So immediately after my last post, yesterday, we rushed off for an appointment with Volta Star Radio. Conor, with Vero's help, had arranged to meet with them on behalf of an NGO she worked with called Farm Radio. Farm Radio supports educational programming on the radio for rural farmers in developing countries and Volta Star is one of the stations that has been providing these projects. They also work trying to promote something called NEw RICe for Africa (NERICA). This is a blend of rice that is drought resistant (like african rice) but has a high yield (like asian rice)...Africa currently imports a lot of rice, and I guess the idea is that they want to turn Africa into a major rice exporter instead. Anyway, we chatted with the director of the station and three other staff members who work on the farm radio programming. They said a lot of interesting things about their programs. When we were finished, they wanted to give us a quick tour of the station....and quick tour of the station is apparently code for sitting us down and interviewing us for ten minutes ON LIVE RADIO! Really! Live Radio. (I should mention that Volta Star is pretty much the only station so EVERYBODY heard us...people mentioned it when we got back to Nyive last night.)
Conor had about 10 seconds warning and I had maybe 2. They introduced Conor, Vero and I in Ewe and in English, asked Conor some questions about development and Canadian involvement. Then he started to talk to me and asked me about, I kid you not, forest fires in Canada. This is apparently a real problem in Ghana during the rainy season for a couple reasons, chiefly because they have no real fire departments let alone equipment designed to fight forest fires. I had to, with no preparation I might add, give a talk on the radio about fighting forest fires. Because I couldn't say "Well, you need some special planes and a lot of water and money this money that..." I tried to say something a little more beneficial...I said the best way to fight fires was to try and prevent them in the first place. I went on for multiple minutes about the benefits of fire education and fire safety and fire prevention and awareness in schools for young children. I would like to add that while I think this is reasonable, I feel vastly unqualified to discuss the best fire fighting techniques for forest fires of all things in a third world country.
Strange but amusing thing, I may have gotten a Ghanaian name. A guy called Bright, who's a terrific guy who we see every morning, decided to put forward a suggestion. He suggested Fafaa, which supposedly means "calm, serene, peaceful"....I'm sure some of you who know me may already be giggling, but it gets funnier.
This name was suggested immediately after another man came to our house and tried to be more friendly than I appreciated. He tried to hit my arm in a frinendly way, which I frowned at, then proceeded to pinch my cheek (like the way an elderly aunt does in every cartoon that ever was). I took his hand away, told him to stop and explained he wasn't allowed to just touch me like that.....and I /politely/ threatened to break his nose if he ever did and explained that if I hadn't known him, it would already be askew and that I would not ahve stopped to inquire whether he was touching me in a joking way. He may be the first Ghanaian man who believed I would hit him. Anyway, immediately after this guy left, Bright who had been there the whole time, changed the topic and quite seriously put forward the suggestion of Fafaa.
Last item on my list of things to mention, we're headed to Accra this weekend. This is partially a mad attempt on Conor's part to watch the last game of the Stanley cup and partially an excursion to buy books for the library. I preparation for this, we tried to pluck our eyebrows this morning. Its not that I even care much about my eyebrows...but what most people don't know is that high humidity which does strange things and makes your hair all foofy can apparently do the same thing to your eyebrows. Unlike the last three weeks, I no longer look like the Centauri Ambassador to Earth (for zeh non geeky friends, please see Babylon 5 for reference....just google Londo Mollari) or Londo Mollari's third cousin. We are psyched for Accra and hoping to meet some Expats and PeaceCorp-y types....apparently there is also a Canadian owned sports bar that may be showing the game. Go PENGUINS!
Today's sign: This one uses religion...but is mixes two different ones (rare)! Its a hair salon called "His Grace Rasta Palace".
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