The Human Experience

Where there is life, there is hope.

What causes people to hope as they had scarcely allowed themselves to do before? There is a lot of heartache in this worlds experience but hope and faith are what keep people holding on. The instinct to survive and to hope for a better tomorrow is something that everyone feels, something that everyone knows. It is the strength of belief.

I have been thinking a lot lately about human beings and what our experiences here on earth are all about. From a spiritual perspective, I have that figured out. I know that if I endure to the end and live worthily I will return to live with my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ again, but what about my experience here on earth will give it the most value, what will allow me to influence as many people as I can and allow them to influence me as well? What sorts of things do I need to understand that will allow me to help guide others to come unto Christ through my example? I guess I just want to utilize my time here on earth in the best way that I can.

I am big on documentaries. I love them. When I was at home about a month ago with my family we watched one called "The Human Experience". In this film, Jeffrey Azize wants to find answers to the question, "What does it mean to be human?". To do this he and his brother spend a week experiencing what it means to be homeless, sleeping on the streets and begging for food included, then they go to Peru and onto Ghana to visit my place, my people...naturally I loved this. They visited leper colonies and spent time with people with AIDS, visit a hospital full of abandoned children etc...while watching them experience these things my mind was racing and I was taking notes like crazy on my phone because it really made me think about life.

-FAMILY:

       Family is the project of the human being. What it is to be loved and where that dignity comes from begins in the home. Our families provide us with our first experiences. Hopefully home and family means a safe space where we rejuvenate and heal. Whether it has been that place of security or if its been a place of insecurity, you want to share your life with them. They are yours. Family is true happiness and a love that you cant explain.

-RELATIONSHIPS:

       What is the human relationship? We're talking true, meaningful relationships here. Now that does not mean that you have to know everything about one another, nor does it mean that you have really influenced one another's lives or even spent a significant amount of time together. Of course, those relationships tend to be the ones we value most in this life; but, I think it is much more than that. The human relationship is about acceptance. It is about loving someone not because of what they do, but because of who they are...thats not to say that people's actions aren't important because they make us who we are...what I mean by this is that really great relationships between human beings all have one thing in common: ACCEPTANCE. Acceptance simply because you are a human being, because you are real. Imperfect just like everybody else, but real.

-LIFE, the ability to choose:

      A human life is an unrepeatable, unprecedented adventure. Every human life. Not one single human being  that has lived and ever will live will experience life the same. We each have unique experiences that shape our worlds out of those experiences. Our lives are a result of the world that has created us yet at the same time the world we live in is one that we have created. When God created the earth he gave us more than enough to spare, it is what it is now because of what we have made of it. Similarly, He gave us life and all the resources we need to survive, but we choose how we use those resources in this life. We live on the earth but choose how we make our world. CHOOSE is the big word here. Over the last few months I have learned the gravity of that word. The power that I have to choose is so much bigger than I had ever realized before. I strongly believe that the Lord has a plan for me and that He will guide me down that path, yet I have the ability to choose to follow it, to follow Him. I was reading an article in the June or July 2013 Ensign about a week ago, I cant recall which one, which was talking about independence saying that "real freedom is best exhibited and experienced by always CHOOSING THE RIGHT. God has given you not only the right to choose between good and evil but also the power to choose good OVER evil." God has given us power to choose; And it is a powerful thing, a powerful choice even. The choices we make determine the lives we live but ultimately we choose. This power to choose places us above Satan and his hosts, we decide, not Satan. With that, there is no room for blame. The only people we can blame for our attitudes and our experiences are ourselves. Of course there are times and people and places who do not have the ability to choose because it has been taken from them through forms of slavery, addiction, imprisonment or whatever, but attitudes are completely our own. No one but you can decide how you feel and how you see a situation. Those choices about how you feel are huge. I have experienced both sides of this in choosing to be miserable and sad and choosing to be happy and let me tell you, happiness is the better choice. And it was as simple as CHOOSING to be happy. It sounds crazy but I really did choose how to feel and it made all the difference. At the same time I had to be making good choices in order to really truly feel that happiness but it works.

-FIND JOY

       I have spent a lot of time outdoors experiencing this beautiful earth and what it has to offer over the last few months and incredible sights are truly something to be experienced and it is hard not to love those things. But, I have made it a point to find joy in the ordinary, in the simplest things and that has made all the difference.

Journal #31: You Must Do

While reading a plethora of articles today as I tried to catch up on my sources I started to think about how everyone in these research plans had to simply DO. No one on this earth could be where they were if they hadn't chosen to take the steps necessary to make it to where they are. Lawrence Corbridge, author of the "Fourth Missionary" said that "your life's greatest work is you". And ultimately is that not what this is all about? Life...its about bettering ourselves through service to others in order to make it back to our Heavenly Father; it is about experiencing, about learning, about choosing, and finding. I would not be where I am today without the work I have done and my constant efforts to be better and to DO more every single day. I am constantly striving to do more and to be more like the quote above says, but what does that mean for my research? I certainly would not be doing it if I were not trying to do more and be more for myself and my own progression, but more than that I want to learn about other people in our world and how they do more and how they choose to be more. Agency will certainly come into play in my research. The doctors and patients I observe will be making constant choices and will not know the consequence or why they are saying this and doing that, though their background lead them to where they are today. With that, our discussion about dealing with culture shock today made me think even more about the choices I will be making each day. In less than a month I will be entering a culture that is so different from what I am used to. I really only know two worlds. Roseville, California and Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. I have not experienced much else. Not only am I going on an adventure on my own, away from all familiarity, family, and friends, I am going on a journey that will potentially rock my world. I am going to see and experience things that I did not expect nor will I anticipate the way this experience is going to affect and change me. So what am I going to choose? Am I going to choose to let myself get overwhelmed in wishing I was home, or wishing that my field experience was over because it is too stressful, or wishing that I could just eat a hamburger already...no. I am human, inevitably I will feel frustrated, lonely, confused, without purpose, hungry, tired, bewildered, overwhelmed, and just completely lost at times throughout this experience. BUT, the beauty of those feelings is in the opposition. I will also feel joy, gladness, full, hot, proud, full of purpose, productive, changed, etc... There is no telling what feelings my experience will facilitate. I am an open book. Waiting to be written upon. My pages are blank, I don't know what to expect, and I am ready to let this experience change me. I am ready to embrace this African culture. I am ready to face these challenges. I am willing to let Heavenly Father give me a mountain to climb and I am determined to reach the top. I am ready to suffer through the sleepless nights and the weight loss from lack of nutrients because my stomach is not used to the food. I am ready to get malaria (lets hope I don't but it would be great participant observation after all). I am ready to take bucket showers. I am ready to rely on the Lord as my comfort and my best friend when I cannot call my mom at the drop of a hat. I am ready to make this a success academically, spiritually, and emotionally. I am prepared to CHOOSE happiness and positivity. I know that I have the capacity to overcome those days where I feel lost and lonely and confused. I know that I can ultimately learn way more from this culture than they could ever learn from me and I am excited to let these people and this experience write my story this summer. It won't be anything like Rita Skeeter on Harry Potter, no twisting and turning and changing the words to fabricate gossip. This experience is going to be raw. The things I learn and the words I put on paper are going to be raw. I am going to face new challenges within the scope of my project every day that I am forced to overcome. Problem solving and quick wit are two things that I am blessed with which I know will come in handy. I know that the success of my project is up to me, but like I said in my earlier post about what success means to me...found here ... I am going to choose to make each day that success. This culture is going to change me and it is going to be hard. I am going to feel culture shock, in all of its stages. I am going to be as happy as can be and know my purpose for being there. And ultimately, I am going to bear my name, the name of BYU and the name of one of God's children proudly.

Journal #29: success

 I feel like I have grown more spiritually this semester than at any time in my life. I was not anticipating this aspect of my preparation for Ghana at all but it has been the most rewarding growth I think I have ever experienced and I feel like it is going to make a world of difference while I am there. Today in class someone mentioned about how our attitudes will greatly affect our experience, especially in how we identify each aspect of our day and that got me thinking about how I will define my days in Ghana, and even more so had me asking myself how do I define my every day? What do I look back on at the end of the day when I am laying in bed? Do I see my life and my accomplishments as a success?

What is success, and how do we achieve it? I think it is different for every human being on this earth and no two people would define it in the same way. Some days for me are successful if I am able to get out of bed in the morning to drag myself to statistics at 9 am with 3 hours of sleep the night before. Others, are full of fulfilling accomplishments and appreciation of the beautiful world we live in. Others are a success simply because I was able to smile at someone and bring a little sunshine to their day. Success is one of the words in our vocabulary which is extremely relative to the beholder of its vision and context. But what does it mean to me?

 Like this quote to the right, I feel like success to me means that I was able to do all the little things that make for a happy and fulfilling life for me. Making my bed, brushing my teeth, praying in the morning, getting ready for school, getting a decent breakfast, finishing my homework, getting everything done at work, learning something new, appreciating God's creations, talking to my family, writing a letter, exercising, reading scriptures, working on my project proposal, learning a new word in Twi, doing well on a test, singing a song, doing the dishes, feeling the sun on my skin, being kind to others, helping out when I was not asked, staying awake in class, writing in my journal, only going on facebook once a day, thinking about others, reading a book, visiting a friend I haven't seen in awhile,

stopping to talk to someone instead of just swiftly saying hello and walking quickly by to my next destination (why am i always in such a hurry to get to the next place anyway?), stopping to look at the sunset, experiencing something new, feeling the spirit, doing well on a test, laughing with my roommates, calling my mom, being proud of my appearance, fulfilling my callings, always moving forward, stumbling upon something serendipitous, feeling joyful nostalgia, eating only healthy foods some days, not being mad at myself for indulging in sweets, feeling completely content with who I am,

  

understanding my role as a woman here on earth, recognizing God's hand in all things, coming home to a clean house, making a new friend, telling my Dad how much I love him, expressing gratitude, dancing, going to the park, marveling at the beauty of this life, learning how to love others, teaching someone something, never taking someone's sunshine away, smiling at pictures of my nephews, gaining insight about something from my sister, laughing at a joke, helping out a friend, helping out a stranger... If I could I would keep that list going forever. For now I will just keep listing the little successes in my mind. I think that every day that we are alive is a success. Heavenly Father gave us bodies and free agency and He trusts us with this amazing power to live. So what are we going to do with it? Are we going to sit on the couch thinking about all the things we should have done that day or are we going to praise His name and recognize the beauty of every single breath, every single step, and every single moment that we experience here on this earth. Every day is a success really and if we just remember that, if I just remember that then I will have such a beautiful experience in the field.


Beyond those successes that I feel every day, I wonder what will feel like a success when it comes to my research. I honestly have no idea and the closer my departure date, the less prepared I feel. I don't know what my typical day will be like. I don't know what I am going to eat, I don't know what I am going to do, I don't know what I am going to wear, I don't even know if my methods and planning for my research are going to work out at all. That is the beauty of this though, I just don't know. I am going into this with zero expectations because I don't even know what to think about most things. I just realized that I have been sitting here thinking about this concept for an hour already...what is it going to be like when I am in the field reflecting upon my day. Will I be happy with the research I was able to do that day? Did I collect data that is conducive to my research question? Did I bring a smile to someone? Did I learn from the Ghanaian people and embrace their culture that day? Was I able to eat the food? Did I stop to thank my Heavenly Father for the opportunity to be there? What kinds of things are going to spell out SUCCESS for me while I am in Ghana? I really don't know. I don't know if my research methods are actually going to produce the results I am seeking. I don't know if I will have valid research to write my senior thesis on at the end of the summer. I don't know how I am going to react to culture shock and a new experience in a new place with hundreds of strangers and no family nearby. I don't know how I am going to cope with my back pain if I have to stand up a lot during my volunteer/research hours at the hospital. I don't even know how I am going to really dive into my research and get it done. But the one thing that I do know is that I am going to "embrace each day with an enthusiastic welcome, no matter how it looks" -Elder Busche. That will be my success. I am going to have a good experience. I am going to learn about the people in Ghana as a friend, as an anthropologist, as a foreigner, an outsider, a woman, a girl, a human being. I am going to let this experience change me. I am going to MAKE each day a success.

Journal #27: Communication

     Overwhelmed is the only word I can use to express the way I feel right now. I am overwhelmed. As I just wrote that word I wondered what the word whelm is defined as, it means to be submerged or engulfed. That pretty much sums it up. And to be overwhelmed just magnifies those connotations. It is natural I'm sure to freak out a little bit before one ventures off into the unknown, which this experience sure is. Not one of the girls I am going to Ghana with have been before. We are all just going to be learning as we go. I think I, out of everyone has had the least experience living or vacationing abroad as well. The most I have been out of the United States was for about 7 hours in Ensanada Mexico at the market and in an orphanage. Different experience culturally yes, but not shocking or something that I had to get used to because I knew that I would be back on the cruise ship in a few short hours so it was just a fun little experience. Yes, Ghana will be fun. No, it will not be 'little'.
     Today I have been thinking about communication. It is going to be so important that I learn how to communicate effectively in every form of the word. I will need to learn how to communicate as much is needed in Twi, knowing how to joke and build relationships with people will be especially important for my cultural experience as well as for the success of my project in that the people that I glean information from need to be able to trust me and I can only build that trust if I am able to communicate with them. That goes for English as well, the "pigeon" English that is spoken there will take getting used to. I will need to learn to communicate effectively with my host mother, Doris, and those others in our household because they will be one of my most useful tools in meeting people and building contacts so creating a good relationship with them will be essential. The doctors and care providers that I work with on a daily basis will provide me with the bulk of my information for the purpose of my study alone, but they can also teach me a lot about the culture and Ghanaian health care. Of course there are many more people with whom effective communication will be essential but as far as the aforementioned go, I want to work on learning how to better communicate with them.

     Getting people to know how to effectively communicate back with me is another challenge that I will be needing to face. For my informants to understand myself as a person, and my purpose for being in Ghana, studying their culture and health care, I need to be aware of their needs as well as my own. It is just as important that they understand me because then they will be more willing to give me information that will be beneficial to my study. This is all in the informal sense because interviews are not a part of my methods,which I may find is detrimental,but I imagine that I will receive more than enough information for my study from my participant observations of those doctor-patient interactions I hope to observe, and if not, I will be flexible.The main point is, communication is key.

Journal # 12: Marriage

     For class today we read an article about marriage in Ghana. It is not exactly akin to something you would read about marriage here. It seems like marriage as a priority in America has floated away in the wind, especially in the media. It is like it is not even a big deal. Seemingly contradictory, Prop 8 was repealed this week which drastically changes the ideas of marriage in California and even in the United States. There are stark contrasts between cultures about what is or is not acceptable but at the same time there are clusters within each culture which differs from the greater picture and within the same culture, differing values and such can change the whole dynamic of that so called bigger picture. To be honest I'm not even sure that I could define the marriage practices outside of the church that could represent those of the United States. Reading this selection about marriage in Ghana really got me thinking about motivations for marriage among different cultures, and even among people in the same cultures who hold onto different values and beliefs. I heard about an article recently where this woman went off about the 'shame of the church's history of polygamy' now I am certainly glad I did not live in that time but I also am not ashamed of it. For whatever reason, the Lord needed that to happen at that time and I would only hope that I have enough faith to follow Him in whatever He asks of me. Ploygamy in Ghana is not uncommon, in many parts of Africa even. I have read many books that talk about many different tribes and the African people are no strangers to this concept. Polyandry (one woman with multiple husbands) is even practiced among some tribes. The reality of these practices today may not be to the extent of what it was when those books were written, or maybe they are still in full swing but regardless, it exists. So with that said, what are the forces which drive people to enter into these types of marriage, lets take it one step back and ask what forces drive people to get married at all? I am not married, thus I cannot answer this question though it is something that many people have probably wondered or experienced in their lives. Seeing the differences in marriage practices and all other relationships will be fun to explore among Ghanaian culture as I anticipate it being very different from those that I am used to. Along with this concept, I am very excited to look at the relationships which gender provide as I am aware that they will have a very different dynamic than that I am used to here in the good ol United States.

Journal #4: The Golden Stool

For class on Wednesday we talked a little bit about the history of Ghana and its politics and such. One of the most significant markers of unity and strength for Ghana is the Golden Stool. The history of the stool is as follows: The Ashanti Kingdom in Ghana West Africa, was founded in the seventeenth century by King Osei Tutu I, with the help of his feared Priest Okomfo Anokye. The myth is told that Okomfo Anokye conjured the famous Golden Stool from the sky and landed it on the lap of King Osei Tutu, the first King of the Ashantis. The Fetish Priest declared that the soul of the nation resided in the stool and the people must preserve and respect it. Ashantis believe that just as a man could not live when his soul is taken, so the Asante people would disappear from history if ever the Golden stool were taken away from them. Covered with pure gold, the Golden Stool is never allowed to touch the ground. When a new Ashanti King is installed, he is merely lowered and passed over the stools three times without touching it. Whenever the golden stool is taken out on special occasions, the Asantehene follows it. Throughout history, wars have broken out over this object. It symbolizes the power and soul of Ghana. It is a huge part of their identity. Many things depict this object and symbol. Stores are named after it and pictures and symbols are apparently all over this country because of what it represents.
      From learning about this simple piece of history, I have decided to really try to learn about and recognize the simple things that influence a persons culture and by extension, their identity. There are going to be things that come up in conversation between doctors , traditional healers, and patients that have stemmed from their sense of person-hood that has been attained from their connections to Ghana as a place, and as a part of who they are. It will be critical for me to be able to identify and understand these things if I am to analyze these interactions to the very best of my abilities as an anthropologist and I am excited to keep learning more about it everyday.