Sis in law
By Aiden Cross 11 Comments
Keeping my sis in law's e-mail for reference: ------ In the afternoon John and I went to a launch party that had been organized by his foundation. The event took place in a small impoverished community. Children growing up in rural settings are often deprived of the opportunity to go to school, as their parents are too poor to afford the tuition fee. Since these children often drop out at a young age, they do not receive any kind of sexual education. Parents are usually too embarrassed to talk about sexual matters, so young boys and girls turn to their peers for advice. Unfortunately, their peers are just as misinformed as they are, which leads to the perpetuation of wrong beliefs (e.g. the pill makes women infertile). John aims to break this cycle by recruiting peer educators who visit smaller communities to educate young people. They have one-on-one talks, but they also teach entire classes about the consequences of unprotected sexual intercourse. By organizing this large event, John wanted to make the locals aware of the program and he wanted to encourage young adolescents to approach the peer educators with their questions. The program was well thought out and it attracted a lot of attention: some 200 boys and girls showed up. They had set up a bunch of chair and in the middle of the plaza was a stage. All the acts were performed by locals who had volunteered to help. First, there was a theater play that illustrated nicely how women are often coerced into having unprotected sex. In the end the girl was pregnant and humiliated. She emphasized that she could have prevented the pregnancy if she had insisted on using a condom. Second, a little boy had written a very endearing poem about HIV. Following this poem, there was a girl who gave us a very honest and moving account of her unwanted pregnancy. She was 16 when she found out that she was pregnant. She explained that she had been scared of her parents’ reaction, so she had a self-induced abortion. Sadly, something went wrong, so when her mother came home from work she found her daughter laying in a puddle of blood. She rushed her to the hospital, but it was already too late: they had to remove her uterus. These stories are obviously very touching, so I am hopeful that they convinced at least some of the adolescents that unprotected sex is dangerous. When the formal aspect of the program was over, a couple of boys started banging the drums. The host of the event announced that all “white”volunteers had to dance, so the five of us were forced to get on stage and dance in front of 200 people. I felt like an absolute baboon and I was sure that I looked like a dog with fleas, but I had a fabulous time. Afterward we wanted to give every child a bottle of lemonade and cookies, but as soon as we started handing them out, the kids went nuts. They were pushing and kicking each other as if they were fighting for their lives. This made me feel sorry for the weaker and smaller kids, so I told everyone to sit down and be quiet. This went well for about two milliseconds. At some point we had to retreat, because it was getting out of hand. Ironically, if they had behaved, all of them would have received cookies and a bottle of lemonade. Now, most of the kids didn’t get anything. When I went back to the hotel I was starving, so I went straight to the restaurant. The waitress was sleeping on the table, so I gently woke her up. She looked at me in a really grumpy way and I almost felt guilty for waking her up (surely, she is a promising candidate for the “employee of the month award”). I ordered chicken with rice (all the other dishes had been crossed out on the menu). Apparently, they had tossed a whole leg into a deep fryer and they had waited to take it out until it was completely charred, black, greasy and generally inedible. They even manage to screw up the breakfast buffet: they boil the eggs until the yolk turns grey and the toast is usually stone-hard and black. But not just the people working in the restaurant are indifferent to customer satisfaction: I’ve been in this hotel for five nights and they haven’t cleaned my room once. They haven’t even brought me a fresh towel yet (luckily I brought my own). Keep in mind that I pay 65 Cedis per night, which equals a two months’ salary for the average Ghanaian!! Clearly, this is a very luxurious hotel, but nonetheless, the service is beyond terrible. For instance, I asked the receptionist to order me a taxi and he told me to just do it myself. He was kind enough to give me the number of the taxi company though…
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