Happy Birthday Mom!!!!!
Happy Birthday Mom!!!!!!
What a June 10th! I say that, because I recently watched the home video of my last June 10th which was conveniently brought to my when my parents came to visit. Family, cake, hamburgers, “Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to you….”, presents, swimming, 32 oz. steaks… I saw it all as if I were there again. It was my mothers 49th Birthday. So, guess what I missed today? That’s right, the big 5-0.
Why does life have to be so centered around sacrifices? There is never an all winning situation. I gave up a lot today. I have a severe sense of desertion for missing such a monumental day in the life of the woman who gave me life. What I wouldn’t have given to be there.
Though today my decision to come here has caused my conscience twinges of guilt and pain, I feel like my decision to come here is still a good one overall. In the big picture of it all, all is fairly justified by days such as today… There was nothing special about today, except that it was just another day of pure specialness. Let me tell you about my day:
I woke up at the incredibly late hour of 9:50a.m. I got dressed and went to the market at 10:45am (There are 3 marketless days in between each market day), where I bought 2 bundles of bananas, 1 mango, and garlic. I then stopped by the material stand at the market and almost bought some tissue (material) to make some long shorts out of (I would have taken it to a tailors and had my shorts by tomorrow for a whopping $4USD total), but I decided against it. I headed back home, and on the way I stopped by Therese’s house. Therese is a middle aged woman who lives in a one-room mud hut with her mother. Therese makes buille (a porridge usually of corn flour and water), and akassa (the infamous filler of Africa… also made of corn and water.). Today though, instead of buille of corn she had made buille of millet, and she had added baobob fruit to it, making it delicious!
Baobab trees are one of the legendary symbols of this area. As far as I know, this little area is the only place that they grow as large as they do. They grow as thick as the length of a sedan car in about 50 to 75 years. Their foliage is used to make a sauce, their fruit is sweet and used to make drinks, or just eaten plane, and their roots creep and sprawl out thickly and widely making great, shady seating. I’m told that in Ghana Baobob wood is used to make canoes out of (but the Baobobs don’t grow nearly as big there, and they aren’t everywhere like they are here).
It occurred to me, as I sat there with Therese underneath her mango and her much larger baobab nearby, that everything I was eating had been produced within 20 feet of me, and all organically and traditionally. Crazy, huh?
After talking about buille and her millet crops, I left Therese to go home and read some more of Puff, a hilarious comedy that was passed to me by another volunteer… but as it goes, I soon fell asleep till 2:30. I then went out again to visit Mama Agness, and on my way out I was stopped by a woman from Nadoba (the village next door, which is actually in Togo). She was part of the womens’ group that I had given up on… I had wanted to start a community credit union with them, but when no one showed up to my last two meetings I had given up on them. Before that, back in March, I had asked them to all bring the equivalent of $1USD every week for 2 months… This woman had come to tell me that they had finished saving for the 2 months, and they were wondering why I had disappeared. These 9 women have officially saved $72USD already!!!!! Now they want to get started on loaning the money to themselves and using the interest to loan more… yes, just like Grameen Bank. Success!!!
After setting up a meeting time for tomorrow, I walked happily to visit Mama Agness. I arrived Chez-elle to find her in a mad rush of preparation… I by that I mean she had several young girls working for and she was giving them things to do (child labor is free and obligatory for children. There is nothing wrong with it in the eyes of the people here. It’s actually their duty as children). Mama, in her ever loving and sharing way, took the time to sit down and eat kakayu fruit with me and offer me water. She then explained to me that it was a Saints day (I don’t remember which one), and that the church was doing a walking ceremony to let the statue of the Virgin Mary stop off at certain peoples houses and bless them, and Mama Agness had been chosen to be blessed. I left 10 minutes before the ceremony was to get started. It would be a while before they got to Mama’s house.
Continuing on, I walked to my buvette, La Providence, only to find my good friend Denise (who works the bar) wasn’t there, so I went on to my boutique to buy the phone cards to call my mother and wish her happy birthday. My boutique didn’t have any so, in true African style, they took my money and went and got them from Nadoba (6 km away) for me and delivered them to my door within the hour (16.00, or 4:00pm). While I waited I made a necklace for one of my neighbor kids. I then heard the church coming by for their ceremony, so I went out to the little road to watch them. I was taking pictures and video of them, and as always I gathered a group of on-looking children who then did a African modeling session for me.
What I call an African modeling session involves all the children of the area randomly jumping into the picture as they begin to see what we’re doing, and as they do you get a mixture of giants in the front and shy little ones hidden behind them, and some not looking at me, and absolutely none of them smiling. It goes without saying that they are still new at this whole ‘picture’ business. I don’t know why they don’t think they can smile in pictures though, but they never do. Even expert picture-children don’t smile. One of them though… she smiled. Not only did she smile though, she emitted the light of the world from within her tiny little face. She’s a beautiful little girl to begin with, and she’s always smiling like that. I then took a picture of her alone, and I swear it makes me feel happy every time I glance at it. I set it as my background on my computer. Screw Mona Lisa and her pompousness; the answers to all the world’s questions could be answered by this little girl’s smile.
After receiving the phone cards I went walking towards where I get cell phone service, and I talked to my parents for half an hour. I then went back to buy another phone card to call later so that I could talk to my whole family (they hadn’t arrived yet), and I went back home.
Once at home I used a Mac & Cheese packet Mom and Dad brought me from home to make some good ol’ Mac & Cheese, and after I made a cookie cutter out of a soda can I had saved. While I was doing this my neighbor boy who was the Vice-President of my Business Club stopped by. We have been working on his English lately, so I gave him another list of words and phrases to learn for tomorrow (All kids learn English in school here, but they don’t stand a chance of actually learning it. Why? Usually even their exams have errors in them). I then told him that I was going to call my family for my mother’s birthday… it completely boggled his mind that I could call them from here, so I then explained satellites to him. He didn’t even know they existed. He’s probably 15 or 16. I like to think that now, every time he sees one of those bright, fast-moving stars up above, he will think of our conversation tonight.
I then went back out to find cell phone service to call my family again. After having the phone passed around the room at home, every conversation being impressively wrapped up in 30 seconds or less, I wished my mother happy birthday again and told my dad I loved him before getting cut off.
So, here I am. That was my day. I know that was excessively detailed, but I hope you see the novelty in my details, because absolutely nothing is anything similar to home.
What a day to miss at home, but look at all I would have missed if I weren’t here!!! So today I wasn’t where I wanted to be, but I’m having the most incredible experiences over here on a daily basis!!! Sacrifices… it’s all a series of sacrifices and choices of which sacrifice is better. That’s just life I guess. Don’t get me wrong though, I would have really given anything to be there for my mother today. Not to mention, I can almost taste that homemade almond cake and homemade ice cream, all following hot dogs and hamburgers fresh off the grill. *Sarah drools*
Sacrifices.
--Sarah
What a June 10th! I say that, because I recently watched the home video of my last June 10th which was conveniently brought to my when my parents came to visit. Family, cake, hamburgers, “Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to you….”, presents, swimming, 32 oz. steaks… I saw it all as if I were there again. It was my mothers 49th Birthday. So, guess what I missed today? That’s right, the big 5-0.
Why does life have to be so centered around sacrifices? There is never an all winning situation. I gave up a lot today. I have a severe sense of desertion for missing such a monumental day in the life of the woman who gave me life. What I wouldn’t have given to be there.
Though today my decision to come here has caused my conscience twinges of guilt and pain, I feel like my decision to come here is still a good one overall. In the big picture of it all, all is fairly justified by days such as today… There was nothing special about today, except that it was just another day of pure specialness. Let me tell you about my day:
I woke up at the incredibly late hour of 9:50a.m. I got dressed and went to the market at 10:45am (There are 3 marketless days in between each market day), where I bought 2 bundles of bananas, 1 mango, and garlic. I then stopped by the material stand at the market and almost bought some tissue (material) to make some long shorts out of (I would have taken it to a tailors and had my shorts by tomorrow for a whopping $4USD total), but I decided against it. I headed back home, and on the way I stopped by Therese’s house. Therese is a middle aged woman who lives in a one-room mud hut with her mother. Therese makes buille (a porridge usually of corn flour and water), and akassa (the infamous filler of Africa… also made of corn and water.). Today though, instead of buille of corn she had made buille of millet, and she had added baobob fruit to it, making it delicious!
Baobab trees are one of the legendary symbols of this area. As far as I know, this little area is the only place that they grow as large as they do. They grow as thick as the length of a sedan car in about 50 to 75 years. Their foliage is used to make a sauce, their fruit is sweet and used to make drinks, or just eaten plane, and their roots creep and sprawl out thickly and widely making great, shady seating. I’m told that in Ghana Baobob wood is used to make canoes out of (but the Baobobs don’t grow nearly as big there, and they aren’t everywhere like they are here).
It occurred to me, as I sat there with Therese underneath her mango and her much larger baobab nearby, that everything I was eating had been produced within 20 feet of me, and all organically and traditionally. Crazy, huh?
After talking about buille and her millet crops, I left Therese to go home and read some more of Puff, a hilarious comedy that was passed to me by another volunteer… but as it goes, I soon fell asleep till 2:30. I then went out again to visit Mama Agness, and on my way out I was stopped by a woman from Nadoba (the village next door, which is actually in Togo). She was part of the womens’ group that I had given up on… I had wanted to start a community credit union with them, but when no one showed up to my last two meetings I had given up on them. Before that, back in March, I had asked them to all bring the equivalent of $1USD every week for 2 months… This woman had come to tell me that they had finished saving for the 2 months, and they were wondering why I had disappeared. These 9 women have officially saved $72USD already!!!!! Now they want to get started on loaning the money to themselves and using the interest to loan more… yes, just like Grameen Bank. Success!!!
After setting up a meeting time for tomorrow, I walked happily to visit Mama Agness. I arrived Chez-elle to find her in a mad rush of preparation… I by that I mean she had several young girls working for and she was giving them things to do (child labor is free and obligatory for children. There is nothing wrong with it in the eyes of the people here. It’s actually their duty as children). Mama, in her ever loving and sharing way, took the time to sit down and eat kakayu fruit with me and offer me water. She then explained to me that it was a Saints day (I don’t remember which one), and that the church was doing a walking ceremony to let the statue of the Virgin Mary stop off at certain peoples houses and bless them, and Mama Agness had been chosen to be blessed. I left 10 minutes before the ceremony was to get started. It would be a while before they got to Mama’s house.
Continuing on, I walked to my buvette, La Providence, only to find my good friend Denise (who works the bar) wasn’t there, so I went on to my boutique to buy the phone cards to call my mother and wish her happy birthday. My boutique didn’t have any so, in true African style, they took my money and went and got them from Nadoba (6 km away) for me and delivered them to my door within the hour (16.00, or 4:00pm). While I waited I made a necklace for one of my neighbor kids. I then heard the church coming by for their ceremony, so I went out to the little road to watch them. I was taking pictures and video of them, and as always I gathered a group of on-looking children who then did a African modeling session for me.
What I call an African modeling session involves all the children of the area randomly jumping into the picture as they begin to see what we’re doing, and as they do you get a mixture of giants in the front and shy little ones hidden behind them, and some not looking at me, and absolutely none of them smiling. It goes without saying that they are still new at this whole ‘picture’ business. I don’t know why they don’t think they can smile in pictures though, but they never do. Even expert picture-children don’t smile. One of them though… she smiled. Not only did she smile though, she emitted the light of the world from within her tiny little face. She’s a beautiful little girl to begin with, and she’s always smiling like that. I then took a picture of her alone, and I swear it makes me feel happy every time I glance at it. I set it as my background on my computer. Screw Mona Lisa and her pompousness; the answers to all the world’s questions could be answered by this little girl’s smile.
After receiving the phone cards I went walking towards where I get cell phone service, and I talked to my parents for half an hour. I then went back to buy another phone card to call later so that I could talk to my whole family (they hadn’t arrived yet), and I went back home.
Once at home I used a Mac & Cheese packet Mom and Dad brought me from home to make some good ol’ Mac & Cheese, and after I made a cookie cutter out of a soda can I had saved. While I was doing this my neighbor boy who was the Vice-President of my Business Club stopped by. We have been working on his English lately, so I gave him another list of words and phrases to learn for tomorrow (All kids learn English in school here, but they don’t stand a chance of actually learning it. Why? Usually even their exams have errors in them). I then told him that I was going to call my family for my mother’s birthday… it completely boggled his mind that I could call them from here, so I then explained satellites to him. He didn’t even know they existed. He’s probably 15 or 16. I like to think that now, every time he sees one of those bright, fast-moving stars up above, he will think of our conversation tonight.
I then went back out to find cell phone service to call my family again. After having the phone passed around the room at home, every conversation being impressively wrapped up in 30 seconds or less, I wished my mother happy birthday again and told my dad I loved him before getting cut off.
So, here I am. That was my day. I know that was excessively detailed, but I hope you see the novelty in my details, because absolutely nothing is anything similar to home.
What a day to miss at home, but look at all I would have missed if I weren’t here!!! So today I wasn’t where I wanted to be, but I’m having the most incredible experiences over here on a daily basis!!! Sacrifices… it’s all a series of sacrifices and choices of which sacrifice is better. That’s just life I guess. Don’t get me wrong though, I would have really given anything to be there for my mother today. Not to mention, I can almost taste that homemade almond cake and homemade ice cream, all following hot dogs and hamburgers fresh off the grill. *Sarah drools*
Sacrifices.
--Sarah
posted by sarah at 8:22 PM
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