Val's Day and Other Reflections

February 14 is a major holiday in Ghana, and although there is certainly a strong romantic element, it isn't a holiday only geared towards couples like it is in the U.S. There are parties, concerts, and all sorts of other social events - it might be the busiest Wednesday night I've seen here yet. It is also known as national chocolate day (cocoa being one of Ghana's biggest exports) which I personally think is a whole lot better than all of that romantic stuff.


Besides the chocolate, though, Val's Day (as a lot of people call it here) turned out to be a surprising window into Ghana's sexual culture, as well as a really fun night out. In Leadership 4 (a course for Ashesi seniors that focuses on how to be a community leader) on Wednesday we had a speaker from West African AIDS Foundation come to talk to the class, and some of the reactions were quite startling. Before the speaker showed up, the professor asked a few questions to start up a conversation on sex and love. What was stranger to me than the comments was the general mood - the giggles and jokes made me feel like I was in a middle school classroom. When the NGO worker later asked how many students had ever had an AIDS test, only one Ghanaian student raised her hand. (I should admit here that I have never been tested myself, but at least I know how and where to get tested, and I'm not afraid to talk about it.) In discussions later about the class, we (the CIEE students) couldn't decide whether students at Ashesi really aren't having sex, or whether they just don't know how to discuss it. I wonder how many students will take advantage of the AIDS testing that will soon be available on campus.

On a less serious note, Valentine's Day was also a great opportunity to go out (on a weeknight too, a strange rarity here), and I experienced something of a breakthrough in my mentality towards nightlife here. I ventured out (in red pants) with two other American girls, and we eventually made it to an outdoor concert designed to raise awareness about AIDS. (Continuing the theme from above: one of the MCs, after promoting the use of condoms, suggested that women could also use "that pill thing." Um, no, that won't work. What the hell. Right in that moment I understood a huge part of the problem of AIDS prevention in Africa.) But the storyline that took us from our hostel to the concert and back includes several other stops that weren't exactly planned, which is the way most days and nights out unfold in Ghana.


The difference is that on Wednesday night I was fine with it. We were with our program assistant's younger brother, but perhaps more important than that was our own growing confidence in our knowledge of Accra. For the first time, I wasn't worried about how things would turn out, because I knew that whatever happened, we could always walk out and get a cab and direct the driver home. These are some basic urban survival skills that I didn't have when I walked off the plane; I didn't know how to bargain with the cab drivers, I didn't know my way anywhere, I didn't even know where to buy groceries or how much they should cost. But now I am comfortable in this city. It's still no Manhattan - without streetlights, public transportation and reliable police, it will never be as safe. But I know how to navigate through all of that now. Now it's time to relax and have fun.

PHOTOS: the fishing boats at Cape Coast (stolen from Netanus), schoolchildren just outside Accra