Disillusionment

It's always a little tricky to decide what to put in this blog.  I suppose the audience is quite wide and fairly diverse... my parents, my friends, even my grandparents (sometimes) so I'm never absolutely sure.  To tell you the truth I'm writing this thing just as much for me as any of you.  I hope that didn't come off as too selfish, but it's the truth.  When things happen, good or bad, it's great to write them down.  I never did anything like this before coming to Ghana, but once  you start you feel driven to continue.  Sometimes I share adventures, sometimes its thoughts, subjective opinions, or everyday experiences.  I think this one covers all the bases actually... at to me.  Something to think about while reading.  Allowing yourself to become angry, I mean really pissed off in another country is an interesting feeling.  It makes you feel like you have some invested stake, at least at some level I think.  

Instant coffee brewed to perfection.  The perfect balance of white sugar cubes, Nescafe classic and Cowbell powdered milk paired with a delicious bowl of white oats, ready in seconds, equals the breakfast of champions.  Seriously though, I can make this shit taste like Starbucks.  Actually, it’s already been a fairly eventful day considering its not even 8 AM yet.  I woke up to the familiar distortion of homemade gospel music crackling from one of those megaphone/speaker systems.  Ghana is quite fond of these noise-making contraptions… sound quality is less than stellar if you want my opinion.  Anyways, today it was gospel; yesterday it was fervent, righteous croaking, and the day before that it was pretty much the same.  At some point enough is enough.  When the preaching started I got up, put on a pair of shorts and walked downstairs to have a word.  I know for a fact there are plenty of people living in this building who can’t stand these obtrusive prayer sessions.  Think about all of the Muslims living in Annex A- I’m sure they don’t appreciate it.  So I approach the self proclaimed pastor and ask her kindly, “you know we’ve been woken up every morning this week and I am really tired… do you think you could just leave us alone this morning?”  She looked at me, quite shocked that I had approached her and asked her bluntly to leave.  She replied, “No I don’t think so.”  “Well you know this is against school policy.”  “No its not.”  At this point people listening on their balconies chimed in, “let her continue”, “leave her alone.”  Tired and frustrated I lost it for a moment and shouted, “you guys are ridiculous… its 6:20 in the morning.”  “Ridiculous!” they mimicked… and now for my favorite response “go back to your country.”  Wow.  Lesson learned: don’t question the system, don’t speak your mind, don’t stand out, and don’t tell people they are being ridiculous.  I slipped for a second- so sue me.