The Future is Success

I interviewed a girl last week at Vitting High School. I asked her what would happen to her if she were to drop out. She'd go dancing and clubbing. She'd be influenced by her friends "not from the good side, but from the bad". She'd go around with boys. She'd get HIV.

This sounds a lot like the outside view on townboy culture. This girl, Beatrice, is a very successful student. I think her fear of this alternative path is a powerful motivator. It's a slippery slope, after all. There's a little flat area on the top full of books and grades.

A teacher at the same school explained the obvious differences in material wealth between rural and urban students. The rural students have only one uniform, which they have to wash every other day. They eat millet. They can't buy the supplementary textbooks or extra classes that the richer students can afford. They feel ashamed. The teachers tell them that when they finish school, and graduate, they can buy all the same things as the students from richer families.

I had short chat with one of the owners of Sparkles restaraunt. He asked me if I had a local girlfriend yet. I brought up Fatimah, since I'd been wondering how Ghanains dated. It's normal for the man to buy things for the woman, he said. But asking for things outright is 'too much.'

I guess there's a line. He called girls who cross that line "opportunists". Good word. They want passports, clothes, stereotypical things with social cachet.

I feel like there's only one story going on, and it's told in black and white. Beatrice is scared (and motivated) because there's only one alternative. Townboy culture. The other side of virtuous progress is rebellious laziness.

The nonporifts are using money to bring about a measure of social progress. This is a critical and important task, but it's still wealth generation. At Samson's Baptist church, they use donations to equip pastors. They help their youth through school, so that one day the youth can make Ghana a great and prosperous nation.

One day I'd like to meet a student who studies because they enjoy it. Of course, this isn't likely. They're all in school with good reason, dragging their families out of dire poverty. Useless knowledge is a luxury, art is a luxury. More than supermarkets, washing machines, and consistent power, it's one I'm having trouble doing without.