We started today in the Ekumfi Ebuakwa (eh-KOOM-fee
eh-BOO-ah-QUA) community by continuing our family profiles from yesterday. We
met up with our interpreter and saw some kids that walked up to our bus as we
were arriving. They immediately grabbed my hand and starting walking with me,
which was really cute. As we walked around, we started with an area that looked
a little like a hospital or clinic. There was one lady wearing scrubs, and
various posters about health topics all around the walls. I saw one encouraging
people to be abstinent, be faithful to their partner, and use a condom each
time they have sex (the ABCs) to prevent the transmission of STDs and AIDS.
However, it didn’t look like there was much technology or medication in the
building, but I wasn’t able to see into the actually building.
Today, we talked to 6 people; the first man that we met was standing
on his front porch in the process of making a fishing net. When we talked to
him, he told us that it took him a full 3 days to make one net, and he only
caught enough fish to feed himself and his family that lived with him. We met a
couple of people that were actually traveling to the community to get health
care or to just see their family. One lady told us that she sold bread, and the
main way that people outside of their community would know to come to her to
buy it was by seeing people who were carrying the bread that they bought back
to their homes and asking them where they got the bread. There were several
people that were visiting from other communities; one came for the medical care
and the other came to see her family members.
We talked to the lady who was coming to visit, and she was
holding the cutest baby boy. He was only 1 year and 2 months and was eating
cassava when we came to see them. During the interview/conversation, however,
she began to nurse him, which made me a little uncomfortable. It’s a completely
natural process and something that every single mother does, but in the US, you
really don’t see it happening so out in the open.
One of the cooler things that we got was that many people
that we asked said that, if they could have one thing for the community, it
would be a water source and latrines. They also said that, if they could go
anywhere in the world, they would go to the United States. That is an
interesting thing to understand because they have been educated enough to know
that the water they currently have is not healthy for them to drink, and they
are looking for solutions. In addition, their interest in the United States
makes me stop and think about how lucky I am to not only be living in a
developed country, but to be living in a place that people look up to and
really want to visit (remember that the Brits we met at the medical brigade two
days ago were also extremely curious about NYC?).
We talked to another man who used to be a government
carpenter and built his own latrine on the side of his house. He said that he
had a son in Canada, so he would like to visit him there, but usually, his
children come to visit him instead. He was extremely surprised when he heard us
speak the two or so phrases of Fante that we were briefly taught, which I
thought was quite entertaining.
As we were walking along to the next few houses, several
little kids came up to us and started grabbing our hands. We ended up playing
with them for a while, until they saw our cameras and wanted us to take their
pictures and take pictures with them. They ended up also grabbing my hair tie
that I had on my wrist and would not give it back. I let them have it, but that
means I can’t lose any more or I’ll have to wear my hair down every day, which
would be a disaster. 0.o
During this time, our interpreter pointed to my sunglasses
and told me that she really liked them, so I handed them over and let her try
them on. As we were talking along, she was trying to subtly take some selfies
while wearing them (though taking selfies is never subtle). She ended up
keeping them on even as we walked into the “Accra House,” owned by the 88-year
old man that we met yesterday.
He invited us in again to just see his house, so we toured
around and saw exactly how large his house was; he had rooms that were bigger
than other people’s entire houses and lots of rooms to boot. He told us that
his cousin was traveling to the United States but he had never been. He then
showed us his garden, which supplied him with the food that he and his sister
ate. The schoolboys from the community would help him out, but he had a good
variety of plants going. On his way to the window to show us, however, he
tripped on the doorstep and scared us half to death because of his age. Instead
of relegating to pain though, he literally popped right back up and joked that
it was his exercise for the day. It was terrifying in that moment, but the fact
that he was healthy enough to do that is incredible. I kept thinking about
whether my grandfather would be able to do that (he’s around the same age), and
I’m really not sure that he would.
When I asked him about his advice for us, he shared that he
knows the community (adults and children) are extremely grateful for the work
that Global Brigades does, and that we should continue to help communities like
his. He spoke of it very fondly and appreciatively, and it was amazing to hear
it come from someone who could take the time and really see the kind of impact
we could make on the area, and he invited us back to see him again tomorrow.
On the bus ride back to the compound, I was talking to
Brittney, another intern, about our experiences with GB prior to this
internship. I realized that it wasn’t until today, talking to Kwami Kawamasan
(the 88-year old) about how the community has changed and improved that I
really got a glimpse of the impact this organization is making. I know there
are going to be many times in the next while until I return to the US that I’m
going to wish I was back home and watching TV, lazily curling up with food and
a book or something, but I think that this conversation will bring me back and
clarify my vision of why I’m here and what I want to do in the future.
On our way, we also stopped by the market from before.
Joanna, our interpreter, who had returned my sunglasses before we had gotten
back on the bus to make the trek back to the compound, called me up to see her.
I asked for my sunglasses back because I wanted to make sure that I would have
a pair to have until I went back to the States and would be more than happy to
give them to her when we left, but she simple said, “I really like your
sunglasses.” I didn’t know exactly how to react to that, so I just went back to
my bag to get them and give to her. They’re nothing fancy because they were a
really cheap plastic pair that came with the Color Run registration I did this
past June, but still. I work way better with sunglasses. I would not have been
so willing if I hadn’t seen an extra pair in my larger suitcase that I didn’t
originally intend to pack, but I just didn’t know that people could be so
interested in something as simple as they are. One of the other interns bought
some ginger snaps from the market and shared it with all of us, and they were
really good! They tasted a lot like regular American ginger snaps from any
grocery store, but then they have a really nasty kick of ginger flavor that
tastes like eating straight up ginger.
After dinner and entering the data we collected into a template
form, we met with the head of business and microfinance brigades in Ghana,
William (same William from yesterday). He asked about our opinions of the
family profiles efforts and our suggestions, but one intern asked why we were
the ones conducting the interviews if the interpreters could more easily and
more efficiently gather this information. He talked about the special ability
for us to be a part of a cultural exchange that was more important than purely
getting that information, which put a new spin on our task. I felt that it was
hard to get the community members to whom we were talking to ask us about our
lives (no one had done it, even when we started including some information
about ourselves in our introductions and questions). Nevertheless, I have
definitely appreciated the opportunity to just take some time and listen to
what the community members have to say in a way that would be impossible on a
brigade, which is focused on a specific task and doesn’t build in time for us
to really get to ask culture questions to multiple members of the community.
When we were sharing our experiences in the large group, one
group shared that they were asked whether they would want to live in Ebuakwa,
and that they had a hard time putting it nicely that they would rather not. At
the time, I thought that it wouldn’t be terrible to, because you wouldn’t have
to worry about much. You live with your family, you can always farm if you need
to, and you don’t have to keep up with the news or anything, or worry about how
you’re going to pay for school or retirement or learn to invest. When one group
shared that they heard an interviewee ask why we would even want to come to
their community, especially because we have so much over in America, though, I
think it hit me to really think about what they have and what they don’t. The
luxuries we have, including ready access to the internet, give us the ability
to find any information we need. They have a set of pains that come with them,
but in the US, I can sleep on a comfortable bed, turn on the air conditioning
on a hot day, grab a glass of Sprite and a bowl of snacks, and binge watch a
huge variety of television shows.
The last thing of the evening was a short meeting to hand
out USB sticks that would allow us to connect to the internet via laptop (or
just to have access to the internet for the first time in 5 days, which is way
longer than I’ve been away from wifi in the past 2 years, aside from my other
brigades). We only had 4, so the idea was that we would share it between our
3-person groups. It was just my group’s luck that our stick didn’t work (though
the same happened to one other group), which means that it’s another day
without internet or communication with the outside world. It’s a weird feeling
and a humbling one to remember that life goes on with or without you.
I took the opportunity to take a look at the pictures I took
in London instead, and I thought that they looked really great! Bless the
quality of an iPhone camera.
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