TravelStream™ news feed for member lilti on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/lilti en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Sat, 22 Sep 2007 19:02:38 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1185058800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1185058800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1185058800/tpod.html Sat, 22 Sep 2007 19:02:38 -0400 Ethiopia, Ghana!

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Accra, Ghana

After a day of interviewing, standing in a ravine in this little village - surrounded by tall grass, a chorus of cricket like creatures and a blanket of stars overhead. Led by the great Nyama, we pause to re-evalute the day, our lives, and our purposes. The doctor was off mumbling, half a siloute.
Nyama reflectively blows smoke into the air and begins to speak of sacrifice.
He redefined it for me.
"I've never thought of it as losing, anything. Because, 'it' was never mine to begin with. I do things because I have to. I have to do it. "
I knew exactly what he meant.
Being led by your soul. You do things because your heart, or your soul demands it from you.
It isn't restrictive. It's freedom.
Which leads to happiness.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1190167140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1190167140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1190167140/tpod.html Tue, 18 Sep 2007 22:11:10 -0400 Ethiopia, Ghana!

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada

As I started processing the missing month of travel blogs from this last trip, I realized that what I need to do is begin at the end.
Kind of like reasoning - when you start with a larger principal and carve things down to find the truth, or the point, or what you will.

Ghana was solidly a trip where I was influenced by people.
Extraordinary people.
Its incredible to be surrounded by visionaries.
The types that like to grab the world by the lapels and shake it out.
You know the idea; to lead is to serve. You have to listen to the people you want to lead, in order to know where they're coming from. In order to lead them, inspire them, and show them a different path. Bashing people on the head with your idea, just doesn't work that well.
I learned that great leadership is not so much about being strict or tough.
It's clarity of vision, it's full. And, well, it's astonishingly beautiful - in all of its parts.
Put that leadership, and effort into a humanitarian crisis, in a situation of life/death, of fighting for human rights. And it, as a force, blows my north american mind out of the universe.
Because I'm conditioned to believe that not only does "good" not exist. But that if it did exist it would still be based on some personal agenda. OR, that it would be something undesirable.
But, on the contrary. I witnessed it. I found my heart craving it, opening to it. Desiring it.
It's like the antithesis of my birth culture, my era. Because it seems sometimes that all I know in the west, is the quest for money.
Every media outlet tells me, preaches to me my own self centered - worthless cravings for more. For me. Worse yet - I'm from a society that idolizes the most vain, and the most selfish.
Which never did sit well with me..

But this other - this opposite is. Epic. It's poetic.
It's that feeling after hearing something profound. The moment after the veil in your mind has been lifted, and you see something anew.
It's the stuff films are made of, and novels are written about. It's what songs describe. It's the intangible.
And you can live there.
You can.
I've seen it. I've been there.
I've even been there for days, on end.
That realm that redefines the universe as you've known it.
It re-evalutes your balancing act.

Just because I'm walking around with things ( like concepts, lifestyles, beliefs, goals; life) balanced in such a way that I can move forward - doesn't mean that I'm on solid ground.
What I realized is that I've been precariously inching along on a tight tope.
Not only that - but when I really take a good look at how I'm balancing things, I see how some things just aren't sustainable. Things that are ready to topple.
Africa consistently wipes me out. Knocks my feet out, sits me down, and forces me to re-start. Re-evalute. Re-think how I will this time try to re-stack things ( like concepts, lifestyles, beliefs, goals; life).
It's not an occasional experience for me, its like a reflex from every african venture I've been on.

I think Africa vomits me out.
And then I walk around my city, squinting in the sun. With a constant mild headache - trying to answer the question. What is wrong?
I'm still trying to figure out how to suspend myself in that realm ... which is here ... only I can't always see it.
Still trying to reverse the blood flow of my life.

Do permit me to back track.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1185609600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1185609600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1185609600/tpod.html Mon, 30 Jul 2007 11:01:01 -0400 Ethiopia, Ghana!

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Washinton DC, United States

Missed my flight home to Toronto. Oy!
Dulles has good security. Who knew they would find my souvenir dagger that I packed in my carry on?
lol
Story goes - I was supposed to check my carry on bag, and carry on a drum. At the UA counter they tell me to check the drum and carry on my black duffle bag. Little do I remember, I've packed a dagger.
Thankfully the security guys had a sense of humor, and sympathy. No charges.
I waited an hour and half in crazy paniced Dulles security lines, to get to the scanner and be detained. Lovely. Totally missed the flight. But then so did many people - because the lines were so long. STILL!
A dagger.
OY!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1185807180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1185807180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1185807180/tpod.html Mon, 30 Jul 2007 10:56:07 -0400 Ethiopia, Ghana!

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada

OK.
I just wanted you all to know that I am home! Safely,
And I am going to fill in the big blank month of July. At least shade it in. lol.

I started several entries, but I was so often distracted over the month.
They are on their way, I promise!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1183179600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1183179600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1183179600/tpod.html Mon, 09 Jul 2007 11:14:49 -0400 Ethiopia, Ghana!

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Accra, Ghana

The eve of Canada Day
You'll have to forgive the cheese, but I'm trying to be honest...
Some nights are poems. Sometimes things suspend. Its as if the stars align.
The heavens open.
Treasures I bathe in but can never communicate. Usually, I don't dream of trespassing on sacred ground - I mean that I don't attempt to communicate anything.
Almost tremble to do so now. Only remember them when I dare to. Sometimes only look at a reflection of the place. The mirror image. The real image - too great, too big.
Unattainable, unexplainable.
I find solace in understanding that others know what I mean - in Judaism, when they reference god they write G_d. Its the fill in the blanks.
But, this evening was so african in its stereotypes, I've gotta say something. This was a place that I knew existed, and when least expecting it, stumbled upon.
Glimmers of this life, these understandings and experiences have always resided in my mind.

By full moon and fire light.
If drums, powerful and echoing in your ribcage - could never ever end. If the great sea would roar, and never cease to kiss your feet. I could stand crouched in the sea, hand greeting each tide, forever.
To live in your spirit - not your body, dance and dance and dance. To leap, spin, dance with another. To bend.
All things instinctual, all things urgent, all things natural and spontaneous are embraced with fervor:
Reach for the fire, test fate, and learn to trust.
Cool sand underfoot.
My skin rejoiced to be caked in salt and sand.
To splash and dance in the water.
To spar with others in the sea.
Six young men and I in the sea.Water circles ankles, calculate the tide. Crouch and eye your opponent. And when the moment is right, to lunge, tackle, pull into the ocean. Until the roar of underwater fills your ears and you taste only salt and sand.
To fight and play until you cannot catch your breath, and you stand by the fire. But before your chest even has a chance to stop heaving, you're dancing again. Because the beat of the drums is too strong, the call of your spirit too wild. And you explode in joy in absolute serenity and dance again. Sing as loud as your lungs will allow.
Africa...
nothing presentable, controlled, contained or reserved.
Only life, in its fullest.
Earth, air, fire, water.
Drums, dancing, companions - and the sea.
Some nights are poems. Sometimes things suspend. Stars align.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1182920400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1182920400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1182920400/tpod.html Mon, 09 Jul 2007 11:03:42 -0400 Ethiopia, Ghana!

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Accra, Ghana

We filmed one of those popular education theatre shows in the Labati Market today.
The actors were cool, all in black t shirts with "Embrace Diversity" written on the back.
Looked awesome performing beside stands of tomatoes and watermelon and jars of candy.
Everything about the experience was enjoyable.
The plays - beautiful, the setting - awesome.
The weather. Hot.
The audience huddled in every patch of shade they could find.
Scorching. But lovely.
Sweat glistening and spraying off the bodies of the performers was kind of a savoury part of the show.
The actors were good! They had great energetic games to draw a crowd.
Most african tv (as previously noted) drives me CRAZY. Because the acting is so excessive, so theatrical.
On the same note, this was a great show! In a theatrical sense.
Street performances are so hard. Soo hard.
Its difficult to have a variety of levels and blocking throughout a performance when you're playing to a circular audience, and they nailed it.
I liked the audience even more. There were no (really) troubling members.
And for me, the natural responses of the market women totally defined the experience.
Grunts, tsks, hip swinging, finger waving atittudes blossomed from the crowd and spilled into the performance.
That kind of present, full joy is contagous.
So beautiful, the interaction, and color! These women in their colors...
Anyway...
We filmed a bunch of different activities,

A doctor - who through Popular Education makes himself available to the queer community.
Which is a big deal here!
Apparently when you go to get tested for any STI here, the clinics will require you to present your partner as well.
Which queer folk cannot do.
And there is also a wide spread misunderstanding that STIs are really only transfered through hetrosexual sex. So, the peer counsellors have a big education outreach as well.
We interviewed peer counselors yesterday and I was inspired by their courage. They're literally taking their livelihood (and lives) in their own hands
A peer counseling session has to be held in secrecy. Locations, times, everything has to be switched up constantly.
Consider this, a couple weeks ago cops stormed into one of Popular Education's offices (that is also a house), found two men in a room together - one had a condom in his pocket. Both were arrested. They weren't 'doing' anything. For having a condom in your pocket, and being alone in a room with another man. So imagine then, trying to counsel one on one with individual queer persons. There are also incidents of men having sex, and then one turning on the other - claiming rape or something similar ( b/c they don't want to be gay) sometimes reporting it to officers.
Because homosexuality is such a taboo, there is no resource, no place for them to go. Everything is organized, and constructed to degrade and shame them into being, or at least acting like they're straight.
One young man I talked to had recently been beaten up by a bunch of straight guys. He explained how he would have had no idea of his legal rights, what to do - wouldn't have had the willpower to figure out what to do about it - if it weren't for Mac and Popular Education.
They're filling a big gap in this society, and they're doing it well.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1182607200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1182607200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1182607200/tpod.html Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:17:10 -0400 Ethiopia, Ghana!

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Accra, Ghana

There is so much to write. So much I've written.
... but I'll just speak of Accra..

I fell in love with Accra nights. Nights always come as a relief.
Days are stagnantly humid - seem to always be full of sweat, work, and movement.
About five pm, when the sun begins to fade, the day begins to take on another feel.
Evenings with no power where you function literally by candle light, are my favorite.
No candle holders, you just carry a candle with you. To the bathroom, to dinner, to bed.
By candle light you sit with others, house mates, neighbors, whoever.
Mostly, you sit on the porch and talk, exchange stories, debate policies, enjoy company. Sip drinks, observe the sky, feel cool breezes. The nights are leisurely. Times to stretch out and appreciate the day.
It can be a loud atmosphere, but unless a neighbor's generator is on, there is no white noise. It's the sound of people, movement, and living.
No where in east africa would you hear a trumpet player practicing. But here in Accra it seems the whole brass realm of instruments is in use. So, a lonely trumpet, a trombone, or flute can often be heard. There are a couple of churches within ear shot, some nights they're singing late late into the evening. The mic'd worship leader feverishly leading or ( what I much prefer) the chorus of african voices whole heartedly singing a song.

I'm not kidding when I say cell phones are used as torches. Manuvering a tricky spot on the road or looking for something you've dropped - its all by the light of a cell phone.
Around 10 the night takes on another feel again - other noises subside. Families are in bed. Sometimes the church goes on all night, but more often then not there is nothing left but a confused rooster's crow, occasionally a dog barks, once in a while a warning gun shot is heard.

And I will never forget the winds of Accra. It never stops. Last night, at 2 in the morning - was the first time I think I've felt the air entirely still here in kokomlemle.
The restaurant down the street that I frequent has walls around its compound, and still - the wind that flows through the place all day, can be breathtaking. Empty plastic bottles fly off tables. lettuce scatters the ground, menus slip out of fingers and fly like paper airplanes.
Its fantastic.
The winds are enticing. Bring freshness and relief to the sweltering. Reminds me that we're not alone.
I have to hold down the pages of my book in order to write in it. But I wouldn't change it.
I fell in love with the feel of wind blowing over my bare feet.
On the porch of my home - when I sit and put my feet up, the wind just wraps around my feet, almost tickles them.
Even inside the house - there are so many windows and so much wind, I can sit on the floor and still feel gushes of it running over me.
The constant flow of wind is incredible.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1182254160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1182254160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1182254160/tpod.html Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:11:40 -0400 Ethiopia, Ghana!

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Accra, Ghana

Monday night , when we came home, our neighbor from downstairs was upstairs hanging out with our roomie Sherone. So we got to meet him for the first time...

His name is Henry, or Junior, or Flames. Whichever.
He's the most western like person (who is not from the west) that I've met here.
Really.
And quickly found out why.
He's an artist. And all he does all day is make art - and watch movies.
He graduated from art school earlier this year and has since been watching movie after movie after movie after movie, and painting and sketching etc etc.
Dude quotes 'Liar Liar' and 'Coming to America' and has seen so many films he's advising me on what's worth watching and not watching.
Honestly, it's hard to believe he's never left the country. He doesn't even have a Ghanian accent.
Anyway, he's actually a really good artist. Honestly. Brilliant.
Very philosophic, meaningful art. ... but he acts like such a westerner! Its hard to get over.

So today, Tuesday. We all hung out all day.
In the morning I got some Good Evidence paper work done, and while I was working - he was coming up with a Good Evidence logo. We've really struggled trying to find the right logo.
This brother took one morning and created a really cool logo. It was effortless.

To pass the afternoon we went to the National Museum.
Most interesting things learned were the meanings behind some of the patterns and designs in cloth.
The different meanings behind the wooden chief's stools.
And more history on the slave trade.
Besides that it was a lot of the usual stuff. Pieces of pottery, arrows and tools etc.

Then we went to the Osekan resort to relax by the ocean, went into Osu to buy dinner at Papaye (charcoal chicken, rice) and crashed back home with a movie - of course.
A whole day with our new found friend. Henry, Junior, Flames.

Tomorrow is World Refugee Day. And we're back to work.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1182170700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1182170700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1182170700/tpod.html Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:06:41 -0400 Ethiopia, Ghana!

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Accra, Ghana

Once upon a time there was a lady who lived in Accra.
She was a good woman, an intelligent lady. In her youth she travelled to Japan, but found the noodles and raw fish lacking a certain flavour.
Bits and pieces of Japanese flow easily with her english and twi.
She married young, but well.
Life back in Accra took on momentum.
She gave birth to three boys. Became an apprentice in beauty school.
Then made her big leap - opened her own hair salon.
She's probably about 40.
But she's a young 40, her spirit is carbonated. And her giggle is contageous.
Her salon is literally across the street from our house.

Our story is:
About a week ago, Rosalina braided Leslie's hair. It's funny because Rosalina's apprentices couldn't show up, and Leslie has so much hair it actually took eight hours. So, over the two half days of braiding, Leslie and I both got to know all about her.
Her 18 year old son had recently become very very sick. That day - he was actually at the hospital. He'd been diagnosed with anemia.
And they were getting prescriptions written for him. He was checked out of hospital. They figured out the costs of medicine - which were just enormous for them. Something like 35 dollars. Leslie paid a little extra cash for her hair, and paid part way through the braiding process - so they could go get a couple days portion of the medication. Rosalina was so very grateful for the help.
Bernard, her son, came home that night. He seemed to be doing much better. The medication was working. He took his final exams at school, was his usual self and seemed to be doing well.
Saturday early in the morning, he was checked back into the hospital. Doctors said he needed a blood transfusion. He waited all day for one. It was dinner time when they finally got under way, and by then his breathing had worsened. By the next morning, he was dead.
We only found out this morning. From her apprentice. Her shop had been closed for a couple of days. But that's normal on a Sunday.

Remember, I said she had three sons. This is actually the second to die, within a year. Last July her twenty year old son died suddenly from heart failure. Now Bernard, her second son.
Her third boy, is just six years old.

Tonight walking home Leslie had stopped by a store, and I'd walked on ahead. I was waiting for her at the gate of our house.
It was the very last moments of dusk, and we were experiencing one of the random power shortages, so it was quite dark out.
"Sister Akuya, please." Came Rosalina's cry, she stepped out on the street to greet us both.
She'd come to tell us the news. Thankfully we'd already heard that morning. To hear it from her would have been more difficult.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1182780000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1182780000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1182780000/tpod.html Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:00:44 -0400 Ethiopia, Ghana!

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Accra, Ghana

Today was the first day of our "Popular Education" shoot.
Their office is about 20 minutes away and about a block away from the ocean. So there was plesent scenery (waves lavishly crashing on the shore) on the way there.

We arrive and meet Anita, one of the supervisors. She's a tall young gorgeous lady with an adorable three month old baby girl. She's welcoming to us - and she's our first interview. Tackling the age old question of where to shoot the interview, I settle on a spot outside. There is a big gorgeous rainbow flag hanging on the door out back. I stand Anita in front of it, we take time finding a cool angle, I've got her in focus. Leslie is mentioning some of the questions we'll ask. We're just about to start. I think we may have already even been rolling. When anxiety seems to cross her face, and she quickly steps back inside the office, calls us in after her.
It's the neighbors.
She doesn't know how much they actually understand about what it is that Popular Education does. And she's worried about explaining it clearly for the camera. Who knows who else will be listening? She doesn't want to cause trouble.
She wants to talk about 'Sisters of the Heart' a woman's support and empowerment group that accepts and counsels lesbians. Talk about the initiatives Popular Education has taken in regards the rights of MSM and WSW.
I hadn't even considered the neighbors.

Anita is also in charge of Popular Education's theatre program. The group of actors promote diversity and human rights by creating plays and sketches that deal with all sorts of discrimination. They portray speech impediments, those who walks with limps, kids who are nervous, shy and seem stupid, kids with 'gender' issues.
They perform at schools, markets etc.
And I guess, before their last performance - there was quite an uproar. Some locals came to the show and got into an arguement with the actors because they thought that the show was promoting homosexuality. But they quieted down, and agreed to actually watch the show through. At the end they actually admitted that the plays were about equality and human rights, and not promoting anything other then equality, unity.
But Anita explained the fear the performers and workers felt for a few, very long moments. Worried about what would come from the rising argument.
Let me pause here, and tell you about the factors I have come to understand are in relation to this fear.
Courts, police, clinics and locals all bend against the gay community.
And there is also such a thing as mob justice:
The other day I was sitting on my porch at home. Junior ( the artist who lived below) was with me, and Charon ( indian roomie) was there, lounging around.
When a mad rush of people came flying down our street.
One guy running out front like a cartoon character, legs outstretched.
Charon is calm, but interested in the sight.
Junior leans over the balcony and I kinda stand in awe, hold my drink a little closer.
" A thief! A thief," Junior explains.
The noise, shouts and arguing going on is incredible. It is as if as the group came running, there were sparks of energy flying up from them. Really! It was so intense, they were wild - it was the first time I was really grateful to be on the second floor, off the street.
Past me they run, off to where the street kind of ends, and there are narrow pathways through a maze of houses. The crowd seemed to amalgamate. The running has stopped.
I can't help observe everything with intesity. It's a tense few minutes.
Charon lets out a nervous half laugh and mumbles some joke with an indian accent so thick I've no idea what he actually said.
No one on the street is saying a word of english.
J comes up behind me, "I think they caught him:"
"Really? What are they saying?"
"I don't know - I'll listen."
We're all quiet, staring at the crowd, Junior straining to hear. Well. More like straining to decipher, words.
The crowd moves, kinda like a school of fish, turns around and walks swiftly back the way it came. It was impossible to tell if they had the culprit, there were too many hands and feet and I couldn't see if one was being detained. But for the crowd to move so decisively back in the direction it came, you've got to assume that they had him.
"He stole a cell phone. He stole a cell phone from a girl," Junior explains, ". . . I hope they didn't catch him. You know if they did. They could just burn him."
"What!?"
He walks away and leans on the railing again.
"It's true."
"You mean, they'd kill him? Burn him alive."
"Yeah, you know they do that to thiefs. They did that at my school."
Apparently some guy had been stealing things, had assaulted a couple of women had even cut them with rocks. One day they caught him - put a tire around him and burned him alive.
"I don't understand. How could they get away with that? Isn't there accountability? Police.. prosecution, order, a system of law.."
"Get away with what? It's mob justice," he's approaching me again, explaining with greater earnesty, "Yeah, you know, thats the way it is.. it's not right. I'm not saying its right. They're talking a lot about it, you know. On the radio, in newspapers - trying to say its not right, but, it happens... I'm glad they took him away from here. It's better not to get involved."

So when Anita talked about fear. Being surrounded by a crowd, with an arguement that is getting angrier and angrier. I see why there would be such fear. And from what I've come to understand, the gay/lesbian side will always be held accountable if cops are involved. After all, they are already criminals.
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