I'se Married Now

Due to a few inappropriate questions and uncomfortable situations, I have changed my status in Ghana from "I have a boyfriend" to "I have a husband, three children and a dog". There seems to be an obsession with chastity/virginity here; so much that people feel they have the right to ask you about your status if that see that you are young and unmarried. There are huge billboards that advertise the ABC's of relationships. A-Abstain. B-Be faithful. C-Condoms! I understand that all of sub-Saharan Africa is combating the spread of HIV/AIDS and I am on-board with sharing information. Knowledge is Power! I am a firm believer of that. However, that does not give anyone the right to be all up in my personal business! Somethings you just have to laugh off and keep it moving. Ghanaians are very overtly religious people. Every student is named "Abigail" or "Micheal" or "John". They even name their business Christian inspired names. It is actually kind of funny when you read "God Has Blessed Me Cell Phones and Electronics" or "Let Jesus be Pleased Braiding and Accessories". I have been invited to church at least 9 times since I have been here. I do plan to attend church one Sunday before leaving but I will wait until the end of my trip to go so they won't expect me to go every Sunday. Admittedly, I look forward to going. I think it will be a unique experience. You can hear churches worshiping nightly throughout the town. It is very loud praise. The holy ghost is all over this country. Even the Catholics shout in Ghana! Still, I find it difficult to watch how unquestioningly the locals have accepted the religion of their historical oppressors. I wonder what was different about the Africans during colonization that made them willing to give up their indigenous faiths where others were unwilling to do so. Indians remained true to Hinduism and most East and South Asians remained Buddhist but many Africans and South Americans converted. I can't tell if the obsession (yes obsession is the correct word) with Jesus is sincerely spiritual, from the heart, or just religious, based in rote practice. I also think it has a lot to do with the high rates of poverty. Many people in Kakumdo are so poor that all they have is hope and faith. If belief in Jesus helps them effectively cope with their harsh reality, I guess I cannot fault that. Still, I hope people start to look toward some earthly and immediate solutions. Even the most devout Christian can't pray the physical reality of hunger away...Speaking of hunger, there is a huge pile of trash in the village about 500 feet away from the school. Many children do not attend school because their parents cannot afford to send them so they roam around the village and through the town. The public schools are so bad that attending them is about the same as not going to school so, some kids just don't go. I can look outside of the windows of the school and see children rummaging through the trash or defecating in the trash pile. It is disheartening. I have asked the local teachers "When is someone going to clean up this trash?" They told me that it was cleaned up a few years ago and they left a dump for the locals to use. The villagers used the dump. When it was full, no one came to empty it because the roads inside the village were not good. So they were forced to place their trash around the trash dump, Still no one came to collect the trash. Three years later, you have the same massive heap of trash presenting all the health and environmental problems that the one did before. With that, The cycle of poverty continues...Today I was asked to teach a lesson about Jesus during the Religion and Morals Class. Imagine the students reaction when I told them Jesus was not white! I pulled out the map and showed them that the Hebrews were from Egypt (FREAKING AFRICA) and that they eventually moved right next door to Israel. There is no way that Jesus was White. Historically impossible. I told them that the picture that they had of Jesus in the classroom was a popular depiction of Jesus that was drawn by Michelangelo. Some were excited about the news I shared! Others were in disbelief! They just could not believe that their messiah was a person of color! I am not surprised though. I have watched many of these beautiful Black children play in the hair of white women and repeat "so pretty" for hours on end. They rub the white teachers arms in fascination of their skin. Another teacher in my group, who is White, expressed frustration with her students because she was teaching them Pronouns and they kept writing the same sentences about her; "You are so beautiful", "She has pretty hair", "She is so nice". My students have not written anything like that about me!... I think it is because I told them that Jesus was not White and they are probably still disappointed about it.