I'm having a 'rough patch' as many call it here in the PC. Every little thing is frustrating me. I am bored out of my mind, honestly, lately. Some people in my community have these high expectations for me: that I can miraculously get computers that can function and maintain themselves without human intervention, that I can just bring more tourists to the mountain, and that after I leave here I will continue to do the same work from America as I did here. What?!?! Hello, we are on 'African' time here in Ghana. We were supposed to have a TMT meeting last Wednesday. The chief decided to travel on that day, so it got moved to this morning. Never happened. Now, the plan is for Sunday. We'll see. These high expectations drive me mad when I can't even gather 5 people in one room at one time. Grr... so, in between talking talking talking about what we could/should do I have almost NOTHING to do. I try to keep myself occupied reading, doing small research on different topics here related to the different 'projects' I am trying to get underway and studying language. Sometimes I can do that...sometimes I just drive myself mad with boredom and the feeling of uselessness. But I really can't blame people for being on 'African' time...its their culture and I enjoy the slower pace, at times. However, as a busy-bodied American I am going crazy small small.
This morning I went to talk to the chief about starting a club for the children. All he kept telling me was, 'It is not a bad idea.' haha, ok. That's what I thought, myself. Apparently we are going to talk about it another day. Oh well, all I can do is try. After the meeting with the chief, I was standing outside the chief's palace and his brother comes up to me and asks me if I have a computer. Why, no I don't. Well, I get a dumb look and questions like, "Well, why not?" I know, I know. I'm white. I'm crazy rich and can afford to buy ten computers for the village, so why didn't I buy one for myself? Geeze, did that get me going. I ranted about how money doesn't grow on trees and, if it did, I would just pluck it off and buy everyone in my village a computer (not to mention health care, nutritious food, and clean water). As I ranted, my chief, counterpart and my friend just thought it was the funniest thing ever. Oh well, at least someone got a kick out of it.
Haha, so now I'm ranting again. Someone once said that people in your community can be good support for when you are feeling homesick, frustrated, whatever. Well, it is true. I almost wanted to cry today after the guy started asking me about computers. Then I started venting to my counterpart and his brother. Surprisingly, they understood and commiserated with me. I felt so much better after that.
All isn't as bad as I'm making it seem. I am really just going through a rough patch. I'm sure something will come up soon and I'll see the bright side of things. Hopefully ;)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment