Society For Women and AIDS/ I LOVE Dancing and it’s Mabe One of the Best Ways to Make Friends or Atleast Humble Oneself

I finally found an internship. Halleluah praise the lord! As my twi teacher and the Ghanaians would say. It was actually worth waiting for and a really good organization. My faith has been somewhat restored in NGO’s, although I still cannot come to terms with the amount of time it takes for anything to be implemented or get running here.

The organization is SWAA and it has 400 members both positive and negative for HIV. It is run entirely by women- maybe cause for its ability to get things done?- It is run by an executive board of 12 volunteers. They are all large, strong, take no shit, tough, wealthy ghanain women from all sorts of different occupations. They are really dedicated and inspiring. Some of the women who are positive are so young and beautiful, they have this incredible spirit that is both heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time.

As of yet, I have written up the questionnare for the SWAA miss positive leadership HIV pagent to be held later this month ( i’ll hopefully get a free ticket since they are 25 us dollars!) at the Canada High Commission. I’ve done a lot of secretarial work, but on Thurs. I’m going to a convention for AIDS ngos in Ghana. This will be a really good chance to see what other groups are doing, and one woman i’ve met is even going to take me to join in on a batik dying group that is composed of all hiv positive women. The cloth is then sold to raise money for treatment and counseling. I should also hopefully be getting started on a campaign to educate sex workers in accra about the female condom, condom usage in preventing the spread of hiv and stds, and safety precautions in general.

So, I think that this will be a good way to spend my time in Ghana now that classes are coming to a close in two weeks, and I now have even more free time than I did before. I really didn’t think that possible..

Oh, and the dancing comes in since the other secretary in the office- the only male- dances to highlife music with me in the reception room during breaks and serenades me with celine dion. She’s incredibly popular here for reasons that are totally and completely beyond me. I also realize that I dance four days a week for class, and often three nights a week going out during the week. I love the dancing here- I really do. It’s funny but I really think it will be something I’ll have to adjust to when I go home. There’s nothing like dancing under the palm trees to a live band with people refraining on either side, “I didn’t know obruni ladies could dance…hahahaha.” There are so many good dancers to learn from, who then make you look silly when you try to keep up or mimic their natural propensity towards rhythm. Then of course one finds themselves mildly accosted, but its all part of the experience.