14 October 2001

Business Names of the Week:
The Almighty Hair Cut
Why Can't I Praise My Jesus (sundries)
OfficeMax (because it uses the same logo, billboard and newspaper ads as OfficeMax in the U.S., but has no connection to that company!)

Here is a not-so-impressive lizard. There are impressive lizards, but they're fast and camera shy. Lots of lizards. Never gets lonely!

Tro-Tro Name of the Week:
"No" Waste Paper Basket in Heaven


I went to the University of Ghana on Friday to wander around the campus and check out the bookstore. It's a rather nice place, with a wide, central avenue and well-maintained buildings. There were the usual signs of college life; announcements stapled to trees along the paths, a campus bus, even a "Tacobell" restaurant. Of course, it has nothing to do with the Taco Bell chain, and they do not vary from the standard Ghanaian fast food of jollof rice and chicken. The bookstore, oddly, has an enormous inventory of books for children—half the store, in fact, is filled with books for children, and then some new and used books alongside a few textbooks and pamphlets used for courses. The books were quite expensive, relative to the average person's income. I learned that there are student loans, but the loans only pay for the books.

I visited the philosophy section and found it stocked with a lot of pop-Christianity pamphlets and even some self-help and marriage advice material. There were, however, four course books: Francis Bacon's The Essays, Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy, a short book on Wittgenstein, and a book on modern political philosophy.

I bought the Bacon and made my way to the desk where I had to check my bag when I entered (another familiar feature of college bookstores).

Francis Bacon's essay "Of Travel" is a good guide for me to use for my remaining time here. He advises travelers to stay in different corners of a city if one must stay in any one city for too long. He also says it is best to avoid one's own countrymen in foreign places. Well, I won't be able to follow those two guidelines, but there are more that seem sage and manageable.

I talked to a few students about how they felt about the retaliatory attacks on the Taliban by the U.S. They either weren't forthcoming or didn't have much to say. There were only brief statements about how they couldn't believe the Taliban's stupidity and some concern over development funds from the U.S. being diverted from Africa for the war effort.

All over campus, I saw posters about how to practice safe sex and stopping the spread of AIDS. It's important, and I don't mean to trivialize the message, but I found it hilarious that the tagline for the pubic health effort is: "If it's not on, it's not in." Also, some posters described AIDS as "The Dream Erazer." Yep, with a "z."

Other than that, I've had an uneventful week. I've been concentrating on my teaching tasks and making another go at polishing up my French. (The Alliance Française here in Accra is magnificent! They have African dance performances, plays from Francophone Africa, and Afro-jazz.) Also, I've been cooking, much to the chagrin of Rose, who has stated that she doesn't like my cooking because I don't use enough pepe (hot peppers). She did, however, take an interest in cous cous. I told her it was a staple in the north of Africa and that won her over.

I am searching for dental floss. Toothpicks are everywhere, and it's not bad manners to dig around in one's mouth at the table after a meal, but nothing beats a thorough floss—and I'm out! I guess I could use strands of my increasingly out-of-control hair.

Sankofa Se wo were fi na wosan kofa a yennkyi. (return and take it)

One of the former volunteers, Jean MacDonald, has put together a great site about Adinkra Symbols: http://www.welltempered.net/adinkra/. Before you read about the symbols, choose the one that you're most drawn to on a first scan through the small images at the top. It's interesting to find the meaning. I chose Sankofa when I first saw the symbols, and discovered that it represents the importance of learning from the past (not just personal past, but historical past). So, I was right to study at St. John's College!