Shama

Earlier this week I took a trip to Shama district, and visited four coastal communities about 45 minutes from Takoradi, in order to view study sites in preparation for my return to the area with surveys.  The areas were: two fishing areas in the town of Shama proper, and the villages Abuesi and Aboadze.  This visit took place on a Tuesday, the fisherman's holiday, so the canoes and smoking equipment was not in use and I was able to take a bunch of cool pictures of them.

The smallest, craziest road I've ever been on (also this was taken in torrential rain)

View from the car

Canoes!  After reading about the canoe fishing industry for so many years, seeing them in person was sort of breathtaking.  They are larger than I thought they would be!  I saw a few people making canoes but was unable to get a picture. 

Beach.  The lines you see are how the canoes are tied up. 

Poverty.  Many of the houses in the fishing community looked like this. 

Fort San Sebastian, where African slaves were held before being shipped to the Americas.  A sobering sight. 

Racks used to smoke fish

Inside of an indoor fish smoking unit

I love this picture

Outdoor smoking ovens - more susceptible to not being able to be used during the rain, which visited us in torrents at the end of our visit.  They are not in use today because, since no fish are landed on a Tuesday, no fish are processed that day. 

Trash: the beach was littered with it.  Sad. 

Hope you enjoyed the pictures, dear reader!

Random Thoughts

I’m feeling far less homesick today.  I woke up excited to go to work!  Ghana feels less foreign than it did last week.  I’m acclimating! 

Ghanaians like there meat super, duper cooked.  My mother who likes her meat cooked-to-death, would love it.  Me, who is already almost a vegetarian by preference, is less than thrilled. 

Ghanaians also love their carbs!  Since carbs are by far my favorite food group, this pleases me.  I’d much rather have oodles of tasty carbs and some overcooked meat than lots of amazing meat and so-so carbs.  Also, there is no such thing as too many carbs at a Ghanaian meal, so I’m basically just living off of carbs in some kind of tomato based sauce or broth.  It’s delightful.

Also what they call Spaghetti is really angel hair.  And they mix it with the rice and sauce.  Again: no such thing as too many carbs.  Bliss. 

Finally, tomorrow I give a talk during lunch to Hen Mpoano of my experimental design and methodologies.  They will offer critiques and help me change my questions if they are not well suited for the communities I will be interviewing in.  Wish me luck presenting!  And hopefully this means I’ll be back in the field either the end of this or the start of next week! 

Picture Dump

So these pictures took me, no joke, about 2.5 hours to get from my phone to my computer to the blog.  For some reason, blogger keeps crashing on my phone when I try to post pictures from it (wtf), and none of the micro USB chargers I brought are conveying data from my phone to my computer  (I had like 10 to choose from, how'd I manage this?).  So these had to be individually emailed to myself then downloaded to my computer then uploaded to the blog.  So enjoy, gosh darn it!

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Fish at the market at Takoradi

I think these are the Sardinella

The view of the road my host family lives on.  This soil is rust colored, not the vibrant, almost blood colored red of some of the other soil I've seen.  

The Atlantic on the West Coast of a continent.... so weird!

Technically this is the Gulf of Guinea and the Southern border of Ghana, for those so geographically or cartographically inclined (as everyone should be because maps are cool gosh darn it!)

Lunch location, first full day in Sekondi-Takoradi.  Apparently this place turns into a full blown club on weekend nights.  On my to-do list for sure!  

Back at the Takoradi Market... she saw me taking pictures and wanted to express her inner model. 

Bringing a friend in for the fun (I managed to throw my camera on the ground right before this picture and was very embarrassed while taking it)

Market at Takoradi

Takoradi Market

Crabs

So much fish!

More fish

Field work.  The woman I'm speaking with is named Adiza, and she served as my interpreter.  She holds a Master's from The University of Rhode Island and has been instrumental in helping me figure out my experimental design.  I am massively grateful! 

Canoes

(I was not allowed to take any of these pictures during field work.  I was informed by another of my Hen Mpoano guides that the people were likely to become suspicious of an intruder taking pictures, so he took them all for me.  I found this out by starting to take pictures and being told "STOP!" which was somewhat alarming.  So the following pictures of field work are credited to Patrick).

Canoes

After reading about the artisanal canoe fishery for so many years, it was sort of breathtaking to see it in real life

These pictures were taken on a Tuesday, which is the traditional day of rest for Fante fishermen.  Otherwise, many more canoes would have been out on the water. These canoes were essentially moored behind the breakwater. 

Adiza and I

Showing me what a "large" bucket of fish looks like.  The amount of fish sold are delineated by the size of the buckets the fit into, not by weight or number of fish.  So different groups told me the amount they received for a "large bucket" vs. "small bucket."  

Ok so not to be that Terrible White Woman who goes to Africa to take pictures with The Poor Children... these kids wanted to take the picture with me and they initiated it, not me (and then the adults joined in).  One of the children in this part of the fish processors area was thrilled to practice his English with me.  The little girl in grey with her hands on her hips (the one stealing the scene) could not stop putting her hands on my knees and smiling at me. I also get called "Obruni" which means "white person" by many of the local children.... this is not an insult, but more of a friendly way of acknowledge you.  When I hear a child call out to me "Obruni! Obruni!" I smile and wave at them, which they usually are thrilled by. 

Post-1st day of field work

I've decided that 1 hour of field work = an extra hour of sleep needed that night.  I am exhausted.

Pre-1st Day of Field Work

Today I go out into the field to test my skills at semi-structured interviews using feminist methodologies.  Yesterday I learned that I will, in fact, need an interpreter for many of my interviews.  Which means I will not be going out into the field alone.  And, because of the focus on women subjects and feminist methodologies my interpreter will also be female.  This is all very relieving to  me, because the primary mode of transportation here is via cab, and so far I haven't heard any of the cab drivers speak English (I assume they do, at least enough to get me around, but I still haven't tried it yet).   So I'm not exactly sure how to tell cab drivers where to take me.  Overcoming that "barrier to access" is one of my goals for this week.  I also want to be able to walk around Market Circle alone without being completely overwhelmed.

Hopefully after today I'll have a better sense of what needs to be modified about my interview process.  I am sure that I don't exactly have it down exactly, but I won't know what needs to be changed until I've actually attempted to interview a few subjects.  I will be heading into the fishing community of New Takoradi.  Stephen seems to think that me focusing on head female fish mongers (Konkohenes, in Fante), as opposed to fishermen, will work well - again because of the feminist methods I will be employing.  Thank you Professor Marc Miller for insisting I have a solid methodological background before going into the field - otherwise I'd feel even more lost!

Wish me luck, faithful readers!