"Life is what happens when you are making other plans"

The title of this post is the quote that's consistently seen in the subtitle of my blog. I have wondered since I created my blog when and where would be the best place to explain the significance behind this quote. I feel that, as I reminisce and evaluate my experience in the prep course over this Spring term, now would be a fine time to explain why I have had that quote there since the birth of this blog.

Let me give you some context. This quote was originally shared with my mother by her mother, and she in turn shared this quote with me during one of our sensitive conversations about my future plans and the accompanying anxiety following the school year's end. She shared with me what the personal significance of this quote was to her in helping her keep perspective and simmer down the drama of life. I resonate with her interpretation of this quote but would like to expound my own theory. Here is what this quote says to me:

I can plan and plan all I want, I can pursue dreams for my future and plan exciting adventures, but while this habit of manipulating my life is happening, the natural process of living and breathing always occur. Living life to its fullest doesn't mean taking every extraordinary opportunity offered, or beefing up every event to milk it into a creamy or precious keepsake experience. Living life to its fullest is recognizing the moments in between the privileged opportunities or special events that occur in one's life. To live fully is to recognize what a gift each breath truly is. To live fully is to acknowledge that your living, your actions and thoughts, during the preparatory or transitional stages of life are as vital and important as the climaxes and prominent moments.

So what does this have to do with my African Field Studies Preparation Class? Everything! This class has been full of to-do lists, planning activities, and discussions centered on "what if's" that could occur in the future. The work involved here can be frustrating and can leave one to feel as though they are waiting, waiting for the excitement to happen, for the plans to occur and the adventure to happen. But the truth is life is happening RIGHT NOW! Life right now is the preparation as well as the adventure.

It was this quote that helped me realize that and is what I believe made the class so completely enjoyable. I gobbled up the opportunity to use inquiry, I took pleasure in the creative process, and enjoyed the exploration of so many options. Certainly I am excited to go to Africa, I can't wait, but I am just as excited about the new skills and experiences I had in this class. If it wasn't for the wisdom of the women in my family tree that has been passed down to me, I don't know if I would feel as full and excited about this class or the next 6 Months as I do now. Even this moment, spinning ideas in my head, thrills me and I am grateful for it.

Folklore

I have decided to take English 391 "Introduction to Folklore" while in the field. I will be working with Professor Jacqueline Thursby. She has mentored many students on this course while out in the field and she is very enthusiastic and excited about the subject of folklore. I adore passionate teachers!

After our first meeting she had me read an article on the basics of folklore. I absolutely ate this article up. It was so fascinating. It talked about the differences between myths, legends, marchen, folktales, memorate, urban legends and all sorts of other folk narratives.

Folklore can be a number of things it can be stories, handicrafts, dances, traditions, as long as they are something that shed greater light on the society it effects or harbors in. In folklore they refer to a story or artifact as an "item". So for ENGLISH 391 I will be collecting as many items as I feel are pertinent for my subject and then creating a finished paper synthesizing the similarities and such between them. Clifford Gertz is quoted in the article as saying that "analaysis is guessing at meanings." That is just what I will be doing with the items I collect in my interviews and conversations.

So to finish this post I will specifically point out what types of stories I will collect.

Genres of Oral Narrative

Myth- a sacred narrative that people tell about the beginnings of things. Often related to religion, ritual and ceremony.

Folktales- completely fictional tales where characters are not real people.

Legends- Stores people tell about events that purportedly really happened. Specifically supernatural legends that include stories of ghost, spirits, witches, dead, and other supernatural creatures and events.

Memorate- an expression of a personal experience with the supernatural

Urban legends- sotres of horror or erriness that involve weird events, close calls or horrible deaths. Local legends would deal with the local location.

Personal Narrative- a unique story about an event that has occurred in the narrator's life (Probably the majority of my items will be personal narrative).

Questions

In my last post I tried to answer some of my own questions to participate and understand better what it would be like to answer questions on dance and spirituality. Granted its from my perspective and based on the experiences and learning I've had in my life but I found it was something I was passionate about and thus something I felt at ease answering. Now my question is how will I find someone with that willingness in Ghana. African dance has roots in spiritual and religious traditions and the literature I've read makes me confident that there will be people in Wiamoase who are willing to share. But how will I know when I've met them that they will be a good key informant?

I hope by asking my informal questions listed below in different social situations will help me decipher who is a good candidate or not. I was told by a professor of folklore the other day that African people love to talk. They love to share stories and will probably be very willing. That was a comforting thought and I hope this questions guide me to know who to ask to interview more formally.

Do you Dance?

Can you describe a dance experience you’ve had?

Can you describe the people you dance with?

Where do you Dance?

Do you go to Church?

Do you dance at Church?

How did you learn how to dance?

Have you ever taught someone to dance?

Do you ever dance solo? In a group?

When do you dance?

How often do you dance?

Why do you dance?

What is the purpose or significance of a particular dance?

What is the purpose or significance of dance in your life?

Do you ever speak with others about the significance of dance? When? How often? With who?

How does dance affect your life?

Does dance have a spiritual impact on your life?

Once I have decided upon my key informants here are some possible semi-structured and more formal interview questions. I may or may not use these ones because it will depend on the individual and their answers to the informal questions, but these questions are meant to show how I could go deeper and more specific with my inquiry.

Can you describe how you feel during a particular dance?

What does spirituality mean to you?

Define spirituality.

Define dance.

Can you identify a spiritual experience you’ve had while dancing?

Is dance always a spiritual experience?

Are specific conditions required for a spiritual experience within dance?

What is it about dance that you feel is personally spiritual to you?

What are the technical aspects of dance that connect with you spiritually?

What are you connecting too spiritually?

What is required to dance at a religious ceremony?

Do you believe everyone can connect spiritually to dance or is that role only for certain individuals?

Does dance impact your health?

Does religion or spirituality impact your health?

Does dance impact your sense of community unity?

Does religion or spirituality impact your community unity?

Does dance impact your identity?

Does religion and spirituality impact your community unity?

Do dance and spirituality together impact you health? Community unity? Identity?

Where do you believe Man came from?

Where do you believe men go after death?

What do your dances say about your village?

Are your ancestors connected to your dancing? Spirituality?

My Spiritual Perceptions of Dance

I've been thinking about the risks and challenges involved with the topic of my research which is spirituality. I want to interview and dance with individuals to find out what it is about African dance that they feel is personally spiritual to them. I want to know if they have to be in a religious worship service that involves dance to feel spiritual or if its the technical aspects and the movement of the body that creates a spiritual connection. I want to know what they are connecting to spiritually? Is it God? Is it their ancestors? Are there specific conditions required for a dance experience to be qualified as religious dance or a spiritual experience?

I am finding that these questions are sort of hard for me to even answer myself and I've been dancing for 16 years. I want to ask these questions to myself and see what kind of answers I personally come up with though so that I can see how feasible it would be to ask someone in Ghana these questions. I will answer these questions about my own contemporary/modern dance genre experience.
QUESTIONS

1. What is it about dance that you feel is personally spiritual to you?
2. What are the technical aspects of dance that connect with you spiritually?
3. What are you connecting to spiritually?
4. Are specific conditions required for a spiritual experience within dance?

ANSWERS

1. The body being the instrument for art and expression is spiritual to me. Our bodies are gifts from God and are what make us human and mortal. They are the medium in which we are able to experience trials and progress so that we might live with Heavenly Father again in eternal bliss. In glorifying God and doing my best to follow his commandments I do as the 13th article of faith says, "If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy [I] seek after these things." I want to come closer to my Heavenly Father and I build a stronger relationship with Him when I partake of uplifting and praiseworthy activities in my life. Dancing can influence so many for good, its emotion and beauty can change lives and inspire change. I have felt those experiences in my life. As I dance I feel I am worshipping God. I am doing my best to show Him that I am grateful for the gifts I have been given and that I am diligent in trying to stand, or dance, in holy places. Wherever I am dancing that place becomes a holy one. A place I can open my heart and feel the spirit. Many times it is when I am using my body and dancing that I can feel God's love for me the strongest. Everything has a spiritual nature, but the arts and dance are two examples I can clearly see the spiritual connection. As I create and choreograph my own movement I feel I participating in another of God's great gifts and that is the power to create. To organize, make beautiful, and produce new material is a quality of God that we can share with Him. (Hmm....actually answering this question wasn't as hard as I thought...but I dance at BYU, a religious institution where thoughts like these are encouraged and discussed. Is there anyone out there who dances but not as seriously as I do who has some thoughts they want to try and share?)
2. The body, music, SYMBOLISM: stretching and opening of the heart space are symbolic of meekness and growth, bounded movement contrasted with free flow is the struggle and epiphany of spiritual growth, weight bearing symbolizes our dependence on others and especially on Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, high endurance locomotor movement is a practice in endurance, adagio is a principle of patience and timing.
3. Spiritually I am connecting with Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, other people as well as myself, even my ancestors, and other dancers who have danced in the space or company previous to my participation.
4. An open mind and a willing heart, just like other spiritual experiences that do not involve dance. So I do believe that you have to allow spiritual connections to occur, it is possible to dance and not feel spiritually connected.
   

Self Evaluation Note

Dave gently reminded us about our self evaluation responsibility within the prep course today and it caused me to take a moment and ponder on how I'm progressing thus far in the course. With my goal for better health preparation that I created for myself I'm doing so-so but I could increase my amount of exercise but I'm doing well at adding starchy vegetables to my diet. I've even collected a Ghanaian recipe to try out from a friend.

However, what I really want to share is in regards to my goal to become more flexible and to allow myself to redefine my goals and edit the guts out of my proposal if I have to until it reflects exactly what I want out of my field study experience. Well, I just had a challenge to my stubbornness.

I just spent all my free time over the long weekend and over the past two days writing my 1st draft for my proposal. When I finally got everything down on paper I was thrilled! But as I browsed through current and past field study blogs my wheels began turning again. I took another look at my proposal and felt I needed to make A LOT of changes, starting with my intent. Which in turn will ripple into A LOT of changes to the rest of my proposal. I was stubborn at first. I tried every way possible to fit my new vision for my project into the words I had already written but then I reminded myself, (in my head "mind" you)

"Heather, you said you would allow for redefinition of yourself. You accepted the fact you would probably change your idea and intent. You committed yourself to taking delight in the journey through uncertainty. You recognized the necessity of making changes to assure your field study is everything you want it to be. You have to be flexible!"

Then I gave myself a one second party..."OH YEAH!" A rejuvenating walk with my roommate, and then went to work on my "Statement of Intent." I am pleased with the work I've accomplished on it tonight and will continue to fit the rest of my proposal to it tomorrow.

and then maybe in the future...I'll arrange it all again. I think I could allow for that.

Coping with Culture Shock

I wish we had discussed the effects of culture shock before I had my first international cultural immersion experience to Jamaica. I went in August before my sophomore year and can recall breaking down in weeping fits only minutes after we arrived at our residence. We missed one connecting flight and were rerouted to Jamaica on a course that took over 30 hours to travel. Because of my fears and anxiety (and because I bite my tongue when I fall asleep in planes) I didn't sleep or rest at all. We had fun entertaining ourselves in a deserted Fort Lauderdale airport and I thoroughly enjoyed the first van ride from the airport to our dorms. But once I set my stuff down in my room I started bawling. I took a couple hours of sleeping and bawling off and on to re-cooperate. I had no idea why I was acting the way I was but now I understand that I was experiencing culture shock.

During that experience I felt really alone, but didn't want help. I didn't want anyone to knock on my door and ask how I was doing because I was embarrassed, so I tried to muffle my emotions in my cotton ball stuffed pillow. I was prideful to reject any help offered. I had been dancing with my group for over 9 months and I knew they loved me and wanted to help. They were probably experiencing similar feelings but I wasn't open to the idea of using each other as a source of support.

Some symptoms of culture shock are:

• Loss of ability to work effectively
• Unexplainable fits of weeping
• Physical ailments (psychosomatic illnesses)
• Feelings of isolation
• Weight loss
• Feelings of helplessness
• Tenseness and moodiness
• Loss of confidence
• Fear of the worst happening

To be quite honest I often experience some of these symptoms, even as often as weekly for some. My roommate Tabitha knows this as she can read my most common symptom of stress or shock which is tenseness and moodiness. We've lived together before and are very open with each other, she loves to communicate and I love her for it. But she and I know too well that I do not like to ask for help and will mask my problems rather than openly share them or accept support. Realizing one day that even though I'd never admit it, when I'm struggling I really DO WANT HELP, I came to Tabitha and asked her to help me create a game plan we could use to help each other out when either one of us is struggling. And this is what we created:




Because deliberately inquiring about a roommates moodiness or culture shock can cause tension or the person struggling to become defensive or offended Tabitha and I decided that if either one of us notices that the other roommate is suffering from any of the above listed symptoms we will choose one of the listed plans of action. This way the person struggling can recognize that their friend is concerned and out of love is trying to implement the help that the person already pre-asked for. Tabitha and I purposely chose activities that we would love so that in case one of us assumes wrongly about the others mood we will still enjoy the activity together. Struggling or not, giving quality time and wanting to participate in a fun activity with your roommate will only show love and build the relationship.

I predict, no I know I will experience culture shock when I go to Ghana. So, Katie and Rebecka, take note on my list. I may need to create a new one with appropriate activities for Ghana but I look forward to living with you girls and hope that we can be a support group for each other as we all experience some form of culture shock.

Environmental Footprint Quiz

Here is an assignment I saw we needed to complete before our next class. Its an interesting quiz, can't wait to listen to our discussion on it.

P.S. Can I just put a plug in for Burt's Bee's all natural outdoors deodorant infused with sage oil! I tell ya, delicious smelling armpits anytime of day!

Quiz results: Ecological Footprint Quiz by Center for Sustainable Economy

Being Realistic

One of my goals for this preparation course is to set realistic goals and create a realistic schedule for myself while I am Ghana. This is because in the past I have tended to set high expectations when setting plans and then end up disappointing myself because my goals were unachievable. I want to work hard in Ghana and have challenging goals but I want to be sure I can accomplish them.

As I've created my project design I have really had to consider what my abilities and limitations will be in Ghana. The language and my lack of experience in field research being my main limitations I have decided that I'm going to recruit a small sample of informants. This will help me really get to know my informants and give me time to really formulate the questions I ask in my interview based on their different personalities and situations. I think this goal is more realistic than the large number of informants I saw myself interviewing at the beginning of this project.

I think another limitation will be my knowledge of African Dance movement. I have taken workshops and classes in different styles of African dance but cannot recall once taking a class specifically on the Asante or Ghanaian style. So I may not just pick up the dance movement as quickly as I would in my regular modern or ballet technique class. With this limitation in mind I think it would be realistic for me to set a goal of learning 11 (that's my favorite number) different dances. If I get to learn more that will be fantastic! But I think 11 is a realistic goal that I can feel proud of in the end.

I believe I am very blessed with some strengths that will help me really enjoy my field study. I believe my flexibility, pragmatic attitude, optimism and energy will keep me hopeful and allow me to accomplish all my goals despite these limitations. I love working with people and finding creative solutions to different problems. I think this skill set will help me build rapport and enjoy my social and living experience in Wiamoase. I know there will be challenges but I can deal with them and always work towards my goals. And I am allowed to redefine my goals if I arrive there and discover they were not as realistic as I thought. I believe if I set measurable and realistic goals I will enjoy my experience more and be proud of my work done in Ghana.