Using technology more, 2) Participating in purely pleasure and leisure based activities, and 3) Avoiding interacting with Ghanaians by staying in my dorm room. At this point, all I can do is try to be self-aware and work toward finding balance.

Sunday August 25th:

This past weekend was spent in Cape Coast at Brenu Beach Resort. It sounds high and fancy, but in reality, it is a comfortable and down to earth little retreat, right up along the coast. One of my favorite things was the ability to hear, and see through the palms, the ocean waves crashing while up by our lodging.

This excursion was a great way to get away a bit after launching off into our courses, which, while not hard, are very engaging in terms of learning about a different culture through different contexts, whether it be about language, politics, or literature. I also think, it was a very nice way to wean us off of the Ghana "adventures" which we were getting used to with the first week, which was packed full with activities and new experiences. My absolute favorite moment of the weekend, however, was walking, standing, sitting, running, and just being on the beach at night, under the stars and the waning moon, with the waves crashing and washing over and pulling at my feet. It was absolutely beautiful and mesmerizing sight, especially when a little bit of mist/fog rolled in. I was able to just be in the moment, with nature, God, and my own thoughts.

Unfortunately, I did not take pictures during our stay at the beach, other than a couple of a little crab I caught at night on the beach. I decided, it was important for me to take the day truly as a break and avoid trying to capture everything and just be in the mix for a relaxing change.

This morning, I woke up with the sound of waves and natural morning light filtering through my window. I stepped out with my Bible and went down to the beach. I felt like there was just something calling to me, through nature, through my surroundings. I flipped through my Bible and decided that I'd read some psalms. Without thinking I found myself at Psalm 42. "Deep calls out to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me." That is verse 7, at the moment, upon reading it, I suddenly understood this verse, that I have read over so many times, just thinking, "that's beautiful imagery" or "that's interesting wording". But after that moment, I made a personal connection to that verse. I felt the "deep" in nature, in creation, from where God has left his mark, call out to the "deep" within, most definitely a mark of God within me, which was crying out in response the whole time there. I had only then, been able to name it; I found a way to describe the way I was feeling during the day and night before.

Later on, after we left the resort, on our way back to Accra, we stopped in Kakum at the a forest preserve, where we went on a canopy walk, which was fun, and during which I actually took pictures.

Week 3 (Aug26-Sept1):

As we all settle into our courses and life here, I'm starting to realize that life is still pretty much life, wherever it is. A group of our students left for half of the week and weekend to spend time in Adenkrebi, in the Ga East District. It is more quiet in our dorm rooms without everyone around, but it gave us a great opportunity for those of us left in the dorms, as well as those who went to Adenkrebi together, to grow closer together in smaller group settings.

On Saturday, I went with my professor, her daughter, and two other students to see a play by prominent Ghanaian playwright, and theatre producer and director, Ebo Whyte. It was wonderful to experience Ghanaian culture through a part of the "highlife" sub-culture. There is a slightly different dynamic, but all the cultural differences are still there, but perhaps in a different form. One thing I noticed, was a difference in the criterion of comedy. Even though we were laughing the whole time, I had this sense that we were laughing for different reasons. I wrote on this for a journal for a course and will probably expand upon it in this blog at some point.

Another event of interest: Right before the play, we had gone to a Poetry Jam hosted by the National Theatre and took place just outside of the main building. We watched, listened, and analyzed the poetry in form of spoken word, and it was really interesting to see the similarities and differences between the spoken word style of Ghanaian youth and those of the Western world. It was here that I finally got a stronger sense of the melding of modern culture in an international context. Our generation and those even younger are now living in a nearly seamless international, intercultural world, where cross cultural exchange and communication is easy and social media can connect continents not just communities. It's frightening and exciting to imagine the changes in the world and societies in the next couple decades as the current generation steps down and the current youth take the reigns of the working class majority, the chairs of government, and succeed the agency of media and prestige of fine arts.

END LOGS

It is more than halfway through this week, but for the sake of posting the previous two weeks' logs, I'll be posting this past week's thoughts (along with those of the next half week) partway through this upcoming week. We will be leaving for our northern excursion next Thursday morning bright and early. Since I figure I will have a lot to say about that, I assume that will be a whole post of its own.

A Crash Course on Ghana: Just the Beginning of a Long Journey (The First Week: part one)

It has been just over a week in Ghana. In some ways I can still barely believe it, I am in Ghana. With every day of this immersion I am loving and learning to love the culture, the food, the languages, and the people more and more. Not only that, but I feel like I am, in a sense, coming to life, slowly but surely. The past week is probably best described as a crash course on Ghana. I've feel like I already know so much and have learned so much about the language and culture already. However, my belief that I have already learned and know so much, is a more sure sign than any other that I have still a lot to learn. 

As a side note, I am also realizing that weekly blog posts may not be enough to capture everything that I want to say. There are just so many, too many ideas bouncing around in my head at the moment, while I am attempting to formulate some sort of plan for this post. I will begin after this post to try doing two posts a week.

I'd list all the things I've done, day and night, but that would just take forever. Besides, I have already personally logged most of that. Instead, I wish to just encapsulate what has stood out to me the most so far with some highlights of my experiences and thoughts.

I’ll lead with some of the challenges I've faced so far. 

I had always considered myself a strong proponent of saving and conserving water, but looking back at my practices in the US, this just wasn't true. I don’t think I truly realized how important and essential water was to life as a whole until being forced to face a few simple challenges with water access. In the dorm we don't always have direct running water in our rooms. We found this out in a rather abrupt way, when, after our day or so of flights and travel, only two of us were able to shower before the water was out. The next day almost all of us bought buckets to fetch water in from the outside polytank spigot. I have just as many bucket showers as I have regular ones and I have found bucket showers not only to be more conservative in the usage of water, but also more relaxing, especially since our water is not heated. 

The other challenge that I’ve faced is a sort of compound challenge, with both circumstantial and personal causes. I accidentally plugged in the power strip that I brought from the US without switching my universal adapter/converter to converter mode. However, instead of just shorting out the power strip, it shut off my room’s electricity. Two days later I had it fixed and then without thinking I switched the adapter to converter mode but didn’t consider the condition of the power strip before plugging it in again, thus once again I lost power in my room. It has since then been fixed. This has given me a glimpse into some of the electrical/power issues that many of the locals face, and merely a glimpse, seeing as these issues are not caused by mistakes like mine were and are more infrastructural in nature. Either way it has given me an appreciation of the electrical/power infrastructure that we have in the US where in most cases, if there is an outage or issue, it gets fixed fairly easily within a day or so without risk of it happening again any time soon.

These challenges have not just been inconveniences, though, they have been great learning experiences that are beginning to shift my true personal understanding to better match the facts of the situation that I already know. 

The next topic I want to touch is Ghanaian culture. I have not experienced much culture shock at all, especially with surface level matters. Having spent time in China on quite a few occasions, in big cities, smaller cities, and as well as some rural areas, I was not taken aback by the smells of the streets, the dust/dirt everywhere outside, the nice but seemingly perpetually in disrepair road and sidewalk infrastructure, nor by the hassling and bargaining in markets. 

However one major difference from my experiences in China, is that, here, I cannot masquerade as nor be mistaken for a local. This has created a very different dynamic for me. Despite the fact that I am accustomed to being a minority, in living life in the US, it is still not the same as being an unmistakable foreigner. The extra attention that foreigners get is what has stuck out to me the most, both the bad and the good. There are times I wish the dorm staff wouldn’t try harder to cater to foreign students than the Ghanaian students or that people wouldn't just stare when we walk by, when in either large or small groups. But then there are wonderful moments at the Old Night Market on campus, when a nice and outgoing stall owner, or just on the streets on campus, when a stranger or two, may strike up conversation in order to just get to know us or to teach us some helpful tidbits of Twi, the dominant traditional language of Ghana. We’ve been outside of Accra a couple times now, and when on walks with friends or on our way to something with my camera in hand, there were children and adults alike who happily and sometimes excitedly invited me to take pictures of them. This very openly communal culture is only a step away from some communal culture in the States, but definitely a stark contrast in difference from the average/norm social culture in the US. While I find it odd and surprising at times, it is very comfortable, and feels much more real and genuine.

Now that I’ve stumbled onto the topic of cultural genuineness, I want to share a particular experience that threw me for a personal loop of sorts, and on the first day we were here too. We were invited to take a tour of a small artifact exhibit in the Institute of African Studies at University of Ghana Legon, where most of our classes will be held. The exhibit was focusing on the Akan craft of bronze casting. At first it seemed like any other exhibit, with some interesting facts and details of processes that have been used in the past and changed over time. Then we reached the cases of bronze cast proverbial symbols and tokens.

Two proverbial symbols stood out to me: Obi Nka Obi and Funtun Funefu Denkyem Funefu.
Obi Nka Obi was represented here as two fish with their heads at the other’s tail and is loosely translated to, “no one should bite another’s tail”, capturing the reciprocal nature of social interaction. This proverb captures the same essence that other proverbs from many cultures, including the popularly known pseudo-Christian Golden Rule, do unto others as you would like them to do unto you, an extrapolation or contextualization of Leviticus 19:18 or Mark 12:31: “...love your neighbor as yourself...” The curator explained that even though the Akan people did not use a complicated or sophisticated written language, things like these small bronze cast totems/weights were used throughout the culture as ways to remember the proverbs, as a way to pass them down from generation to generation. Never before, had I felt the power of an oral tradition as then. 

The curator also explained the meaning of Funtun Funefu Denkyem Funefu, “Siamese crocodiles”(it is a longer proverb, but shortened to that for reference). The symbol is of a siamese crocodile or other animal that shares just the one stomach, the proverb describes the relationship that the two have. It basically says, the siamese crocodile shares one stomach but fights over the food for the sensation of taste in it’s mouth that it craves. It is a symbol that represents democracy and unity through a reminder of the associated innate struggles and difficulties; for West Africans it is a reminder of the danger and harmfulness of infighting and radical tribalism. This image, in one phrase and graphical representation encapsulates the struggle of communities everywhere, that everyone within the community is all benefiting together but the individuals within fight among themselves in order to personally experience the benefit more directly. This is very much like the Western world’s social contract theory, famously written on by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his The Social Contract, in which he describes individuals as free to make choices but at the same time tied down to a social contract with peers as well as authority and thus mutually reliant and dependent upon each other in the agreement of certain sacrificed rights and freedoms.

I am finding this personally tangible encounter with oral tradition just utterly amazing, I had always found oral tradition fascinating, but never had I truly realized it’s worth or the mysterious influence it seems to hold. This encounter and the curator’s commentary got me thinking more about the contrast between Western written tradition and African oral tradition. It almost seems the focus of Western culture has been more on the academic side and understanding it as social-political theory rather than a proverbial warning and ancestral artifact. It’s interesting to compare the possible results of the two on the current state of these world regions. The Western world seems to be cold and focused on lives that are not the privy of any others, while the African world, still very much has a strongly communal culture, wherein the community is at equal value with each individual within. I am not saying there is no place for theory or academic pursuits of understanding social structure and systems, but I am beginning to believe that the Western world missed out a bit by falling full on into the Enlightenment mindset that convinced Western society that theory could fully replace “primeval” understandings, legends, proverbs, and understandings. I’m not sure if, whether or not, I’m onto something substantial here, however, I do know that I greatly value the conversations and thoughts that have come out of this experience and my new-found, truer appreciation for cultural proverbs, especially West African ones.

Well!...This is getting a bit long, so I will save a bit for the next post. I will, however, let you know that it has something to do with meeting two chiefs, playing drums with some local boys in Adenkrebi, as well as a couple perspective opening lectures at the Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture in Akropong, and a tiring but amazing hiking and waterfall day trip. One other thing I can say about this semester and experience so far... I believe my spirituality, which had begun to and continued to subdue as I became more “reformed” and my faith shifted more into an intellectual theological focus, may be slowly being revived and perhaps soon to be exhumed from the depths of my being, buried beneath nearly six feet of rationality and cynicism.

A little sneak peak of the waterfall!

It is late in Ghana at the moment, I fell asleep while finishing off this post and woke up in the middle of the night, so I will be off to bed soon, as many of you in the US will be as well or already have. I will be throwing in little bits of Twi as this blog develops, so... goodnight and da yie(goodnight or sleep well)!

P.S. Tomorrow we start classes and not that the other classes are any less important or interesting, but I am just absolutely thrilled to start our Twi class! 

Thoughts On Leaving and Blogging... and This Blog

As the day has been rolling nearer, my sleep has been gradually becoming more restless, my dream retention has upped a significant amount, and the reality is finally hitting me a bit. I will be leaving on a plane for England, and then from there to Ghana, in less than half a day. I am not quite yet sure how I feel about it. I know that my mind is excited, with the sure sign of thoughts racing about the possibilities and the anticipated escapades.
Perhaps that is a better word for it: Anticipation. I am anticipating a lot from this trip. I am not quite yet excited, nor am I completely relaxed neither. In fact, I'm quite stressed about getting all the last hangouts squeezed in with my friends and making sure I'm all packed without leaving something behind. There are in fact still two things I'd like to acquire from a store before leaving (at least that I can think of), but I think I'm finally hitting the stage of assurance in which I'm fine with just letting go a bit and trusting that I am in the able hands of my professor, caring hands of peers, and providential hands of God. I'm anticipatory.
Leaving isn't just about the next destination, however. Part of it is what is being left behind. This semester is not a permanent leave, but it is longer than I am used to. The longest I remember ever being abroad is a single month, not even close to four. There is a bit of sadness, a bit of premature longing for some of the relationships that will have to be put on hold and those that have to take a sort of shift in nature to adapt to the distance, as well as a sense of nostalgia for fall in Grand Rapids, seeing as I may not be in Grand Rapids next year after having graduated. This does not mean I am in any way regretting my decision to go abroad, instead, it is more like I am finally coming to terms with realities that I have already accepted but not truly had to face yet, till this point.

I think that sufficiently describes my current state and feelings on leaving, so here goes my current thoughts on blogging.

I've blogged on a few other occasions. I had my personal blog, which I kept up for a little while and then soon fell into a habit intermittently posting, solely depending upon the chance that I'd remember my blog's existence. However, I also blogged for a time for Calvin Admissions, and did a decent job with keeping up with posting. I am now hoping once again to keep up consistently, with at least a post per week. Hopes and past blogging experiences aside, I have realized that I had fallen into one of the largest tropes of blogging. I was blogging for others. I was blogging to say something witty, something interesting, to garner some sort of meager following and attention.
The difference this time is that I have a journey, which I wish to record. I am reaching a point where it is becoming clear that memories can only be effective up to a point by themselves. I saw pictures from my parents' college years and earlier. Looking back, I realized that elementary school was already fading into the white noise of my memories, just flashes of images and non sequitur details. Maybe that's just a part of life, however, I, myself, don't want to quite yet resign to that. And so blogging, for me, this time around will take on a new meaning.

I'm sorry about going on and on with this post, but with everything all happening at once, and not having started posting till now, I guess I just have a lot to say.

This Blog, is dubbed, perhaps enigmatically, as "How to Break a Behemoth". I wanted to avoid the whole trying-to-hard to be witty trope, and just go with something simple, but nothing came to me. Until the word Behemoth. Here's a link to the Wikipedia article on the Behemoth, which I sort of stumbled onto out of curiosity for the word's origin and different meanings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behemoth. As soon as I was done reading the article, I knew that I had a theme for my semester blog. I immediately thought "Breaking Behemoth", but then thought better and avoided that reference (perhaps you noticed, I actually still used it in the URL...).
So... here we are at "How to Break a Behemoth". It may grow and change a lot as the semester grows and changes. However, one thing that will remain is it's original purpose.
As the Wiki states or perhaps if you've heard in a sermon somewhere, or read in a book, Behemoth and Leviathan, who are mentioned in Job, both represented the insurmountable and untamable final frontier of both the land and sea (respectively). That one creature, that one thing that is and can be tame only under God's power, control, and sovereignty. This semester, socially, physically, emotionally, even professionally, all together as a whole, is my current Behemoth.
One misinterpretation that I wish to dodge right off the bat, is that I am not saying that I, myself, will be the one to break this Behemoth. As always, we are, as Christians, called to both an active two way relationship with God, as well as a more one sided dependence and filial (or perhaps more comprehensively, philial) obedience. So this record will not only be of my experiences, thoughts, and struggles, but will also have a moderate-to-strong focus on how God is breaking this Behemoth, and making it a surmountable journey, hopefully just within my effortful reach.