Ok, I only have a few minutes left at the internet cafe but I'll throw a little blog up here, to explain the pictures on facebook if nothing else.
On Friday I was sent with a couple other interns and Edmund, my Ghanaian co-worker, to investigate a forced eviction just outside Accra that took place on Tuesday. I hadn't been briefed on it because I was so busy so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.
I got there and you just saw rubble. The government had bulldozed 420 homes around a river because it was a flood zone. Long story short, 420 homes destroyed, minimal advance notice (a few days, some didn't even know), some people were dragged from their home. No compensation was payed, rendering these people refugees in their own neighbourhood. They had nowhere to go or sleep.
So we had to conduct interviews. Some of them were pretty hard to listen to. One women was outraged she'd become a refugee, asking "are we not ghanaians?" Ghana's considered to be a relatively strong and legitimate democracy and whatnot. The pictures tell the story too. And yet the kids at least remained strong. Kids are resilient in that way I guess.
Also, a follow-up to my post about that parliamentarian I met. Apparently he's running for President in 2008. That's even cooler.
This past weekend I got out of Accra again. I went up to Kokrobite. It's this huge beach outside Accra but not too far. A part of it is dominated by obrunis, mostly 20-somethings looking for a weekend party spot. It was really really fun. But I drank way too much tequila, enough that I was up on the stage dancing to "One Love" and "You can call me Al" by Paul Simon. And I slept on a random mattress instead of in my hotel room.
Good times.
2 comments:
i'll make sure to get you drunk next time i see you. i want a reinactment of this one love performance. meg.
MEGO! Are you going to write a blog in Taiwan. I told Nora she had to, but she's a difficult one that Nora. And I realize now, that since you spent most of last summer in Guelph and the month of May and stuff in Latin America, that you haven't seen many drunken performances from me. This will have to be rectified next time we're in the same continent at the same time.
(I think I was more into "You Can Call Me Al" anyways by the way.)
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