Of writer's block and jumbled thoughts...

So I had planned on writing a blog post soon after Lizziey's last post... but that didn't happen... obviously. 

The problem: I honestly don't know what to write about. 

The approach: Writing about being unable to write. This comes teacher advice for writing reflections and journal entries. Whenever students complained about not knowing what to write about, teachers would usually say to write about the assignment itself. Of course, this usually turned into long rants complaining about the absurdity of the assignment, but Hey! It was technically a reflection/journal entry after all. Wow, I just had a flash-back memory of TAPATEA(O)s* for Spanish in middle school!

The solution: To start writing, even though I don't have a specific topic on mind...

The result:

 I still don't know what to write about! I have plenty of budding ideas, but most of them are too time consuming to actually carry out...

A long while back I wanted to write about the facial scars some of the kids have at school. I had known that these deep and noticeable markings had been made intentionally, and were not the result of some strange type of abuse. I carefully asked one of the B4 kids about it, and he managed a short mumbled explanation.

      "Other people have it too..."  "It's okay." I said after noticing his reluctance. "You don't need to tell me if you don't want to, I won't force you, I was just curious." Then I resumed my work of organizing books, so as to make clear that he needed not continue his story. "It is not good Madame"...  (I waited patiently for him to continue) "It means my mom had a baby that died." He explained a little more, but the gist of it was that when a baby died, he and and his sibling got the marks. 

Recently I remembered to do some research about it and found that the facial scars in Ghana held many meanings for different people. Some were basically "tribal marks", others were used for beauty, and others for medicinal/spiritual purposes. I found a better explanation about the one's pertaining to an infant's death. According to the information I found** the belief is that after the death of an infant, that same spirit goes into the next child born. They are considered children who "come and go", and the marks are meant to keep the child from dying (so as to keep him/her in the realm of the living)... 

I don't know how accurate this finding is for the case of the student here, but I presume it to be pretty close....

I still don't know what to write about...

Women often wear long colorful tailored dresses to special occasions (such as church). Street vendors often carry things on the top of their head. Babies are carried piggy-back style, using a large sheet for support. Drivers treat traffic signals as mere suggestions, even seat belts are optional for passengers (but not for drivers). Plastic bags and random trash lay by the waste-filled ditches by the side of the roads. Traffic is a nightmare (literally you can stay in the same exact spot for 20 min. before advancing!). Herds of goats and sheep lurk in every corner. Sunsets and star filled skies are breathtakingly beautiful. Music and signing can be heard at all hours of the day (and night). Ants and lizards are everywhere, it is impossible to avoid them. The pineapple is very sweet!...

That's the end of my fragmented and rambled thoughts.

~Jamie

*TAPATEA(O) were basically complex and thorough book reports for spanish, each letter stands for a different section of the report: T(title), A(author), P(characters), A(argument), T(theme), E(style), A(environment and atmosphere), and O (personal opinion). 

** An Ancient Practice-Scarification and Tribal Marking in Ghana by Alyssa Irving.