Katherine Parker in Nepal

I have been getting some questions as to how my research is going. The short answer is very well for me, but not so well for the communities I am testing. I am finding a much higher rate of contamination than I was expecting to find. Quite how to analyze all of the data is still confusing to me, but it is coming along well. I have a whole group of pictures of the hand-dug wells and bore-holes that I have been testing as well as the result data from each of them posted, but I’m sure that besides my professors and the communities involved this is of minimal interests. I sometimes take pictures of the people in the community who hang out, help me administer the tests. This is a collection of those pictures. People from the Suhum Field Tests I have met lots of interesting people out in the field, but I was most excited to come across a blacksmith making farming tools. He was kind enough to show me his trade and let me take a few pictures. He makes all basic farm tools – hoes and mac...

Aburi Festival After the parade at Cape Coast I was too tired to stay for the Durbar (sortof a party, but also involves speeches). When I went up to Aburi for their festival on October 14 I was too tired from being out in the field to get up early and so I missed the parade, but I was there for the Durbar. Well, I was there for the part of the Durbar where there was dancing and lots of interesting greeting of and by the Paramount Chief. Then the vice prime minister or some such important political figure showed up (late) and there was more greeting. Then the political speeches and the discussion of what development project would be carried out in the following year began. My host didn't feel like translating and so this was not as interesting, so we went off in search of lunch. Some things I learned: (1) The ritual of greeting is very specific in Ghana. After the chief arrives, then people begin to come forward to greet him. There is usually a dance that is performed by eac...

I turned 29 this year while I was in Ghana. As is typically the case, I let my birthday slide by without much hurrah. The day before I ventured down to the salon to get my hair braided. It was great fun because I learned that it was not necessary to have hair added, that they could just do corn-rows in my hair. The beautician was very talented and could quickly braid my hair without even adding gel to it. It took less than an hour to braid the front half into about 12 corn-rows. I asked my program office to pick up some cake for me, and then I made a frosting of melted chocolate and condensed milk. I also melted some orange marmalade and poured it over the cake before putting the frosting on. It was very tasty (but a little too sweet for my tongue). I took cake with me to share with all of my classmates, and the various people I interact with on a daily basis (the porters, the ladies who make my breakfast, the TAs in my department, etc.). All of the Ghanaians were very upset t...

As interesting as it is to travel and see the natural beauty of Ghana, my purpose in being here is actually to complete a research project on microbial water quality. As this has taken form, I have focused my efforts towards bore-holes, and looking for indicators of recent fecal contamination in these. On Saturday, September 30 I went with a student, Peter, from my hydrology class to his hometown to sample the water there and test my protocol. On Monday, I went to the 37 Military Hospital with the same purpose. I am satisfied that I can detect coliform & e.coli in well water, and I have refined my protocol for the visual survey of the wells. You can see the documentation of my initial data: Chanten-La paz Water Quality Sep 30, 2006 - 15 Photos On Friday, October 6 I went to the Community Water and Sanitation Agency office in the capital of the Eastern Region, Koforidia. I collected some historic information about the digging of bore-holes in the region and made arrangements t...

It is easy to complain about how different things are and how frustrating it is to adjust my mode of thinking to be patient with delays, power-outs, etc. In reality, I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world, in this amazing garden. So, one morning I went out with my camera to document some of the beautiful flowers and trees in the courtyard of Volta Hall, where I live. Enjoy! Where I live - Volta Hall Sep 28, 2006 - 135 Photos Of perhaps equal interest, but not so aesthetically pleasing, here is a gallery of various pictures taken from the bus window during our orientation and other outings to the market, etc. Roadside attraction s Sep 24, 2006 - 52 Photos

My bed is protected by a mosquito net, but I am somewhat skeptical as to its effectiveness because I have found spiders inside my bed. My room, additionally, is a know haven for wildlife. My roommate and were having a challenge from a rat the first week. It was chewing holes in our window-screen and coming into our room during the first week we were here. Our first attempt was to spray the screen with DEET and Permithrin, but this did not deter the rat. We put all the food into plastic bins with lids, which meant the rat had nothing to eat. But, he was still visiting. After a week or so, we discovered that if we filled the window well with plastic bags that he didn't like the sound of those as he was chewing a new holes in the screen and he stopped visiting. However, this may have coincided with more people moving into the dorm. In any case, we haven't had any problems in our room since. Lizards are a constant delight to me. There are some very large ones that have red...

Yay for outings, and getting better at uploading pictures with captions. Like all parks in Ghana, in order to take a three hour walk along the road we had to hire a guide, but Simon was very good at spotting animals, so we even got to see a Green Monkey. We left shortly after 6am, got put onto a trotro where the mate didn't actually know where we wanted to get off and had to take a trotro south before connecting by Taxi to the park, but still made it on the trail by 8am. On the trotro ride home, we made it easily, quickly and cheeply to Ashaiman, but then we asked for a trotro to Legon (which is west of Ashaiman) and ended up on a trotro going east to Negon. I was a bit queesy and not paying attention until we were driving along a coast-line I had never seen before. So another hour later we were back in Ashaiman asking for a trotro to Accra, to which they told us essentially "no dummies, you should catch a direct trotro to Legon", to which we replied essentially "...

I just figured out how to get a title on my blogs! I know that is somewhat lame, but the connection here is so slow, so I usually don't try to make any major updates. After over an hour I have finally uploaded some pictures from my visit to the fabric villages near Kumasi during my second week in Ghana. There are some pictures of how the ink for Adindra fabric is made, and me printing some Adinkra patterns on fabric. There are pictures of some young boys weaving Kente cloth and the two pieces of cloth that I bought. Also, the museum in Cape Coast had some displays about Adinkra and Kente cloth, so I took pictures of those. I also have captions written for all of the pictures, but I am so tired of the slow connection that they will have to wait for another day. I hope that if I go down to the Volta cafe late at night, that the speed will be faster and I can get the other pictures I have taken over the last month loaded. Adinkra & Kente Fabric Aug 5, 2006 - 20 Photos

Two weeks ago I walked into the courtyard of the Department of Oceanography and Fisheries where all of the students for my class on Coastal Zone Management were gathered eating a kind of Ghanaian corn nut snack and plantain chips. George asked me if this was my first “power break”. I gave him a baffled look. I thought they were referring to all of the students sitting and chatting in the courtyard eating snack and that this was the Ghanaian equivalent of a “coffee break.” Really he was referring to the fact that the electricity was out, thus all of the lights in the classroom (as well as the aircon) were out, so everyone was hanging out in the courtyard for the natural light. The level of Lake Volta is low this year and so there is a limited amount of hydroelectric power being generated and a system of rolling blackouts has been instigated across Accra. According to the radio, which several people have reported to me, the schedule for blackouts is 12 hours of power off during the day f...

My second visit to Cape Coast was for a seasonal festival. Festivals play an important role in the culture of the Ghanaians, with spiritual, economic, political, agriculture and many other significances. Perhaps the agricultural foundations seem like the basis to me. The festival I attened started on Wednesday with a special ritual to re-open the local lagoon to fishing. Cape Coast is a fishing community, but for several months of the year they close the lagoon to fishing and only fish in the sea, for conservation purposes. This festival marked the re-opening of the lagoon, unfortunately we missed that part of the ritual. The spiritual aspects of the festival revolve around the local shrine. The African Traiditional Relgion (animistic in nature) identifies a rock that is located in the dungeons of Cape Coast castle as a sacred spot. When the castle was built, the shrine had to be moved into what is now the center of town. So this particular shrine now has two location of equa...

I have been to Cape Coast twice now. It is a very important destination for travelers to visit, but also difficult to put the experience into words. The first visit was to tour the castles at Cape Coast and Elmina. Elmina was the first perminant European building in West Africa and is significant because it represent the era of trade between Europe and West Africa. It was built by the Portugese and used by the Dutch and then turned over to the English when they took control of the entire Gold Coast in I think 1860s. Cape Coast was also built by the Portugese but then captured by the English. Both of these buildings have a long and varied history, not all of it pleasant. Initially they were built as trading forts. They were places of storage for the goods coming from Europe to West Africa and those awaiting transport back to Europe. Initially the majority of the trade was in gold, but also in other goods. They were centers of interaction with Europe and also the centers from which Chris...

I love social dancing, particularly the variety found at Gaskell and FNW, but I have never been much for clubbing. So, I had a few trepidations about the "African Traditional Dance" class that was scheduled for four evenings of our orientation. It was very new, the energy is very different from the high, smooth feel of the rotary waltz I love so much. The dance instructors were all amazing, beautiful dancers, and they could execute isolated movement so well that I was somewhat intimidated. The music was also totally new and strange. The drumming is strong and powerful, the rhythms were strange and almost syncopated, but not quite. And the tonality was also new, the drums each had their sound, and the rattle and the bell, and then the singing and flute on top of it all. It was a total sensory overload. But the professor is amazing. He is totally attuned to the expression of dance not only as a movement of the body, but as an expression of the spirituality of the community and ...

Today (Sunday), I went to the early service at Trinity United Church again. The senior pastors were all off at their respective equivalents of Annual Conference (it is a Methodist-Presbeterian church). Once again, the music was great and the sermon left something to be desired. In the afternoon, I went with two others down to Accra in search of "Timber Market" somewhere around James Town or Ussher Town where they had read in the Lonly Planet guide that there was a place to buy fetish items. After 3 tro-tro rides and plenty of asking we decided to head out on foot. Along the route we met up with Emmanuel (a very common name here), who took us to the entrance of Timber Market. We had some difficulty explaining what we were looking for, but we eventually pulled out the guidebook, and that helped. There was a single stall deep in the interiors of a residential area that bordered on the Timber Market (where they make things like doors). The residents were delighted to see us ...

On Saturday I invited a group to go with me up to Aburi for a day trip. We were joined by one Ghanaian first year, Fiona. Our first stop was to the Tetteh Quarshie farm and homestead in the town of Maampong. Fiona explained that Saturday is "market day for funerals," which explained why there were about four taking place in the very small town of Maampong. The care taker of the Tetteh Quarshie farm was at one of them, but someone went to fetch him and we had a very interesting tour. Tetteh Quarshie was a Ghanaian black-smith who traveled to (some Island, I'll fill in the name later), where he befriended the local farmers with his ability to make farm equipment and so when he returned to Ghana they gifted him with a live cocoa plant. Several people had been trying to establish cocoa growing in Ghana, and he also tried first in Accra, but failed. Then he headed up to Maampong where the chief gave him 0.38 hectars with a creek and he succeded! We saw two of the orrigon...

Today was my first solo adventure in Ghana! Volta Hall was noisy last night, so I slept in until 8am and then read for a while before heading out at 9am (this is very late by local standards, given that I was woken up at 4am by the singing from the Pentecostal prayer meeting). I had a fried egg sandwich (40 cents) and a cup of Milo (hot chocolate, 80 cents) for breakfast at Akwafu Hall (another dorm, the name means farmer). Across the street and just to the left of the main gate of the university I caught a tro tro headed north. (A tro-tro is a kind of mini-bus into which 20+ people squeeze on a set driving route.) I'm not certain of the final destination of my tro-tro, but I asked the mate (the guy who is in charge of filling up the tro-tro and collecting the money) if it went by Zango Junction. I gave him 2000 cedi (20 cents) and at first he didn't give me any change. I didn't know the fare, but it is 3000 cedi for the 20-30 minute ride to the central Accra market. Then t...

After almost 3 weeks in Ghana, I am starting to settle into life here! I arrive on July 30th, and my luggage (intact!) a few days later. I am moved into my dorm room in Volta Hall with Isis, an Anthropology / Zoology student from CSU Humbolt. Orrientation was a blur of lectures, a visit to Kumasi where I bought some Kente cloth, and to the Castles at Cape Coast and Elmina (the location for the departure of so many slaves across the Atlantic). I am still trying to process these experiences. This week has been the slow process of registering for classes. I will mostly be reading in the department of Geography and Resource Development (Medical Geography, Hydrology and Agricalture Land Use Theory and Practice). I am also trying to register for a course in Epidemiology, and need to visit the department of Oceanography and Fisheries to talk with an advisor there about my research and get connected to the Ghana Water Board. My desire is that it will also work out for me to take dance, but...

Things to Do I have a large number of tasks to complete before I leave for Ghana (in addition to finishing up my regular school semester). Here is a list of immediate items so I don't forget: purchase airline ticket (due: 5/19) academic advising meeting (due: 5/19 at 12:30) health check-up (due: 5/23 at 11:15) 11 passport size photos (due: 6/1) submit Americorps payment voucher (due: 6/1) finalize project proposal summary (due: 6/1) mail packet / payment to Longbeach (due: 6/1) make WAPI & discuss experimental design (due: 6/2 or 6/3) questions about housing / availability of items to Longbeach letter of introduction to Ghana churches vaccines (due: 7/1) fill prescription for malaria pills (due: 7/1) finalize project proposal (due: 8/1) order visa (due: 8/1) pack (due: 8/28) (subject to update)

This weekend was the orientation for my year at the University of Ghana, Legon and Chiara informed me that sending mass emails, as I did during my time in Japan, is soooo passé. I have never been enthralled with my livejournal site as anything more than a place to read what my friends are doing, so this is an attempt to figure out a mode of communication that works with my style. This opportunity has only really come to fruition in the last two weeks, but since it is now only 3 months till I depart (Friday, July 28 at 10:00 pm), I figured it was time to try and get in touch with folks and let them know what is up with my life... Currently, I am living in the central valley of California and working on a masters of science in conservation biology at CSU Sacramento. My research is in microbial water safety, in particular, testing that can be done on-site in remote rural locations in tropical regions, with minimal resources. I have also been working for various agencies of the United...