Ghana-time 3

Kejetia

After settling into Bolga for a day, the whole group (professors, Ghanaian colleagues and all) headed off to the gold-mining community: Kejetia. Our hired driver navigated our high-lighter yellow van along the bumpy, twisty, pitted, dusty roads from Bolga to Kejetia. A mere 7 mile distance on the GPS requires 45 minutes to drive! But it’s a beautiful drive. Compounds of mud huts are clumped near the shade of Baobabs’ thick canopies. We saw sets of cows or donkeys pulling plows and digging stripes across the fields. Rock walls (only about a foot high) create terraces along the hill sides. Men drive hoes into the earth like hammers. Women and small children gather around NGO-installed water pumps, cranking the lever up and down to fill basins for laundry and drinking. We pass school buildings with flocks of kids in orange shirts and brown dresses or shorts (the uniform for all Ghanaian public schools). The younger children always wave with alacrity and sometimes even run alongside the bright yellow van as we drive along.

Kejetia. Kejetia is a community that formed within the last 25 years to mine gold. Families continue to flow into and out of the village seeking a better living than subsistence farming somewhere else. They build their mud huts in haphazard rows only meters away from open mining shafts (that are 10-15 meters deep! Real safe, right?) Grinding machines roar, pulverizing new rock from below, while women do laundry in their plastic sandals near by. Mothers strap their babies to their backs as they sift the dusty crushed rock. When we visited the community, they demonstrated the mercury amalgamation—adding quicksilver to a “slurry” of water and powdered rock containing gold flecks. The flecks clumped to the mercury like iron to a magnet forming a sticky silvery ball. Then the men used a blow torch to burn off the mercury (without any face protection or vents to contain the noxious Hg gas!) leaving an 80% pure golden lump. The children played only a meter away.

So far, I have only spent 3 days working in Kejetia. Our professors left this Monday, and now we forge ahead into our study. My fellow researchers and I are joined by 3 Ghanaians interpreters (they translate our English questions into FraFra). We have finished 5 surveys so far (only 115 more to go)! Surveying is long (hot) work, but it is so gratifying. The women who I have worked with so far welcome us and share their time so graciously. I only wish we could offer them more immediate, tangible care and help.

The children are my favorite. Since Ghanaian schools teach in English, the children can communicate quite well. They are fascinated by digital cameras. “Will you take my picture?” they request, and then they scurry to see the image on the little screen. I smile at them, and their bright white grins nearly spill off their little dark faces. Yesterday, Mozghon and I were surveying an elderly woman for over 2 hours. The kids hovered nearby the whole time (and trust me, it was boring to watch) because they were so amazed at our presence. At the end of the survey, while Mozhgon was taking biological samples, I pulled the kids to the side for a silly combination of “yoga stretches”/follow the leader/the hokey-pokey. We jumped up and down, spun in circles, touched our toes, balanced on one foot and clapped together. I loved it.

*Ghana-time: Time here passes differently than time in the States. It is slow and thick, like honey. Everyone is perpetually stuck in that lazy after-lunch stupor when the heat and food corroborate to lull you to sleep. Ghanaians flow along with this relaxed pace. We Americans don’t quite understand: we expect our meal served within 15 minutes (not an hour and a half) at the restaurant; we expect the hotel lobby to call our taxis to be called ahead of time when we ask; we expect the meetings to start on time (or at least on “Michigan time” haha); we expect the car ride to last 45 minutes (but flat tires—three so far—dirt roads, frequent ditches, etc happen often here). Poor Americans, trying to squeeze Ghana into our organized timetable. Nope. Ghana teaches me patience. You’re in Ghana. Be.

Wow...there is so much more I want to say... alas, I have already been sitting in the internet cafe for >3 hours! Look forward to more posts soon. I want to tell you about the "religiousity" in Bolga, give you food reviews, tell you more about my fellow researchers and translators (it's a great group!), and hopefully give updates on our study!

Sending my love!

Codi