Jordan here: The exposure we Peace Corps Volunteers get to the native residents is all part of the experience. Some relish it, some despise it, but most are somewhere in the middle. It can really depend on the day and the mood you’re in. There are definitely days when kids in Wa start singing the Nahnsahla (Walle/Dagari word for white person) song and I want to chase them down with one of those pool toy noodles. When I do actually try to show my anger/disapproval with the reference and attention, they usually think we’re playing a game and just laugh. I still need to work on my Ghanaian parent scolding voice and combine it with years of feeling my mom’s laser eye when I was acting out of line. She always had her way of healthy discipline, and so do Ghanaians…when they feel like disciplining…sometimes not enough. Anyway, not to diverge any more, there are some times when I actually like to be the center of attention. I’m sure some or most of you are laughing right now, I don’t mind. One example is like when we’re riding in a car or biking past a crowd or riding an ox cart out to farm. Since greeting is so important, we do as much as reasonably possible. We’ve even heard of stories of people not stopping to help a broken down car because the broken down driver didn’t greet the car as they passed them 20 minutes earlier on the road. As we go by, we’re constantly waving, smiling, shaking hands, etc. I feel like the next step is throwing Tootsie Rolls and having our representatives slap stickers with our names in big letters on the shirts of kids running next to us. I’ve even been working on my ‘elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist’ and ‘unscrew the light bulb’ waving techniques. Hence I start feeling like the Homecoming King. Of course many of you know Sarah literally was the Homecoming Queen at NDSU, so Peace Corps has given me a chance to be her equal in the popularity column ;-)
Today was one of those days where I was in a good mood and loved the fact that kids and adults alike call out their respective name for white man and I get to smile and wave back. I was in Wenchi helping out with a cashew pilot project using smart phone technology to improve traceability of transactions between farmers and buyers. It’s a project supported financially and technologically from the German equivalent of USAID. It was really cool to work with more small villages in the field on teaching and seeing the smiles of awe of the technology they could access. You can tell in the back of their heads they’re excited they are part of some very cool development projects. Anyway, as we drove by in our fancy schmancy pickup trucks, they would raise a hand in greeting as if it was reflex and not really expecting a sincere response. I loved seeing their faces light up as a genuinely waved back at them with a smile and they waved back emphatically.
I get a little feeling of what it’s like to be a celebrity, or a politician, or homecoming royalty. Whether or not I like it, it will be this way, to varying degrees, the whole time in Ghana. That’s why, before we go home, Peace Corps prepares us to NOT be the center of attention. I guess I should just be appreciative of the opportunity to live out more of those days that I relish being the center of attention before they’re gone and I’m just like everyone else…
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