You win some you loose some.

By Stephanie Fox -

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, especially one of those that we work closely with – I find it often hard to tell what is rude here and what is not. For this reason, I found negotiating extremely stressful. In the end we came to a good agreement, mainly thanks to my supervisor who is a far better negotiator than I am (that is she was willing to budge, while I was not.) My lesson in negotiation: you have to listen to the people you depend on, if they are unhappy, you will be unhappy. When you come to an agreement, you have a drink. Phew. 

For the evening, we had planned a small party of sorts for the students to top off their stay in Ghana. We had invited the local chief and traditional priests (of which Nana Fiema was the only one who could make it), Tony (the head of the Wildlife Division for BFMS), Robert, Charles, Afia and Daniel (our field assistants), Joyce (our cook), Patrick (a volunteer from Quebec), and Alfred (the ‘money collector’ for BFMS whose family we have been close with for years). With all of these important people, I was afraid that we might end up with shy students and little to no conversation topics. Let me tell you, I was so wrong. First, the arranging of the tables was a great saga. After much ado we finalized a seating arrangement of a large circle of tables to everyone could see everyone else. Robert’s wife had prepared melon soup, made from pounded melon seeds, and foufou, which is pounded cassava or plantain. It was the first time I’d had it, and it was delectable. We had an assortment of pops, beer, and bitters to drink. Robert and Charles diligently served everyone’s meal and couriered them to the table. You can imagine that with all of the work put into that food, wasting any of it would be a great shame.  Around this time was when Alfred waltzed in and declared that if any food was left behind, we owed the money collector 10GHC each! He also then began humming a little tune in a do-do-do-la-la-la kind of way with such enthusiasm that we inquired what this was all about. Alfred’s second declaration of the evening; there will be a dance competition after dinner!  Tony thankfully was the first to declare that he couldn’t finish his food, taking the pressure off the rest of us. In replacement for the 10GHC fee, it was suggested that Tony be the first entry in the dance competition.  And Nana from Fiema (the chief) volunteered to sing, and Patrick volunteered to join. Pascale (my supervisor) promptly advertised our other program assistant Angela as our resident vocalist (she had performed a rap for us earlier in the month that caused the entire group stomach cramps from laughter).  Nana suggested a song, which Tony said would be to slow for his ‘vivacious dancing’. He said he needed some hip life music like the young people listen to – like Azonto, which Angela chimed in – and proceeded to demo the Azonto dance (‘I know how to do the fist movements’) to prove that he knew how to dance like young people. By this point we were roaring with laughter, and everyone cheered for the demo Azonto.  (youtube Azonto dancing)
After dinner Robert, Charles and Daniel set a bonfire – which involved a concerningly large stack of wood – and then roped the students into playing a game around the fire that I think was something like duck-duck-goose, only instead of tapping them on the head like we do, you discretely drop an object behind your goose and try to get as far around the circle without them noticing. This was followed by a terrific game of human tug of war. The level of excitement caused by these games literally caused the children to leap up and down squealing and cheering on each team. Charles told me he was so happy, he had never gotten to have so much fun with the field school students and have a bonfire.


The unfortunate part of the story comes after this, when I spent the entire night up and the entire next day being sick... hooray for unfamiliar food. I don’t think I will be able to eat melon soup and fou fou again. You win some you loose some.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Donna, game driver and total badass

By -
Image
In early May, my mom, sister and I went on a safari in Murchison National Park. My mom had booked the trip through a local safari company. When I got word that our safari guide Donna would be picking us up, my ears perked up. Donna. Perhaps a woman safari driver? Huh. That would be cool. Were we that lucky? Yes. Yes we were. It's rare to see women driving in Uganda, let alone driving a standard transmission vehicle, let alone driving tourists around, let alone while simultaneously spotting leopards and lions in a four-wheel drive safari van. Indeed, Donna Katesi is one of four female game drivers currently working in Uganda. People did stare a lot – construction workers literally stopped working and stared, mouths gaping, as we drove by.   Donna is a skilled game driver and total badass. She joked that she makes her way among her male colleagues by being a bully. Case in point – when she sent us off on a boat tour one day, I heard her tell the guide t...
Read more

photos from the month

By -
Image
One day last week, the chimps took us to the top of one of the highest hills at about seven in the morning, just in time to see the sunrise. The hills in the foreground are all part of Kibale National Park, and in the far distance you can see the Rwenzori Mountains. This mountain range is also the border with the Congo. I haven't yet learned what this plant is, but I saw it in the forest this week. Isn't it crazy!? I think probably a fly trap of some sort.  The view from my porch, watching a storm roll in. My house looks just like the other two in this photo - each one is a duplex and I have half the house to myself.  A particularly large elephant, as you can see from this footprint, was hanging out nearby us in the forest a few weeks back. I could also see prints from its wrinkly skin in the mud. I got poured on while I was trying to get to town to get groceries. Luckily anyone will let you stay on their porch to wait it out.
Read more

and we're live

By -
I've spent the last few days setting up shop in Uganda. I unpacked my three pieces of luggage (each weighing in at a full 50 lbs), hired a cook, helped the cook sweep a nest of army ants out of my kitchen, harangued some cooking equipment and bought more groceries than my cook and I could carry. I had five people working on the house today fixing lightbulbs, sweeping off the roof, setting up the kitchen, and literally banging various things back into shape. Then I convinced someone to give me a table, a bookcase and some chairs, and pushed the few pieces of furniture around in circles until finding a satisfying arrangement. Hazah - feels like home. The humidity, the smell of the forest, the rain pounding on the tin roof, the incessant chirping from birds and bugs, the small plumes of smoke rising from village homes, hearing colobus roar in the morning and the rich color of the red dirt roads all bring back fond memories. 
Read more