Ghana and its Founders Day

Introduction:
September 21, was Ghana's Founders day, which is the same day as Ghana's first President's Birthday, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. Earlier that week I heard it briefly mentioned on NPR. I had known for a long time that one of the members of the production team at work was from Ghana, so I wished him a happy Founder's day, but I was surprised to learn that he had no idea what I was talking about. At first I thought: "This must not be a widely celebrated holiday". He gave the dates of their Independence Day and a few other holidays, but didn't know of that one.

As it turned out, Ghana had made it a National holiday in 2012, well after he had already moved to the United States.

When I first met him, I questioned him about his home life. He told me the most difficult part about coming to the U.S. was all the new laws that he didn't quite understand. For example, when he first got here he didn't realize that you couldn't just park anywhere. Here their where parking lots and no parking zones, and if you parked in a no parking zone you got a ticket. He clearly had been distressed about this.

I asked him about the languages spoken in his home land. He gave me a long list of languages and told me several of them were related to each other and several of them were not. The official language that is spoken there is English, however there are at least 10 African languages spoken by people a variety of peoples from different regional ethnic origins.

Economy:

Ghana has a wide range of ways to make money. Recently, oil was discovered there. In addition to this, they also attract people from other African countries to attend their schools. A majority of people, though make their living in agriculture. One of their main products being cocoa:

Ghana is the second largest producer of Cocoa. Recently there has been some controversy about cocoa farming in the region. One video claimed that it was being smuggled out through the Ivory Coast. There are also current allegations that many Ghanaian farmers use child labor in their cocoa production.


Work Cited:
"Ghana". Wikipedia. Retrieved: September 23, 2014.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana"


"New Reform Congregation". Ghana News Agency. September 21, 2012. Retrieved: September 21, 2014. Website:


http://ghananewsagency.org/politics/founders-day-to-be-placed-on-ghana-s-holiday-calendar-49505

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur-North America

Introduction:



I decided to focus on Rosh Hashanah (The Jewish New year) and Yum Kapor. However, being that I have already done a couple of posts on Israel I have decided that it might be more prudent to focus on a portion of the world that holds the highest percentage of Jews collectively, North America. Yes, 46% percent of the worlds Jewish population lives in the U.S. and Canada. You may then ask, why are so few of my friends Jewish? Hopefully, the answer to your question does not have to do with being antisemitic. The fact is, you may not know too many Jewish people because they only consist of a small percentage of us North Americans; only 2% in the U.S. and 1% in Canada are in fact Jewish (LeElef).





An overwhelming majority of my Jewish friends and acquaintance were ones that I have met while in Michigan- from a bacon eating roommate I briefly had in college, a sorority sister who taught me what Kosher and Proven really is, co-workers,  and former coworkers. According to one of my old high school friends of Jewish decent, many Jews came to the U.S. seeking refuge after or during World War II. Many of them converted to other religions, such as Catholicism to avoid any future antisemitic persecution, as was the case with the friend that told me this (Ohnomus).


Yom Kippur/ Rash Hashanah



Rash Hashanah is the Jewish New Year. It is celebrated on the 1st day of the 7th month of the year. It is followed by Yom Kippur (10th day of the 7th month), which is considered the Holiest day of the year. Both days are considered the days to ask for forgiveness, but Yom Kippur is much more sober with its fasting, as opposed to the lavish foods like apples and honey and honeyed dates, and black eyed peas (something much of us eat for our own New Year).

T.V. Shows:



One of my favorite shows is the Colbert Report. Every year for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.  Steve Colbert does a skit devoted to the Jewish New Year celebration, in which he allows people of the Hebrew faith to call in and atone for sins they committed against him. The phone number for this made up hotline is 1-800-Oops-Jew. I like this skit not because he covers small aspects of the Rosh Hashanah and celebration without going into great detail. 

http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/full-episodes/4jd61g/september-24--2014---bill-cosby



The T.V. show "Raising Hope" also had a Jewish Episode (Season 3, Episode 21) Burt Mitzvah, the musical. In that Episode Burt's parents tell Burt that they just found out they are Jewish. Burt and family take this new self identity on with full force.The family tries to learn as much as they can about their new found religion, so that he can have a Bar Mitzvah. After a lot of hard work he is finally ready to "become a man" only to find out that his family's new identity was a clever lie his parents made up for their own selfish reasons. My favorite part is when they're is a musical number on how to make a sader dinner. 


Radio:

Of course North America does not just consist of the U.S. and Canada. NPR ran a story summarized here: Recently, a small sub-sect of the Jewish population, Lev Torah,  moved to Guatemala after being driven out of Canada. They were driven out of Canada after accusations of child abuse arose. However, Lev Torah is also having problems fitting in with the locals of their new home.

For the full story click on the link:  http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/09/10/347123746/dogged-by-controversy-a-jewish-sect-is-on-the-move-again


Please Note: I am not trying to make the Jewish People look bad. It is not like these are the same Jews most of us see on T.V., at work, or in school on a regular basis. This is a small sect, that is not representative of the entire North American Jewish population. The piece goes as far as implying that Lev Tohor a Jewish based cult. 


Food:

I started the Rosh Hashanah morning having apples and honey. For a snack I had dates, and pomegranate seeds later. Finally, for dinner, I ate the same black eyed pees dish that I had made in my New Year's post back in January. Some times when I make this dish I put in turkey ham. However, you have to pay attention to whether or not the turkey ham is Kosher if making it specifically for a Jewish friend or Holiday. However, not pork (ham or otherwise is appropriate to celebrate a Jewish Holiday. That is never Kosher. If you add the turkey ham, don't have a dairy product with it, since that is also not Kosher; Jews can only have meet or dairy in a single meal, never both. If a meal has neither meat nor dairy it is called proven. 


Conclusion:

I wanted to leave you leave you with one last thing, a fun video I found on Rosh Hashanah where this guy sings about the holiday, acapella style :

Work Cited:


"All About Rosh Hashanah" YouTube. Posted: September 18, 2014. Retrieved: September 28, 2014.



Gorbin, Eyal. "Burt Mitzvah". "Raising Hope". Season 3, Episode 21. 28 March 2013.



Ohnomus, Rebecca. Personal Conversation. December 1, 2013.



LeElef, Ner. "World Jewish Population". Website: http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/world-jewish-population.htm. Retrieved: September 27, 2014.



Robins, Ted. "Dogged by Controversy, A Jewish Sect is on the Move Again". National Public Radio. 10 September 2014. Retrieved: Sept. 28, 2014. Website: http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/09/10/347123746/dogged-by-controversy-a-jewish-sect-is-on-the-move-again



"Rosh Hashanah". Wikipedia. Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosh_Hashanah#Symbolic_foods. Retrieved: September 28, 2014.



"Yom Kippur in 60 Seconds". YouTube. Retrieved: September 18, 2014.



"Yom Kippur". Wikipedia. Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosh_Hashanah Retrieved: September 28, 2014.

Oktoberfest-Germany

Fall Festival:

Last Tuesday was the first day of fall, and fall means fall festivals! One such festival is Oktoberfest. While this festival started out in Munich, Germany it now is a popular festival that is held around the world.

Last weekend I enjoyed an Oktoberfest celebration held in Peoria, IL. We had a really good time drinking dark German style beers. Igor, mentioned in one of my posts on Mexico, got back to his Aztec roots by building a pyramid... out of beer cups.

The question was raised, “why are we in Peoria holding Oktoberfest in September?” Are we so naïve in the America to not realize that Oktober should be in October? The answer is no. Peoria's festival actually coincided with the start of the one in Munich, the main difference in timing being duration. This year in Germany, the festival started September 20^th, but it doesn't end until October 5^th. Peoria's was just over one weekend.

T.V. Shows:

The T.V. Show that I watched for this does not seem obvious, “Futurama” Season 7, “Tragedy on a Bun”. In one episode Fry and his associates at planet express go to Oktoberfest. Fry went thinking it would be just as it was in the late 1990's, an excuse to drink lots of beer and perform the Chicken dance. He finds instead that in his new time, 1000 years later, that Oktoberfest has turned into one of the worlds most formal events celebrating German Culture. There is beer tasting, where people spit out the beer as not to get drunk. Disappointed, Fry proceeds to embarrass Leela by acting like a complete doof, drinking all the spit out beer and sporting a chicken hat.

Sometime later in the show Fry ends up bumping his head, causing him to loose his memory with the result of him believing that he is a Neanderthal. Leela ends up believing that she has eaten Fry in Bratwurst form. From here a war between Neanderthals and “modern humans” breaks out, pitting Leela and Fry against each other.
Tragedy on a Bun: After Leela eats Fry, she tries to erase all her memories of him.

Movies:

Since the festival that I am writing about started in Germany, I thought it would be appropriate to write about a movie that took place here. This weeks movie is “Monument Men”. This movie is based on true events, that became a book and then later a movie.

The movie takes place during World War II. A ragtag team of intellectuals end up in the army with the goal of recovering some of Europe's best art, which had largely been stolen by the Nazis. Nazis are threatening to destroy the art if they lose the war. Not only is this group in a race against the Nazis, they are also in a race with the Russians who are also try to get the art, but for just themselves.

When the movie was over, I asked my husband, how bad would it be if the Russians had beat us to much of this art? Would it have been threatened to be destroyed, too? We concluded that while it would not be in Europe and America's best interest for them to get the art, it would not have been nearly as bad as Germany destroying it. While Russia more then likely would have never chosen to share the art with us or display it in where it is accessible to many of us, it would still have been cherished by the Russians and displayed so the Soviet Public could enjoy it. They may have turned into our enemy after WWII, but they still held culture in high esteem.

Food:

I did not actually eat the food at the food at Oktoberfest. They had the traditional brats and sourcrout, which wouldn't surprise anyone, along with pizza, pretzels, and funnel cakes.

Instead, before going out to Peoria, I made chicken and apple brats which I pan fried.

Work Cited:

"Monument Men". 2014
"Oktoberfest. Wikipedia. Retrieved: September 25, 2014

"Tragedy on a Bun" Futurama Season 7. 2012

New York

Lighter that I purchased while visiting the Statue of Liberty in 1999.

For 9/11 I wanted to do something that reminded me of New York. 9/11 meant different things to different people. It brought out the worst and the best in people. For some, it brought out a sense of patriotism; some people felt more united with their follow Americans. In some people it brought out racism, which caused them to fear, or distrust anyone who was Muslim or Middle Eastern. I remember some people had really wanted to bomb the crap out of Afghanistan right away, and others didn't want to do much at all.

I was in high school when I first heard the planes crashing into the towers. For me the day was filled with stopping classes to watch developments on TV. The city I was in, San Antonio, TX was supposed to be one of the most likely places to get attacked in the U.S at the time. I knew this, and I remember looking out of the schools window, which looked out on down town San Antonio, and I wondered, "what's next? Could something like that happen here? Could the Tower Of America's get hit?"

One of my favorite stories of 9/11 is my Brother-in-law's story. Anand was working in New York, and was running a little late for work. I want to point out that he did not work in the Twin Towers, but he did work nearby.

News of the event made it all the way around the world, and his family back to India grew worried. They tried frantically to get a hold of him from Bangalore, but of course, the phone lines were all tied up.

Meanwhile, back in New York Anand was able to see the smoke in the sky pouring out of the towers. He passed by an electronic store. This store was giving away its video cameras. They explained to him that this was far too important of an event not to document. Anand took video of the towers, and the immediate aftermath.

Anand had to walk home. On this long an arduous walk he ended up losing the camera. So no one he knows ever got to see the video.

Anytime my husband sees footage of 9/11 he wonders: “Is that the footage my brother recorded?”

Anand did not stay in New York too much longer. One day, not long after 9/11 Anand went out with one of his friends who was Muslim. His friend ended up getting harassed. Anand stuck up for his friend, and the stranger ended up punching Anand. This was the deciding factor that sent my brother-in-law back to India.

Food:

My step mother used to work in Marketing for a firm in New York. On 9/11 I asked her which restaurant reminded her the most of New York. Not 9/11, just New York. Her Answer Antonio's. Antonio's is an Italian Restaurant, which reminded Connie of a similar one in New York. In New York she would walk into this place and all the wait staff would greet her by name; she went there that often.

They would take her to a table in the back where some of the staff would sit and chat with her.

Antonio's feels authentic. We don't go there often enough for the staff to recognize us, still the staff is friendly and welcoming, though sometimes a bit ditzy.

This time, I got the gnocchi primavera. This is not exactly on the menu, but the menu makes it clear you can request any sauce with any pasta (or Gnocchi). The gnocchi is very good, but the standards have either beef or pork in them, which are two things I don't eat. My favorite sauce that I have had with the gnocchi the Pesto with Pine nuts. Of curse I have tried other things, like their pizza, and there chicken Marsala, which were both great, but thus far the Gnocchi Al Pesto is my top recommendation (After some of their great deserts of course).

Work Cited:

Antonio's Cucina Italiano website: www.antoniosrestaurants.com. retrieved 9/11/2014.

Harrison, Connie P. Connie living in New York. Conversations: 9/11/2014 and 2012.

Jujare, Arvind. Anand's 9/11 story as told by Arvind Jujare

"Mad Men". Season 3 Episode 12, "Grownups". November 2009. 

"Mad Men". Season 6 episode 5, "The Flood".  April 2013.

New York

Lighter that I purchased while visiting the Statue of Liberty in 1999.

For 9/11 I wanted to do something that reminded me of New York. 9/11 meant different things to different people. It brought out the worst and the best in people. For some, it brought out a sense of patriotism; some people felt more united with their follow Americans. In some people it brought out racism, which caused them to fear, or distrust anyone who was Muslim or Middle Eastern. I remember some people had really wanted to bomb the crap out of Afghanistan right away, and others didn't want to do much at all.

I was in high school when I first heard the planes crashing into the towers. For me the day was filled with stopping classes to watch developments on TV. The city I was in, San Antonio, TX was supposed to be one of the most likely places to get attacked in the U.S at the time. I knew this, and I remember looking out of the schools window, which looked out on down town San Antonio, and I wondered, "what's next? Could something like that happen here? Could the Tower Of America's get hit?"

One of my favorite stories of 9/11 is my Brother-in-law's story. Anand was working in New York, and was running a little late for work. I want to point out that he did not work in the Twin Towers, but he did work nearby.

News of the event made it all the way around the world, and his family back to India grew worried. They tried frantically to get a hold of him from Bangalore, but of course, the phone lines were all tied up.

Meanwhile, back in New York Anand was able to see the smoke in the sky pouring out of the towers. He passed by an electronic store. This store was giving away its video cameras. They explained to him that this was far too important of an event not to document. Anand took video of the towers, and the immediate aftermath.

Anand had to walk home. On this long an arduous walk he ended up losing the camera. So no one he knows ever got to see the video.

Anytime my husband sees footage of 9/11 he wonders: “Is that the footage my brother recorded?”

Anand did not stay in New York too much longer. One day, not long after 9/11 Anand went out with one of his friends who was Muslim. His friend ended up getting harassed. Anand stuck up for his friend, and the stranger ended up punching Anand. This was the deciding factor that sent my brother-in-law back to India.

Food:

My step mother used to work in Marketing for a firm in New York. On 9/11 I asked her which restaurant reminded her the most of New York. Not 9/11, just New York. Her Answer Antonio's. Antonio's is an Italian Restaurant, which reminded Connie of a similar one in New York. In New York she would walk into this place and all the wait staff would greet her by name; she went there that often.

They would take her to a table in the back where some of the staff would sit and chat with her.

Antonio's feels authentic. We don't go there often enough for the staff to recognize us, still the staff is friendly and welcoming, though sometimes a bit ditzy.

This time, I got the gnocchi primavera. This is not exactly on the menu, but the menu makes it clear you can request any sauce with any pasta (or Gnocchi). The gnocchi is very good, but the standards have either beef or pork in them, which are two things I don't eat. My favorite sauce that I have had with the gnocchi the Pesto with Pine nuts. Of curse I have tried other things, like their pizza, and there chicken Marsala, which were both great, but thus far the Gnocchi Al Pesto is my top recommendation (After some of their great deserts of course).

T.V.

I once asked my step mother if she liked watching Mad Men. She told me that she had watched it once r twice, but she really felt that the show hit a little to close to home for her (in regards to her advertising career in New York.

I myself really like this t.v. show. It is a work of historical fiction that spans from the start of the 60's to the late 60's, and covers such historical events as assassination of both JFK and Martin Luther King. Of course there is a lot of drama, sex, and alcohol abuse. Women were still trying to find their way in the work place as something more then secretaries, while racism and sexism still plagued the work place.

Work Cited:

Antonio's Cucina Italiano website: www.antoniosrestaurants.com. retrieved 9/11/2014.

Harrison, Connie P. Connie living in New York. Conversations: 9/11/2014 and 2012.

Jujare, Arvind. Anand's 9/11 story as told by Arvind Jujare

"Mad Men". Season 3 Episode 12, "Grownups". November 2009. 

"Mad Men". Season 6 episode 5, "The Flood".  April 2013.

Mexico

Buenos dias y como estas? This is something that I say almost every single day. I don't speak Spanish, at least now well. Many of the people that work on the floor with me are from other countries, and some of them are from Mexico.

A few months ago I started putting flags on the carts so that people could tell where the carts are in the tall stacks of boxes that are stacked in the floor place. These were high visibility flags so that people could see where the carts are between all the packs that are on the floor of the Receiving Dock.

One of the clerks had decided to place a Mexican Flag on her cart, replacing the hi-vis flag that I had placed on there. I felt that this could be a safety issue, since the flag might not be as easily seen as the hi-vis ones. The other problem was that placing the flag on her cart caused a disturbance within the work place. Some of the African Americans at work made it a race issue. They did not want these women posting a their flag, since they couldn't post a flag of the country of their origin. I don't think anyone from this company ever told them they couldn't do this. What really confused me about this was  that they were African American. What did they want permission to have an American Flag somewhere in their personal space? I believe everyone has a right to be proud of where they came from, and to show that pride. While it made me sad to tell the clerk she had to take the flag down, I was even more upset that the reason was more to do with other people's prejudices then it did with my initial concern of safety.

Food:
I love Mexican inspired food. For this I made tomotillo soup. A tomotillo is looks like a green tomato. It has a natural wrapper that makes it look a little like a paper lamp. It is much more tart then a tomato.

Ingredients:
5 medium tomatillos
1 cup vegetable broth.
1 jalapeno
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/4 cup cream

Directions:
1) Cut the tomatillos in quarters. Slice the jalapeno.
2) Boil the tomatillos in the vegetable broth for 15 minutes or until soft.
3) Pure' the tomatillos in a blender.
4) Place tomotillos blend back in pot, add jalapeno and boil for an additional 15 minutes
5) Add cream and lime.

You can learn more about Hello Fresh by visiting this website: www.hellofresh.com If you sign up you can use my referral code: R27SAH.

I also made Mexican Jumble from Hello Fresh. Both the soup and jumble could be easily eaten with tortilla chips.

Finally, I had a shark bite Margarita. This was kind of cool. it was a tube of liquid that you froze and  then drank directly from the tube.

Work Cited:

"Mexican Jalapeno Jumble". Hello Fresh. HelloFresh.com

Lebanon

Introduction:

This labor day was almost a dud. I had the great displeasure of dealing with AT&T's lack of internet technicians. They scheduled an appointment for me every day since Friday, I waited around, but no one showed up any of those days: with a total wait time of 18 hours. My husband had to log into work for at least four hours some time this weekend, but since I had no internet, we could not do this from home. So on Monday, Arvind and I went to my dad's house to use his internet.

My dad lives in Dearborn, Michigan. This might be the best place to get Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food in the U.S. It has the highest number of Muslims in the U.S. Many of these people are from Lebanon.

Earlier that weekend, my husband had begged me to get him Middle Eastern food. Since one of us had to wait at home for the internet technician who never actually showed up, he told me to get it while he stayed home. I refused, because I wanted to spend as much time with him as I could. (As some of you know, I don't actually live in the same state as my husband). Instead, I told him we could go together some other night. So after Arvind was done with his work on Monday we decided to eat out at a Middle Eastern Restaurant.

Food:

One of my favorites that are near my dad's house is La Pita. I had first gone there with my Dad and Step Mom several months ago. This is where Arvind and I decided to go after he was done with work.

The restaurant itself is decorate with traditional Persian Style lamps and drapes, creating an exotic ambiance. When I had gone last time with my parents, I had gotten Hummus with shawarma.

For this meal Arvind and I started with Rice stuffed grape leaves, and Batata Harra, a fried potato dish that was very good if you love garlic. For the main course I got Chicken Kafta, and Arvind got Kafta Kabob, which is made with minced lamb. The flat bread hear is absolutely awesome. It is warm and salty, and covered with sesame seeds. The lentil soup that is one of the side options is also quite tasty, and the almond rice that comes as a side dish is also excellent.

Most of the food we purchased we ended up coming home with us. Arvind was so excited about getting good Middle Eastern food, that he got much more then we could both eat.

More on Lebanon:

Lebanon is one of the countries that boarders Isreal. More then half of the population practices Islam, but there are still many people that practice some form of Christianity. While the official language in the country is Arabic, the French have had heavy influence in the area due to colonization, so many people from Lebanon speak French. (Hence why the name of the restaurant I ate at was "La Pita" instead of "Al Pita".

The Lebanese Civil war broke out in 1975 and continued until 1990. During this time many Lebanese fled to Europe and the United States. This was especially true of Christians who had been persecuted.

When I was living in Peoria, Arvind and I lived next door to an older Lebanese Couple. I once asked them how they met, and they told me that they were first cousins, but they told me that in Lebanon that was normal. They also told me that they had to take a blood test before they got married to check the likelihood of their close genealogy causing defects in their children. If certain things had showed up in their blood, they would not have been allowed to marry.

They left the country near the start of the war. Unlike many others that came here to the states, they had not been forced out. They simply left, but I was told that life was getting more and more difficult and at a certain point it just did not make sense to stay.

Movie:

My favorite movie from the war is “Waltz with Bashir”. This eye catching animation follows Ari Folman an Israeli veteran of the First Lebon War. Realizing that after 20 years his memories of the battles of Lebanon are hazy at best, Folman seeks out his fellow soldiers to interview them, many of whom are still haunted by what they witnessed so many years ago. The interviewing opens up Folman's own memories of the horrors that he was a part of, making him question what really happened to him.

Work Cited:

Folman, Ali. "Waltz with Bashir" Copyright: 2009.

La Pita: http://www.lapitadearborn.com/. Retrieved: September 2, 2014

Lebanese Flag. website: https://www.google.com/searchq=lebanese+flag&rlz=1C1CHWA_enUS600US600&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=_0sGVK2jHY7AggTtsYDgDA&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=667. Retrieved: September 2, 2014. 

"Lebanon". Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon. Retrieved: September 2, 2014.