Field work is done!
I can breathe again! I am officially done work for the summer. It was an intense couple of weeks but I managed to finish everything in time. Bright and I will probably leave for Kumasi tomorrow so I can get the export permits for all my plant samples. I can't believe the summer is almost over! It feels like it's been a really long journey to get to this point, yet at the same time it's hard to believe it's mid-August already.
OK, brief update on the last couple of weeks.
In the first week of August, Tony from FORIG got my message to come back to BFMS to climb trees for me. The guy is seriously amazing and my project wouldn't even be possible without him. It's amazing to watch him climb 30-40 m trees like they're nothing. He climbed 13 really big trees in 3 days, I was having sympathy exhaustion just watching him! For 2 days after that, we worked like dogs to process all the samples. I had Scott, Charles, and Effia working 12 hours a day each day. It was insane but we got it done.
After the 5 days of hell in the first week of August, we had a more relaxed routine until work was officially wrapped up yesterday. Scott and I would wake up around 6 am, bike to Bonte or Busunya (about 30 mins 1-way), meet our RAs there (Effah and Dorcas) at 8 am, collect leaf samples, bike back to the guesthouse and process samples all afternoon with Effia. The biking has been great exercise although at times I wanted to throw my bike "African Champion" in the ditch. It likes to change into a higher gear only when I want to go up a hill for some weird reason. There was 1 frustrating day where I had to get off my bike and change the gears manually by taking the chain off the bike and putting it back onto a lower gear. But otherwise, it's been a pretty reliable bike and I'm glad I didn't have to walk to Bonte or Busunya. Now that would have been really frustrating!
Because of some great organization and planning, we were slightly ahead of schedule so I took last Tuesday off. We had the most interesting/shocking tro-tro ride ever. Unlike buses in Canada, tro-tros have no set schedule, they only leave when absolutely stuffed full of people. This usually means that the tro-tro will visit several communities before heading to Nkoranza. Well, on this particular Tuesday we made it to Bomini and then this guy on the tro-tro starts choking the woman sitting next to him! It took several people to separate the two of them and then get the guy off the tro-tro. Bright translated what was going on for us, and apparently they were in the process of getting a divorce! Sad to think that 50% of people are in unhappy marriages, or maybe it's just that 50% of people are unhappy in general and that translates into an unhappy marriage.
We went with Effia and her 8-month old son Nicholas to Nkwanta to visit Effia's father. We spent the entire afternoon greeting half the town because they were all related to Effia! It was cool to see a new place. For the size of town, Nkwanta is doing really well. They even have running water there! Such a luxury! Nicholas is the cutest kid ever, I wish I could take him to Canada with me. I kept telling him to dance ("sa" in Twi) and he caught on. Sometimes he just looks at me and then starts flailing his arms around! I can't wait to put pictures on my blog so you can see the cutest kids in Ghana and all the people we work with.
Hmmm... that's all I can think of right now. I now have the next 2 weeks to relax and do small trips to places here in Brong-Ahafo. It's too bad Geoff couldn't move up his flight so he's still coming on Sept.4 Till then, I'll be by myself at BFMS - Bright's leaving tomorrow, Julie's leaving on Monday, and Scott's travelling until we meet up in Accra in Sept. I have the feeling I'm going to be super bored without the routine of work. I plan on spending a lot of time in the forest with the monkeys because I haven't really hung out with them all summer (very sad). For those of you writing letters, send them tomorrow or they won't get here before I leave! Send lots of e-mails instead, I now have time to answer you individually.
Talk to you soon!
OK, brief update on the last couple of weeks.
In the first week of August, Tony from FORIG got my message to come back to BFMS to climb trees for me. The guy is seriously amazing and my project wouldn't even be possible without him. It's amazing to watch him climb 30-40 m trees like they're nothing. He climbed 13 really big trees in 3 days, I was having sympathy exhaustion just watching him! For 2 days after that, we worked like dogs to process all the samples. I had Scott, Charles, and Effia working 12 hours a day each day. It was insane but we got it done.
After the 5 days of hell in the first week of August, we had a more relaxed routine until work was officially wrapped up yesterday. Scott and I would wake up around 6 am, bike to Bonte or Busunya (about 30 mins 1-way), meet our RAs there (Effah and Dorcas) at 8 am, collect leaf samples, bike back to the guesthouse and process samples all afternoon with Effia. The biking has been great exercise although at times I wanted to throw my bike "African Champion" in the ditch. It likes to change into a higher gear only when I want to go up a hill for some weird reason. There was 1 frustrating day where I had to get off my bike and change the gears manually by taking the chain off the bike and putting it back onto a lower gear. But otherwise, it's been a pretty reliable bike and I'm glad I didn't have to walk to Bonte or Busunya. Now that would have been really frustrating!
Because of some great organization and planning, we were slightly ahead of schedule so I took last Tuesday off. We had the most interesting/shocking tro-tro ride ever. Unlike buses in Canada, tro-tros have no set schedule, they only leave when absolutely stuffed full of people. This usually means that the tro-tro will visit several communities before heading to Nkoranza. Well, on this particular Tuesday we made it to Bomini and then this guy on the tro-tro starts choking the woman sitting next to him! It took several people to separate the two of them and then get the guy off the tro-tro. Bright translated what was going on for us, and apparently they were in the process of getting a divorce! Sad to think that 50% of people are in unhappy marriages, or maybe it's just that 50% of people are unhappy in general and that translates into an unhappy marriage.
We went with Effia and her 8-month old son Nicholas to Nkwanta to visit Effia's father. We spent the entire afternoon greeting half the town because they were all related to Effia! It was cool to see a new place. For the size of town, Nkwanta is doing really well. They even have running water there! Such a luxury! Nicholas is the cutest kid ever, I wish I could take him to Canada with me. I kept telling him to dance ("sa" in Twi) and he caught on. Sometimes he just looks at me and then starts flailing his arms around! I can't wait to put pictures on my blog so you can see the cutest kids in Ghana and all the people we work with.
Hmmm... that's all I can think of right now. I now have the next 2 weeks to relax and do small trips to places here in Brong-Ahafo. It's too bad Geoff couldn't move up his flight so he's still coming on Sept.4 Till then, I'll be by myself at BFMS - Bright's leaving tomorrow, Julie's leaving on Monday, and Scott's travelling until we meet up in Accra in Sept. I have the feeling I'm going to be super bored without the routine of work. I plan on spending a lot of time in the forest with the monkeys because I haven't really hung out with them all summer (very sad). For those of you writing letters, send them tomorrow or they won't get here before I leave! Send lots of e-mails instead, I now have time to answer you individually.
Talk to you soon!
posted by Avatamsaka Monastery Choir at 2:15 AM
1 Comments:
Yes, my lazy butt has been prodded several times to actually get your letter to the post office, which I usually walk 5 blocks for.
The one closer to me always gives me crap for sending letters and the like all over the globe. So that should probably show up soon. As to why it's double-enveloped, blame the lady at the PO.
Reminds me that I need to take another trip soon to the postal office - A's mom's birthday is coming up soon.
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