A Day in the Field

While in the field last week, I tried to jot down my activities on Saturday with hopes of giving you all a sense of what my work/life is like when we visit these cocoa communities. Here’s the run-down.

6:15 a.m. Alarm goes off, and I either wake-up and run or hit the snooze button.

7:15 a.m. Shower (after running or snoozing)

7:30 a.m. breakfast and some sort of team meeting

8:30 a.m. meet with Ghanaian enumerators and deal with some set of issues (each issue being more entertaining and/or frustrating than the last…more on this later)

10:00 a.m. Load tro tros (public vans that transport us) and head to cocoa villages

11:00 a.m. arrive in first cocoa village and realize we can’t do interviews there because there our five funerals occurring all day

11:30 a.m. arrive in second cocoa village and meet assemblyman/chief/village elder

11:35 a.m. chief says farmers at farms, and it will be tough to reach them…we start driving through rural communities (think narrow dirt roads) with hopes of finding farmers

11:40 a.m. van gets stuck in mud…one of my colleagues and I get out to push, while all of the enumerators stay on bus

11:50 a.m.-1:10 p.m. drop-off enumerators for interviews…lots of long walks to get the enumerators to their sites…paths supposedly frequented by snakes and other dangerous animals…I didn’t see any.

1:10 p.m.-2:00-p.m. observe part of interview in which enumerator threatens to fight respondent if wife gives different answer to question (can you say response bias?)

2:00-3:30 p.m. ride around rural village checking on different enumerators and making sure nurse measures weight, height, and blood pressure of respondents. Offered coconut from which I drank water at some point. Hoping the coconut shell provides protection from parasitic infecitons.

3:30 p.m. one of the employees from the Ghanaian company supplying the enumerators decides to try to buy a goat…I’m left by bus because my presence will result in a higher price.

3:45 p.m. Nurse refuses to leave van at one point because she is tired and hungry, and her leg hurts. I politely demand she accompanies me.

4:15 p.m. More negotiations for goat acuisition that, eventually, lead to the purchase of two goats. Meanwhile, rain is starting, and we have to traverse a narrow dirt road that will be flooded in a moderate storm.

4:45 p.m. Pick-up last enumerator and head back to regional capitol

5:30 p.m. return to regional capitol, eat lunch, wrap-up meeting

7:00 p.m. drive back to Accra in van driven by man who is upset we’re leaving so late and channels his anger into his driving…i.e. passing 5 cars on dark, winding roads

9:00 p.m. Home sweet home in Accra…where our food is spoiled because the electricity went down while we were gone

None of this is hyperbolic. Certainly an adventure.

Nightlife in Accra…or lack thereof

Late last night, I returned with my colleagues to Accra after a long, tiring, but educational and enjoyable six days in the Eastern Region.

Thankfully, we have a few days off now for rest and relaxation. I went out last night with a couple of the other researchers for dinner at a Lebanese restaurant and then for drinks at a bar called Monsoon that is popular among (or, at least, heavily frequented by) a lot of expats. Somewhat sadly, the bar was full of prostitutes. I was approached by a woman who said her name is happiness and that she wanted to make me happy all night. I politely told her I’d be happier if she left me with my friends.

This experience is, to some extent, emblematic of the difficulties of finding good nightlife in Accra. There are some clubs, but they do not typically get going until extremely late in the night (i.e. around 1 a.m.). In addition, they tend to be overcrowded, smoky, and, well, full of characters like the one I met last night. Needless to say, this is not exactly my scene.

The other bizarre part of going out on the weekend is that cultural globalization has produced some very odd music combinations. The music is a mix of Nigerian pop (a song with the lyrics “You can’t buy me love” is played over and over again), 80’s/90’s American songs, and, at least last night, a lot of Michael Jackson. At times, it feels like I’m in a time machine (last night, I heard many of the songs played at my high school prom), but, then, the time machine takes me to Nigeria.

At any rate, it is wonderful to have a few days to decompress here. I’m going to head to the grocery store and pick-up a few things before returning home to watch the U.S.-Brazil soccer match. After that, one of my colleagues and I are cooking dinner. Hopefully, my colleague is a better cook than I am…

Rain and Roosters

Once again, I’m tight on time and internet access here in the Eastern region of Ghana, so I’ll add a quick post that, hopefully, will provide some insight into life here.

I’m staying at a national teachers union center that has a guesthouse for this week of research. Every night I have been here, I have set an alarm. And, every morning, I have been woken up by a rooster or a powerful, powerful rainstorm. I’ve decided that I prefer the rainstorm because a pleasant breeze usually accompanies it. The rooster, however, is not my friend. Neither are the hours the rooster keeps: 3:57 a.m. to dusk.

Hope to wrap up this version of the survey pilot tomorrow and will definitely do so on Saturday at the latest. After that, it is back to Accra for some long-awaited rest and relaxation.

Koforidua

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m back in the Eastern Region of Ghana to continue our work piloting the survey. We’re staying in Koforidua, the capitol of the region.

Koforidua is far more subdued than Accra and also has more natural beauty. On Tuesday morning, before work, I went on a nice run with clouds breaking over mountains in the distance. It’s also nice not to have taxis honking at me constantly.

All is well with work. We’ve been doing training for the past three days, will do a listing of households tomorrow, and will pilot the survey on Friday (and, possibly, Saturday).

In sum, we’ve been working extremely hard, but the work has been enjoyable and fruitful. Next week, we’re going to have a 3-4 day period off from work because of the intensity of this week and last week. Before then, I’ll continue to write short posts. During the downtime, I’ll write a lot more about my experiences.

Eastward Bound

Back in the Eastern Region this week to continue piloting the survey instrument. It’s a huge contrast to Accra in that it is far more rural and quiet. Having said that, it’s picturesque. Went for a nice run early this morning with mountains in the background. Only popping on internet now because it’s off to dinner soon. Minimal internet access here but will try to carve out time for a detailed post tomorrow night or the following evening.

More Pictures

http://flickr.com/gp/joseph_luna/bMh0f4

The Field Once Again

It’s back to the field this week where we will continue to evaluate the survey instrument. That means waking up tomorrow at 5:00 a.m. (and it’s 11:00 p.m. now), so, in the interest of getting some rest, I am going to hold off on a more detailed post/reflection about last week. However, within the next few days, I will write a lot more about all that has happened.

Photos From the Field

The link below is to a website with a few photos from our work in the field this week, including one of me playing soccer with some children in a village. The pictures were posted by one of my colleagues. I’ll aim to post some more photos later today and will also write more about the experience.

http://flickr.com/gp/joseph_luna/EbAiZ2

Dirty Bird, Hail to the Chief, and So Much More

Last night, I returned from an absolutely spectacular three-day visit to rural farming communities in Eastern Ghana where we piloted our survey. So much happened in such a short period of time that trying to encapsulate it in one blog post seems about as challenging as the 500 word personal statement on a graduate school or college admissions essay. Because of this, I’m going to write several posts about what happened. In this one, I’ll describe what the week was like. In future posts, I’ll discuss what I appreciated most about the experience and highlight some of the absolutely hilarious things that occurred.

So, with apologies in advance for the descriptive nature of this post, here’s the recap of what happened.

Early Wednesday morning, we left Accra for the Eastern Region at 7:30 a.m. with a team of Ghanaian survey enumerators and my colleagues from Harvard. I learned the hard way that sitting in the back of a bus on bumpy dirt roads is an extremely uncomfortable experience.

After a couple of hours in the van, we arrived at a guest house a few kilometers from the dirt roads that led to the villages. We dropped our bags off and made our way to the first village.

Step one for entering these villages is greeting the chief whose permission you need to conduct the survey. When meeting with the chief, you have to follow a few protocols, the most interesting of which is that you give him two bottles of peppermint schnapps. The origins of said protocol are beyond me, but I thought it was hilarious.

While the other staff members greeted the village chief, the rest of us waited in the village. Most of the children there had never — or rarely — seen white people. They gathered around us, pointed, and started yelling “Obrani,” which means “white man” in Twi, a local language. At first, they were reluctant to approach us, so we waved and they waved. Then, in an effort to break the ice, I gave them the thumbs up sign. They gave me the thumbs up sign. When my thumb got tired, I did the motion a basketball referee makes to signal traveling. They followed suit. Finally, I started doing the dirty bird, the touchdown dance performed by the Atlanta Falcons in the late 1990’s. They, once again, mimicked my actions.

They took turns pushing each other closer to us until one kid finally had the courage to approach one of the research assistants, who shook the kid’s hand. Within a few minutes, all of the kids were high-fiving us.

After we received the chief’s endorsement, we spread out to our respective villages with the Ghanaian enumerators. I was in a very small village that had about 25 households, and the kids addressed me as “Mr. David.” They asked me if I knew Mr. Kennedy, another white man they had met who helps out at their school.

Later in the day, we returned to the first village with all of the kids we had met earlier in the day. While waiting for the other enumerators and reseachers to rendez-vous with us, I played soccer with the kids for awhile. Later, I’ll upload some pictures from this.

Back at the guesthouse, all sorts of ridiculous things occurred, which I’ll detail in a future post dedicated to the funny things that happened this week. Most of them involved appliances breaking, large insects, and political science meeting reality.

On Thursday and Friday, we woke-up before dawn to head to the villages to conduct the pilot survey. These were marathon sessions where I sat with an enumerator who conducted the interview in Twi. It was a bit hard to understand what was going on, but, nonetheless, as I’ll explain in a later post, it was very educational.

Some of the most entertaining parts of the week involved logistics. In particular, coordinating pick-ups from the villages was exceptionally challenging. It started raining hard on Thursday, and the roads started disappearing. In addition to that, the van went off the road, we had a flat tire, and a taxi got stuck. Again, all of this will be described in more detail later.

I got back to Accra late Friday night weary but better for the experience. Upon arriving, I was very excited to read about the creation of the White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic, and Youth Sports. Great stuff! I will write more about this in a separate post as well.

Spent today (Saturday) decompressing, dealing with water and electricity problems at the house, and playing basketball at the University. Heading out to dinner now, working with the baseball NGO tomorrow, and then back to work.

In sum, a lot is happening, but I’m thoroughly enjoying it. I’ll write more tomorrow about lessons learned and absolutely hliarous occurrences. Will post some pictures as well.

Off to the Field

Tomorrow, I’m leaving at 7:00 a.m. for a three day pilot survey in the Eastern Region of Ghana. I’ll be spending the bulk of this time in rural farming communities, and, as I mentioned yesterday, I’m hoping this will afford me a real opportunity to get out of the tourist bubble that is Accra. Between now and Friday, I may not have internet access, but, by Saturday at the latest, I will post a detailed update about my experience in the field. If I can find internet in the Eastern Region, I’ll post updates from there.