another photo journal

It has been over two weeks already since I posted on this blog, so it's time for an update.

Time is flying here. I've been here for 7 weeks already and halfway through week 8, one month to go!

Besides focussing on my research and gathering my data, I spent my time here teaching, celebrating and enjoying the company of many small friends. Let me present you some photoos that will give you a more interesting insight into my daily life here:

Last Sunday and Monday was Salah here, the celebration after the muslim fasting. I went to Independence Square here in Accra on Sunday with my muslim friend and 'key informant' Issahaku. There were thousands of muslims present and it took some time before we found eachother...

Me and Issahaku:

Some of his friends:

Some small friends from Lifeline were also present:

On Monday 'grandma' organised a party for the 19 muslim girls at Lifeline who had been fasting. She arranged for al kinds of nice foods and sweets. I helped setting the table:

The girls enjoyed the evening very much. They were each given a chicken leg, some other nice food, sodas and a biljet of 10 Ghana Cedis (not even 5 euro). The girls went hysterical when they received the money (from a Chinese donor):

After eating comes dancing, of course. And while the girls danced, the small child of one of the girls was sleeping on a small matras in the wharehouse:

After the Salah party, I started spending time in one of the classes here, Creche 2, for the 3-4 years olds. I try to teach them a bit, they are learning 0-1-2 now, but I have a hard time getting them to listen to me. Somehow they find it very funny when I command them to 'Sit down!', 'Tenasi!', 'Stop it, stop fighting!', 'Get off the table!', 'Get inside!' etcetera...

I think I'm being to nice for them, overall. These children need some discipline and I'm not able to provide it for them, I have a lack of authority, I rather cuddle with children.... The children only listen to the other teacher when she threatens to beat them, and that's just not my style..... (Although sometimes I'm getting there....)

But they are overall very lovely (when they are not fighting eachother or disturbing me) especially when they go to sleep at noon.

The children walking, or rather dancing, back from the washroom:

Fighting for attention: 

Or just simply fighting eachother.... : 

One of the girls with a 'doll' in her hands. The state of the toys they are playing with is unbearable for me... :

My baby girl Comfort, she's too small for this class and she often seems lost in the middle of all the fighting, singing, dancing etcetera... : 

I love the children all very much, but I love them very very much when they are asleep... : 

The children need to be picked up by their parents or siblings between 2 and 4 pm, but sometimes they fail to do so (which makes me angry) and the child is left with us. This boy had to wait till eveningtime before his mother came to pick him up. We entertained ourselves drawing, playing with the balloon and with the small mouse (thanx dad!) :

Most of the afternoons I spend some time with my bff Blessing, and some of her friends:

That's it for now. I hope by the next time I write I will have continued with my research (PRA sessions!!) and I hope I will have mastered to dance the Azonto!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTUIlOudlHI

Bye now! X emma 

life here in images

Today is the funeral of the President so I'm having a day off. Traffic will be terrible in town, and I'm afraid there might be some violent incidents, that's why I'm staying in my room today.

My research is slowly but continuously progressing. I'm doing interviews with the girls here at Lifeline and with young women and girls who work at the market areas. I hear a lot of stories and some are pretty heavy to deal with. Still, I'm glad I'm able to gather my data.

My internet is not working properly lately plus I'm very tired, I haven't had a day off since a few weeks. So I'll entertain you know with some photo's that capture the daily life and surroundings of my fieldwork.

These are the gate and part of the compound of Lifeline:

Terrible traffick going on outside the gate: I'm spending the biggest part of my mornings in a tro tro stuck in traffick...

My new best friend Blessing, 7 years, she's going to school here and when school finishes she comes to look for me. I've walked her home yesterday, so I could see where she lives. Got lost on the way back though...

An impression of the hairdressing class:

Practising braids on these dolls:

The two youngest girls here, 12 years old, they come and get a hug from me every day. The girl on the  right has lived her whole life on the streets of Accra, she doesn't know her family or where she comes from... 

The sewing class:

Women on the CMB market whom I've interviewed:

So far for now, till next time!

a series of unfortunate events...

This is my fourth week now in Accra, Ghana, and a lot has happened over the past couple of days.

Before I’ll go in depth into my experiences of last week, let me first give you some background information on the project I’m working with: the Lifeline project in Agbogbloshie.

Lifeline is a project from the locally based NGO AGREDS (Assemblies of God Relief and Development Services). The project is located in Agbogbloshie, an urban slum in Accra. Within the gates of the compound here, Lifeline offers room for girls who have lived on the streets of Accra, working in the market areas. These girls get a one year schooling in either hairdressing, cooking or sewing. They live on this compound, they get class here and they eat three times a day in the dining room.

Usually Lifeline offers room for one hundred girls, but due to the effects of the global economic crisis, this year there is only space for 53 girls. These girls are between the ages of 12 and 22. Some of them come from the North and moved to Accra to earn some money. This is the group of girls I’m conducting my research with. I’ve talked to some of these girls who still live on the streets, I visit them on the market areas and I will continue to do so. This week I’ve also started interviewing those girls within Lifeline who came from the North. The other girls who are staying here at Lifeline come from Accra themselves, but some of them have grown up on the streets and cannot recall any life before that.

During the day there are also around 250 young children on the compound here. They are children from mothers who work on the markets and who cannot take care of these children during the day. So they come here in the morning and they get a uniform, two meals a day, they play, learn some things, and they sleep on the ground in the afternoon so that they can get some rest. They spend their nights on the market areas where they can hardly get any sleep.

Now that I’ve given some background information to the project I’m working with, let me tell you what happened last week.

Last Tuesday the President of Ghana died, due to natural causes. I was at Lifeline when I heard it and soon after I received the news, one of the girls and I heard some shouting outside on the street, so we went out to see what was going on. As we stood on the stairs leading up to ‘my grandmothers’ flat, we could look over the gate and we saw that some young men were fighting and rioting. Many people were fleeing away because of the violence so it was utterly chaos. Right in front of our gate a car is parked everyday and the owner sells new mobile phones out the back of his car. We saw how a young man, shirt taken of, with a machete, was stealing all the phones while smashing the car continuously with his machete. Then another girl who had came up to stand beside me shouted “they killed someone” and pointed across the street where a group of men and women were carrying the lifeless body of a men in their midst. I shall not forget the look in the dead man’s eyes.

I got scared, of course, of the sudden outburst of raw violence that was going on just outside the gates of Lifeline on the streets of Agbogbloshie, but my biggest fear was that the rioting men would try to force themselves into our compound, considering we have 53 young girls here. So I did my best to calm the girls and to lead them back to their quarters. Unfortunately there was no other staff present at the moment; it was only me and a security woman. Luckily the violence stopped after the police showed up and it did not turn out to be a prelude to further violence in response to the death of the President. I was told it was rather common for some young men in Agbogbloshie to burst out into violence now and then, though I hope never to be confronted with it again.

The following day, after I returned to Lifeline, I heard that one of the girls who was pregnant (there were two girls pregnant) had given birth that night to a baby girl. The girl had hidden that she was already nine months pregnant because she feared she would be expelled from the project. It turns out that there is indeed no place for young women and babies at Lifeline, so the girl had to be send away. The staff has found a small room on the market here in Agbogbloshie where she could stay with her child for one month, before going back to her family in the North. I accompanied the girl and her baby to that room. It truly is in the midst of ‘Sodom and Gomorra’, as they call Agbogbloshie, and I had to leave the baby, not yet one day old, behind with her mother on the floor of a cement room where she would sleep with four other women. The baby girl is beautiful and it broke my heart to leave her behind. Oh if I could only take her with me to Holland, the girl said I could….

I visited them again today though, and I will continue to visit them until they leave for the North. It’s hard holding the baby though, knowing I have to give her back to her mother at the end of my visit. It’s really confronting to see how this baby girl is brought into the world and to compare it with my own birth, 24 years ago in Bawku, and the warm family that I was welcomed in…

Fortunately, I also experience many nice things here. I enjoy the company of the girls, they are all very lovely, kind and special to me. Today I made some small presents for a group of children who are coming here this afternoon to practice for their church performance tomorrow. Two of the girls helped me to create these lovely packages. 

Well know, this post has been long enough, I will write again next time! All my love, and please email me how everything is going… I do miss home sometimes…