Sema had told us that because we were so tired yesterday that we were allowed to sleep in until 6:30am! What a luxury! (I’m not being sarcastic.) However, promptly at 6:20am, Emil was knocking at our door, asking if we were ready for the community announcement, which we had done so well to completely forget. The announcement was to focus on my research and my invitation for interview and focus group participation, as well as our plan to hold study sessions after school to encourage reading and language skills. Sweaty and disheveled from the hot night’s torment, we quickly dressed. I was really grumpy and fought the urge to ask if we could skip making appearances at the announcement, and rounded the corner of our compound toward the meeting tree. The meeting tree is a tree in the center of the side path between homes, whose shade provides an opportune spot for the elders to gather and hold meetings. I had seen such a gathering just days before, where maybe 30 or 40 people crowded around the tree and faced the elders at the center. The scene before me now caught my breath.
The entire village sat, organized and still, flanking the path. Women on the left, men on the right, the elders and chief were situated at the center under the tree, adorned in their formal robes. I gasped with the sudden shift of attention on us as we walked through toward two empty chairs beside the Anyo Group and the chief’s wife. I noted that Sema and Mama, our permission for sleeping in, were both absent. The entire meeting and announcements were conducted in Ewe, which made me anxious. Walter began to walk around the women, grouping them by six, and wrote down their names. He presented the list to me, explaining those were the focus groups… I wondered how much these women understood that participation was voluntary. I decided I would cross that bridge when it actually came time to conduct the focus groups. I did tell Walter I needed a few more groups though, one of men, one of elders, one of teachers, and one mixed with everyone. I tried to explain that I probably wouldn’t be able to conduct ALL of the focus groups Walter had just organized, but that I would try. He asked about the people who wanted to be interviewed but wouldn’t get the chance. I explained that I would try to complete as many as possible, but that I would need more time and more manpower to conduct interviews for everyone, and it just wasn’t possible. He seemed relatively satisfied with my response, and moved on. A man behind me spoke up, in Ewe, and started arguing it seemed. I didn’t know what he was angry about, but I was again getting nervous, jumping to the conclusion that he must not agree with my research or something… the chief spoke, and the man retorted with something that caused an uproar of laughter and hushed conversations among the community. I was dreading knowing where the conversation had turned. I reluctantly asked Emil what was going on. Thankfully he explained that the man noted that some people were not at the meeting because they chose to stay at home, and the man wished those people to be punished for not attending. Apparently after that, they began to discuss the problem of stray goats.
Because of the early morning antics, we decided to skip church. Instead, we took a late bucket shower and porridge for breakfast, followed by rest. As we lounged on our beds, we reminisced about Magic Hat Summer Ale, smores, coke, and pizza. My laptop had enough battery, so we plugged in the fan, situated the laptop between us, and proceeded to watch the Lion King. It was really nice to watch a familiar lighthearted story. After we finished, we took a short nap before the children came by. Jessica and Maufuaemo were decked out in their church dresses, looking ever so cute. Kofi on the other hand was a mess like always, constantly resembling PigPen from the Peanuts. His clothes were filthy and he attracted a gang of flies around him everywhere he went. Lunch was entirely unappetizing (kenkey) so I settled for a Clif Bar and prepared for my first interview with Divine.
My first interview went pretty well. We were interrupted a couple times, but nothing too severe. Divine’s familiar ways of communicating were present—the studdering, the topics that go in circles but don’t ever seem to get anywhere, etc. Afterward, the grandmother of the compound, whose name I forget, stopped by to borrow another book. I’m glad people are excited about reading; everyone seems intrigued by the books we brought. Samantha and I decided to visit Mama for a little while, and then Mama took us to meet the village midwife. She seems like a sweet woman. She is trained as a midwife though she is illiterate and doesn’t speak or understand any English. She did agree to be interviewed though, which made me beam with excitement—who better to talk to about reproductive health in the rural areas than a village midwife?
We followed Mama back to her house and on the way she explained that she delivered Michael and Maufuaemo with a midwife but her most recent child, 2 year old Cicho she delivered by herself. When we arrived back at Mama’s compound, Samantha and I ate our cocoa plant we picked up at National Geographic central the other day. It was quite tasty. As we sat, I observed everything in the compound for its purpose rather than signs of impoverished living—basins set aside for washing, another for rinsing, tools for cooking, barrels and bins for storage. The goats among us were making antagonistic advances on each other, warning other goats by somehow using their lips to make a distinctly accurate farting sound. Mama gave us 2 small baggies of ground nuts (like very tiny peanuts) to take back to our compound. Once we were there, we each enjoyed a bag-full very happily. Dinner was two small biscuits to share that Mrs. Agnes Asafu (the landlord’s wife) had made. Delicious as they were, they were not plenty, and my stomach growled for more food. No wonder I lose weight here!
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