We are managing to notice and learn many things about the Ghanaian culture, things that sometimes make us aware of how small our Obruni (white) world is. For example, when we first arrived and started meeting people I was slightly aware that the locals seem to have been in bad accidents. They had a lot of scars, and I was constantly thinking this is a really accident-prone place. But then I saw two scars that made me think a little more (duh!). One belonged to a mechanic we hired to help us buy a car - he has a very prominent scar from his eye to the bottom of his chin, in a sickle shape. And the other was on my new Muslim friend, a young and very beautiful woman. She has three small lines like sun rays reaching out from either side of her mouth, just about an inch-and-a-half long each. And a couple of matching small ones on her cheeks.
Sooo, it belatedly occurred to me that these are in fact tribal markings, not scars at all. (In my own defense, we saw many scars from accidents on the Ugandans and usually they were happy to tell you all about when they got them!) I looked up tribal markings, and of course there are so many interesting things about them. My young friend apparently was born after a sister had died, that's what the three marks on the side of the mouth mean. Not sure about the other, it could be medical, or traditional family mark, or many other things. It is apparently illegal, but still prevails in the north, especially among Muslims.
Here I was cringing at the thought of those marks, shrinking away from them. Ditto the way the men pee just anywhere they want - the other morning I looked out our bedroom window and there was a guy peeing in the grass a few yards from me. I wanted to shout at him to stop, but I didn't. And our friends who have lived in Cambodia said men there keep their left pinkie very long to visibly pick their noses - that happens here too, as if they are mining for some nasal gold. And the way people here (and in Uganda) eat with their fingers, sauce dripping everywhere ...(Some people know that I don't like messy food - it's why tacos never appealed!) Also, I've always looked at the veils of the Muslim women as signs of oppression, but women we have met talk about it in very positive terms - it's just a part of their culture, even if we foreigners see it as much more political.
So I have been thinking about how we judge other cultures from our high-and-mighty perch. I'm working on getting off that perch, not romanticizing the other cultures, but not judging either.
Oh, yes, to answer all the questions: We are frog-free for a week, knock on slightly damp, mouldering wood. And took a break at a hotel in the hills outside Accra this last weekend. Took 5 hot showers, the first hot ones in over a month! Pix to come.
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