A Day With A Camera

Before I start with the photos of the day, I have a photo of the human rights group I am working with.  The photo was taken to mark the last days of the 4 people in the back row center before flying home to Australia and Italy.

On Tuesday, February 25th, I was again suppose to hold my first training for mediators at the community center in Old Fadama slum.  However, it had rained heavily overnight.  It rained so hard I cold not sleep as the noise was louder than the ceiling fan.  I went to the community center but the people to be trained could not attend due to the rain.  The slum has dirt roads without any drainage and many of the buildings in the slum are built so that you step down into the rooms, below street level, and then there are leaks.  An unexpected rain creates havoc for so many people.  My walk to the community center required a lot of puddle hopping and walking on edges of buildings to avoid the bigger puddles.

On Wednesday, I returned to Old Fadama and the first training went well.  In fact I covered my entire talk in little over 2 hours.  It's 4 men, a mechanic, a fashion designer who makes clothes for sale, a weaver who makes the colorful cloth, and a scrap dealer - he collects all kinds of metal and brings them to the port to be shipped out.  The next lesson I plan to cover a number of fact patterns I expect they will see in the mediations and include some basic law as well.

So here are some photos from the slum on Wednesday.  The puddles are the remnants from Tuesday.

Yes that is a goat.  There is a small herd that wanders through the slum eating what ti can.

That's me in the white shirt.  

The community center.  The home of FLAP - Fadama Legal Assistance Program

This is the view from the door of FLAP.

There is a professional soccer league in Ghana and on Wednesday afternoon we attended a game between the Accra Hearts of Oak (best team name) versus the Cape Coast Dwarves (worst team name).

Games are not well attended

Look closely at the sign.  It's next to the ticket booth and they are selling insurance for in case you are injured while watching the game.  I hear it can get crazy when the national team plays.

The stadium is next to Independence Square and I walked with two others past the square on the way to the two-tro station called Tema Station.  The black start is an important symbol here is on the center of the flag.  It stands for a pan-africa ideal.

Two shots of the "High Court".  There are other courts in more modern buildings and two blocks away, a large brick building is being renovated to be the new home for the High Court.  This is where more serious trial matters are heard, similar to Superior Court back home.

This is the sign outside the High Court and the same sigh is outside the complex that holds a number of other courts including the Supreme Court.  "Justice is NOT for sale!"

From the courthouse, it is just a block to Tema station, which covers a few city blocks and is where the tro-tro routes start and end for this section of the city.  The station has a market in an among the tro-tros selling to the people coming through the station.  There are so many people that I never felt comfortable trying to set up a shot, so these are all grab shots and I apologize for the haphazard look.  There are other organized large markets in the city.  This one is here because so the people are here, similar to "Circle" that I described before.  These pictures are better the bigger you can enlarge them.

I am standing in line waiting for my tro ($0.40 to go across town).  I took this shot because the green building is a mosque serving the station.  This a strongly christian country (cabs and tro-tros often have sermons loudly playing)  with mosques interspersed throughout Accra and in small towns.  I see men dressed in robes and knitted caps and women in a style of head scarves that covers their heads and shoulders.  I am not aware of any tension between the christians and moslems.

I got to take this picture of people because no one was paying attention to me.  It's a huge pile of "costume" jewelry and the bags to the left are filled with more.  I assume these started as donations from western countries.  Please enlarge this one.