It's Natural

May 28, 2008

I think things would be so much simpler if I lived in the trees. We did the canopy walk today and it was very pretty, very peaceful. It was a little scary though because we were walking across boards suspended by cables, very Indiana Jones. I took in the scenery, but still wanted to get across fairly quickly. Even more trecherous than being at least 50 feet off the ground were the rocks we had to hike on going up and down. These rocks were slippery. I had wore my tennis shoes so that made everything a lot better.

I didn't talk much on the canopy walk. I haven't talked a lot period, except to a few of my classmates. I was really tired after the canopy walk. I'm terribly out of shape. There was also a museum and gift shop in the park, but like other things we've visited, it was somewhat in disrepair.

Before the canopy walk I was in class with Dr. Traore. We were discussing the story "Some Global News," which was more or less about identity and the Western/European standards to which mostly everyone is held. I could relate to the story. Also in the story and throughout the book itself was the female empowerment theme, which we also discussed. I was confused because the Akan people (in the Southern region of Ghana) are matrilineal, but it doesn't seem to be helping the women any. This is because there is a major difference between matrilineal and matriarchal. Apparently, tracing your roots through your mother is just that and doesn't have any real extra perks. In fact, it seems dangerous to discount the man like that because it just seems to foster irresponsibility.

After we got back from the canopy walk I was talking to the gift shop attendant, Georgette. I told her she had a great name, being close to Georgia and all. She laughed at a lot of the things I said, much of it was very random. We did have a small talk about politics. In Ghana there are five parties, but Georgette didn't think very highly of any of them. She knew about Barrack and I don't think anyone outside the U.S. likes Bush. She was nice, she gave me a key chain. She lives with her sister and has applied to Cape Coast University. I told her if she is ever in Georgia to look me up. We exchanged info. I enjoyed talking to her.

My conversation with Georgette segued into visiting again with Maame (a student at the University of Cape Coast). This time here brother Timmy came. We didn't get a chance to talk a lot at dinner. I did ask them what kind of movies they liked and we were talking about White Chicks and The Incredibles. I asked her if she wanted to own her own business and she wants to start her own accounting firm.

After dinner we watched Yaaba. It was about an old lady who was outcast from the village, but two kids befriended her. The discussion after the movie bored Maame and I wasn't engaged because I was fighting sleep the entire time the movie was on, (which Maame joked about afterwards). We basically discussed the symbols inf the movie and the matrilineal pattern. When we left out of the movie area it was a monsoon outside. Not really, but it was raining pretty hard so I waited it out with a classmate. Well everyone pretty much waited a little while, but my classmate and I waited the longest.

Today was a long day.