Emmanuel's story, and bits and pieces

Here I am at the supposedly fastest cafe in Accra that has signs advertising that it's the largest IT center in Africa or West Africa or something like that - Busy Internet. But I think the place in Osu, Tower, might have been faster.

Anyway, I had a good day at the Cultural Center, and really I now shouldn't buy anything else while I'm in Ghana, but yeah right. I got the expensive (well, us$10 or so) thingas that I wanted out of the way, so now I might just pick and choose with fabric and beads. There's one thing at the Cultural Center I wish I'd gotten, oh well...I shouldn't ever go back! It's a fun, busy place, and in the rain they were desperate for customers so they'd follow us around. Defiantely a cultural experience. I traded my ONE bracelet as part of one purchase because I could get more value out of it than it was worhth, and I have another at home.

I just had a delicious salad of actual lettuce but now my stomach feels a bit funky. Also last night I had my first go at the "Spicy Chicken Lady" as the volunteers call her - she has all sorts of meats and the spiciest sauce ever which makes your whole face burn around your mouth. So could be from that too.

My airport nervousness/dilemma seems to be resolved - apprently they are, in fact, open 24 hours a day (despite closing checkin for afternoon flights at 6 or 7) so I can get a hotel and get a cab at 5 or 4:30.

I know I've been complaining a lot about Mr. Johnson, and school is miserable when it consists of talking to him but great when I'm teaching kids. I don't want to switch, though I could, because I feel like his students really need extra help, but at the same time the real way to be efficacious here in the education department is to pass knowledge, skills, etc on to a teacher and I don't think he is receptive. We'll see. It's not like I could teach without him - despite his unnecessary and sometimes counterproductive yelling at the kids, he does need to sometimes translate from my English to theirs, and he does know how many problems they can do in x amount of time, etc. Plus the whole continuity thing, and when a local teacher isn't around the kids are a bit mroe disruly for volunteers.

The main purpose of this post is to discuss what Emmanuel, the pretty good Environmental Studies teacher, told us Monday night when he came by the house. (Env. Studies is fascinating - human rights, peer pressure, don't push in line - funny curriculum.) You have to understand that the Liberians have been here 14 years, some, though most 8-10 years. The Ghanaian government won't let them work, so there is much poverty and idleness because they can only work on camp. Like I may have said before, amazingly low crime considering. But the Ghanaians still, on the whole, resent the LIberians, and the Liberians tend to blame everything on the Ghanaians even if it may very well be a problem (violent problem, I'm talking about) that comes from people within the camp. And there still are rebels around, who arne't going to admit it because most people in the camp, whichever side they were on originally, lost an unspeakable amount to the rebels.

That's semi-relevant background. Emmanuel told us that he was born in 1979 and in 1994 the war was really bad. His father had been in the army or worked as a policeman or something like that. They had withdrawn to a farm (I had a bit of trouble understanding his accent here) and the rebels came and tied his father up. They said they'd take him somewhere with everyone (I think) but then asked for money, and when the family said they were broke, something like "I'm a police man and it only provided for my kid's food and school," they shot the father. His sister fainted and might have been killed as well. The house was torched. At the time his mother was in the capital city so they never heard from her again. With an Aunt Emmanuel took of for Cote d'Ivoir, his brothers went a different route, and he made it. They were living with a little food from the UN every month and one day in a market he ran into this man who was his uncle, so they moved in with him and his kids. His uncle was growing kasava somewhere but the locals didn't want a refugee farming so they told him not to. They were pretty hungry so he went to harvest it anyway and carryign it back was killed. Emmanuel and his family heard about a man killed in the forrest and when the uncle never returned they knew. The kids went off somewhere and he and his aunt heard Ghana was safe so they foudn someone to pay their way here. He got to Buduburum around June 1995, I think, and they lived in a tent with others for quite some time. Many were dying at the time with poor sewage and dirty water - they didn't buy it then. He taught himself construction and worked to get to school, got a scholarship for two years (it was a lot cheaper then) to a highschool and graduated 2002 or so, top of his class (president, they call it). He just this year got a full ride at some Iowa religious school but three times was rejected by the US embassy fora visa - finally they told him on the third time, after he wasted $200US on the 2nd two tries, that though all his papers were in order they couldn't give a visa, even an I-20, to a refugee. He could get one if he went to Liberia but that is too dangerous/expensive and now I think he's lost the scholarship. Just really, really shitty. Volunteers tried to help hima t the embassy, coached him for the interview, etc. It's sept. 11, cause they let his brother in in 2001. He's now the only guy in his family not to have a university education, which has got to feel shitty.

Speaking of buying water, which Bandu told me they didn't do in LIberia, brings me to Bandu. She apparently has 8 kidds with 8 men or something like that. She's a bit of a scammer. But her kids are sweet. Funny what you learn about people as time goes on.