When the girls’ second morning in Babianeha dawned, the
Opuni household had once again prepared us a generous breakfast. Mollie wasn’t
feeling too well that morning though, so to be safe, Chelsea and Helena (as
well as our friend Lawrence from the Opuni house) accompanied her to the
hospital in Dormaa in the afternoon. They just missed Clayton and Mike, who
arrived in Babianeha shortly after the girls left, so unfortunately we weren’t
able to be reunited that day.
On Sunday the 15th, Mollie was doing fine, but Chelsea
and Emmanuel went with her to the hospital in Sunyani where she could be more
comfortable. Meanwhile, Helena, Mike, and Clayton went to the village of
Duasidan to talk to the community about the monkey sanctuary. Kwadwo, one of
Emmanuel’s brothers and the assembly man for Babianeha, had contacted Jacob
Obiri, the assembly man at Duasidan, to set up this meeting for us. We had
actually been expecting to just meet with a handful of people, but when we
arrived, we were ushered into a courtyard where about thirty community members
sat all the way around the square. Formalities in Ghana are all about
hand-shaking, so we shook all their hands, and vice versa. Then we (along with
Kwadwo, who translated for us) sat on the elevated side of the courtyard, and
our discussion with the community could begin.
First, we explained our purpose for being in Duasidan: to
help further the mission of the monkey sanctuary, that is, to promote the
protection of this habitat for the monkeys and the biodiversity of both the
plants and animals in the area. We would like to help by providing the
community with resources for advertisement, but we need the community’s
opinions and input. We showed the community members the
draft of the brochure for the sanctuary, which had been designed by the
marketing department at FORIG. Everyone around the room was nodding in
satisfaction as they saw the design, and seemed to agree with our idea of
distributing the brochures to hotels and other locations in Sunyani, as well as
keeping copies at the visitor’s office. We also explained that we planned to
design a poster for the visitor’s office, as well as a few road signs to be
posted at convenient intersections near Duasidan. The community gave us a few
suggestions for places where the signs should be located.
We then established that Jacob, the Duasidan assembly man,
would be the English-speaking phone contact for the sanctuary, and the community
also decided on which days of the week and during what hours the sanctuary
would be open for tours. Our entire interaction with the community was very
interesting for us, because we would start by telling Kwadwo what we wanted to
ask, then Kwadwo would approximately translate our question for the community,
and then the community members would debate heatedly, back and forth, for up to
ten minutes, and then Kwadwo would again translate the verdict for us. People
were especially passionate about the question of what the open hours for the
sanctuary would be, since they are a farming community, so it is important to
work around the schedule of the sanctuary guides who farm to earn a living. The
discussions were interesting in that people would always say times and numbers
in English, but the rest would be in Twi. So we would hear “somethingsomething
10am somethingsomething” and so on. Needless to say, it was a great experience
to be able to sit in on this community meeting which was so different from how
these things work in our hometowns.
Eventually, the community was hesitant to discuss more, due
to the fact that the Duasidan chief (who actually resides in Dormaa) was not
yet aware of our presence, so we said we would make plans to contact the chief and
come back another day in the coming weeks to wrap up our questions for the
community. We also needed to get information from the chief about the history
of the monkeys in Duasidan, because the chief has a document, which details a
study done by the Ghana Forestry Commission about ten years ago, which has the
monkeys’ history in written form (so far we have only heard it orally, so we
want to make sure we have a consistent story before it is printed in the brochures).
As the meeting wrapped up, we asked the community if they
had any other needs they wanted to address. The main issue which came up
centered around education. Like many rural communities, Duasidan schools lack books,
computers, and other resources for students as well as the greater community. The
community members expressed interest in next year’s Pavlis students working
with Duasidan to bring in supplies for a community center, similar to how
Pavlis worked with the community in Babianeha two years ago. At the very end of
the discussion, the lone woman in the room stood up to say that if possible, we
should return to Duasidan before school lets out on July 26, so that we can
visit the school and meet the students. We said we would certainly try, and
with that, the meeting ended with us going around and shaking hands with
everyone twice (again), and then we rode back to Babianeha. The driver who
drove us and Kwadwo was a very assertive driver who sure got going pretty fast
down those dirt roads!
When Helena, Mike, and Clayton got back to the Opuni house,
dinner was waiting for us, and we happily dug in. We were also able to check in
(over the phone) with Mollie and Chelsea (who were in Sunyani by evening)
before turning in for the night.
(Written by Helena)
