stephanie looking up

The view from the porch of our humble bungalow.  Angela on the beach in Accra View of the Accra coast from Ussher Fort. Ussher Fort Ussher Fort

Two weeks ago I bought some fabric at the market. One week ago I visited Joyce’s tailor – the tailor doesn’t speak much english so Joyce came along to translate an explanation of the dress and skirt that I wanted made. This week I went to pick it up. The tailor’s shop is something like a ten foot by ten foot shipping container with a small roofed porch out front. There are eight or so young women who work at this shop, who all wear matching dresses made of a green gingham fabric. A table, a shelf and several sewing machines fill the interior of the small box, and there are three more sewing machines on the porch.  I did my best to converse in Twi, which of course is terribly limited, causing the women such delight that the small box immediately felt overflowing with boisterous laughter. The girls asked me if I wanted to try on my clothes to make sure they fit. I wasn’t sure if they were just being polite or if they were expecting me to try it on – and if they were expecting m...

I wrote this post a few weeks ago and have only gotten around to posting it now. I have travelled to Ghana’s capital Accra to see off Anglea who is heading home to Canada, and to welcome my assistant Andy who is arriving from Canada. The drive to Accra is about 8 hours in total, but it requires various modes of transportation and so we take two days to make the trek. We had arranged with the taxi driver from Boabeng to leave BFMS at  7:30 am  to get a good start on our day. Unfortunately his car broke down in the morning, so at  9 am  we headed off in a trotro to Nkoranza. From the trotro station in Nkoranza we caught another trotro to Kumasi. Angela and I somehow managed to swing the two front seats making for a cushy ride, or at least a more cushy ride than expected. The driver made a point of praying before we departed- praying for our successful arrival perhaps? I wasn’t especially comforted that he felt the need for this. Thankfully, the trotro only had t...

So I had been sick since I arrived Ghana, and last week was no improvement. I finally took mom’s advice and took a dose of antibiotics. I am a fool for not taking them sooner. I just thought it would take time for my body to adjust to the new foods and climate, and that being sick was just how obruni's are in rural Ghana. Turns out you don’t have to be sick here after all! I have had a whole 5 days in a row of feeling awesome.  Sunday  was my first day off since I’ve been here. I had a lot of work to catch up on but I decided to take a break and go for a run. After sitting on the toilet for a month this seemed like a miracle! Further, after a hell of a year with my other bodily battles, it was brilliant to even have the motivation to go for a run. Invigorating on all fronts. I was rocking out to a great playlist. Thrift Shop by Macklmore and Ryan Lewis came on as I was running through the forest. Whenever they sang the line ‘this is f’ing awesome’  I threw my hands up in ...

One night. No socks. 100 bites. I will never be so bold again.

There are these very large black ants in the forest that I often see marching around in neat lines of say 100 ants in single or double file. The other day Charles and I came upon them loading all of their larvae out of the nest. Perhaps spring cleaning? I’m not sure. It was awesome, but simultaneously gave me goose bumps. They had stacked all the larvae, which looked to me like large pill capsules, only black, into a well-guarded pile at the entrance of their nest. While we were watching, one of their neat and tidy lines returned to the nest, each ant carrying a small package in her pinchers  - Charles thought these packages were the victory of their hunting trip. I wanted to see what it was exactly that they were carrying and couldn’t resist gently poking one with a stick in the hopes that she might drop her load to better battle the stick. She did not, and instead I witnessed the coolest ant alarm signal – there was a sort of hissing sound that arose into the air and I coul...

Today was both completely agonizing and delightful at the same time. I find this type of feeling exhausting. The students had their last exam in the morning, consisting of a tree identification test, and two tests regarding their monkey-watching skills. In the afternoon I had a meeting with my two field assistants, Charles and Robert. We had to negotiate the terms of their contract to work for me until November. I have never been an employer before, nor have I negotiated someone’s contract. Despite being earnest and trustworthy men while they work for us, I knew from past researchers to expect some tough and sometimes sneaky negotiation. I was prepared to give them each a raise, as we know that the cost of everything in Ghana has increased over the last year following a jump in the price of fuel. Beyond this raise, I was geared up to be a stubborn negotiator.    It might be my greatest fear while I am here (besides being swarmed by ants) that I might offend a Ghanaian, espe...

My roommate from Calgary told me that she imagined that when I am writing my emails to her I am sitting in my blue dress with a big hat sitting on the oldest computer known to man in a coffee shop with sun beaming in the windows. Slightly more glamourous than my usual  Tuesday  routine, I have to say.    Here, for all of you, is how you can envision me typing away. I sit in the internet cafe sometime between  9-10:30 am  – I am 6 hours ahead of Calgary and 4 hours ahead of Toronto. We head to town first thing in the morning – it is about a 30 minute drive along a mostly unpaved road - and the internet cafe is our first stop. It is one room with a few windows and the door that faces out onto the busy dusty road of Nkoranza. The door is always open and you can hear the chaos of the street. There are three women who run the internet cafe - as far as I can tell -    and their friends, babies and husbands (boyfriends?) come and go. ...