full circle

May 27th


Life has been for the most part good….don’t get me wrong we have had our share of issues concerning money, health, schooling, and of course other. But at the end of the day I am in Africa with my family and what more could we ask for? We are literally laughin, lovin, livin, and learnin TOGETHER!!! I can honestly say that we have definitely had a real African (Ghanain) experience ripe with all of the above - mentioned problems… can I honestly say that a person who has been in Africa for a couple of weeks or months but NEVER got sick…malaria / typhoid / etc or had to deal first hand with their child being sick did not have a real experience in Africa?…no I cannot because as I mentioned earlier - my Africa is not your Africa and yours is not mine but each individual experience IS Africa

Can u really say u know or have “lived” in a place if u have not had to deal with issues such as health and hospital politics…food security, home safety, etc?

I think u can because you have the experience of living there while not having to deal with those issues … and this is a valid experience…if you are familiar with Houston, Texas it is almost like the experience of living in River Oaks as opposed to 5th ward…..both are Houston

Often times I look at some of my counterparts / others who have come here to live, study, experience and wonder why in many cases my experience has been so different…. I mean honestly so many people have come here and have not had malaria, food poisoning, or had to deal with the utter FEAR of their child being sick…or even issues of money…. The other day I was having a conversation with Greg and I told him that in no way do I feel like I am threw/finished with Africa….in fact I feel that our relationship is just beginning…..( I want to work in and with MANY different countries/continents) but I have always had a longing and special place in my heart for the whole continent of africa…MAMA Africa…

we haven’t done much traveling aside from Cape Coast…..and Adom and I went to the North in the beginning….we actually got caught up in the living of it all … we really just lived in africa…I have not been back to the U.S. at all…in 8 months ….I miss my home there sooooooooooo much but as I was telling Greg, after this experience I feel that I know the REAL- I mean what its like to really just LIVE here and not be a tourist…and even still I feel blessed knowing that there is yet a level of pain, loss, suffering, fear that I have not experienced here…in fact as many would see it I am rich and truely blessed and honestly I am …

Adom is no longer in school here…we finally pulled him out when he told his father that he had officially been “caned” he even had a slight red mark on his behind. Well we had just had a BIG issue with his teacher because he pushed/hit Adom while Adom was sharpening his pencil and he wanted him to sit down……call us crazy but we don’t want teachers and others at the school imposing physical discipline on our child…I once met a grown man with horrible marks on his back from when he was caned as a child…no one can argue the intellectual level of the youth here….they are pushed very hard academically and they do very well however the question is ….. is the success from caning???????? We…greg and I - have no problem popping Adom and disciplining him physically….we don’t abuse him but when it is necessary we do pop him and we talk to him and explain why….better to pop him and explain to him why he needs to stop running around in the street then to pick him up off the street after being hit by a car……still it is hard to explain to head masters and teachers here that we feel that we can pop him but you cannot pop him….it doesn’t make sense because it does take a village right? Well I wonder how much of this is left over relics of European colonization….i cant say that I have extensively researched the topic so I really don’t know…I have talked to others who have and they say that I am right….well wherever it came from we don’t believe in it as a means of educating our youth…and at the end of the day we are both teachers and so are our mothers so maybe we just might know a little something….

Well even though they didn’t seem to understand, they did agree and so it was agreed that if there ever was an issue the teacher would call us…I think he was upset because the whole hitting/pushing incident was brought to the attention of the principle and he got in trouble…..the incident that broke the camel’s back was when the teacher allowed another teacher to come into the room and cane adom among other children and did not say a word (like don’t cane this one) and since we had just recently had a big issue…discussion…about the whole thing we knew that he knew better….soooooooooo…..we were upset and greg in particular was very upset……let’s just say that I had to hold him back some from both adom’s teacher and the teacher that did the caning…..dont get me wrong we didn’t feel like adom was going to die but it was now on principle…..you don’t pay school fees to have your wishes disregarded…not to even talk of the day that adom’s teacher refused him and some other children lunch on the basis that they were talking … he even made them stay in the classroom by themselves while he went and ate, or the time that he (the teacher) was locked out of the classroom by another older student (I guess it was a joke) but the students in adom’s class were locked in and the teacher got angry and caned all of them save adom this time…or the fact that after we had the first big discussion the teacher kept saying to adom … you see why did you tell your mother that I hit you that time…..


So you see we were by this time fed up and greg was on some other manhood stuff…it was a big stink and it all happened on the last day of class before the break so adom did not return after the break and he will be missing about two months of school ….we have been working with him at home and having more of what we call “family fun days” adom LOVES them and has begun to ask for them by request


We have had several talks with adom and among each other as parents and I feel that we handled the situation right…the more I live and heal from childhood experiences I am convinced that we cannot always control what happens to us but what is extremely important is how we as parents handle what may have happened…

I performed MUSU … a dance about slavery, along with the national dance company of Ghana at Elmina Slave castle in cape coast…..
The name of the performance was reflections… the purpose was to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, passed in the UK in 1807. For those that may have read my previous blogs you may know how much I was looking forward to the experience…I mean really, performing a dance with the national dance company/ghanains …about slavery at the slave castle….well I was so excited and it was a wonderful experience from the very first rehearsal til the performance….i must say however when we arrived at cape coast and approached the castle I was a little put off…they had re-painted the entire castle…white….it looked so clean and I felt that maybe they should have just left it the way that it was…. Even when you walked into some of the dungeons you could see paint buckets in the corner… before the performance I thought we would perform it in one of the dungeons but to the contrary we were on a stage inside the castle with full lighting and everything….because I was performing I didn’t hear any of the speeches but I heard that many people were disappointed with what was said…

Something like they shouldn’t have to pay reparations and we shouldn’t blame Europeans or white people because we also participated in the slave trade and that he also said that there is no need to apologize


Aside from the disappointments the whole experience was nonetheless wonderful…the National Dance Company of Ghana was wonderful to me and my family….extremely gracious and such a pleasure to work with…I feel that I have made some permanent friends in them

Sometime after MUSU I was asked by National Dance Company to set a piece on them, they had already wanted me to set a piece before I left which we had begun working on but now they wanted me to set a piece for the Ghana Music Awards in like 4 days….soooooo we worked hard and finished the piece, I was happy with what came out of it and just at the last minute because of politics they did not want to perform the piece, apparently the people who commissioned them did not want to pay what they were worth…I mean they are known as the black stars of Ghana as far as dance is concerned and they are the only government supported professional dance company in Ghana…so if you want to commission them to do anything you better be prepared to pay for their professionalism, they day before the performance we found out that we wouldn’t be doing it and while my family and I were watching the show live we saw that another group did it and I cant lie I kind of felt like both the promoter and the national dance co. lost out…..but truth is truth and if they start accepting jobs for less than their worth then this will become their standard

By now there is a ban on drumming in accra which is ga (a tribe) land….during this time every year the ga people have a festival in which they perform certain rituals and they like for their land to be quiet which means no loud music and no drumming…it has been this way and everyone respects it…so the NDCG (dance co) are taking a break and so am I …..

While having a relaxing day around the house one day in which we planned on doing absolutely nothing aside from cleaning Greg went out to get some water and fresh fruit and things for breakfast wellllllll when he got back home I saw that his hands were full and saw a great opportunity to tickle him since he couldn’t do anything and he being the committed person that he is refused to dropped his bags and instead tried to run and this made me tickle him even more at any rate he kind of went/ran into the doorknob which is like an oval only very pointed at the end and the thing went inside his arm and came out making two…two holes !!!!!!!!!!!!!! he had to slide the thing out of his arm…….and he almost passed out…by this time I am freaking out and shaking and feeling like the poltergeist devil child incarnated ….i ask the stupid question do we need to go to the hospital and he calmly sits on the couch and says yes we need to go to the hospital…..i am now thinking we have no money and I ask where should we go and he says somewhere decent……I am going to have to get stitches-which I kind of figured but didn’t want to accept…… wrapped his arm, put ice on it and we left…just as we were walking out of the gate we saw our landlady and she came with us…just so happens that she knew a friend in accounting at Nyaho Hospital…what we didn’t have she billed until later……we were very blessed he got four stitches and now his arm is healing really well….he never blamed me and was very calm throughout the whole ordeal…. I had to call his parents and tell them what I did to their child!!!!!!!!!! They were real cool though…at least I think ;-)

Sulley my teacher is back from the U.S. and there are many students at the Dagara Music Center…where we used to live…about 40 or 50…so I have been going out there some and working with them but it is also rainy season and I really just want to stay in the house and chill with my family……I will be leaving soon and time to wrap things up

Oh by the way….i started my locs again ;-) can u believe it? 7 months ago I cut them in an effort to allow only truth to show and stop hiding behind my hair……I miss really miss them and honestly I feel that I have learned so much and have definitely accomplished my task so I have started them again…a sista here did them for me and all she used was aloe vera which was cool I really like it ….. while I had my locs before I basically maintained them myself and I used everything from coconut water to honey to shea butter but I never used aloe vera…it is literally like a natural gel…..so I have come full circle and how ironic with two months left I would loc again…

This life I am living never ceases to amaze me

Laughin, lovin, livin, learnin

angel
sorry i didnt proof read, please have patience....almost lost the whole thing trying to post it ;)