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LECTURES IN GHANA - June 22-23

Thursday and Friday I talked to the group and took comments and questions.  We got to do some sightseeing on Sabbath and Sunday, but that will be in the next post.

June 22, 2006

Happy Anniversary, Gail – 37 years so far, and I’m looking forward to 37 more!!  What a lot of memories as I remember that day in 1969 when we were both still children with a very small idea of what we were getting into!

Other than our anniversary (the whole group sang to us as I began my talk), today was pretty mundane.  We woke up at 7:00 when the alarm went off – I’d put on a mask and earplugs at 4:50 because the sky was brightening and the cocks were announcing it.  Pulled on clothes (nice, though cold, shower before bedtime is the ONLY way to get to sleep here – sticky, sticky all the time, and though Mom says she loved it this way in Penang, she can HAVE it, I say) and headed for breakfast.  The campus is still being constructed – this is an incredibly “pioneer” sort of place just now.  Someone had/has a vision, and it’s being realized, but nothing is in place, and it’s a lot like being in the middle of someone’s mission story.  I think of Papa arriving in Penang when I see places like this.

We wandered a bit, following a group of folk to one building, only to discover it was a set of classrooms, where classes had already begun at 7:30!  We were directed to the cafeteria building, and entered the student area, which was being cleaned up.  The students still there showed us how to go around the corner to where we were being fed, in an airconditioned room off the other side of the kitchen.  I suppose it was a “banquet room”, but it seems incongruous to call it that.  Anyhow, there was “cream of wheat”, bread and avocado, mango, papaya (all gone as I arrived) and peanut butter on the tables along with the milk (powdered – to be mixed with water in the bottle by our place) and hot water for cocoa.  Very nice.

Unfortunately, I had left my materials in the room, and I was first to present – which meant I had to walk all the way (I suppose it’s almost ¼ mile) back to the room and then to the meeting room, where I arrived, drenched and dripping!  I did take my “towel” (artificial chamois cloth we use camping or when traveling light) along so could mop up until the fountains ceased to flow.  They had fans going overhead, and windows open to catch any breeze – which blows nicely at night (sample size of one, so far) – and it was actually quite a pleasant room.  A video projector was there to hook my computer up to, and a nice young man who knew what was up helped get me set up – I’m MUCH more comfortable with overhead transparencies than powerpoint….but I’m learning!

The talk went well – audience not terribly responsive while I was giving it, but maybe that’s cultural.  Questions and comments were good, and supportive.  The director of the meetings told me a couple of times that it had been well done, and appreciated, so that’s nice.  Having a remote for the computer so I didn’t have to constantly go back to click to the next slide was helpful, but I still had two or three left at the end – it’s a pain!  Ah well.

I stayed to listen to the next presentation, by a fellow from the G.C. education department on the importance of integrating the entire program at our institutions – not separating into “academic”, “administrative”, “student development” and so on.  Meaning that teachers should take part in the whole program, so that students don’t get the idea that each of us things “our” part is important and other parts are not.  He is vastly experienced in Latin America and had a wealth of examples to tell.  Credits his dorm deans with his conversion, and was truly listened to by this group.  Apparently in some country here in Africa, the student association sued the Administration of the school over something, and there were numerous questions about eminently practical things.  It was stimulating.

Lunch was delicious – I know that some of you can’t figure out why I talk about the food, but Mom knows!!    And so will you, if you just visit Penang….you’ll never wonder again.  Anyhow, they had an okra dish with mushrooms in it, some kind of curried tomatoes and tofu, and black-eyed peas.  Starch was rice, and then big lumps of corn meal and cassava that tasted a bit like the Ethiopian bread that is made with fermented dough.  I was sorry not to be able to eat it, but the Ethiopian bread always left me with a migraine, so……  After lunch, we all gathered for a photo – everyone but me dressed up in coat and tie….and complaining bitterly!  It was very warm – worse for the poor photographer who had to stand in the sun, and who had been given a BUNCH of cameras to shoot with!  Very amusing.  Gail took pictures of the group, and of the photographer – they are 500 KB each, so don’t know how well they’ll go out, but I’ll try one tomorrow, and if it happens, we’ll do the other, too.

Then it was time for “football”!!  The World Cup (soccer’s “every four years” tournament) is on, and what are the odds of Gail and me being asked to present these lectures on the exact dates that the host country is playing against the U.S.?  We were, of course – in S. Korea in 2002 when they beat the U.S., and this afternoon, the 20 students we watched it with erupted with joy and excitement (as did the whole country, believe me.  They take World Cup soccer extremely seriously here) when Ghana beat the U.S   2-1.  Our guys played quite well, I think – we were beaten on a penalty kick, and it was the stout Ghanaian defense that turned the tide…..they sat on their lead for the entire second half, and at one point we had attempted 7 shots to their nil, but the defensemen were excellent and kept turning the U.S. lads back.  I was honestly glad that Ghana won….it makes our stay more pleasant, I think, and more importantly, in this small country alone I’m sure there are more people who care deeply about the outcome of this game than in the entire U.S. of A.  So, let’s all root for the Ghanaians, now!!  Go Ghana!

Napped for a couple of hours, and went to supper – more fabulous food, of which I ate very little, because it’s hot and we hadn’t done anything much, anyhow.  A red dish that was pretty spicy, a salad sort of thing with long shreds of cabbage, carrots and cucumbers (I think), and something else that was good but not (apparently) memorable.  Plus watermelon, of which I ate two pieces.  Went to the “Cyber café” for those with laptops, and sent the first edition of this letter to all and sundry, and then to the room for showers and to write this missive.  It’s 10:00, so almost bedtime.


June 23, 2006

Turned lights off at 11:00 and slept through until 6:45 or so, when one of the ladies passed by our window and said something in a penetrating voice that pierced right through my earplugs – I have no idea what she said….but it was a very effective alarm clock.  Breakfast was like yesterday, only the hot cereal was kind of like malt-o-meal and they also had a kind of cabbage salad, only it was warm.  Curious breakfast food, but good.  Bananas here must be a different variety than we’re used to – they’re quite green in color, but ripe and delicious inside…..

Enrique Becerra is on at 8:30 this morning, and I follow at 10:30.  The broadband connection is available from 1:00 to 5:30 today, rather than after supper (and sundown). I will probably not be sending the next edition of this journal until Monday, as we have a big weekend planned.  Sabbath we have s.s. and church, and after lunch an excursion to a near-by natural area.  The “cyber-café” may be open after sundown…….  But, Sunday morning there is a trip to the coast planned – to visit one of the stations where slaves were held before embarkation on the Middle Passage to the Americas.  I’ll be interested to see if they mention the fact that it was the African chiefs who captured and brought their own unfortunate people (well, different tribes) to trade for guns and other goods to help them increase and extend their power and influence. 

The worst part of our excursion is that on the way to the historic site is the location of a Sunday market – it takes place on both sides of the road that we will be traveling, and as people mill around from side to side, traffic is brought to a virtual standstill.  So, we will leave Valley View University in time to pass this spot before the market gets underway.  That means we drive away from here at 5:00 a.m. – I wonder if this is going to suppress attendance at this (optional) activity.  I’m yawning, already!  Gail is back at our room for a nap right now – it seems impossible to get enough sleep just now.

 

 

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