Really, I suppose it should be “Who Knew I’d Find These Things in Ghana??” as there are multiple items on the list. But it’s written in stone and can’t be undone (I like the original title better). [In other news, today is Wednesday which means I get my first skirt and we’re going salsa dancing!]
Travel Bug
When I was little (8 and had just been to Ireland with Nana and Tata) I always included travelling on my list of hobbies/ things I enjoyed on those awful first day of school get-to-know-you sheets. Of course, I’ve never made time for 3am Team Donut runs, am too realistic when it comes to choosing between homework/obligations and going for a Saturday hike, don’t go out of my way to explore and sit in the house both when we visit Tucson and at home, and am in general pretty lame. Closest I’ve been recently (pre-Ghana) was when I drove up to Oklahoma by myself this summer. “Wow. Real adventurous, Kaia,” you mutter. It’s getting better. Promise. Here’s the thing. While sitting in the ISEP office the other day and reading the advice books from previous students, I noticed that I was imagining walking down streets (which were oddly European in my head) and finding these places. I wanted to leave at 7:30-8am, get on a tro-tro and just go, either on my own or with one other. I skyped my swim team Sunday night and just felt great. Kelly was there and after talking to her and reading her blog…I have to go to Benin, Togo, and Burkina Faso. It’s not really an option. I live in Arkansas. It’s the Natural State for a reason, and yet I’ve been to few of the parks and lakes. I think that’s something I want to change when I’m home next semester. Travelling is appealing again. C’est tres bien.
Writing & Mail
Since arriving, I’ve done a relatively good job of keeping a written journal in addition to the blog. Some days have 5 pages from catching up or simply trying to record events and details. Everything is important and I don’t want it to go away. My mom and Baby Kate have been so wonderful sending me mail (love you guys). I’ve emailed a bit, but am working on getting out some physical letters! There will be at least 4 going out today (assuming all the necessary machines are working at the post office…they weren’t Monday. So no stamps yet.) I’ve gotten mail in the States, so this isn’t the first time. Rather, I’ve always been interested in written correspondence and impressed by those who keep it up on a regular basis (Basically my Nana. You guys don’t even know how great her notes are.) and am finding myself finally making time for it.
One of the seven classes I chose is a music practical course in seprewa. The seprewa is a small traditional Ghanain harp. The name is Twi and literally means “speak, touch, small.” Initially, I went to the Music Department’s notice board and looked for words I didn’t know/couldn’t pronounce. I saw seprewa and atenteben. Once I learned that atenteben is a small flute and seprewa a small harp, I chose the one with strings, thinking that experience with violin would provide some familiarity. Not really. It’s completely different, but I’m so glad I chose it! After 3 classes, I can tell I’ve developed new skills. The first day was spent learning the seprewa’s history and the first round of basic skill sets.
History: The Asanti(?) people conquered much land in the early days, ~13th-14th centuries. After a battle or war, they sent out search parties to look for survivors and either take them prisoner or kill them. Once during a search, the party went into a hut and found a man who had lost a leg prior to the battle. He was lying on the ground clutching an odd instrument they’d never seen before. He began playing and enchanted the warriors who took him back to the king. The king fell in love with the instrument’s music and ordered the man to play whenever he wanted. The man was saved because of the little instrument that spoke when touched. When the man died, the king was very sad and had a seprewa made that was covered in gold. Seprewa is a Twi word, or rather, words. “Se-pre-wa”: literally “speak, touch, small.” It was very popular in the 15th and 16th centuries, but was slowly forgotten for the more popular Western instruments. It was kept alive by people here and there. My instructor, Osei, said his grandfather had a dream, in the 50s I believe, and recreated/made a seprewa. When he was little, Osei asked his grandfather to teach him. Now he teaches at UG and makes seprewas that he takes to schools in four of Ghana’s ten regions. His hope is that some of them will come to university and, already having been exposed, will be interested in continuing seprewa.
I was googling “seprewa” yesterday to send a picture to a friend and found a 2009 youtube clip of Osei playing his seprewa. In the description, it mentions that he is one of five seprewa masters in the world. Apparently, he’s performed internationally, including with the London Philharmonic. No big deal. This is my seprewa instructor. He is the nicest man and has at least 3 great kids whom I met Monday. And to think I considered switching into traditional drumming or dance classes, because where/when else will I ever have the chance to take those? But then this seprewa thing happened and, you know what? I couldn’t be happier with my choice. Any and every experience can only add to the knowledge bucket. Who knows what this’ll do? Below is the link. Enjoy :)
Unnecessary English Letters and How to Pronounce the Letter “c” OR The Non-Native Knows More About English Than We Do…
I first heard about this while driving up to Blanchard Springs/Mountain Home with my ORientation group freshman year of college. Jack was one of the OR leaders and always wore a green top hat. He was a linguistics major and spent a good bit explaining why the letter “c” and another that I don’t remember, and is irrelevant to the story, are unnecessary. “C” can either be hard or soft as in cake or cement, two sounds that are also made by the lovely “k” and “s.” Seems simple enough and I get it: why have a letter whose sound you seemingly can’t distinguish other than through practice and that can be covered by two others perfectly capable of conveying the phonetic intention every. single. time. Anyways. Since we can’t change the English characters, how do you determine whether a “c” is soft or hard? I learned the trick from my non-native English speaking Twi instructor who explained the reasoning to an entire classroom of native English speakers.
There’s this thing linguists call the vowel trapezoid. Basically when “c” is followed by a frontal vowel, c=s and is soft as in ceiling and cell. When “c” is followed by a back vowel, c=k and sounds hard as in cake and conduct.
Black Cinema Night
I’ve lived in the South for 16 years and have seen black movies…but couldn’t tell you which ones they are and could probably definitely count them on one. I mentioned this in a previous post, but it’s embarrassing how much we [white girls] haven’t been exposed to. I don’t notice that 99% of major films are white with their token black character or two. I like to think that people are open minded, that we don’t actually make assumptions based on an individual’s color, that women are treated equally. I conveniently forget that these are not true. Myself definitely included. About once a week, our group has what we call Black Cinema Night. Everyone should watch For Colored Girls, a film adaptation of a play. It’s really good. I’ve also been reminded of how beautiful spoken word is and told the difference between it and slam poetry.
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