Fast Food, Slow Service

Upon arrival back in the US, I spent hours staring at my computer screen in amazement of the fast-speed internet. With air conditioning strategically positioned to blow directly at me, I've been able to catch up on my emails and blog-reading (I believe there is not a more appropriate name for our blog than "Fletcher Globe Trotters" -- we are all quite the adventure-seekers). I've taken a bunch of hot showers (unbelievable) and even jumped in the swimming pool to cool off from the intense humidity of DC. I've eaten beef (not safe in Ghana, I know this from first-hand experience....twice, actually, I didn't learn my lesson the first time). I've had real, green lettuce and fresh fruit, both of which my body has been insanely craving. We never did get that running water in my house, so even flushing the toilet makes me giddy. Not kidding.

I've been back for almost a week, and although the side effects of the malaria medicine still hits me every so often with some nausea when I least expect it, I'm strong and healthy and enjoying life at home. Nonetheless my dreams are still based in Africa, so it is clearly still deeply engrained in my mind.

In Accra there is a fast-food restaurant called Papaye with a menu that strongly resembles Popeyes. Since Accra has no street signs and taxi drivers rarely know where they are going, it is good to know some landmarks near where you want to go so that you can tell your taxi driver the general direction of your destination. Papaye is one of these places, and, inevitably, this is where I ended up eating quite a few times.

Papaye has no connection to Popeyes, which PK and I quickly figured out. In fact, I am surprised they even call the place a 'fast-food' restaurant. To an outsider, it appears to be fast-food, with the neon yellow sign out front, the plastic red and yellow booths and the matching outfits that the staff wears. But it takes no less than 45 minutes for them to serve you after you order, even if you just order some coleslaw and chicken. Now that I'm back home, I almost want to jump up and hug my waiter when he gets the food to us in a record 15 to 20 minutes.

As is the life in Ghana.

My research added a really exciting dynamic to my work in the camp. Unfortunately given the tense situation between Liberian refugees and Ghanaians at the moment, meeting with the Ghanaian government was impossible (that is another story in and of itself), but I was lucky enough to have contacts at the US Embassy who linked me up with quite a few other public officials. After hearing both sides of the story, it quickly became clear to me that refugees did not understand their options, and that before the March protests many had high hopes of being resettled to the United States even after the resettlement program was over (it is also worth mentioning here that very, very few refugees get resettled, something around 1%). Since the protests in March, refugees have reluctantly accepted their only option of going back to Liberia and are scrambling to find ways to survive. Unfortunately this is when resources from the international community are turning away from the Liberian refugee situation and towards other, more immediate crises such as that in Darfur. So now there are hundreds of people piled outside the registration office on camp -- run by Ghanaians -- to go home when six months ago it was hard to even fill up a UNHCR airplane from Ghana going back to Liberia.

Since resources are decreasing and the number of returnees is vastly increasing, this causes some major problems. What normally should be a one-week process -- from registration to a spot on the airplane -- is often taking over a month for most. It's clear that the misperception that resettlement was a viable option for them caused a vast numbers of refugees to stay in Buduburam. If they really understood that returning home was their only option years ago, then many more would have left or at least started making plans to leave earlier -- when donor countries were still willing to spend on the Liberian case.

I have come up with some recommendations and various ideas on what to do about these issues, but I won't bore you all to death with these. For now, I'm busy planning a party / fundraiser at my house for a few people I want to help go to school and send back to Liberia. Since I don't believe in giving away too much for free, I had a Liberian family make some necklaces with beads from the Eastern region of Ghana and I will be giving them all the profits.

Ghana may offer fast food and in reality provide slow service, but from my experience they do evenutally deliver. It just means the longer you wait, the hungrier you get. It is probably the same for the refugees as many of them wait to go back to Liberia. As a Liberian once told me, "they make you wait, unless you have money to give them... it's not easy when we want to go back and start life."