Secular and Spiritual Work

I thought I would spend some time in this blog writing more about my experience at the University of Ghana and the classes that I am taking this semester. I mean, after all… I am on a study abroad semester, not only a weekend vacation semester!

Monday afternoons I have Music of West and Central Africa class. In this class we are learning about some examples of performance groups/musical styles that can be found in West and Central Africa. Some of the information is similar to what I learned in the world music section of the USU music history III class. But here we get to learn about it in more detail. I don’t have a lot of homework for this class… Just mostly reading from books and articles. I do have a midterm in this class next Monday so I will be studying for that this upcoming week. We will see how I do on my first test at UG! Monday night I went to FHE. The topic of discussion was dating. It was interesting to hear about how “dating” happens here in Ghana. There are some definite cultural differences that I observed as the men and women in the group talked about their different concerns and questions in regards to dating. It made me think a lot about what I consider dating to be and the purpose of dating.

Tuesdays are very busy for me. I start off the day with my Guidance and Counseling class. We are talking about the different methods of counseling and therapy. I have already studied most of the things that we talk about in class but it is refreshing to have a new approach to the topic as well as the material directed more towards how counseling is conducted in Ghana. This class is making me really want to study psychology and counseling at the graduate level! Then after that class I have my private drumming lesson. I am taking lessons from Johnson. He is the senior drummer in the music department and is also a “drum master.” In my lessons we are able to review the things that I learn in my drumming practical as well as learn other drum pieces that are not covered in class. He is a really great instructor and is very patient with me. Then at night I have my Twi Language class. I am not taking this class for credit. Instead I am auditing the course. This has been nice because I am able to attend the class without the pressure of having to study for the tests. My last class of the evening is Intro to Traditional Dance. This class is SO much fun! Even though I look like a stiff board trying to do the boogie, I have a lot of fun learning the different dance moves and meeting new Ghanaian friends. Boy do they really know how to dance! We were just tested on one dance called “Adowa” and now we are learning a dance from Northern Ghana. There is a lot of hip shaking involved on this one so it is good for me to practice that haha :)

Wednesdays the only class I have is my Introduction to Drumming class taught through the dance department by François. He is the one who helped me get my drum! This is a big group class, mostly made up of foreign students. He is a really great teacher and it is always fun to learn new rhythms. There are several layers to a certain drumming piece. The parts include: bell, shaker, first supporting (unchanging pattern on drum), second supporting (also unchanging pattern on drum but different from first supporting), and then the master drum. The master drum part is the hardest and the most fun to learn! When you put all of the parts together it sounds so complex compared to “western” music. But in theory it is really easy to put together.

Thursday mornings I have my early morning Institute class – “Teachings of the Living Prophets.” This has been one of the best institute classes I have ever had! Even though it is early in the morning, people participate and share thoughts about the chapter that we are studying. It is a great way to start off my day. In two weeks I will be teaching the Institute class so I am beginning to prepare now for how to best teach the class. Later in the morning I have my Drum Practical class with Johnson and then a rehearsal for my African Traditional Ensembles group. Our particular group is learning to sing some of the traditional songs that will be a part of the final ensemble performance. The songs are difficult because they are in Twi and Fante (the local languages). The timing of the songs is also difficult to grasp. I take my iPod with me to this class (and my drumming classes) so that I can take an audio recording. It helps me later on to practice the songs correctly. Then Thursday nights I have Twi and Dance class again.

Fridays are a free day for me! No classes!!! On most Fridays I have been going to the temple. It is nice to have that day to go or one extra day on the weekend for traveling. This Friday was another holiday here in Ghana. It is called Founder's Day. It is celebrating the birthday of Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah. It is similar to our President's Day in America. 

Something great to note that happened this last week... The missionaries from the Madina 1st ward have received permission to come to the campus to begin teaching the students here! They can not "proselyte" but they can come to contact referrals and teach investigators. I have seen them quite often on campus and they are so excited to be here! It reminds me a lot of my mission and working with the YSAs on college campuses. I was able to introduce them to some of my friends from the exchange program. It made me really miss my mission. Even just being around the elders, I could feel the "missionary spirit" rubbing off on me! I hope and pray that they continue to have success here on campus and I want to do all I can to help them find people here to teach. The elders are both obrunies, Elder Tribe is from Alpine, UT (he went to USU but I never met him!) and Elder Robertson is from England.

This has been a nice weekend to just relax and catch up on some sleeping and school work. I am not the type of person that can travel EVERY single weekend. It is too mentally and physically exhausting for me to do that. I was going to go to Togo (the country just east of Ghana) on Saturday but the price for the visa went up very high so many of the students decided not to go. Maybe I will go later on during the semester. I found out that Ivory Coast closed its border to anyone traveling from Ghana. There was an attack at one of the army checkpoints and some people were killed. Apparently the people who were responsible for the attack came from Ghana. I feel like I am landlocked here in Ghana, surrounded by countries that are experiencing some type of civil unrest. It is making it difficult to create travel plans to other countries when it is not safe for us to go there.

I didn’t take many pictures this week. One place that I did go to on Wednesday morning was Cappa Cappicino, a coffee shop in the airport residential area. There are a lot of American-style places in that part of town. Cappa Cappicino is a nice little coffee shop where I enjoyed a morning listening to American music and a nice big hamburger!!! A little taste of home :)   

Camping on Dodi Island

What an exhausting week. I managed to keep up with all of my school work and get ready for our big weekend trip to Dodi Island!! The weekend was very interesting. The nice thing about this blog is that it gives me an opportunity to share my candid thoughts… the good AND the bad. This weekend was one that I will never forget, for many reasons. Brace yourselves…

Dodi Island is about 2-3 miles off the shore of Volta Lake in the Volta Region of Ghana. From where we are at in Legon, it was about a 3 hour bus ride to get there (traveling east). The purpose of the trip was to go see the Children of God School that had been established on the island a few years ago by 3 Rastafarian men. They have expanded the Children of God School to Adenta and the school there is very large. With 10 of us in our group, we left on Friday afternoon and traveled to the town of Bosu, near Volta Lake. It was a BEAUTIFUL drive into the Volta Region. It was very lush and green and we got to drive right over the dam bridge (Jill, Marisa, and MaryJane… that was a dam joke just for you haha!) We stayed the night with a host family in Bosu. After a delicious meal, we spent the night drumming in a circle and learning some Rasta songs. We slept on mattresses on the floor and I actually got a really good night’s sleep. The next day we woke up and traveled to the lake shore to take boats to the island.

We arrived on the small island and were greeted by many children. We took our things up to the school where we were going to stay. The first thing we wanted to do when we arrived was to change into our bathing suits and go swimming in the lake because it was so HOT!!! The water felt AMAZING and it was so relaxing to just swim around. After we finished swimming, we went back up to the school and gathered the children together to help them with learning the alphabet! We drew some pictures on a chalkboard and helped them with sounds. Their tribal language is Ewe, not Twi (the local language in the Accra region). But some of the children are learning English at the school. We then went out on a soccer field and played some games with them. The children had so much energy and they LOVED to have their photo taken! Later on we lit a bonfire and sang some more songs around the campfire and learned some new dances. Then a few of us went out on a rock away from the fire and sat and stargazed. It was incredible to see the Milky Way and many shooting stars! We slept in the school that night.

The next day (Sunday) we walked around the island and met people from another village. After packing everything up we made our journey home. We finally made it back to Legon at 8:00 and we were all exhausted!

Now I have told you the “edited” version of what happened this weekend. There are some parts of the weekend that made this trip awful, while others made it incredible…

This weekend was filled with some disappointments. I guess I went in to the experience with some different expectations than what actually happened…

#1 MARIJUANA AND ALCOHOL – Remember when I said that we went with Rastafarian men on this trip? Well one thing about Rastas is that no matter where they go, the weed must follow. When we arrived on the island, their number one priority became rolling up joints of marijuana to smoke. There were 4 of us in our group who did not “partake” of the marijuana smoking. There were some things that REALLY bothered me. First of all, I am pretty sure that a large chunk of the money that I paid to go on this trip was spent on the weed supply. Second, everyone was smoking the weed right in front of all of the children! Third, there were SO many parts of our trip that were delayed because we had to wait for people to wrap up more joints to smoke. And along with the smoking came the large consumption of alcohol. Every time the “spiritual leader” of the school said a prayer, a bottle of alcohol was passed around the group for everyone to drink. If I would have known that the weekend was going to be spent drinking and smoking marijuana, I would NOT have come.

#2 NO SERVICE AT SCHOOL – From what I was told, we were going to be doing some type of service at the school. In my mind, I was thinking manual labor… planting trees, cutting down grass, fixing chairs, etc. This was not the case. There were 3 of us who decided to work with the students on the alphabet letters while EVERYONE else in our group was getting high from the marijuana. We honestly did not do anything for that school besides play with the students for an afternoon. And we probably even left the place dirtier than when we arrived because no one cared about picking up our trash. The whole reason why I came on the trip was to volunteer and give service to the Children of God School. And I left the island feeling very disappointed about our lack of contribution to the people there. The children there are definitely in need of volunteers and I just think that we went there at the wrong time to offer our service to them. I don't want to discourage anyone from donating to the Children of God School or discourage people from volunteering there... I would just recommend that you communicate with the teachers so you know how best you can help at the school.

Aside from all of those negative aspects of the trip, there were a lot of good things that did happen…

#1 MISSIONARY WORK – Because of all of our “waiting” time, I had the opportunity to have some GREAT conversations with people about the church. We talked about prophets, the Book of Mormon, the Plan of Salvation, the Restoration, the temple, etc. It has been a blessing for me to have these opportunities to share the gospel with those around me. Mostly due to their lack of knowledge and curiosity, the people in my ISEP group have asked me many candid questions about my beliefs. One of the girls in my group even asked me for a copy of the Book of Mormon!! I am really hoping that this will plant a little seed inside each person that can be nourished.

#2 CHILDREN OF GOD – Not only was that the name of the school where we went, it was also the incredible feeling that I had that God knows the children on Dodi Island (just as He knows each child all over the world). Even in this remote place, Heavenly Father is aware of these precious children and He loves them. One girl in particular, kept running up to me to give me a hug. She would not let go! The hug she gave me was the best hug I have had since coming to Ghana. This little girl saw past my skin color and loved me instantly.

#3 EARTH IS GOD’S CREATION – Every time I have the opportunity to spend time in nature, I am overwhelmed with the magnitude of the beauty of the earth. As I sat stargazing, the scripture came to mind… “All things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator” (Alma 30:44).

#4 GOOD FRIENDS – I would not have been able to make it through the weekend without my good friend Kristen. We did our best to laugh at the situation when things were out of our control. It was nice to have her (and Jordan and Greg) who also did not drink and smoke that weekend. We were able to go off on our own to stargaze and have good, meaningful conversations.

So… there were lessons to be learned from this Dodi Island trip. Like I said, the good and the bad. I guess I can now be some of the select few people who said that they went "camping" in Africa haha! I am grateful that we made it back safely and that I was able to skype with the family. I hope that this blog post does not offend anyone. That is not my intent. I just wanted to share my thoughts with you as they are, uncensored. Thank you for keeping me in your prayers. I know that it helps me to make it through weekends like this one.  

TV Star and Soccer Fan

The weeks seem to be going by faster and faster. I can’t believe we are already into September. I tried hard this week to spend more time with my studies and school work. I was able to accomplish quite a bit and it felt good to cross things off of my “to-do” list (for those of you who know me so well, you know how much I love to make lists haha). But don’t worry, I also had a lot of fun this week as well.

To start off… I have starting working out in preparation for the swim season to start in a few weeks! I go swimming with a friend from ISEP, Annie, and we went 4 times this last week. We switch up the type of workouts that we do so we get a good mix of speed and distance. It has been great to get in the pool. Even though the water is colder, as soon as I start swimming it feels great! And it is also nice that the pool is about a 5 minute walk from our hostel.

On Monday we had FHE! Each week, a different boy and girl are responsible for leading the group. Our lesson was on “spiritual crocodiles.” Our YSA group is really great and I am getting to know them better each week. They have become some of my best friends here and that means so much to me. We also had Institute on Thursday morning and we have decided to study “Teaching of the Living Prophets” for the class this semester. We didn’t have any manuals to use so instead we learned the song “Latter-Day Prophets” so that everyone would know the order of the prophets. Gloria and I taught the group the song because we were the only ones who knew it haha.

This week I had the opportunity to be filmed for a TV show here in Ghana! My friend Bertha is in my music class and she is affiliated with the TV show called “Miss Malika.” It is a beauty contest between 10 girls in Ghana. Each week the girls do different tasks and are evaluated by judges. Then the audience can call and vote for who they want to win that specific task. This week their task was to do a presentation to non-Ghanaians on their regional culture. So 4 of us from ISEP were interviewed and then filmed as the girls did their presentations. Then we were interviewed again and asked our impressions. The episode is going to air tonight and then again on Wednesday! The person who did the filming said that she would work on getting us a copy of the episode to keep and take home with us! Too bad you don’t have the Ghana networks so that you can watch it too!

Thursday night I attended a dancing show for the School of Performing Arts. Three other ISEP students were chosen to participate in the production. The dances included: salsa, Michael Jackson songs, Azonto (a really popular form dance among the youth), and some traditional dances. They were all incredible!!! I love the way that the dances can express emotion and tell a story. Ghanaians are such amazing dancers!  

I went to the temple again on Friday! The session was in French again. I was able to visit with the temple president and his wife for a bit while I waited for the session to begin. On Saturday I went to the Ghana VS Malawi football (soccer) game! The match was held at the big stadium in down-town Accra. The people here are football fanatics. They LOVE the sport! Our seats were up in the upper area and we were at the midfield line. We were also next to the “super fan” section where the people cheered, blew loud air horns, and played the drums during the entire game. It was epic! Ghana won the game 2-0. After the game I went to the temple grounds for the Eternal Marriage Picnic. When I heard the name of the event I laughed really hard (to myself). But it was actually really great! It was just a class that they have every Saturday but this time they held the class at the temple and they served some refreshments. The lesson for the class was on love. As strange as this might sound, the topic for the lesson was exactly what I needed to hear.

There is not much else to update for now. Our visas will need to be renewed in the next few weeks so we are planning a short trip to Togo (the country east of Ghana) so that our visas will be renewed automatically. I will definitely let you know about that trip when it comes. Yebehyia bio (until we meet again)! 

Minority

This post will not be very long. It has been a long week and unfortunately I just don't have a lot of energy to write very much. But I still wanted to update you anyway. The last few days I have been thinking a lot about how my life has changed now that I am a minority here in Africa. I understand what it is like to be a minority when it comes to religion (because of my mission experience). But as for being a minority in race, this is new territory for me. No matter where I go, people either stare at me, call me an Obruni, or hiss at me (that is what they do to get your attention). I am always overcharged when I try to take a taxi or buy food/clothing items. One of the things that has bothered me the most is the way that the Ghanaian men here interact with white women. Let me give you a classic example of something that happens almost daily here in Ghana: 

(This happened today as I was walking to the trotro station to go to church)

Ghanaian Man: Hisssssssssss

Me: (Turning around) Hello.

Ghanaian Man: Hello how are you today?

Me: I am fine, thank you. How are you?

Ghanaian Man: I am very fine. I saw you walking and

I want to be your friend. Can I have your phone number?

Me: Oh I actually don't have a phone. Sorry. Hope you have a good day.

(Total duration of conversation: less than 30 seconds)

This happens all of the time. When I first arrived here it was really cool to be receiving so much attention. I mean just think about it... You are instantly popular and everyone wants to come talk to you and be your "friend." That is what everyone wants, right? WRONG! The people here in Ghana ARE friendly, but I have learned that when a Ghanaian man talks to me for 30 seconds and wants my number, his intentions are not always the best. After talking to my Ghanaian friend here, he told me that white women are approached by Ghanaian men for 3 different reasons: #1 They want to get with an American girl, #2 They assume that all Americans are rich, #3 They want to use the American woman as a way to get into the USA. 

I have been in Ghana for about a month now and I am realizing what it is like to be a minority.... To have people make assumptions about you before they take the time to get to know you.... To have "friends" who want to use me and my resources for their own purposes.... To feel exhausted at the end of the day just from trying to keep up in a conversation.... To get confused in a class because you miss one word that the lecturer has said....  Needless to say, my experience as a minority has been an interesting one.

Some highlights from this last week: 

I finally have my first drum! It was finished and I went to pick it up on Wednesday. It is a panlogo drum, which is native to Ghana. It is nice to have my drum in my room to practice all the time!!!

My Fridays are free from classes so I went to the temple in Accra! It is the most beautiful temple I have ever seen. The session was in French so I wore a headset (the majority of the people in that session were from the Ivory Coast, where they speak French). After the temple, I ate lunch with my friend Ernest and then he took me around the different national sites in the city. It was such a great day. I love the temple! 

Saturday I participated in a multi-stake YSA sports event. I was a part of the University of Ghana LDSSA team. There were about 500 people who attended the event and we all participated in football (soccer), volleyball, basketball, and track & field events. It was a great day to spend time with the YSAs in my group and to get to know them better. 

Other than that, it was a pretty standard week. Sleeping, eating, classes, running, reading, drum practice, and FUN on the weekends! The standard life of a college student.