Beauty

So while we were in Ghana we had a woman and her son cater dinners for us at the church temple dorms we were staying at while in Accra. The son had just joined the church 6 months ago. He got to talking with one of the girls in our group and basically asked her to find him a wife. She obviously didn't take him very seriously, but still asked him what his qualifications were. He pointed to me and said he would like to marry someone like me because I'm "strong." She reminded him that I was married, but needless to say I felt a little awkward around him after that.

I was told many times that I "looked like" an African because I had African hips. My first reaction was to be offended, but then realized that it was actually a compliment from them. In fact, while I was going through a security check point before hopping on the plane home my bags were being searched by a lady, and then these two guys walked up and started talking to me. The first one commented that he thought I was very beautiful, then the other said he liked my shape and waved his hands in the shape of a large round ball, and then the first one asked me if I was married. I guess I should have been flattered, but my first thought was "which one of these guys is the wing-man?"

These experiences made me ponder the perception of beauty and how culturally different they are. The African sense of beauty is much different than here in the states; they treasure the curves of a women. Before heading off to Ghana I read an article in an on-line Ghanain publication about a modeling agency in Ghana. They were discussing how there are many beautiful African models, but they could never break into any other market outside of Africa because they weren't stick thin and didn't fit the mold of the western world's view of beauty.

Through my interactions with the people there and my people watching (because I do that a lot), I couldn't help thinking "these people are some of the most beautiful people I have ever seen." And I don't think it was all due to their physical features, but also due to their kindness, sincerity and knowing everything they have in their lives they worked extremely hard for.

So I guess there's no real moral to this blog post, but just to provide some food for thought.