Saturday, June 26, 2004

This scene was right outside a school in a small community outside Bibiani. We had just witnessed the weekly all-school educational session on reproductive health (which was a combination of some speakers, some Q&A, some testimony by the students and a really bad video that was pretty much like one of those gross-out movies we used to see in health class to convince us that major body parts would fall off if we ever had sex.) After that, school was out for the day ... but all the kids waited outside for us. And when we stepped out, everyone rushed us, just wanting to touch us ... and that's what you see in this picture, just a huge crush of kids trying just to touch Mackinnon's hand. Then when I took out the camera to take a picture, the crowd of kids went really nuts and started jumping forward knocking down and almost trampling some of the kids. We had to stop and move off the porch and try to get the kids away the best as we could. They just kept mobbing us, and I thought they were going to pull my fingers off. It was like we were rock stars ... all because we were obroni. In terms of being made to feel welcome, yeah, we were made to feel welcome, but it was also disturbing. What about being white made us so wonderful? If anything, given the history here, you'd think it would be the opposite. But it’s not. The most disturbing thing that happens is when you're walking around and the kids come up to you and rub their arms against your... they're trying to get the whiteness to rub off onto them. I hope they know how incredibly beautiful they are, because things like this make me not so sure they do.  |
Mike at 6/26/2004 11:15:00 AM