Rainy days and sensitivity

I’m sensitive about Africa.

 It’s not specific to my country. I’m currently in Ghana and I’m sensitive about the things people (aka foreigners) say here.  I get visibly irritated when: people make ignorant comments, people wrinkle their faces at unfamiliar food, they ask questions that have obvious answers but want to justify these questions by saying “maybe it’s different here”. As if asking, “Do you think it’s a good idea to go running at midnight since its cooler?” is a reasonable question to ask no matter where you are in the world. This sensitivity lay deep down in me but something happened this morning that made me feel like a sleeping beast had been awoken.

I woke up at 4am this morning to the sound of very heavy rain, thunder and banging sounds, which were a result of tree branches falling due to high velocity winds. I couldn’t sleep and so I did what any normal person would do. It was about 12am in America so I got on my phone and was texting friends about what was happening in Bolga. Fast forward to 8am. I am having breakfast across my co-worker talk about the crazy weather and work related things for a few seconds. She opens her laptop to start working on something and realizes that her computer isn’t powering up. She starts to panic and asks why her computer wasn’t working. Calmly, I responded, “maybe it’s dead. Did you charge it last night?” More panic ensues as she fidgets with her charger and plugs it to the wall and waits. Her phone also seems to not be responding, which heightens her panic to her repeating “My computer and phone aren’t working. My computer and phone aren’t working.” I continue eating my breakfast as though nothing is happening. Funny thing about Americans. Once they start panicking about something, they want everyone to panic with them.

I tell her that it’s a possibility that her phone is also low on battery. She plugs her phone to the wall and in less than 5 minutes, she is able to turn her phone on, however, the computer still seems like windows isn’t loading. So she starts saying the following as explanations to why her computer is not working:

1.     “Do you think the lightening came in through the house and maybe affected the power switch? My computer was laying on the floor and it wasn’t connected but maybe the lightening and thunder got to my computer somehow” to which I reply “Well if that happened, my computer would be off too because mine was also on the floor”

2.     “I was up and heard lightening strike a tree and maybe the tree branch that broke fell on the circuit breaker and maybe blew up a fuse. I am surprised that it is raining and we even have electricity” And I say “well if the circuit breaker was affected, we definitely wouldn’t have power”

3.     “if you go outside, you can kind of see where the tree branch fell  down because the tree looks kind of charred” and to this, I had no response because the location of the tree which supposedly got struck is on other side of the house and there is no way that branch could have magically flew to the circuit box thing

She’s asking all these questions and in my mind, I am wondering if she would ask them if she were in her house in New York. Would she ask about the lightening somehow affecting her computer on the floor? Would she wonder about a tree branch falling and affecting the circuit thing? The answer is, obviously, No. Why is it that these questions are asked here? This whole incident made me realize that I’m sensitive about things related to this continent.

It made me recall something she had said yesterday. About a couple of new born babies she saw in the hospital which looked around 5-6lbs and she wondered why the baby was so small and if the mother was feeding the baby properly and if the mother had supplementary feeding methods like formula. As an American trained gynecologist, she has every right to ask these questions.

An ordinary person reading this may not think much of these trivial occurrences but I find that every time a foreigner makes a negative comment about people, places or food anywhere in Africa, I get annoyed like they have no right to say those things. If an African person makes negative comments about Africa, I’m intrigued and it sparks a dialogue. Maybe I have issues. Maybe I just don’t like foreigners talking about Africa at all. Who knows?

All I know is, I’m sensitive about Africa.