I HAVEN'T WRITTEN A LOT LATELY

It is Monday and I just completed a draft of a workshop outline as well as two articles for the JHR site.

Over the past week, I have been thinking of writing so often, yet I have not sat down and actually wrote much.

I have been leaving the house in the morning and getting in quite late each day. Though my observations have been in writing mode, it has been difficult to get my mind into writing mode.

I have four weeks left in Ghana! At the forefront of my mind are a few things. For one, I want to do a great job in the last few weeks at my placement. I have found the university environment to be very ripe for what JHR does. People are eager to get involved with human rights stories and issues. Not only are they willing to do the stories, but they are also willing to take action. Last week, a series of stories on the violent robberies taking place across the campus resulted in a protest, a petition and a forum to address the security issues. There is also a great desire to improve skills through workshops. The people that make the station run are mostly student volunteers with little journalism training or experience. In addition to the group workshops, many one-to-one workshops have been popular.

Within my four weeks I also have a few places that I want to see before I leave. For one, I need to go to Tamale. I really miss my friends up there and I want to see for myself how things are going at Radio Justice. Apparently, Razak still wants to do a going away party for me with the Radio Justice staff. I have been thinking of Mr. Fresh, Sister Saphora, Wakila, Layata, Chelpong, Melimba, Abu, Razak, Somed, Soldier, Vera, Mabel, Phidelia, Trouble, Jamima, Soldier, Wisdom, Ramadan and many others. I won’t get to go up there for long, but I plan to go for a few days.

I also want to see Koforidua aka Kof Town. Adwoa is supposed to bring me out there, but she has delayed and delayed. I have a friend that I want to go see out there, and I hear that the place is beautiful. I have not visited the Eastern Region, so that would be nice.

A good friend from Toronto, Kamau, also arrives in Ghana on February 25^th. We went to York together and have had our paths connect at various points. He, like Pierette who came in July, was in Kenya. He will go to South Africa first, then swing up to Ghana. That is really good for his first time on the continent having seen East, South and West on one trip. That is more than most people in the world ever see. He will be staying with me for his visit, and we plan to head out to Cape Coast and El Mina in order to see the castles.

As for plans this week, I will be attending a lecture on Thursday evening titled “The Struggle for Independence” and a play on the weekend called “The Blinkards” The play was written in 1906 and is about this Fante couple that represent in different ways a superiority/inferiority complex between British and Fante culture.

Franklyn and I will be going out this week to cover outreach work with street children, Ophelia and I are working on an HIV/AIDS story connected to the annual anti-stigma initiative taken by Radio Univers, and I will be doing a workshop on interview skills.

This past week has also been quite full. I attended church with a friend from the university named Karen. There was an afternoon youth meeting on Sunday and then a program on the eve of Valentine’s Day. The material was thought provoking (though I mentioned that in my last blog). While he made some points, there was so much that was being revealed to me that I wanted to add.

The speaker was a man referred to as Prophet Eddie. At the end of the service, he began to call people up to the front of the room to share with them what he felt he was hearing in his spirit. Eventually, he asked me to step out of my seat, and to the front of the room. I obliged. He mentioned a few things about my having felt stuck before, but that I was free and moving to a new level. He mentioned that I had gone through a lot of bad situations, but they were so that I could help other people get through the same things. All of that resonated as true. One thing that he said that had me thinking, was that “you have been duped by someone”, adding, “don’t look at the past, don’t be stuck there”. Since then, I have been wondering if there is truth to that, and who ‘duped me’. I don’t worry about it, as I know that anyone who speaks into my life should be confirming what God has already told me. It was interesting though.

Having been to so many churches in Ghana, and seeing such a range has got me thinking. The pastor for Lighthouse Chapel in Tamale is a man that I am glad to have met. He is really genuine, and I greatly enjoyed meeting him. There was the guy that I refer to as ‘Kumasi boy’ who was lying to the church and among other things insisted that ‘Jesus had a three bedroom apartment’. For a lot of people, being a pastor is a path to prosperity or a career option where unemployment is quite high. As is the case all over, a lot of people that go to church don’t read the Bible enough to know how what is being preached fits into the book. Again, it is not a Ghana thing, as we have two 24 hour a day ‘Chritian’ channels that often show broadcasts that seem to have ulterior motives.

Even with the service that was nice on Valentine’s Day, Prophet Eddie bluntly asked people to “bring me your offering”.

On Thursday evening, after work I had planned to attend the BBQ at the Canada High Commission. Being in the area a bit early, I decided to stop in at the Golden Tulip Hotel to relax. With a shandy and some French fries, I sat poolside watching some children playing and doing some organizing of my thoughts. After about an hour and a half, I left to head to the High Commission. The place, to my surprise, was really nice. I should have brought my shorts to go swimming, as the pool was really nice and even had a basketball net.

Though I didn’t go swimming, I still enjoyed the evening. Most of the JHR people in Accra were there. Idrissa was there too, and it was good to finally see Kary after her trip to Toronto. We ate chicken tortilla’s, pasta salad and rice krispy squares (yes, I know that there is pork in marshmallow’s, but I ate them…apologies to all my Seventh Day Adventists, Rastas, Muslims and vegetarians…lol).

This weekend Nuri-Haque came down to Accra from Kumasi. I have not seen him in months, so I was really happy that he was coming down here. I had wanted to go out to Kumasi to see him, but I have not made it out there since I came down to Accra.

So, on Saturday morning, after bringing Bella to get her stitches removed at Dr. Lokko’s house, she and I waited for Haquee’s call from the bus station. We went to get some food and chilled until the early afternoon. While waiting, I got a call from Denice back in TO, which was nice.

This is Dr. Lokko and his wife...Love You Doc!

Once meeting Nuri-Haque, we headed out to his sister’s house in an area called Abelepnke. The way there was to go from Circle to a place called Tiptoe, then through Pig Farm ,until we reached the neighborhood. While I didn’t se any pigs at Pig Fram, I did see an interesting sight at Tiptoe. The heart of the area has more cell phone stores than I have ever seen. You also find people set up all the street selling stolen phones. One guy had about fifteen phones that he had sitting on a cardboard box with no packaging and no chargers. There must be something like 25,000 phones in that area.

It was still light while we were there, but we had no intention of being around there after sunset.

Once we got to the house of Nuri-Haque’s sister Rhiana, we were treated to some spaghetti which we ate while watching Blood Diamond. One of the highlights was Rhiana’s 9 month old baby Dee. What a sweet and easy going baby. She just laughs, eats, and even dances. Oh, and she tries to eat everything, leaving drool whatever her mouth touches.

The next day, me, Bella and one of her friends headed over the Rhiana’s house again. This time we watched Dreamgirls over a plate of Jolof rice. We then decided to go down to a restaurant near Labadi Beach and hang out near the water (that is before the sunset).

That evening was concluded with a house call at the Volunteer’s Abroad house. That is where a few JHR people live and Idrissa also stays. I knew Idrissa was in Busua with Adwoa, but we still went by to see who was around.

Sitting at the table in the kitchen was Eva (works at The Statesman newspaper) and Daryl (works at Joy FM). For the next hour or so, we discussed the issue of ‘Instant Justice’. The conversation was prompted by news that Eva had her phone stolen at a tro tro yard. Each of us (Bella, Nuri-Haque, Eva, Daryl, and I) added our perspective on the public lynchings that take place when people are caught committing crimes. For me, it was an eye-opening moment. As I listened to Daryl I heard the very same words that I spoke to Nuri-Haque back in September while we were in Kumasi. I still agree with his point that ‘Instant Justice is not justice’ and I agree that it only increases violence. Yet, there is a certain acceptance that I feel that I didn’t feel before. Both Bella and Nuri-Haque expressed a similar contradictory viewpoint to my own; knowing that it is wrong and it only makes things worse, but somehow okay with it. The acceptance has more to do with a frustration over the threat of being victimized and the sense (false as it may be) of protection that this vigilante action offers where the security that the police are supposed to offer is pretty much void.

Soon after that, I headed home, having missed the dinner of fufu, to bread, jam and tea.

Oh, being February, I have to shout a bunch of birthdays. Wendy-Ann! Sharifa! Asha! Prince! Ashley (aka Lolipop)! Joy! Micheal Jordan (apologies that I missed your party in Vegas, but I don’t really do Vegas)! Paris Hilton (…yeah…)!