Liberian Refugee Camp

Last weekend (#4) I stayed in Accra.  On Saturday, I learned that there is very little to do in Accra as a tourist.  I visited the National Museum.  It's small, poorly curated, and shamefully deficient on the issue of slavery.  It relied too much on poor quality photos and most items were presented with a descriptive name, without any further explanation.  Some items had no name or description.

On Sunday, I jumped at the chance to visit the Liberian Refugee Camp.  Two of the volunteers had gotten to know a teacher who volunteered at the Camp on weekends.  They visited a few weekends ago and were asked to come again and bring more people.

The Camp about one hour drive from downtown Accra and  is filled with refugees from the civil wars that plagued Liberia from the 1980's to about 2003.  You may recall hearing about Samuel Doe and Charles Taylor and their ruthless attempts to take control and keep control of portions of Liberia, with child soldiers, blood diamonds and horrendous treatment of the population that made the news for quite sometime.  Liberia had two civil wars, one in the late 1980's and a second in the 1990's into 2003.  The camp is the largest Liberian Refugee Camp in Africa, with one person telling me there was up to 52,000 people at one point and now down to about 40,000 as some people have returned to Liberia.  A recent article I read, said the maximum was 32,000 and is now down to 5,000, with most having repatriated to Liberia.  Liberia has a new woman president who recently won the Nobel peace prize (2011) and the UN and Ghana no longer consider the people in the camps as refugees, because Liberia is considered safe gain.  That means they now get little to no support, and they are no longer legally in Ghana.  The camp did look a lot smaller than 40,000 people.

When we first arrived, we met with the people the two volunteers had met before and played with the children they care for.  They were doing school work and seemed a little shy at first.  Once we started to engage them, they were literally all over us.  As I sat and talked to some, they started to climb all over.  Mostly they want to sit in our laps.  At one point, a little boy put his head down in my lap and didn't want to be moved.   Some would touch my hair, clearly curious about my curls.  One blond Danish girl became a living doll for them to play with her hair.  While it's all cute, the desperation for affection is alarming.  One of the teachers told me that many of the kids are orphans, some being children of rape (in Liberia) and their mothers refuse to care for them.

The kids were remarkably well behaved.  Then I took out a large bag of "Malt 'n Milk" cookies, they come in packages that hold 3 little cookies.  I was stormed by every child at once, until everyone got a little 3 pack.  While with the kids, 2 of the older Liberians told us about their experiences in Liberia that led them to be here.  The stories are very tough.  The easiest thing to say is that everyone lost a lot of family and saw a lot of death and horrible depravations.

We then took a tour of the camp.  The camp started in the 1980's in an area under the power lines that was all brush.  The tents were eventually replaced by small concrete homes and a couple of years ago they finally got electricity.  It now looks like a poor town.  I don't think they have any water supply.  It's likely trucked in.  I saw that they have communal facilities for toilets where you pay a small charge.

We walked through the market and then walked through a few neighborhoods.  The community has small businesses like any other place.  At one point we stopped at a shop to get cold drinks and the owner talked about his Liberian experiences, as well as another man.  Both were very articulate.  They said Liberia has not improved as people claim and they feel they cannot safely go back yet.  Afterwards, one of teachers told me that many people here participated in some way in the war and fear going back and begin recognized.

As we walked through, two people separately made the effort to get my attention and to talk to me.  Both are unemployed and clearly desperate for any break.  Each eventually asked for my email or phone number to be my friend, but clearly with thoughts of help on their mind.  As we walked, I was talking to a young woman who teaches in the camp.  I asked if she used a cane and she said she did at first but did not like that the kids were afraid of her.  She no longer uses it and talked about how she has a relationship of trust with her students.  This was wonderful and surprising to hear after my talks with other teachers who insist on using the cane.  The teacher told me about her trip to Ghana as a child with her grandmother.  They walked for days to get to a port and the boat was packed with no extra room.  Her grandmother took in an orphaned child from the boat who was raped in Liberia, who still lives them.  She said soldiers had sliced off her grandmother's ears and forced her to chew them or be killed.  She then said her grandmother is very tough.

Pictures from my day at the camp:

The market:

All kinds of smoked fish.

My guess is that their cuisine is super spicy.

These are cassava leaves that are getting ground up and then cooked in a soup. 

Meat - the day was 90 degrees plus

The camp itself - these make it more lifeless than it is - there are many shops and people walking about:

Two pictures from another camera:

Getting some kids to one up by asking about their school work - note the water sachet in my left hand.

The boy who wanted to sleep in my lap.

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.

Water and electricity (with photos!)

Below is a picture showing how most people here consume water.  It’s called a sachet (pronounced “sa-shay”).  They are sold all over the city by headporters for 10 peswa’s ($0.04), mainly through the windows of cars and tro-tro’s.  Water sold in sachets is always safe to drink. In my house and office, there is always an open bundle of sachets in the refrigerator and many more stored away.  My guess is that the sachet uses the least amount of plastic and thus costs the least in a place where everyone wants access to cheap drinking water.

You simply bite one corner of the sachet and make a hole with your teeth and then suck out the water.  Or, you can avoid sucking and just squeeze it with your hand.  Unfortunately, Ghana is littered with empty sachets.

 

Note the piles of dirty dishes next to the outdoor tap in background - due to no water for 6 straight days

In Accra, most ”houses” have access to water.  In contrast, in Old Fadama slum (where there are no real houses), people rely on business to supply them with all their daily water.  People go to these places to pay to fill up containers of water to carry home and to use toilets and showers for a small fee.  I pass one of these when I go there and you pay 30 pesewas ($0.40) to use a toilet and 10 pesewas to use a urinal ($0.04).

A lot of houses have a single tap and then use buckets for kitchen use, showering or flushing the toilet.  Water does not run in the city all the time, or everywhere at the same time, so homes have all manner of water storage, from barrels to black “polytanks” that range from small to gargantuan.  Nicer homes have the tank elevated on the roof or a concrete tower, thereby creating water pressure for the pipes leading to kitchen and bathrooms, etc.  As a result of this system, whenever the water does run, everyone is re-filling their tanks and barrels at the same time, which create a huge draw on the water system. 

At my office, the water only runs on weekends and they have a man whose job it is to have the tanks filled on weekends.  My house has just 2 barrels because the water generally does not shut off for more than 24 hours.  Except that last week, the water shut off on Monday night and came back on Sunday.  The barrels ran out in 3 days.  We started using sachets to fill buckets to flush toilets and take showers.  Dirty clothes piled up along with dirty dishes.

Electricity is more regular, although we do get infrequent rolling black outs that generally last a few hours.  It’s bad at night because the fans stop and it’s too hot to sleep well without a fan.

My house has compact fluorescent light bulbs everywhere and no appliances, except for the refrigerator, a TV that is not used very much, and a few computers and phones to be charged.   One of the sons was telling me that they could afford more appliances but not the electricity to run them.  The little electricity they actually use costs on average 35 cedi’s (about $15) a week.  That’s a little more than $60 a month for very low wattage usage.  Less than what I pay a month for my house full of gadgets and appliances.  Imagine a house full of appliances here. 

Electricity is pay as you go.  When you hit the limit for what you paid, it turns off and then you have to go to your local electric company office and pay for more usage.  I went one evening after work with one of the son’s who feared the electricity would get turned off that night.  To his surprise, a lot of people were paying that night and we stood in line for 2 hours.  It amazes me how much Ghanaians put up with without complaining.  It is as if they do not expect more of their government services.

I have a few pictures of my house - exterior and interior

View from inside the gate and wall - two houses, one on left for host family, one on right for tenants

Kitchen of my house, most meals are cooked here.  The stove is the table top burners at far left.  There is no oven.  The sink is small, below the window.

Dining room/living room.  I eat my meals here.

Hallway with 4 rooms, leading to living room and then kitchen.  My room is to immediate left.  I live alone and another volunteer is in another room and a student from Gabon lives in a third room.

My room.  I usually straighten up before I leave in morning and it gets messy fast because there is little storage space.