This morning I woke up to a text message from an old friend, Emma, asking if my family in India was alright. Emma met my family when she was staying there, and always asks after them. I wrote back immediately, but all I could say was that I had no idea what on earth she was talking about.
Fortunately my family was fine. As are Colin and Sonia, both traveling in India just now.
It is incredibly disconcerting to be far away, not from people, but from the news. I dont notice this distancing normally, it is only now, when I can feel violence touching the lives of people I care about, and I am left in the dark.
I had some information soon after getting to school, and my sister wrote to me early, to let me know that everyone was fine. Soon after this the teachers of the schoool were aware of what had happened. And for the most part they were interested and thoughtful. But of course there is the one person who is gleefully self-righteous. Condemning terrorism and muslims in general with one broad sentence. I ignored it as I always do. I wonder if I always will.
A week from Sunday Ghana will have their presidential election. There are two frontrunners... the incumbent and the person that everyone says won last time. Will there be violence? There has already been violence in the villages far from Accra, but no one is expecting more than tension in the city. Ghana has been peaceful for a while... I really hope it stays that way.
1 comment:
I am glad to hear that your family is safe. A word of advice on dealing with the broad statements. I know that Ghanains and Kenyans are very different, but I am gonna try and draw a parallel anyway. when I was in Kenya people would make broad statements to me about things relating to Bush and foreign policy. I found that they did this both to show that they knew about the US and to try and empathize with me. In most situations I would say that it is better to explain your disagreement with statements than to make people think that you agree by not responding. I know that you will be able to work it out, but by not saying anything you are simply perpetuating ignorance.
Post a Comment