Ghana, Day 52 - Achievement Unlocked: Research Authorization

Hi Ruth!

I'm still in Ghana.  I know you're not going to be able to read this before you get here, and frankly I'm a little distracted by how excited I am that you're coming!  But I wanted to write about today so that you'd know that your Dad does some work here in Ghana, actually.

So far, I've mostly been teaching my classes and writing about some research I did before, because I've been waiting for the people in charge of the soldiers here to say it was OK to talk to them.  I know it may seem silly to have to ask permission just to talk to someone, but in a lot of places soldiers know things that they aren't supposed to tell anyone else, and so they wanted to make sure that I wouldn't ask any questions that they might not want me to know the answers to.

But, finally, last week, when I called to ask, "is it OK for me to talk to the soldiers now?" Commander W told me that, yes, they'd decided it was OK (whew!) and that I should come to meet the person who would help me arrange my research on Monday, which is today.

So today I took the tro-tro down to Burma Camp again, and met with General A, who is in charge of a lot of the work the soldiers do with peacekeeping.  We had a nice chat, and he wanted to know some more things about my research, and then we set a way to go forward.

From Where in the World is Dad?

One thing he told me, that was interesting, was that the soldiers were extra-nervous right now about anyone - like me - who might write things about what they thought because recently a lot of things came out that people in the government of Ghana said that they didn't want other people to know about.

This is a little bit complicated to explain! [Adults: Wikileaks.]  When people in governments talk to each other, they sometimes do it in secret.  And sometimes, when people think that what they are saying is a secret, they will say things that they wouldn't if they knew people were listening.

Sometimes, it is OK to have secrets.  Sometimes you need to be able to say what you really think, or be angry, or upset with someone, and say things that you wouldn't want everyone to hear.  And sometimes the things that people in government say could get people hurt if everyone knew it - like if someone is talking about bad things going on in their country, and they might get in trouble for telling someone about it, even though it's usually good to say when something wrong is going on.

But a little while ago, some people found a whole bunch of things that people in our government, the USA, told people from other governments, or were told by people from other governments, in secret.  And then they told everyone those things that were supposed to be secret!  Some people think this was a wrong thing to do.  I think it was mostly a right thing to do, because a lot of the secrets that our government was keeping - sorry to say, kiddo - were about things that we shouldn't be doing.  And maybe now that more people know about it, some of it will stop.

But part of the secrets that got told were about lots of people in the Ghana government mostly not really talking about things that were wrong, but just saying things that were mean and embarrassing - like that they thought someone else in the government was stupid.  So it made a lot of people angry, and even though I say I won't tell who told me what when I write things about what I learn here, people are very nervous that something more embarrassing might get out.  So they just want to make sure they know what kinds of questions I'm asking.  And, I do promise people that I won't say who told me what, so if there is something wrong that shouldn't be kept secret, they can tell me, without being afraid.  But mostly this time I'm not asking the kind of questions that ask about things that might be secret - but you never know!

Anyway, since Burma Camp is near the US Embassy, afterwards, I walked over - and I had more mail!  I got mail from you, and Grammy, and Aunt Connie and Sharon this time! With cool art!

From Where in the World is Dad?

And then I came home, and cleaned a little, and ate dinner, because you have to eat dinner, and talked to Mommy a little, and now I'm just waiting waiting waiting for you to get here!

!!!