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Sunday, December 09, 2012

Slaves of the Lake

I'll admit I was feeling uneasy for a few days after publishing my previous post. But then I realised that keeping quiet about it doesnt help in the least.

My study at Winneba is over! We interviewed all sorts of children - who sleep in abandoned cars, who havent eaten in a week, who dont have money to even bury their dead parents...I honestly cant bring myself to write about it, but I know I should.
 
Luckily, I happened to chance on this documentary which says all that I am unable to!
 
Do spare some time and look at it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEDVFndYuT0
 
The last 2 days were all about the Presidential Elections in Ghana - campaigns, lobbying and agenda-pushing....I wonder if the cause of the slaves buried in the lake can even surface for air!

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Fishing for life

I was sure that she could see behind my forced smile! I could hardly bring myself to touch the woman whose hand I was shaking.  I was staring at her face, taking in every little detail so that I could recognise her when I saw her again. To most people, she was normal. Like many others, she had sold two of her children and sent them to work on the Volta lake.
 
The Volta lake in Ghana is the biggest man-made lake in the world, the kind that makes tourists gush about its beauty. The lake joins the sea and also boasts about an economy that thrives on unbelievable abuse of orphaned or trafficked children. These children are as young as 4-5 years and are sold by their parents to fishing businessmen for as less as 8 Ghana Cedis ($4). They are paid nothing but given food everyday. They toil endlessly and sleep on the sea in their boats. They are required to engage in the notorious deep-sea fishing throughout the day and night.  Deep-sea fishing is a risk to your life.
 
According to my field surveyor who did a study on this - “Every blessed day at least one child is lost to the sea”!
 
These children are subjected to terrible abuse by their “owners”. They are beaten and starved if they don’t work. They are robbed of their childhood for absolutely no fault of theirs. It doesn’t matter if they die, the “owner” would just buy another!
 
The organisation I work with does wonderful work in preventing this type of trafficking and rescuing these children!
 
Parents who are unable to take care of their children or are in urgent need of money sell their kids to this cause. Many do it just because they don’t want the responsibility of taking care of the child. Like the woman I was talking about. She didn’t look particularly poor. She was sitting across from me, talking and laughing as if she didn’t have a care in the world. I wonder how she sleeps at night!
 
Sometimes, I hate that my job exists!

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

The Choice!


So Ive been out of a full-time job for more than a year now! Yes, I took on a research internship, started blogging professionally and did many online assignments so that my otherwise impeccable CV didn’t suffer too big a hole. But all this hardly helped the perpetual sinking feeling of not actually having a job.
 
Most people understood and supported my choice. Well, why wouldn’t they? Staying at home and supporting your husband is considered the most worthwhile pursuit, after all!

I soon knew I had to do something or my end was near. No, I’m not being dramatic, its true! My self-worth had fallen considerably, and I began to have insane rages and violent tantrums. I was doing more harm than good for the people at home!

So I began applying for jobs in other cities in Ghana and within 3 weeks, I had one! It is a research consulting profile to conduct studies with children in multiple districts in Ghana. Perfect for me! I took it without thinking twice.

This is my last week in Obuasi. I move to Winneba in a few days. I will live out of a suitcase, stay in some guest-house, starve most of the time and more likely than not, end up with Malaria!

But I am happy, its where my heart is! Best of all, I’m going back to fieldwork, my soul-food! J

Thursday, October 18, 2012

The Office Wife

The whole of last night, the power was out. But it wasn’t so bad, there are hoards of mosquitoes to keep you company and you can enjoy the benefits of their presence long after they leave.

So, this morning I woke up with blood-shot eyes, covered in bites and very irritable!

Depp: You look like a wreck.
Me: Thanks, you always know the right thing to say!
Depp: Come on, cheer up! I’ll help you pick out what to wear today.

He holds up a bright blue wrap-around, patterned in flowers.

Me: Thats good, but I need to look professional for work, not like a housewife in a park.
Depp: You’ll look good in this, whether you’re a housewife or an officewife.

Officewife - the term certainly threw me off! And as I’m typing this post, spell check has no issues with housewife but flags officewife. Well, maybe thats a good thing!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

The magic of being!

I wasn't sure what we all were looking at. It looked like a HUGE space-craft spanning almost 5 miles and was so high that we couldn't see how tall it was...as we strained our eyes to see its end, it seemed to taper and finally disappear, though we were pretty sure it was structurally a cube...well, hows that possible now?....anyways, we stepped forward hesitantly...and then came on the lights....I mean, there was light before, but now everything was some sort of an illusion and we felt as if we were in a hologram....

We suddenly realised that everything we were thinking was being recorded somewhere and this machine was responding to our thoughts...time enough to dwell on that but I needed answers first....what I was standing on felt lighter than air but was tough as nails and I did not have to walk on it, it seemed to move beneath my feet and took me in whichever direction I wanted to go...sound was not sound in here, sound was what made things move...our eyes couldn't really see since it seemed we were in more than 3 dimensions.. white light split into not 7 but more like a million colors...and colors so fragile that a small tilt of your head changed them drastically...air was not plain old air, air moved in exotic patterns that you could feel around you....

This wondrous machine and everything in it was definitely alien or at least not invented by us yet....but hey, it was actually centuries old....how can that be????

And then it struck me - this was something from the future time traveled to the past!!!

And that's when I woke up...

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Some Days

On some days, you forget the problems that were pressing on your mind yesterday! You look at your to-do list and wonder “What was I thinking”?
 
When every small task seems Herculean, when even your dogs or a cup of tea wont cheer you up...
 
You have a resentment, a determined will to not let anything bother you...You watch others with amused detachment and all you want to do is to get into bed with a light book or a mindless movie and hope for a dreamless sleep.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Bruno & Cherry

Ok, I guess this will be the first of many, many posts to come about my dogs! :) This is my first time with dogs and I sometimes cannot believe how much I love them. I never thought I had it in me. There have been days when I’ve skipped my own breakfast to ensure that they have theirs, or have given up a weekend get-away because I didn’t want them to be left alone at home, or chosen to spend time playing with them rather than catching up on sleep and Ive even gotten over my aversion to handling meat for feeding them!

Not to boast or anything, I think these things come naturally to any dog-lover. Having said that, I think there is something inherently sad about owning dogs simply because they are totally at our mercy, with or without their will. Whenever my dog looks pleadingly at me for a tit-bit, I feel it. Or when I don’t allow them to bark at people they want to! Or when they wait patiently for me to  finish what I’m doing and open a door for them! Or when the vet comes home and they start shivering fearing the shots!

Its actually quite hard to explain and strangely, this is why I’ll never be a “good dog owner” by the standards, because I think for them and more often than recommended, oblige them, bend the rules and go out of my way to ensure that they are as happy and comfortable as possible! Good dog training practices require discipline and consistency, almost like running an army barrack, but I cannot do it – for example, I would much rather respect their food preferences and coax them to eat than being indifferent and letting them know that this is all they are going to get.
                                                                                                          
Anyways, all that can be discussed later because I am dying to introduce Bruno & Cherry, our two dogs who I love with all my life! :)

BRUNO - is a complete dope, very lovable, very trusting of others, very forgiving, forever hungry. He’s quite big and looks intimidating, but once you get to know him, he’s just a giant fur-ball and will eat out of your hand! Bruno has a protective instinct towards his family (and Cherry) and really has a heart of gold! He is not very inquisitive, isn’t surprised by much and lives for the simple pleasures like eating & sleeping.

The couch potato!
CHERRY - She is small, very sharp, very quick and VERY intelligent! People tend to be less fearful of her since she’s much smaller, a mistake, because she can be EXTREMELY aggressive and is the leader of the two. She doesn’t like strangers in the house and will take her time to trust you. She is also temperamental, and unlike Bruno, will remember if you scold her or smack her and sometimes won’t talk to you for days. She is very active, loves games and challenges, will make an extremely good guard-dog and never misses a thing! She eats almost nothing and is a great pain at each meal time. She also has an instinct for people that is so strongly accurate that it scares me at times.

Cherry basking in the sun!
Didn’t someone say that pet-owners personify their pets to a fault? :) I guess I am a good example. I remember wondering about this sometime ago in a post on my sister’s cat! Anyways, heres some more pics of Bruno & Cherry!
 
Inseparable as pups!
Cherry wants the pineapple
Cherry - Lost in thought!
Bruno with his horse shoe!
Buddies for life!
Lost to the world

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