ANY HOPE OR FUTURE FOR CHORKOR-CHEMUENAA??
Few meters away from the last stop at Chemuenaa,a fishing community in chorkor,it was evident that sanitation conditions around here was on the low.But the gentle breeze that greeted us aboard the twenty year-old rickety Troski,compensated for the situation.
How serious the community folk took fishing and fish-mongering was overwhelming.We could remotely smell stale fish odour from where we were seated,the next lane behind the "mate".
Jemima had to conduct some interviews for a project she was working on,but could not speak Ga,which is the local language of the people.So I escorted her to assist her do the interviews,since I could put a few ga words together to make a complete thought better than she could.
It was Wednesday afternoon,approaching the sea shore,there were many children and adults doing any,two or all of swimming,fishing,crab-hunting,defecating,washing and playing football,synonymous with holiday beach scenes.
A few steps away from the shore,up a hill were wooden structures which served as abode for the fisher folks and their dependents.Tired parents laid on benches while their children played in the sea.
Jemima is shocked by what she sees.Children as young as four year olds are busily swimming and hunting crabs and fish.But I tell her it's normal in areas like these,speaking from experiences I had had growing up in Labadi.
Sowah is seen keenly observing a phenomenon while about fifteen meters into the sea away from the shore. Kotey,his five year old younger brother was playing with about eight fishes his brother had caught with his hook and line in a blue plastic bowl.Sowah was watching closely to see if his bait had caught a fish.
[Boy,boy,Jemima calls out to Kotey who comes to tell us that Sowah was actually fishing.] We told him we were explorers who wanted to know how the fishing experience was,and life at the sea shore.
[Sowah smiles at us and begins to speak with us.He is a class five pupil whose English speaking ability was not as terrible as the few guys we spoke to earlier.He tells us he comes occasionally to catch fish with his hook and line after school for use in the kitchen for food.]
[He is enthused about the numbers he had caught that day.He offers to teach us how but Jemima would not even go close to the sea.]
During the time of our conversation with Sowah,I noticed their parents were watching with keen interest from a distance,perhaps threatened by our presence.
[Alex is a seventeen year old boy who quit school while in class four.]He had to drop out to help his father fish and his mother monger the fish his father harvested.
Alex and his family are able to make 400 cedis on a good day from fish sales.
It appears Alex is a local champion here,[all the kids gather around us,while we are speaking with him.]
Asked whether he would like to go back to school,he responded in the negative.He wants to be a "fisherman"in future.
Francis is fifteen,and also a crew member of the young fishing clique here.For him,aside fishing,he would like to be a mason or a drivers' mate.He has not been to the classroom before and holds no ambition for schooling.
Though pathetic,these children,male and female find ways to entertain themselves in this community.They are excited about playing football among themselves and swimming.
More worrying was the conditions around the shore.[Just about a yard away from the shore,young and Older men are seen comfortably defecating along the sea.They are unfazed by our constant spying and would not even cover their "valuables".]
As the sea water occasionally waved towards the shore,it washed into it all the excreta the area folk left along the shore.
[Heaps of refuse stand in front of the wooden structures on a hill,while liquid waste drains from the heap into the sea.]
[We see some stray pigs having a good bathe as well together with the children.Close to the long heaps of refuse are half-destroyed pig Stys from which dark liquid and solid waste are seen trickling slowly into the sea.]
The challenges of those living here at chemuenaa are a multiplicity of issues.Mr. Mensah just returned from easing himself at the shore,and [tells us there is no public toilet facility around here,so whenever those living here felt like attending nature's call,the closest is the shore.]
[He doesn't find anything strange about it,partly because it has become their way of life.]
According to him,they have petitioned the assemblyman of the area and the DCE to construct a toilet facility here,but to no avail,leaving them with no other option.
While walking ahead still along the shore,Jemima lost the sole of her high heels,we called Nii to help us locate a provision shop,where she bought a pair of "aka me last" flip flop,and decided that we had had enough of the tour.
Meandering through the crevices and corners corners,we made for the roadside.
We left chorkor chemuenaa with a lot of emotions.Life has not been as easy for people living here like it has for some of us in the cleaner,more planned settlements,with if not all,a large chunk of social amenities at our disposal.
Education for instance is more of a luxury for people here than a necessity in the face of growing advancement in technology.
All we could do was to lament what the
future looks like for the children here,and what the future of the community itself is ????????..............
Komla Adom-GIJ- 19/02/14
kingsleykomla@gmail.com
www.kingsleykomla.blogspot.com
Few meters away from the last stop at Chemuenaa,a fishing community in chorkor,it was evident that sanitation conditions around here was on the low.But the gentle breeze that greeted us aboard the twenty year-old rickety Troski,compensated for the situation.
How serious the community folk took fishing and fish-mongering was overwhelming.We could remotely smell stale fish odour from where we were seated,the next lane behind the "mate".
Jemima had to conduct some interviews for a project she was working on,but could not speak Ga,which is the local language of the people.So I escorted her to assist her do the interviews,since I could put a few ga words together to make a complete thought better than she could.
It was Wednesday afternoon,approaching the sea shore,there were many children and adults doing any,two or all of swimming,fishing,crab-hunting,defecating,washing and playing football,synonymous with holiday beach scenes.
A few steps away from the shore,up a hill were wooden structures which served as abode for the fisher folks and their dependents.Tired parents laid on benches while their children played in the sea.
Jemima is shocked by what she sees.Children as young as four year olds are busily swimming and hunting crabs and fish.But I tell her it's normal in areas like these,speaking from experiences I had had growing up in Labadi.
Sowah is seen keenly observing a phenomenon while about fifteen meters into the sea away from the shore. Kotey,his five year old younger brother was playing with about eight fishes his brother had caught with his hook and line in a blue plastic bowl.Sowah was watching closely to see if his bait had caught a fish.
[Boy,boy,Jemima calls out to Kotey who comes to tell us that Sowah was actually fishing.] We told him we were explorers who wanted to know how the fishing experience was,and life at the sea shore.
[Sowah smiles at us and begins to speak with us.He is a class five pupil whose English speaking ability was not as terrible as the few guys we spoke to earlier.He tells us he comes occasionally to catch fish with his hook and line after school for use in the kitchen for food.]
[He is enthused about the numbers he had caught that day.He offers to teach us how but Jemima would not even go close to the sea.]
During the time of our conversation with Sowah,I noticed their parents were watching with keen interest from a distance,perhaps threatened by our presence.
[Alex is a seventeen year old boy who quit school while in class four.]He had to drop out to help his father fish and his mother monger the fish his father harvested.
Alex and his family are able to make 400 cedis on a good day from fish sales.
It appears Alex is a local champion here,[all the kids gather around us,while we are speaking with him.]
Asked whether he would like to go back to school,he responded in the negative.He wants to be a "fisherman"in future.
Francis is fifteen,and also a crew member of the young fishing clique here.For him,aside fishing,he would like to be a mason or a drivers' mate.He has not been to the classroom before and holds no ambition for schooling.
Though pathetic,these children,male and female find ways to entertain themselves in this community.They are excited about playing football among themselves and swimming.
More worrying was the conditions around the shore.[Just about a yard away from the shore,young and Older men are seen comfortably defecating along the sea.They are unfazed by our constant spying and would not even cover their "valuables".]
As the sea water occasionally waved towards the shore,it washed into it all the excreta the area folk left along the shore.
[Heaps of refuse stand in front of the wooden structures on a hill,while liquid waste drains from the heap into the sea.]
[We see some stray pigs having a good bathe as well together with the children.Close to the long heaps of refuse are half-destroyed pig Stys from which dark liquid and solid waste are seen trickling slowly into the sea.]
The challenges of those living here at chemuenaa are a multiplicity of issues.Mr. Mensah just returned from easing himself at the shore,and [tells us there is no public toilet facility around here,so whenever those living here felt like attending nature's call,the closest is the shore.]
[He doesn't find anything strange about it,partly because it has become their way of life.]
According to him,they have petitioned the assemblyman of the area and the DCE to construct a toilet facility here,but to no avail,leaving them with no other option.
While walking ahead still along the shore,Jemima lost the sole of her high heels,we called Nii to help us locate a provision shop,where she bought a pair of "aka me last" flip flop,and decided that we had had enough of the tour.
Meandering through the crevices and corners corners,we made for the roadside.
We left chorkor chemuenaa with a lot of emotions.Life has not been as easy for people living here like it has for some of us in the cleaner,more planned settlements,with if not all,a large chunk of social amenities at our disposal.
Education for instance is more of a luxury for people here than a necessity in the face of growing advancement in technology.
All we could do was to lament what the
future looks like for the children here,and what the future of the community itself is ????????..............
Komla Adom-GIJ- 19/02/14
kingsleykomla@gmail.com
www.kingsleykomla.blogspot.com
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