Tuesday June 26, 2012  Africa:  Day 16

            We got to the camp and headed over to the same vocational school we were at yesterday.  It is definitely rainy season, so we spent a lot of time in the kitchen area watching the rain come down in sheets and wondering if we would have anyone for the presentation.  Most people stay home when it rains in order to try their best to keep their belongings dry.  The aluminum sheeting used for roofing doesn’t exactly hold up to this kind of rain.

            It was amazing to watch the women busily making cinnamon rolls, meat pies, and shortbread cookies.  One kept saying how nice it would be to use electric mixers as she sat creaming the sugar and butter with a big wooden spoon.  All these delicious creations are cooked in a coal-heated oven.  It’s a big box with metal shelves.  At the bottom there is a metal plate on a platform that is filled with hot coals.  The women showed us how they can bake anything in that oven and everything comes out a perfect golden brown.  We each bought two cinnamon rolls and two meat pies for a total of 2 cedi (or 1 dollar).  Considering the average person in the camp lives off of 50 pesue (or about 25 cents) a day, the ladies made a pretty good income just off of us that morning.

            One woman yesterday suggested that we do a presentation on domestic violence, so for our presentation today we started with this and finished with more information on stress and coping.  We talked about different types of domestic abuse and the four of us did little role plays showing examples of the symptoms of physical, emotional, sexual, and financial abuse.  The women were very engaged and some even had tears in their eyes as we discussed the different signs and symptoms.  One of the workers from our NGO also talked about social and cultural abuse that are unique to this area of the world.  She mentioned how some husbands refuse to let their wives leave the house to join various social associations or go to church, but they are free to go out with their friends whenever they please.  She also talked about some of the abuse that happens in the name of cultural traditions.  There are some pretty traumatizing practices associated with widow’s rites, female genital mutilation, death and burial of children, and ceremonial markings.  We let her discuss these because we are just learning about these topics ourselves.

            At the end we each got to share our personal coping skills that work for us when we feel stressed.  I talked about how listening and playing music helps me calm down.  I also was nominated to talk about how religion is a coping skill since this is a huge part of the local culture and none of the other girls consider themselves very religious.  I essentially bore my testimony  about the power of prayer and the strength and peace that comes from knowing that God loves and knows each of us and our unique situations, and when everything else seems completely out of our control, we can always trust Him to help us through whatever situation we are in.  I  got a little chorus of some “amens” at the end.