Good morning Ghana

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As my first days in Kongo are passing by, it surprises me how easily the adaptation comes. Maybe the surrounding nature of Upper East Ghana is helping. Trees from all kinds, dogs, cats, chicks and goats running around as soon as I step outside the house. At night, chicks go sleeping and leave the space to insects and their melodious songs. It reminds me of summer vacation when I was a child, hearing cicadas starting to sing as soon as the sun sets. 


When, every evening I go to see the football teams practicing, I like to lose myself a bit among the shops that lead to
the local soccer field. Men fixing their motocycle, national transportation for everyone in the rural areas of Ghana or women selling vegetables and fruits along the main way of Kongo and children running around in that beautiful chaos. From time to time, the ongoing hubbub is cut off by the horns of huge trucks crossing the whole country to deliver commodities. 


It’s in this landscape that I’ll be evolving in the upcoming six months. The closeness that takes place in the village makes bonding easier. I usually cross the path of people I’ve met the day before. It is easier also to start to do research on what I am for. Under KoCDA supervision (Kongo Community Development Association), I am currently gathering informations on the issue of teenage pregnancies in the Nabdam District. For several years now, the district notices a high rate of young girls giving up on school to raise children they had at sometimes a very young age. « We’ve been aware of a girl of 12 years old who was carrying a baby » told me the Police Commander when I met him.


 


Talking with Dr Thomas Mort from the Ayamfooya private clinic in Kongo, I learned that the will to link teenage pregnancies with the illegal mining that occurs in the region was the principal avenue for reflexion. 


Indeed in Ghana, the practice of illegal mining in order to find gold is common and sometimes ,children as young as 8 years old find themselves dropping out of school to try to find an income from this activity to provide their families. 


All these issues are tightly connected and I hope that the upcoming months will allow me to dig further more these topics and perhaps, participating in curbing them. 

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