Ghana!

Today was my first day in Ghana; I left around 5:00 pm from JFK in New York, and arrived the following morning around 9:30 am in Kotoko International Airport in Accra, Ghana. The plane was about an hour late because we had to stop in Dakar, Senegal to refuel – for reasons unknown and mysterious. Aunt Aggie was there to meet me as soon as I got out the door, and we went straight to her house in Tema.

I’m in Ghana for two reasons – for preliminary fieldwork on a new research project exploring the impact of Chinese economic development efforts in Ghana (results from the China Africa Development Fund announced in 2006), and to prepare to be director of Davidson’s program in Ghana. So of course, one of the first things I see is the craze for soccer in Ghana! (My old research project was on issues of sports and society in China).

I started the ground running – around 5 pm that afternoon, I was introduced to Francis who knew some Chinese businessmen in Tema. Tema is a major port city in Ghana, where ships filled with containers for importing into Ghana dock to drop off their goods. The factory that I visited was run by a man from Hong Kong – there are only about 5 Chinese people who work in this plant; most of the workers are Ghanaian. The factory produces plastic products – most notably, the black or white plastic bags that are ubiquitous in small Ghanaian stores. They also make styrofoam food containers, for take out meals. What you see in the picture above is the re-starting of a machine that makes styrofoam sheets; these are later molded into the desire shapes of the container, and cut by the people working in the factory.
It’s a good start to my fieldwork – a factory on the first day, with promises of more to follow up on. It is pretty hot out, but it’s a heat that I can get used to.