Reflections

I've been thinking more about the momument to the slaves at Cape Coast and Elmina castles. It is easy enough to say that this was a sad and shameful part of our history, but I think more importantly, is the realization that there was a time that slavery was socially acceptable. So what makes a thing socially acceptable? And how can we be committed to judging our activities not by the ever-changing morals of society, but by an unchanging moral compass? If religion cannot be that compass, as evidenced by the churches in heavy use in both castles even whilst the slave trade was ongoing, what can serve in its place? Further what modern-day practices are deemed acceptable by society but will not stand the test of time?

As I talk about my time in Mali, I think everyone here is a little surprised to learn that I picked up as much Bambera as I did there but I have known Shirley for 13 years and I know very little Twi. I think it's a tad embarassing for both of us. But the circumstances are indeed different. At any rate, as I have someone who I can speak Twi with frequently if I learn, I have set about to know terms that I will be able to use. And I will make flashcards the same way I did with the Bambera words so as to commit them to memory quickly.

I absolutely LOVE the fact that ice cream is readily available here. The brand is Fan Ice and they sell it in little lovely plastic rectangles and you bite off a corner and squeeze the ice cream out to your heart's delight. It's funny to me that as hot as it was in Mali there was no ice cream (all the power outages no doubt). My stomach was not accustomed to dairy when I first got to Ghana but I didn't care and kept eating the ice cream anyway and soon it learned to adjust.

We were watching tv at Eugene's aunt's house one evening, Evelyn (his wife), Shirley and I were in the livingroom while the family went off to another room to conduct family business. A commercial came on depicting a bunch of kids running in the park on a hot day. Then an adult asked," What's the perfect treat? What's really nice on a hot day?" I said jokingly "Fan Ice" and the next screen showed the Fan Ice brand. Shirley and Evelyn turned to look at me and asked how I had known. I said I was just answering the question and wasn't Fan Ice really nice?

Ghana celebrated its 50th anniversary, the decolonization of the first black African nation in March 1957 with Kwame Nkrumah at its helm. Found a link to an interesting article about the anniversary and particularly ML King's reaction to the first celebration and Nkrumah's thoughts on parallels between African independence and the struggles faced by African-Americans at the time. There are still streamers and billboards around the city and I have even seen a woman wearing a dress whose cloth was printed with the anniversary insignia. I asked Shirley why all the cars I saw had Ghanaian flags. We're certainly used to seeing tons of Dominican, Italian, and Puerto Rican flags in NYC but not necessarily US flags. She said it was because of the anniversary celebration. That must have been some party. I'm sorry to have missed it.

The city of Accra is winding and expansive. Although I can recognize some landmarks I would get lost easily here if I were behind the wheel. So often we seem to turn back on our own path and cross it several times. I find it best to just enjoy the view rather than try to figure out where we are going or from whence we came. Often there are traffic jams that rival those of Los Angeles where no one moves. The best thing to do is get to where you can pull a u-turn and get out of there fast. Many of the traffic jams are due to roving scheduled power outages which also affect the traffic lights. Others...your guess is as good as mine.

We pass our time in the waning hours just before bedtime watching Nigerian movies. In the evenings we can still have as many as 13 people in the house and these movies play all day on Africa Magic Channel. Simple plots about love lost and found, lovers scorned, meddling parents or in-laws, treachery, double-crossing and even black magic. They are hilarious in their simplicity. African soaps...all night long!

We passed a cemetery and Shirley told me there are lots of Ghanian superstitions about cemeteries so it is hard to find people willing to work in them. We passed the gates (the walls were very high everywhere else) and I could see that the place was overgrown with full bushes and trees competing with headstones not just simple weeds. That's still in use?, I exclaimed. Shirley nodded and said Carol marveled in wonder that cemeteries in the States are kept so neat.