International Women's Day

International Women’s Day was on Friday.  On our drive to Cape Coast it was a pleasure to hear the Accra radio station devote their evening show to women in Ghana while we were stuck in some never ending traffic.   It made me think about so many  people I admire and respect and reflect on our roles as women in different parts of the world.  

One of the things I have noticed while in Ghana is that Sylvie always has a group of boys to play with around the house.   There is Essum, Junior and Gabrielle who are the most regular.   At first I thought it might be that the boys were more bold and willing to play with a new person in the neighbourhood.   However, there are several young girls around and sometimes Camilla and a couple others come over to play, but they are much less frequent in their visits.   I have come to realize that while the boys play in the afternoon the girls Sylvie’s age are fetching water, cooking or doing cleaning.   In between their chores they might come and join in with the fun or some reading for  10 minutes or so, but then they are off to their next task.    I also see this pattern at school.   Some of the girls I am working with often are very tired and more interested in putting their heads down, then focusing on reading.   Today, we had them draw pictures of themselves.   In the most ambitious group, Cynthia did a great drawing of her cooking, pounding foufou and smiling with a flower in her hair.  Meanwhile the boys did drawings of themselves playing football and blowing trumpets.    

This afternoon we went to the Hohoe Public Library, so that Sylvie could have some quiet time to do some school work.   It was a lovely quiet cool building.  Built in such a way that the breezes came through the building and there was no need for fans or air conditioning.  There were quite a few teenagers studying and doing homework.  But again all of them were boys, with one lone girl in the corner.   We gave her a nice smile when we went out.  

So I guess this post is too all the girls and women out there.   Hugs to all.