ok, so I just have to get this off my chest...

...and then we'll be back to the more interesting Africa stories. Every once in a while, I just have to have a veggie rant. So, here goes.

I admit that I've never sat down and watched "The Inconvenient Truth" all the way through. This is mostly because after she saw it Molly told me that I already knew all that stuff and it would probably just make me depressed. So, Gilles just so happened to have rented it and was watching it today, and I sat through a couple of parts. And it just made me so, so angry. Not because of the mess we are in with our environment and climate change. Not because our leaders refused to believe scientists who knew what was going on years ago.

But because Al Gore is a pompous hypocrite. He goes around the world informing everyone about the dangers of global warming and how we HAVE TO DO SOMETHING NOW !!!! to change it. But, he refuses to take the biggest step to reducing his environmental impact by going vegetarian.

"A 2006 United Nations report summarized the devastation caused by the meat industry by calling it "one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." The report recommended that animal agriculture "be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity."

I know this might not be the most popular opinion to my meat and Al Gore loving lovely friends out there, but, dude....you just have to practice what you preach. Especially when you're standing for the health of the planet.

Be brave. Be honest.
Live your values.

the most precocious little girl...

I have ever met. Regina was one of the first little ones we got to know. There was something very different about this two year old. She was not like the other kids. She couldn't care less about the yovus. She came over because Dora, her mom came over, but she was not the least bit impressed by us. The other kids loved us immediately because we were different. We had to win over Regina every day.
I have met very few people as self-assured as Regina. She knows exactly who she is and who you are- "I'm Regina, and you're a yovu." She tells you if you piss her off- "Don't take my beads or I'll hit you with a stick." And she knows where she was going in life- "Dora, let's go home right now."
Regina literally acts like a twenty year old. Because Tefle is such a safe village, she is free to wander around, going yard to yard. She bosses around kids four times her age, and is always the leader of the pack. She refers to her mother as Dora, and Dora is the only person who she ever obeys, with a quiet respectfulness.


But, Regina is only two, and she lives in a tiny and frail body. When she came down with malaria, we were all stricken with worry. Dora didn't have the money to take her to the doctor, and Regina's fever was 102. She wouldn't eat. Her head hurt and she didn't want to be near light. When I held her, she felt like a hot, limp doll in my arms, nothing like the rambunctious fighter I was used to. I couldn't help but run statistics of less developed country child mortality rates through my head. I told Dora that we would do anything, anything at all to help, determined not to lose this precious child. We gave Regina some tylenol and told Dora to please let us know if she got worse. But, Regina is a fighter, and slowly got better over the next few days. She was back to her old self by the time we left- it was such a relief when she refused to hug me goodbye.

so now you're back from outer space...

I've been back in SF for a week now, catching up on many things, including lots of reading and writing for school. My apologies to all of you who dutifully checked my blog for interesting Africa updates to no avail. There was very limited access to the internet while I was in Ghana. But now that I'm back to a 24/7 high speed internet connection, I plan on doing some back tracking and story-telling. I met some beautiful people who touched my life and did some fun things that I want you to know about. So, here goes. First, I want you to know about

Dora.

I didn't get to say goodbye to Dora. "Where's Dora?" I kept asking, a bit panicked as we loaded the last of our things into the tro-tro. But, she had purposefully slipped away at the last minute because she didn't want to cry. As I took my last ride through Tefle out to the main road, I saw her standing front of a friend's house, and I got to wave to her. I don't think I've ever waved so sincerely or so sadly. I wonder if I'll ever see her again.

Dora was our neighbor. It took me a couple of weeks to figure out which house she actually lived in, because she was always in a different yard, looking comfortable and at home. She is so sincerely kind and laid-back that it seems that she is welcome everywhere in Tefle.

Many evenings, I would track Dora down at her house, or her brother's house, or a neighbors house, or she would come over to our house, and we would sit and talk for a bit. If it was below 80 degrees outside, Dora would be wearing her windbreaker and would mention how cold it was. She would tell me to be careful of the mosquitoes, and that it was bad for me to be bitten. She would show me pictures of herself and her friends, at weddings, funerals, and festivals. It was strange to see her in the pictures, because she was hardly ever smiling, compared to real life, when she smiles all the time. If I was washing laundry or dishes, she would beg me to let her do it right, and would finally be resigned to watching me do it, when I insisted that, although I couldn't do it as well as she could, I should still do it myself. If I had a stressful or a hard day, it was Dora I wanted to see, because just being around her felt so calming and made me so happy.

Although we are the same age, it seems that Dora has been through so much more in her life. She's married and has a two year old daughter named Regina (who you'll hear more about in a later posting), but her husband lives in Accra, so he can earn a living, and Dora had to move to Tefle with family. Dora's cell phone broke and she doesn't have the money to get it fixed, so she never gets to talk to her husband. She doesn't know when he will be able to visit. He sends her 10 Ghana cedis (10 dollars) every couple of months to support her and Regina, but food and medicine is expensive, and Regina gets sick often. Other than the money sent from her husband, Dora's brother can afford to give her 1 Ghana cedi a day (1 dollar), and Dora usually buys rice, eggs, and tea for herself and Regina. When she talks about her hardships, she doesn't get sad or angry, she just smiles and says, "That's how it is."

There are no jobs for Dora to do, so she mainly helps to take care of her extended family, including her blind grandmother, and attends the workshops offered by the Network for Women in Growth.


My favorite day with Dora was the day before we left. We walked around Tefle together, just visiting different people and chatting. I told her I thought she should be the next Assembly woman because she knew everyone. She was very flattered and said that she might like to do that one day. She learned how to use my camera. We played in a soccer match that made my mouth hurt from smiling so much. We talked about how we hadn't had enough time together, and I told her that I would love for her to come visit me in the U.S. sometime. She just laughed.

I think about Dora often. I want an easier life for her. But, I know that if life never gets easier, or even if it gets harder, she will face it with her deliberate positivity and unbreakable spirit. She inspires me.

malaria and other small matters

I'm officially awesome. Awesome definitely being a relative term. Because, the way I'm awesome, most other West Africans are awesome, too.

Last Sunday, in the middle of the night, I woke up with a high fever. I started throwing up and my fever kept getting higher. When it hit 103.3 degrees, I decided it was time to go to Sogakope District Hospital. I was admitted at around 4:30AM and given an IV for fluids and a shot to stop the nausea. They took my blood and by mid morning had diagnosed me with malaria. That's why I'm awesome. Then, they gave me three shots in the butt over that day, and released me the next morning. It's a week later and I'm now pretty much fully recovered, but I still get moments where I'm really fatigued. Oh, malaria.

This weekend, thankfully I was well enough to join the group on our trip to Kokrobite, a beach town outside of Accra. There were beautiful, picturesque beaches with sun and sand and sea breezes and palm trees. It was just what I needed. We hung out on the beach for a full afternoon and ate salad and pasta dishes and it was wonderful.

Life in Tefle is still lovely. I was well enough on Friday to join a couple of the girls in teaching a Reproductive Health class at the school. The students are super astute and had lots of great questions- "Can I get gonorrhea from eating sugary things?" and "In America, where do you send the people who have AIDS?" were a couple of my favorites. This week, we will continue to teach at the school (World Cultures, Reproductive Health, Feminine Hygiene, and Community Non-violence) and start the textiles part of our work with NEWIG, the women's organization that we are working with. I've made great friends, taken great photos (that I will share as soon as I can), and seen some amazing cross cultural interactions take place. The next four weeks I plan to continue the take it all in, living in the moment and not taking anything for granted.

Welcome to Ghana 2008

Quite unexpectedly, just as the plane touched down, tears came to my eyes. I'm in Africa. Hope. Fear. Riches. Poverty. New horizons. We spent the night at the University of Ghana in Accra and headed to Tefle, the town I'll live in for six weeks. On our first walk around town people came to their doors to see the new people. Children came into the street jumping up and down and yelling 'YOVU! YOVU!" We are the first group of 'yovus' or 'white people' (although only half of us are white) to live in not only this village, but the whole district.

I have lived there for a week and I'm getting used to the slower pace of Ghanaian country life. I've seen things that have given me so much joy, and I've seen things that have made me cry. I have made friends and already feel like I won't be the same when I return to the U.S.

The group and I made our way to Accra this weekend, a tropical, dirty city where most of the buildings and streets are in some state of disrepair or decay. Yet many people are metropolitan- well dressed, professional, ready to work hard and play hard and easy to smile.

I'm at one of the few internet cafes in the city, but I have to be on my way. Unfortunately I can't upload pictures today- it is off-limits here. I will do so as soon as I can, but a computer with an internet connection any faster than a page every three minutes is definitely hard to come by in this part of the world. All my love.

Hey, LOOK! We're going to Ghana together!

I've spent the last week at Adelphi University on Long Island being trained on how to lead a group of 8 college-aged (or recently graduated) women in Ghana and getting to know them. It has been quite a whirlwind; the kind where there are moments I feel I am overly prepared and nothing could happen that I wasn't ready for, moments where I feel a little off kilter, and moments where I just think EEK! (luckily the last ones are short and few). Moravia, Alli, Samidha, Elizabeth, Lauren, Eunique, Zayna, Jenny. I couldn't be traveling with a more open, smart, diverse, lovely group of girls and I'm so lucky to be their leader.

We made a trip to NYC with the whole group to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Operation Crossroads. There was a beautiful service at an old church in the city including organ, piano, and African drum music. We then walked over to the UN's NY Headquarters for a reception on the roof, with beautiful views of the city and East (I think) River.

I'm probably one of the only people nerdy enough to get excited to have my picture taken with portraits of Boutros Boutros Ghali and Koffi Annan (a Ghanaian!).

Afterward, we hung out in Central Park and then checked out some very unique sculptures on the roof of the Met as the sun set over Manhattan. It was a lovely place to be.

I'll leave for the airport at 6:30 this evening with an open mind and a big smile. I'll arrive in Ghana around 8:30 Monday evening. Here I go!

Philadelphia and other adventures

I fell in love with Philly immediately. Next trip= East coast! I took the bus from Penn Station in NYC- it took 2 hours and was only $6.50 each way (plug for megabus.com here)!

It was delightful to hang out with Nilika and Kristi (who just happened to be in town!). I also got to meet Neel (Nilika's lovely boyfriend) and her Philly friends. We wandered, danced, checked out the Italian Market, brunched, had cherry pit spitting contests (in public), and got caught in the rain, among other things.

Nilika and Kristi warm my heart!

On Sunday, I took my megabus back to NYC to hang out with Gabe. We went and saw the David Byrne exhibit "Playing the Building." David Byrne connected the billows in the pipes and percussive elements in the girders and columns of an old, old ferry terminal in Manhattan to an organ placed in the middle of the building. When one presses the keys on the organ, the sounds that result are beautiful and eerie.

Gabe and I had such a wonderful day wandering around Manhattan. He has a wealth of knowledge about the city and is such a great tour guide.

On Monday, I traveled about 45 minutes outside of New York City to Adelphi University, where I've been doing leader training for my position with Operation Crossroads. It's a beautiful campus with actual bunny rabbits that hang out on the lawn. I'll upload more pictures after I meet the group I will be traveling with (tomorrow! eek!!!) and before I leave.

sweet Sophia

I taught my niece Sophia how to whisper. We were making loud baby noises back and forth to each other. It was going very well, and sounded like any good conversation between a grown-up and an eight month old. But then, I decided to put a wrench in things.

Sophia: BAH!

Lucey: BAH! BAH!

Sophia: MAH!

Lucey: MAH!

Sophia: BAH! BAH!

Lucey: "psspsspss..."

Sophia: *pause* "sspsspss"

It was one of my favorite moments ever. I can't wait to see her again in December!

the drive and Texas

On Sunday, June 1st, I packed a little over half of all of my belongings into my trusty Honda Element, said goodbye to my sweet sweet boy, and left on my travels. 

 

I had a leisurely and relaxing four day drive from my beautiful San Francisco to hot, hot lovely Texas.  I drove through L.A. and visited Raquel, 

experienced a quaint little hostel in Tucson, AZ, stayed at Sarah's parents' house in El Paso, played with Sarah in Austin, and then made the final decent to The Woodlands.

 

I took Erin to see the French Kicks and Frightened Rabbit at Walter's on Washington in Houston for her birthday, and unfortunately Frightened Rabbit didn't make it due to van trouble.  It was still a fun show, although that venue is HAWT!  

Saturday morning I drove up to the small town of Canton, TX- between Dallas and Tyler, for Meagan's wedding.  I got to be an honorary bridesmaid (all the fun without all the responsibility) and hang out with her and the other girls while they got ready for the wedding.  It was great to get to be there for her big day, and I'm so happy that I was able to go.  The ceremony was held out in a big pasture in the evening, and it was so beautiful.

The rest of this week has been filled with some lovely time with family and friends. I spent Sunday afternoon with a wonderful family from my childhood, The Strausses.  Through facebook, I found out Sam and Toba lived in San Francisco, and hung out with them before I left, but it was delightful to be with the whole family, for the first time in around 14 years.

I spent alot of time with Claire and my new niece Sophia, but have yet to get any pictures, but don't worry, Sophia is so adorable, she gets her own blog entry very soon.

I'm on my way...in a couple of days...

This is my first ever blog. Welcome.

I don't consider myself an amazing writer (yet- I may just need some practice). While how I write may not be super interesting, what I write in the next few months may be of some interest to my loved ones, which is why you even know about this blog. Congratulations, you are a loved one of Lucey.