Going to Candler, Matters of Cloth, School & Blogging

Dear family and friends!

Hello :) it’s been a long week, but not at all a bad one. The major news: I have decided to go to Candler School of Theology next year for seminary! That’s the one in Atlanta, at Emory, where I got a full tuition/fees + stipend scholarship. I was also offered a very nice scholarships and lots of encouragement from Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge/Boston and Wesley Theological Seminary in DC, for which I am extremely grateful, and this made for an extremely difficult decision. But after lots of praying and thinking, I decided/found that the next thing I need to do in my life is find out more about my own tradition: what it means to be Christian, and Methodist, and the specifics of theology and circumstances (and hopefully leadings of Spirit) that have led us to where we are today. I still very much believe in what’s going on at Harvard, in terms of reaching across traditions to find what’s similar, and different, and means of appreciating all these aspects and doing true ministry through them. But right now, I feel like an adept in both of these fields, and while I want to become an expert in each, the former field is what I need to work on next, even while keeping in mind all that I’ve learned through the latter. And I think that I can do this better at Candler than at Wesley... Wesley has been extremely kind to me, and I know so many nice churches up there who would support me, but I just don't think it's where I'm meant to be. The environment just didn't settle perfectly with me. So, again, so many thanks to Harvard, Wesley, and much of what they stand for, but I feel like I need to go and learn at Candler.

As a side issue, I’m kind of excited about going to Atlanta. A small part of me feels like it’s right for me to stay in the South at this point (ironic that I’m writing this from Africa, I know. This is also right, just for this specific time period ;)). And I’ve had a passing fascination with this city that I barely know. Charlotte often measures itself by Atlanta, trying to repeat its successes and avoid its mistakes, eventually hoping to surpass it, so it sparks my curiosity. I’ve only been there a few times, with my family to visit my Uncle Steve, Heather & Vonda, but I also have friends who have gone through school there and met many dancers from the area.

And I’m glad that I’m looking forward to a worshiping community. I know that I could/should find this at any seminary, but regardless, I’m excited. This element has woven throughout my life, but was the closest it’s been to perfection last summer at Joshua Youth Camp, at CCC. I feel like at Candler I’ll find another experience of this and work at it yet again.

So, that’s it ;) I’m going to Candler, and I’m glad for it. I think I feel similarly to the way I did after I picked Guilford- still a little nervous, though happy to know where I’m going. And after my wonderful experience at Guilford, I’m confident that I’ll be content anywhere I’m led to go.

Anyway, let’s get back to Africa ;) Did you know that I’m in Ghana? It’s amazing and so interesting. So I’m going to talk about it again for a while ;)

We’ll start from the angle of cloth. Now, I still haven’t bought cloth, but I plan to, as everyone is encouraging me to get clothes made, and I also think it would be a good idea. I just haven’t at all decided what kind yet. If you would like to send me designs/pics/drawings of clothes that you think would look good on me, I’d be exceeding grateful ;) Right now I’m just trying to be observant and draw ideas every once in a while.

But cloth is something in which Ghanaians take a lot of pride. They accord imported stuff higher quality, but they love their own. They’re typically wax prints, though people also do a good bit of batiking here, and it’s beautiful. The wax prints can be extremely bizarre, with all kinds of designs, but I think at this point I would recognize Ghanaian designs anywhere. And all the print designs have names- often the names of proverbs, though a professor also mentioned one that subversively critiqued the government’s economic policy, which I thought was cool. So, if you know the name of the cloth you want, you can just ask for it that way. But apparently when you go to the market, if you take too much of a cloth merchant’s time without buying anything she’ll get mad and insult you (in Fante) as you leave. I have not yet experienced this as I have not yet even tried to buy cloth ;). Also, sellers may carry one company’s cloth, or multiple kinds. Imported stuff is generally called Dumas (I think… named after Dumas’s brother, purportedly a cloth merchant in Ghana at one point. So all the imported stuff got his name). Then there’s GTP, believed to be the highest quality Ghanaian cloth, and then ATL, which believed to be more modest.

A “piece” of cloth is 12 yards. Generally when a couple wants to get married, the guy has to buy (among many other things) 5 or 6 pieces of cloth for the wife’s family. It’s very important, and cloth is often given as gifts to mothers, mothers-in-law, and wives by both men & women. However, it’s usually bought by the half-piece, or 6 yards. Six yards is enough to make a full woman’s outfit: two yards for the top, two yards for the skirt (usually separate from the top, so it’s not a “dress”, per se), and two yards for the cover cloth. Now, the cover cloth is used to tie/wrap your baby to your back, but simply having a cloth is a sign of physical/emotional/financial maturity. Women just *do* use cover cloths, often. As for financial maturity, if you didn’t use a cloth, people might think that you could only afford 4 yards of cloth rather than 6. As for men, they do get shirts made from Ghanaian cloth, but traditionally men wear one big 8-yard piece of cloth kind of like a toga. These days they often wear shorts underneath them, and they’re usually worn to church, and cultural/official occasions like funerals. I’ve only seen one person wearing one at the University, but people wear them proudly on TV all the time, and they were all over the place at the 50^th anniversary celebration. So, because of these standard increments, you just can’t by 3 yards of cloth. They generally sell them by 6 yards and by 2 yards. If you don’t like it, that’s too bad for you ;).

Now, women don’t always wear their traditional clothes either… often they’ll wear bona fide dresses around the house, or in the market. But this 6-yard business is similarly for church & official occasions. Naana Jane, our (brilliant, amazing) African Literature professor and one of the few women faculty always wears such clothing to work, and always looks wonderful. In that way she reminds me very much of my mother. Generally, though, women wear a mixture of Ghanaian cloth and western clothing. The main requirement is that it can keep them cool enough. Also, day to day they’ll use any suitable cloth to carry their babies, or just to wrap around themselves in the evening. There’s more significance to it than I fully understand (why one would wrap an extra cloth over a part of your body that’s already completely covered), but that’s ok. Maybe it’ll sink in more before I leave.

The next matter: What is a market?

I was rather surprised a few weeks ago to find out that I’ve never actually been to Koto Kuraba, the main market in Cape Coast. My thought was: “but I take a taxi to Koto Kuraba all the time!” My misunderstanding was in the definition of a ‘market’. You see, people sell things at stands and shops all along the street, and having seen nothing else that resembled a market in the area, I thought that people were referring to this… The thing is that the Koto Kuraba market is hidden. There’s a gap in the shops, a few stores down from the taxi station, on the opposite side of the road, and the gap is no bigger than a common doorway. But through it you can see wooden stands lining a walkway. I know because I saw it for the very first time this week, but still have not gone in. Now, to be perfectly fair, I’ve wandered through and bought things at the Abura market and also at the mini-market at school, but it’s interesting how my very limited experience of them (supermarkets, farmer’s markets, the market near the cathedral we visited in Germany, the market in Charleston SC) influenced what I was willing to accept as a “market”. Such an odd word. I’ll try to look up the etymology today.

Things that are going on in my life: There have been some serious electricity issues going on recently. I think we’re going to have “Lights Out” once every four days, now, but it’s also been happening without warning again, which is unfortunate. People are getting upset that the government (which owns/regulates the power) hasn’t figured out any long-term solutions to this problem. They blame it on several things: the rain, people farming along the banks of the river leading to the dam, but regardless there are still some things that could be done. Anyway, for me this means that on nights when the power goes out, I get very tired and see no point in staying awake for long ;) This has been just as well this week, because I keep having to wake up at 5:45 so that I can get someplace by 7:30. I had church at 6am on Sunday (fortunately that’s about 30 steps from my house), class at 7:30 on Monday and Wednesday this week, and then had to make it to the internet café early on Tuesday to send off my acceptance to Candler before an 8:30 class. Thank God for Thursday. It’s been my favorite day of the week since I started doing handbells in middle school.

Also, I had a short assignment due this week, and one quiz; both went just fine. I feel like I have a strange, slight advantage in being able to rant easily and quickly in English, and therefore put more on the page during a timed quiz. Of course, usually I’m slower than everyone else, so perhaps it evens out. We’ll just hope.

However, the language issue is a serious one in religious studies classes. Terminology and semantics are important- people need to be on the same page when discussing something, but imagine how in the US one word of a religion discussion can set someone off on a tangent in the wrong direction, completely misconstruing what the other person was saying. Now imagine how much more likely this is to happen in an environment where English is used, but is never a person’s first language. Sometimes it’s painful. But I am happy to say that at this point I am learning a lot, particularly in my Jesus in the African Context class, but also in my Muslim Ethics class. More on that next week. African Traditional Religion is picking up slightly, but it’s still difficult. My advice to all future Guilford students coming to Ghana: don’t take 200 level classes. Just don’t. It’s a bad idea. You’ll learn things, but not at all what you were expecting to learn. And I really did want to learn African Traditional Religion more in-depth, and though now we’re working towards that again, there are these huge gaps full of talking about the similarities, differences and relationships between ATR & Christianity. And Western Culture, and ethics, and so many things that are strange to talk about in an African Traditional Religion class. Yep. Frustrating.

I think it’s partially because there’s this inner conflict in the University philosophy between Western and African teachings that simply hasn’t been reconciled. So some professors are just trying to indoctrinate their students “correctly” (if such a thing was ever possible) rather than teaching them things and letting them figure it out. People place so much faith in teachers here, and ask them questions that I think are really strange in such a context. Ex: “Well then, professor, how should we preach?” Granted, they’re asking a Presbyterian minister in a Jesus in the African Context class, but it’s weird to me. Interestingly, this professor, while he does speak on practical matters & give his opinions all the time, doesn’t answer such questions. He has a very interesting approach which is growing on me, though I don’t agree with everything he says. Also, the student who asked the above question- I’m really grateful he’s in our class. He’s a very nice boy, and is simply trying to learn. I’m just surprised at where he looks for answers/solutions.

Finally, I would like to comment on the state of this blog, and its future. I had a really nice conversation with my sister Hannah this week, and she mentioned that she and the rest of my family really like reading what I write every week- that it helps them feel connected. She was speaking mainly for my immediate family, but I know this to be true for other parts of my extended family and some friends, too, and I’m so glad it serves that function. That was precisely what I was hoping for when I made it before I left. I mean, I also hoped it would provide a bit of reflection space, and would allow me to pass on some knowledge to those considering or preparing to come to Ghana, but I really wanted it to give my family and friends a wide-angle view on how I’m doing, what I’m learning, and what life is like for me here. I’m happy that it does that to some degree. I like writing, though sometimes it’s difficult to sit down and make it happen ;) I like exploring all the webs of inter-related meaning that are forming in my mind through all of these observations. I hope they’re ok, but I also know that the effort is good for me to explore it through some outlet. I have attempted to be honest about both the joys and the difficulties, but also attempted not to let this be a simple account of my actions, nor a place to rant about life’s drama, as so many online journals become. I know that I’ve probably partially failed at times, maybe even gone farther than I should have in this very entry, but I’m trying to make this a good, true space.

All of that said, I thought that I would simply let it end when I came back home, or maybe a few entries later, to document the readjustment period. I thought that maybe I would pick it up again whenever I went traveling, or began something weighty and significant. However, my sister has made the point that life itself is weighty and significant, as are grad school, moving to a different city, etc etc. She thinks I should continue with this when I get back, and her point is well taken. So, I have some slight reservations, but I will. Thus, in case you continue to be curious, this log will continue to record how this Rose experiences the Wind :) How fitting that metaphor has turned out to be.

In the meantime, friends and family, I’m doing fine, and I still love you and miss you. I’ll get started on next week’s entry asap (I have so many things I still haven’t covered! ;)) I really hope you’re well, and thank you for caring!

Much, much love,

Rachel Rose