(no subject)
A friend recently said that after three weeks in a foreign place, you could write ten books, but after a year you would be hard pressed to write a good letter describing your place.
I've been here three months and I realize that most of my writing concerns me (boring) and not the environment here (interesting).
That said, a lot of what was really foreign and interesting at first now seems so completely normal that it is hard to write about. Amazing how relative normativity is.
Here are some things that merit mention.
1) There are WAY more animals here. It is actually really nice being able to throw orange peels or whatever on the ground knowing that a goat will soon make quick work of your trash. The animals are pretty entertaining too.
2) There are WAY more babies here. I am not sure if I have ever been to a place this fecund.
3) The tropics are, uh, entropic. They are entropical. Things deteriorate here in a manner that is pretty hard to fathom in the states. And yet...things also work. It is hard to really describe the aesthetics of decay and function here. I was in a minibus yesterday on my way from Fufulso to Tamale. We drove into an enormous downpour and everyone inside the car got soaked because the car was pretty much the most porous vehicle ever. Big holes in the floorboard, lots of holes in the roof. And yet, the car worked well enough to make the trip so despite being "decrepit" it was not truly "broken" in any functional sense.
4) In a homogeneous environment, difference really pops. I still have a hard time believing that I stand out as much as the other white people I see wandering around from time to time. But I know I do. I must. Even if I am wearing Ghanaian clothes.
I've been here three months and I realize that most of my writing concerns me (boring) and not the environment here (interesting).
That said, a lot of what was really foreign and interesting at first now seems so completely normal that it is hard to write about. Amazing how relative normativity is.
Here are some things that merit mention.
1) There are WAY more animals here. It is actually really nice being able to throw orange peels or whatever on the ground knowing that a goat will soon make quick work of your trash. The animals are pretty entertaining too.
2) There are WAY more babies here. I am not sure if I have ever been to a place this fecund.
3) The tropics are, uh, entropic. They are entropical. Things deteriorate here in a manner that is pretty hard to fathom in the states. And yet...things also work. It is hard to really describe the aesthetics of decay and function here. I was in a minibus yesterday on my way from Fufulso to Tamale. We drove into an enormous downpour and everyone inside the car got soaked because the car was pretty much the most porous vehicle ever. Big holes in the floorboard, lots of holes in the roof. And yet, the car worked well enough to make the trip so despite being "decrepit" it was not truly "broken" in any functional sense.
4) In a homogeneous environment, difference really pops. I still have a hard time believing that I stand out as much as the other white people I see wandering around from time to time. But I know I do. I must. Even if I am wearing Ghanaian clothes.