I'm still in Ghana. Today, a lot of my day was taken up by going to Burma Camp. Burma Camp is the main place for soldiers in Ghana - it is both where all the leaders of the soldiers work, and where a lot of soldiers live [Adults: imagine the Pentagon dropped in the middle of Fort Hood]. I needed to go there because I need to ask them permission to do research with soldiers in Ghana. They need to make sure that I'm not going to ask anything that might be a secret, or get the soldiers in trouble!
Mr. Richmond, the graduate student who works with me, showed me how to get there. First, we got a tro-tro from in front of the University:
 |
| From Where in the World is Dad? |
We took that tro-tro to "37" station. I don't know why it's called that, really. "37" is a big hospital that used to be only for soldiers, but now pretty much anyone can go there. From "37" we took another tro-tro to Burma Camp. Burma Camp is named that because, in World War II the soldiers from Ghana did a lot of fighting in a country called Burma (now they call it Myanmar).
This is inside Burma Camp:
 |
| From Where in the World is Dad? |
But now, instead of fighting, the soldiers from Ghana mostly do peacekeeping - that's what I'm here to ask them about, because I think that soldiers who mostly do peacekeeping might be better soldiers, and nicer to the people around them. Peacekeeping is when you send soldiers to try to stop people from fighting.
The soldiers in Ghana are very proud of how much peacekeeping they do. This is me in front of a memorial to soldiers from Ghana who died trying to stop fighting:
 |
| From September 5, 2011 |
Anyway, what I did there wasn't very exciting on its own - I just dropped off some letters that I needed to, that ask permission to do my research (I've already done some, in part to get someone to vouch for me when I brought the letters!).
Oh, and I saw this sign that Mommy might be interested in:
 |
| From September 5, 2011 |
(There was another one about how you should be nice to people with HIV rather than shun them, but I saw it from the tro-tro window and couldn't get a photo)
Then I came back to the office and did some work, and then home and ate some goat soup and missed you and Mommy. Dr. Bill found a place nearby where we can get ice cream, and Ms. Theresa found a place where they'll make skirts and dresses, though...
Daniel,
ReplyDeleteYou look so much like Peps in that photo. He, as we, would be very proud of your peacekeeping work. BTW: This is the September theme at R's Y.
Looking forward to goat meat and the market and a Ghanian dress and, most especially, seeing you in person.