Well, its quarter to 1 here in Accra, and I just got off the phone with my family. I’m sure my mother would be disheartened to know that this, this is the time I get the bug to write. Talking with my family highlighted even more how much I have not written for this week.
I figured I should write about my adventures at a university, M.U.C.G.’s. I actually don’t remember at all what it stands for, but I’m sure its Methodist something. It is a private Methodist university, and they teach all kinds of subjects – psychology, history, business, technology, etc. Mannasseh attended another branch of this same school for his college experience, and wanted us to meet with one of their vice principals. Again, this was one of those great times where I got to be in my ‘education’ element. I know what questions to ask, and how to relate to the people better. Even more so when the school’s have that religious touch (something nearly everything here has). Actually, I think I’ll use that tangent for a moment, because its important in understanding Ghana. There are many many religions here. Most are Christian, but I swear I’ve never seen so many churches in my life – and that’s not just due to being raised in Utah. There are the churches you would expect, Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian (affectionately called “the Presby”), but also the Lighthouse church, Assembly of God, and then churches with Christian sounding phrases for names. (I can’t even think of any off hand.. though driving to work I’ll easily see a dozen of them.) In addition to their churches, their shops are all named after gospel words or ideas. The “love and joy store”, “Jesus Loves you Salon”, “In God we Trust” seamstress shop, “In His Hands” something or another shop… everything is focused back toward religion. And if not directly toward religion it has the word joy, love, happiness, or peace in it. Even the main radio station is called “Love FM”. Despite all of the religion around though, I have not heard many people speak specifically of their religion. I’m sure this is in part because I’m working with a business where I want to know about your financial standing, and financial goals.. but I’m not sure how widely discussed religion is.
In addition to having religious and ‘feel good’ names of everything, the politics here are very.. nice. There have been 2 small political ‘scandals’ while I’ve been here. The first was that someone compared the President to a chimpanzee. The second was that a famous rapper in the music awards made a comment that “more people listen to me than to the President”. Both remarks were met with at least half hour talk shows on the radio, people calling and texting in, frustrated that someone would be so low and rude to say such a thing about the President. Comments like “we need to sanitize our political talk” are coming out of the radio, and I just can’t believe it. Obama would be thrilled if that were all the worse he was being called by media personnel throughout the country. They have a lot of respect for free speech as well, but suggest that, you don’t need to be disrespectful about it.
Also, oil is a big new industry here. Oil companies are moving in and the people are getting nervous. Will oil actually bring money to the country? Is it creating a rich group in the center of poor villages? One radio comment was about the oil spill going on currently in the Gulf of Mexico (they are also very international about their news) and that there could be harmful effects if the oil company is too big to care about its people. A caller suggested that whomever comes in should have some list of traits.. probably only 4 requirements, but one of those 4 was that they should be God fearing. How interesting that it is such a high priority. In the US someone would laugh at hearing such a statement made with such sincerity. Here, it is part of life.
Another big company made a big step in Ghana. Google is creating a translator option into Twi. This has people excited here. Google, a huge, powerful company, cares about them. Cares about adding their language to the internet. The radio MP was pretty impressed. Google is also very smart about coming to Ghana J Last night there was a story about a 4 year old girl who has cancer in her eyes.. She has had one surgery before removing one of her eyes, and now without another surgery is not expected to live out the month. A program had been made talking with doctors, her family, etc. and shared over the radio to try and raise money. The amount needed was 3,000 Ghana Cedis. (pronounced “seedys”). This is about.. 2,200 US Dollars. Google paid the full amount, and then all the money the family raised in addition could help for past medical bills. So, for $2,200 Google has established itself as a company that cares about the individual lives of the ‘regular people’ that they serve. Big hit. Very smart.
Alright Mom, you were right. Now I should go to bed. J I’ll write about M.U.C.G.’s tomorrow. Goodnight all.
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