Africa: Part One

As my countdown hits one week, I thought I'd share a little about my first internship in Africa. Last year, I went on a four-month internship through Canadian Lawyers Abroad with Journalists for Human Rights in Ghana. JHR is a Canadian NGO dedicated to raising awareness of human rights issues in Africa by providing African journalists with the tools to report accurately and concretely about human rights issues. The rationale is: "Before human rights abuses can be stopped, people must know what their rights are."

I was stationed with a fellow intern, Leemor, in Accra (the capital city of Ghana) but we travelled all over the country. The law took on concrete, and often overwhelming, dimensions as we learned about the legal and human rights issues that people face day to day. Highlights include:

• Assisting with a JHR workshop on women's rights in Accra.
• Visiting Buduburam Liberian Refugee Camp, which was being dismantled by the UNHCR at the time, and speaking with the dedicated Liberian journalists who took part in daily JHR workshops there.
• Doing public outreach about domestic violence with the ARK Foundation at Agbobloshie and Newtown markets in Accra -- we witnessed some intense debates between market vendors about domestic violence and whether "marital rape" exists.
• Meeting the chief of Gambaga, and learning about the sad stories and human rights abuses inflicted on the women in the so-called "Gambaga Witch Camp".
• Witnessing community-based mediation initiatives in the rural areas near Bolgatanga with the Centre for Sustainable Development Initiatives (CENSUDI). Community members invited us to a funeral and presented us with a white chicken -- "a white chicken for white ladies".

Not to mention epic tro-tro rides, fabric shopping at Makola Market, dancing the high life at Bywells, glimpsing the hellish past at the coastal slave castles, retreating to the crashing surf at Axim, and elephant watching at Mole National Park.

At the end of the internship I journeyed with a friend, Brenna, to the magical country of Burkina Faso, where I got henna'ed, jammed on African instruments in Ouagadougou, slept under the stars in Gorom Gorom, and rode a camel into the desert... where it rained...