Law and Human Rights - GHANA Daily Life

Daily Life in Ghana - Human Rights Law Placement by Danica Mallarkey

An average day would start at around 7am with the beeping of my alarm clock, although I would usually have been awake since 6.30am thanks to the sound of local car radios, car horns, and the cockerels (many Ghanaians are out of bed by 5am in order to get things done before the afternoon heat kicks in!). I would then wash in cold water (very invigorating!) and get dressed. If I had left clothes to soak in a bucket over night (the method of washing clothes), I would hang them out before leaving the house so that they would dry quickly in the heat of the day!

The host family would have a breakfast table laid out between 7-8.30am every morning with bread (there was a toaster in the kitchen), boiled eggs, and plenty of fresh fruit (mango, pineapple, oranges, bananas). To drink there was orange juice, water, and tea.

After breakfast I would grab a couple of bottles of water and set off on my journey to work. The journey usually took an hour and a quarter and involved a combination of walking and tro-tro's (public transport in the shape of a van overflowing with people). Travelling to and from work was one of the most enjoyable parts of my day as I found it fascinating to observe how the local people went about their daily lives. To add to that, people were so friendly and chatty; at the very least people would wish me good morning, at most people would want to engage me in conversation about myself and my views on Ghana. I was always made to feel welcome by the Ghanaian people.

My placement was with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. The work was very hands-on and always varied and interesting. I was set tasks such as writing articles for the local newspapers about current human rights problems, such as remand conditions in the prisons. I would spend several hours researching material on the internet before completing a story. Other days I would arrange to meet locals from remote villages who had been abused by the police or authorities. I would take their story and report it to the co-ordinator. Sometimes I would attend human rights conferences where I was able to meet and talk with parliamentarians, the presidential advisor on HIV/AIDS, the Ghanaian police commissioner and representatives from other human rights organisations. The working day would usually end around 5pm.

After work I would travel home for dinner which was usually served by my host family before 7pm. Dinner consisted of rice, potatoes or pasta, with a main course of either chicken, pasta and tomato sauce, or fish. Dessert was fresh pineapple or mango. There was also always plenty of bread to eat too.

After dinner I would usually go for an evening walk, visit the Internet café to send emails or meet up with other volunteers. There were plenty of local places to go for drinks or to listen to music, or if I felt prepared to travel back into the centre of Accra there were lots of nightclubs, bars and restaurants to relax in. After an evening out I would go back to my host family's house to be in bed by 11.30pm. If I wanted to stay at home in the evenings, there was a television showing local programmes and films, or I would spend time with my host family. There was always plenty of extended family around - which was a great opportunity to learn about Ghanaian culture!

Then at 6.30am the day would begin again.

At weekends I usually travelled away from hectic Accra. There are plenty of interesting places to visit which are close by and accessible by tro-tro, such as Cape-Coast and the Northern Akasombo River. Weekends were a great opportunity to get out of Accra and see different sides to Ghanaian life.

Daily life in Ghana was certainly an amazing experience. Ghana generally is a fantastic country. It has a reputation for being one of the friendliest countries in Africa and it more than lived up to that!