FGM and me
there are some definite perks to having links to other people's blogs on this page. it makes it a lot easier to be lazy and not write down everything that happened to me when two or three people have all ready written about everything i did on the weekend. timo and jess spent pretty much most of the weekend with me so whatever they did, i did too. it was a really great weekend and the two of them cover most of it, so read their blogs if you want to know what kind of stuff we did. there were however a few notable differences which i should most definitely mention.
on friday i wasnt feeling so good and had to wake up early saturday to visit some prisons so friday night i went to bed kind of early before the festivities began. early saturday morning i woke up early and met chelsea and edudzi (ottawa u law students) at the legal aid board at 9am. we got picked up 45 minutes latr by a lawyer from the legal aid board named ellis and drove across town to the jamesfort prison. the idea was that we were supposed to look at the prison conditions and interview prisioners to see if their human rights were being violated. i was pretty psyched to see some crazy stuff.
jamesfort was actually a dutch slavefort, claimed by the british and turned over to Ghana at independence or something. now its being used as a prison. its kind of like upper canada village or louisbourg in cape breton except that it was packed with 700 prisoners and not actors dressed in period clothing from the 1700s. the prison was in the accra central and so it was a pretty big shock going in. there was just one guard with an Ak standing outside the gate and when we got in we were all of a sudden right in the middle of all the prisoners. it wasnt like there was any separation. we got escorted up to the wardens office where he spent a long time lecturing us about how we needed to get proper approval before entering. finally he let us take a walk around. we entered a small courtyard full of hundreds of prisoners and every single one looked at us. pretty crazy considering there were only a few guards present the whole time. we got to interview a few prisoners but we didnt get to ask any good questions about how they were bein treated because the deputy warden was there the whole time. i shoud mention that this wasnt a real prison . it was a prison for remand prisoners (people waiting for their trial) and not convicts. one guy had been there for 13 years tho.
we talked to one guy who had actaully been granted bail but didnt know that all he had to do to get out was have someone from his family sign a form at the courthouse. hed been sitting there for nine months for no reason at all. we couldnt believe that someone would care so little about being in jail that they wouldnt even ask how to get out. nine months! ellis said he would take care of him.
so after that we were slated to visit a second prison. we drove an hour outside of town to Nsawam Medium Security Prison where they hold real criminals, but were denied entry because we didnt have prior, satisfactory approval. that sucked but it meant i got to go home and relax all afternoon which was nice.
this weekend was really fun. it was augustin's last weekend so a group of us just hung out on my porch all night saturday and sunday morning. very relaxed and just a good time in general. it was my first weekend of not travleing since i got here which was suprising to me considering ive been here coming on two months. jess and timo really describe the weekend well so ill leave it at that. i'll agree with both of them and say that dropping people off at the airport isnt very fun. especially when a man with a spiky stick tries to burst your taxis tires while the taxi is squealing away and you have one leg inside and one leg outside of it. that was nuts. read jess' blog.
last night was mathias' going away party at this really cool bar on the beach, only a few minutes drive from my house. they brought a table out to the sand and we all sat there for hours drinking gin and tonics. it was a beautiful night.
getting up however was not so fun. especially when i was saddled with a new task yesterday morning. nana called me into her office and told me she was speaking at a conference and needed me to do some research and make her a powerpoint presentation. the purpose of the speech was to educate some people about female genital mutilation. interesting choice considering im the only male intern at our office. to make matters worse she said i didnt have to spend too much time looking for text, and that i should focus on getting pictures. pictures dammit! so i got to work this morning after only a few hours of sleep and spent my day looking at pictures of female genital mutilation. not only that but i was supposed to compare FGM to vaginal cosmetic surgery practiced in the US and the differences between the two. so i had to find before and after pictures of women who got vaginal cosmetic surgery and compile the most nauseating powerpoint ever created.
interesting day.
on friday i wasnt feeling so good and had to wake up early saturday to visit some prisons so friday night i went to bed kind of early before the festivities began. early saturday morning i woke up early and met chelsea and edudzi (ottawa u law students) at the legal aid board at 9am. we got picked up 45 minutes latr by a lawyer from the legal aid board named ellis and drove across town to the jamesfort prison. the idea was that we were supposed to look at the prison conditions and interview prisioners to see if their human rights were being violated. i was pretty psyched to see some crazy stuff.
jamesfort was actually a dutch slavefort, claimed by the british and turned over to Ghana at independence or something. now its being used as a prison. its kind of like upper canada village or louisbourg in cape breton except that it was packed with 700 prisoners and not actors dressed in period clothing from the 1700s. the prison was in the accra central and so it was a pretty big shock going in. there was just one guard with an Ak standing outside the gate and when we got in we were all of a sudden right in the middle of all the prisoners. it wasnt like there was any separation. we got escorted up to the wardens office where he spent a long time lecturing us about how we needed to get proper approval before entering. finally he let us take a walk around. we entered a small courtyard full of hundreds of prisoners and every single one looked at us. pretty crazy considering there were only a few guards present the whole time. we got to interview a few prisoners but we didnt get to ask any good questions about how they were bein treated because the deputy warden was there the whole time. i shoud mention that this wasnt a real prison . it was a prison for remand prisoners (people waiting for their trial) and not convicts. one guy had been there for 13 years tho.
we talked to one guy who had actaully been granted bail but didnt know that all he had to do to get out was have someone from his family sign a form at the courthouse. hed been sitting there for nine months for no reason at all. we couldnt believe that someone would care so little about being in jail that they wouldnt even ask how to get out. nine months! ellis said he would take care of him.
so after that we were slated to visit a second prison. we drove an hour outside of town to Nsawam Medium Security Prison where they hold real criminals, but were denied entry because we didnt have prior, satisfactory approval. that sucked but it meant i got to go home and relax all afternoon which was nice.
this weekend was really fun. it was augustin's last weekend so a group of us just hung out on my porch all night saturday and sunday morning. very relaxed and just a good time in general. it was my first weekend of not travleing since i got here which was suprising to me considering ive been here coming on two months. jess and timo really describe the weekend well so ill leave it at that. i'll agree with both of them and say that dropping people off at the airport isnt very fun. especially when a man with a spiky stick tries to burst your taxis tires while the taxi is squealing away and you have one leg inside and one leg outside of it. that was nuts. read jess' blog.
last night was mathias' going away party at this really cool bar on the beach, only a few minutes drive from my house. they brought a table out to the sand and we all sat there for hours drinking gin and tonics. it was a beautiful night.
getting up however was not so fun. especially when i was saddled with a new task yesterday morning. nana called me into her office and told me she was speaking at a conference and needed me to do some research and make her a powerpoint presentation. the purpose of the speech was to educate some people about female genital mutilation. interesting choice considering im the only male intern at our office. to make matters worse she said i didnt have to spend too much time looking for text, and that i should focus on getting pictures. pictures dammit! so i got to work this morning after only a few hours of sleep and spent my day looking at pictures of female genital mutilation. not only that but i was supposed to compare FGM to vaginal cosmetic surgery practiced in the US and the differences between the two. so i had to find before and after pictures of women who got vaginal cosmetic surgery and compile the most nauseating powerpoint ever created.
interesting day.
posted by Z at 6:34 AM
1 Comments:
alright zach, this marks my first and perhaps last entry. the pressure of creating an entry with the prowess that maddy so clearly displayed in her one and only blog is gnawing at my innards.
okay so maybe you expected me to respond to this one. i have to meet this nana woman! she is quickly becoming my favourite woman in the world. not only is she a really ripping cool tyrant, but she makes you do feminist projects. huzzah!
here's hoping you come back a feminist.
Perhaps in light of your FGM project,i should include a very appropriate quotation. This is likely the only place where the 'forceful sage' xander's wise advice will come in handy, "revere the vagina, zach"
revere the vagina zach,
robyn
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