Obruni!

So I’ve finally semi-settled into where I will be staying for the next 19 days. The name of the community is Ajumako which is just outside of Mankessim. It has been definitely the experience I have been looking for including the limited internet access and the lack of a hot shower!! I’m living in a room, similar to Hotel California that we stayed in in Egypt, needless to say I need to get used to feeling dirty allll the time. Walking around town and the different villages I get a lot of people, especially the kids, yelling “obruni!” to me, which means white person. Hahaha, apparently I’m white! The way they yell it is definitely not threatening in anyway and is actually kind of cute  (unlike Egypt and Morocco in my opinion) and walking around I can see why. Alberta (one of the ladies I’m working with) decided to count the number of “my people” we encountered in a day at the market and it was about five, all real whites no yellows. I tried to count the number of “her people” but lost track. For example, I was walking home from the internet café in front of a little boy for a good ten minutes, when I turned down to my “street”, or dirt path, the kid yelled “goodbye obruni!”, how cute is that!

Auntie Cecilia (auntie is used when referring to women who are older than you out of respect) from HFFG has set a bunch of objectives for Auntie Phyllis (the project director) and I to accomplish for the month of January that we will be based in Ajumako. Before I joined HFFG, the organization worked with the nine neighboring communities in raising funds from the French Embassy to purchase equipment that can process Casava into starch and other products that can be sold by the 160 women beneficiaries in the markets in order to generate revenue for their respective communities. Unfortunately the machine is hardly utilized by the nine neighboring communities. Our main objective is to work with the communities to understand why they’re not using the equipment. In addition, we are also charged to educate the women on the importance of saving money and the importance of safe motherhood. Over the next week we will be meeting with the community chiefs, the queen mothers, and opinion leaders to get their buy in.

Today we went to visit the different rural banks to understand the types of microfinance loans and savings that are available to the women beneficiaries. In addition, we also went on a “benchmarking” trip, yeah that’s right I said benchmarking, to Krofu, a community that has successfully implemented a similar project. Since the Krofu community is a very small village the children had a field day with the “obruni”. In our meeting with the executive who ran the successful project random kids would run by and when I smiled at them they would run, laugh and yell “obruni!”, ahh racist kids, just kidding.

Top things I learned about Ghanaians so far:

1. Women are generally not respected if they’re not married or have children. Most women marry between ages 18 and 21.

2. All women know how to cook, if not their husbands will feel ashamed. Most start learning when they’re six and run their kitchen when they’re nine.

3. The men tend to like women who are not educated so they don’t talk back to them.

4. A Ghanian dude will never marry me for obvious reasons  Although, one 16 year old boy said he would wait for me and another dude told me he loved me at the bus stop, alllriiight!

5. They have delicious street food (yes, I am probably going to regret it but I really don’t have a choice –oddly there’s no McDonalds or Starbucks around – plus when in Ghana…). I’ve had random brown mush in a bag from street lady (tastes like spicy peanut butter), mush wrapped in corn leaf with small whole fish, octopus and spicy sauce from a little girl vendor who used her hands to prepare everything, and lots of fufu in side stalls.

6. They eat Fufu (gooey matzo ball in spicy stew with either fish or “grasscutter” not sure what kind of animal that is, both delicious) with their hands! Oddly enough, apparently this is where I reached my food limit; eating stew with your hands actually grosses me out to the point that I can’t eat the dish, not the mystery meat and fish with its head in mystery stew in the not so clean bowl.

7. They’re mostly Christian in the south, Auntie Phyllis would like me to go to church with her one of these days…yaaaay…

8. They LOVE Obama, there’s banners everywhere welcoming him, not to mention watches with his face and apparently Obama cookies (still to be verified)

9. In general, they are generous and kind, offering to take me places and show me their home towns.

10. Carrying anything on your head is the way to go.

Lucky for Eric, I’ve figured out that I can write my blog entries at night after working since there really is nothing to do and then load it at the internet café. So much for 4 entries sucka!