OgBlog.net

OgBlog.net

LEAVING GHANA - June 27

Leaving Ghana was almost as much of an adventure as getting there - starting with driving to the airport during Ghana’s last World Cup game

June 27, 2006

Monday morning was my last lecture – How to Handle Darwinism in a Christian University.  It was well-received, although one brother is just sure that Darwin isn’t a problem for students here in Africa – certainly not as important as whatever he’s concerned with.  I didn’t have to argue with him – plenty of his colleagues were prepared to tell him how wrong he was, and since they live here and I don’t, I just let them.  The DVD clip went much better – I’d played around with the computer back in the room and found the outlet for the speaker….so I just took the lapel mike off my collar and held it to where the sound was coming out and it worked fine.  I think this is all a bit much for those who aren’t in the science areas, but I try to make it simple enough for anyone to follow, and I recommend (only) two books if they wish to be conversant with ID and the problems facing Darwinism. 

After lunch we returned to our room and just rested for the p.m.  What are we doing to be able to sleep so much!?  Wow.  It’s lovely.  Actually I did do some “work” in the afternoon, as well.  One of the students, a very nice young Ghanaian man from Canadian University College, asked me to read his paper and comment, which I did, and returned it to him at suppertime.  After supper, Gail came back to our room to read, and I went to the computer lab to e-mail.  Had a great time for a couple of hours, and totally forgot to send the previous edition of this journal!!  Heh.  Incipient senility, I’m sure.  No photos except one to Laura, either….but, they’ll keep, I’m sure.  Remember the delete key if this is all more than you wish to deal with.

Now it’s Tuesday – our departure is very near.  We had breakfast and then I went to the morning meetings and Gail came back to finish up the packing.  At supper, a lady had given me her paper to read, so I returned it with comments this morning.  After the first hour she came around to defend each point, but I didn’t argue – no purpose.  One of my last two comments (the first was that she needed somehow to make it plain how her paper addressed the subject of our conference) was that she was describing an educational model that fit the stereotyped female learning style perfectly, but I thought that teaching little boys would go better if we tried to accommodate and channel their natural aggression and competitiveness, rather than attempt to suppress these and make them into little “girl-clones”.  I’m not sure she will appreciate my insights, but they are based on experience with testosterone – my own and that of other males. 

January 28, 2006

Well, it’s Wednesday, so we’re off to London!  And, what a trip.  At 3:00 p.m., the driver arrived in a big step-van sort of thing all fitted out as a mobile clinic (donated by the Swedes).  He wanted us to know he was ready, but the passenger vans we were supposed to go to the airport in were away taking other passengers somewhere, and were late getting back.  He offered to take us in the clinic at once, but we decided to settle down and watch the first half of Ghana/Brazil and see if the other guys would come back.  Amazing game – I’m afraid that the refs treat Brazil the same way the NBA refs treat Shaq….those guys get EVERY break, including a flagrant offside on the second goal they scored, and a number of extremely questionable fouls against Ghana when it looked like Brazil’s foul, or a “pick-em” situation that should have been left alone.  Plus, they swallowed their whistles on a number of pretty obvious fouls by the Brazilians.  If you watched, let me know what you saw….the announcers for FIFA were commenting openly about Brazil’s offside on which they scored their goal.  Ghana played a wonderful game, but they badly need a couple of really good strikers….the VVU president, when I said that the U.S. players kept kicking the ball over the goal, told me that Ghana wasn’t going to win because their guys do the same thing….and it’s true.  Most of the first half was played right in front of the Brazilian goal, and there were four or five times when everyone in the room was screaming “Shoot it!” and the Ghanaian player dribbled or passed.  They aren’t going to win until they get some strikers.  But, they really are a good team, and performed well against Brazil.

At the half, I told the driver we needed to get going – we would have 45 minutes with minimal traffic while the game was being completed.  Sure enough, roads were not nearly so busy as usual, although there were a LOT more cars out than was the case in S. Korea during the Cup in 2000.  We got to the airport about 4:30 for a 10:30 flight…..all went fairly smoothly – except that the store we had been counting on for Cup souvenirs said they had moved them all out the day before….THERE is real confidence in your team!  And a pretty depressing view of Ghanaian fandom – the day BEFORE the big game, you dump the souvenirs.  I expressed such disappointment that the (female) clerk went to her handbag and got me a small souvenir-size Ghanaian flag with the black star that is the symbol of their team on it….maybe that’s on the flag proper…someone can check.  Anyhow, I wanted a cap for Thor, to match his S. Korean one, but no deal. 

Posted by on 07/09 at 02:28 PM

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Smileys

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Next entry: HACKNEY and GREENWICH - June 29-July 1, 2006

Previous entry: BOTANICAL GARDENS, TROPICAL FOREST and SLAVE CASTLE - June 24-25

<< Back to main