Sunday Funday

I slept well last night, despite the 5 inch lizard running up and down the wall next to my bed. We slept late, until 6:45am! When I woke up, our shower buckets were already waiting for us in the shower area. We had porridge for breakfast; I added sugar cubes and the cinnamon I brought along as usual. The morning was somewhat slow, as most people in the village were at church, but in our compound Kofi’s mom was busy washing clothes and Koju Asafu was around as well so the compound wasn’t as quiet. At 9am, Hans finally came for his interview. He is always extremely quiet so I wasn’t sure of his English capabilities, but the night before he had assured me that his English was up to par. It wasn’t. Because of the language barrier, he answered questions with short responses that didn’t make sense. I was sure he didn’t understand what I was asking, but my numerous efforts to clarify went without any meaningful result. His interview lasted only 11 minutes, and as soon as it was over he jumped out of the seat and ran off to hang out with Richard. *sigh*

Soon after, Bright came by to practice typing, but was often sidetracked by curiosity of other games and programs on my laptop. I need to sit next to him to keep him focused, which selfishly is not the extra effort I want to expend on this trip. As much training as I give, it doesn’t make a difference since they don’t have working computers to practice on. He left after what seemed like a long while, and Samantha and I decided to take a much-needed walk. Our walk was probably about 2 miles up the road, just past the big tree. 50 minutes later we arrived back at the compound, dripping with sweat. No more noon-time walks, we decided. We discarded our saturated clothing, and laid down in front of the fan for a rest. Sema brought lunch, beans with gary. The beans are the same stewed white beans in palm oil that is half of the red-red dish with plantains, only this time it was just the beans and a small bag of gary, which is ground dry cassava. It looks and has the texture of uncooked dry grits, which you sprinkle on top of the beans… I ate only a tiny bit because the beans have a lot of palm oil in it.

After lunch we packed the laptop and my paperwork and decided to seek out interviewees. Our first stop was Richard’s place to assess whether Walter or Sema were home (both of whom are Richard’s immediate neighbors). I should note a fun fact: due to a suggestion of mine, Richard now wears a patch of gauze over his cancerous eye to avoid further infection and to pacify my disapproval of the dirty rag previously used to wipe his irritated eye. The fun fact part of this is he has no tape, so he wrapped a white cloth around his head, with one eye hole cut out for his good eye. In a sense, he looks like a ninja turtle with a white eye mask. Walter wasn’t home, but Sema was in her compound washing clothes. We waited a little while until she finished before she could sit down and be interviewed. While we waited, we watched Selom and another boy play soccer with a deflated ball, dodging a large and protective new mother hen and her 7 brand new chicks. The chickens and roosters in Sema’s yard are significantly larger than any others in the village. The roosters reminded me of that old Looney Toons cartoon with the giant white rooster. They got a little too close for my comfort. Sema’s porch is also completed; when I was here last she was in the middle of construction on half of her house. Her compound is shaded and breezy so it was nice to just sit and relax away from our own. Sema lives there with Selom (her nephew whom she is the guardian of) and a cousin. She surprised us with two small bottles of chilled coke and we began the interview. The interview was also relatively short and lacked some depth because of the language barrier, but it was enough to get by.

Once we finished Sema’s interview, we walked to Believe’s house to interview her, but were told she had gone to the neighboring village. We went to Peace’s store but she was busy, so Mama asked Michael to lead us to another house. After about 50 feet, Michael forgot he was leading the way and started walking next to me, and then slowly started walking behind me. I slowed so he could take the lead, and then he slowed as well. We were crawling through the village and he would stop and pick up a flower or a leaf, and look up and smile… I had to remind him constantly by asking where we were going and asking him to show me. It took forever to reach the house only to find that no one was home. But Michael was a loyal little guide and then showed us to Cassandra’s house, where Cassandra and Jessica came running to greet us. We sat and visited a short while, and Cassandra agreed to come to our compound later in the evening for her interview. As we sat, Cassandra started to nurse Christopher and I forgot how… natural it is for women to openly nurse. Christopher was paying more attention to us than her so for a little while her breast just hung there. Jessica ran over and grabbed it, shaking it in front of Christopher’s face and when he still didn’t take the nipple, Jessica pinched the loose skin on her mother’s breast and lifted the breast back into her mother’s shirt, all while Cassandra engaged in conversation with us. I knew what Samantha must have been thinking: “this is so National Geographic,” but as for me, I don’t know, I guess I just understand that’s the way things are here. I should mention that a woman and two other men and one other small child were all sitting with us.

Jessica cheerfully followed us back to Mama’s house, where squealing and running and playing commenced between Michael, Jessica, and Mawufemor, with Cicho looking on in wonderment trying to keep up. Samantha and I sat in two plastic chairs facing the chaos, though we were quickly deemed “home base;” the girls would fall into our laps when Michael chased them, giggling and squealing as loud as possible. It was a riot to watch. We sat in the middle of the compound, while Mama prepared fufu in the corner. Between us were 3 men butchering meat from a newly slaughtered goat on the small wooden table usually designated as the children’s eating area. They cut the meat with a dull machete while two other women looked on. The children were running and screaming in circles around all of us. The table was bloody and had many remnants of meat that had already been cut. There must have been 40 flies at least swarming the men and the meat on the table as the men placed small portions of the cut meat into plastic bags to sell. I couldn’t stop staring at the flies on the meat. Mama invited us to eat some fufu with her, 5 feet away from the butchering table. We accepted and I tried not to look at the fly covered pieces of bloody goat directly to my right… The fufu was really good, and Samantha liked it, to my surprise. We only tried a little bit and decided we should probably go home in case anyone came by for an interview.

We walked back to our compound, hoping that Believe, Peace, and Cassandra would all appear this evening for their interviews. We ran into Samuel on the road and he agreed to be interviewed right then, so we sat on our front steps and got some pretty good information from him. He sat with a friend of his, a girl who appeared out of school since her hair had started to grow; all school children through Senior Secondary School are required to keep their hair shaved for uniformity—boys and girls. Samuel is 26 and the girl seemed somewhere between 18 and 24. Their English was good, and they were interested in continuing our conversation until well after the interview was over. They asked if people from the village took time to hang out with us, but we sadly said no, not really. Only Mama really seems to spend time with us and want to talk to us. Even Emil seems to only do so out of obligation. I’m hoping that Sam and his friend will visit us more often. It started to rain so we said goodbye and Samantha and I stepped inside just before the rain became heavy.

After a few minutes, Michael, Jessica, and Mawufemor showed up, soaking wet from the rain. I gave them a towel to dry off, sat them on the floor, took out my laptop and started a movie—Finding Nemo. It was a success, and before long, Samantha and I were just as engrossed in the film as the kids were. Michael was down in front. Jessica was on the right side of my lap, with Mawufemor on my left, each cuddled up for most of the movie. It was really cute to watch their reactions. After the movie we ate dinner—rice with red sauce and some type of patty resembling a thin crab cake but made with canned beef, peppers, egg, and spices. It was pretty good. Just after dinner, Cassandra appeared with Kosi, Jessica, and little Christopher on her back. Kosi acted as the interpreter, though I’m sure he answered a few questions himself rather than his mother’s thoughts. Again, the interview went relatively quickly, and afterward we visited for a little while. Kosi is ¾ through Twilight, reading much faster than I’d expected. Michael, Jessica, Kofi, and Mawufemor all laid quietly on the floor while the interview was conducted so when it was over I quizzed them on numbers using my UNO cards. They said goodnight, and before long Mama showed up to visit, with a sleeping Cicho on her back.

I really like our conversations with Mama. She is so candid with us, and I feel like she truly enjoys our company. We joke and laugh, and seem to understand each other more so than with anyone else here. We talked about how I’ve gotten more interviews with men completed than women because the women are always busy; the women work on the farm, watch the kids, prepare the meals, bathe the children and clean the compound, and wash the clothes… while the men work on the farm and then come home and relax for the rest of the day and evening. We talked about her husband, Francis, who currently is in Ho, staying with a friend and looking for work. She hasn’t seen him in two months, but they talk every day. He was working with lumber and wood, but whoever had been in charge neglected to obtain the correct permit, which resulted in all of the workers being arrested, and the wood (that they invested in) was confiscated. The investment, the time, and the employment were all lost in one fatal swoop. There’s no work still, which puts Mama and her family in a precarious position. There was a very small bonding moment when we talked about have long-distance relationships. Mama listens so well; she remembers things I told her a week ago—names and circumstance of my life back home—things that no one else here seems to care to ask about let alone remember. She brought up Sean by name, which surprised me, but she spoke so easily I forgot that we’d only been friends for two weeks now. It was comforting in a way. It was late, around 9:30pm, so she bid goodnight and Samantha and I got ready for bed. Though some were short on length and information, I was pleased we completed four interviews today. I only need 3 more men and 5 more women to interview and then I’m all done with interviews. Then I’ll have to start on doing a couple focus groups if I can. *sigh* I so do not want to be a researcher when I grow up. It gets boring after a while. I’d rather just play all day.