Ghana Day 33 (cont’d from yesterday)

The rain eventually let up around 3pm, so thankfully my trip home was mostly dry. I ended up being one of the only people in the office today, which seems odd to me since Monday is the big news day. Awudu was the only reporter there when I got there, and we had a nice discussion about old news stories, Iran and how revolutions are usually unsuccessful, sharia law and how it’s not so terrible if you don’t interpret it like a crazy person, taking multiple wives, juju, and getting into US grad schools. I told him I would help him prepare for the GRE a bit before I go (he’d like to be a sociology professor at the University of Ghana), and I feel that will be a more productive use of my time than trying to teach fraction conversion to private school students who don’t understand my accent.

After a bit Bennett, Halifax, Mohammed (who is the guy I interviewed yesterday who does sports and entertainment), and Al Hadji wandered in. I couldn’t tell if it was a normal time for that or if the rain held them off, but they were the only ones who were there while I was this afternoon. Halifax had just gotten back from a weekend-long conference in Cape Coast about media coverage in the election, and I made him tell me all about that.

It sounds like it was a very useful, productive activity. They talked about how some reporters were unprofessional, and came away with a recommendation that the media body should have more teeth to punish people caught publishing things that were obviously untrue. They also discussed the problem of their citizen reporters, who were recruited from universities and other places to cover all of the polling stations, since the papers obviously don’t have the manpower normally to do it. These pinch reporters apparently didn’t know election law very well and were crying foul about things that actually should be happening (like ballot boxes being taken away – to go to the central tabulation area) and having trouble following up on things that maybe shouldn’t be happening (letting a station manager say he wasn’t sure about something going on at the polling station, he’d have to call his boss in Accra). So the suggestion there was to have more, earlier, and better training for them. Also they discussed toning down partisanship in the coverage, which is sort of funny to hear coming from a top Daily Guide political reporter, and starting to collaborate on electoral issues now for the 2012 elections rather than waiting until the last minute. So it sounds like it was a fruitful conference.

Before I left I got lots of pictures with everyone, so that was nice, and I got told that not very many of the international volunteers have such good relationships with people at the paper, and that I was one of maybe two or three they’d had that they really liked. I think that might have something to do with how long I was there – it seems like many people who come are only around for two weeks or so. Also I’m sure the language barrier gets in the way in the office. But it’s certainly nice to know that I’ll be remembered more than the average white intern and that I gave off good, not unfriendly vibes despite what I thought was sort of limited interactions with my colleagues (compared to what I would have at an internship in the States). Since one of my main goals for this trip is to make good contacts, I think I can say that my time at the Daily Guide was a success.

Besides having cold, wet socks and shoes, it was a very nice last day at the office.