phase II and the beginning of the end

In response to tension and confusion on camp regarding the end of voluntary repatriation and the role of the UNHCR on camp, at the advice of the international volunteers, PCO changed the Peace Cell discussion topic for the first half of July from economic growth to the future of refugees at Buduburam. To avoid any accusations of getting political, we informed the UNHCR and the Ghana Refugee Board of what we were doing, and intentionally avoided any mention of either body in our new questions. The questions we asked were, 1) What are your feelings regarding repatriation?, 2) What challenges do you expect to encounter in integrating into the Ghanaian community?, and 3) What can the community do to assist each other at this transitional time? For the first question, discussion focused on the traumas experienced in Liberia, the ongoing problems there, and the desire for resettlement. Most refugees, it seems, despite the fact that they have, formally or informally, learned a great deal in Ghana, claim they want to be resettled in a third, Western, country, if only for a few years, so they can learn a skill they can use to help rebuild Liberia. The second question revealed the degree of tension between Liberians and Ghanaians, much of which is normally not discussed. But there was one Liberian boy murdered a few years ago between camp and the nearby village where I live, and his death is now used as an example as how unfriendly and unwelcoming Ghanaians can be. Interestingly, the attitude of Liberians in Zone 12, who rent their homes from Ghanaians and who have Ghanaian neighbors, is much more positive towards integration - they have a much better opinion of Ghanaians in general, and accept that they must change some to integrate, but that it is certainly a viable option. While questions 1 and 2 were written as ways for PCO to collect information on the opinions of the refugees on camp, question 3 was primarily for the sake of the community members themselves, to think about what they could be doing for themselves, for each other. Unfortunately, a lot of the answers were about what the UNHCR, what the white volunteers, what the western world, et cetera should do for them. As volunteers we started to get defensive, and after hearing meeting after meeting of the same answers we were getting quite tired of our topic. We finally finished meeting with every zone last Wednesday, and have moved on to economic growth. Now, however, we are summarizing the meeting minutes and on Wednesday Kyle, another volunteer, and I will be going into Accra, finding an air-conditioned coffeeshop, and writing a report for the UNHCR and the Ghana Refugee Board tellin them, this is what people on the ground think. Whether the information will be of any use to them, whether they will take it into consideration, who knows? But at least we are doing our part to get their voices heard. Early next week, Tuesday I think, we're trying to get an appointment with the UNHCR and the Ghana Refugee Board to present our report. Wednesday evening I board a plane and head back across the pond.

perspective

I never before thought that helping a friend deal with a broken heart could make me feel so good. But today for me it signified business as usual, trauma I have at least some experience dealing with. It was a moment of humanity, universal humanity, a moment that has put the past week in much needed persective.

Thursday afternoon I was confronted with a confession of horrific crimes and was shown things I would never have believed possible. I've been grappling with the things I saw and heard ever since, because, not to sound melodramatic, I can never look at the world the same way again. Today I realized that for better or worse, human pain and love are much the same, whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever you've done. It may very well be impossible to take away a person's humanity. Perhaps temporarily, but not in the long run. Even a refugee, even an ex-combatant, even an international volunteer - we are all, and always will be, human. But at the same time, we must humanize ourselves, the only person you can truly, ultimately depend upon is yourself.

Maybe this doesn't make any sense because it is certainly vague. But what I've learned, among other things, is that trauma is relative: pretty much everyone here has experienced significant trauma, and yet they experience love and hate, empowerment and frustration, much as anyone else. A broken heart is a broken heart, whether it belongs to a spoiled and protected white person in America or a traumatized black person in Africa. And what that also means is that even when the world is falling apart, when people are starving and sick with malaria and trying to succeed with business and deal with their traumatized pasts and afraid to sleep in their own homes and every other problem you can imagine, people still fall in love, people still get worked up emotionally about boyfriends and girlfriends, there's even space in the mind to think about stupid little crushes. Even in the most extreme of conditions, some things in life go on as normal. And that, that is comforting.

debt repaid

This weekend I returned to Kokrobite, where I spent my first weekend in Ghana. I wasn't too excited about going back because I associate it with feelings of culture shock and confusion and not knowing what my place was in all this. However, pretty much all the PCO volunteers were going there this weekend to have a final goodbye party for some of the volunteers and I didn't get a chance to make more ambitious plans because Thursday afternoon I ended up caught in the most heart-wrenching, gut-churning conversation of my life.

It was good, and necessary, to get away. I enjoyed relaxing on the beach and just hanging out and talking with my friends. They sell a lot of good tourist knick-knacks and clothing and I didn't end up buying as much as I had hoped to but I found some nice stuff and I enjoyed looking at everything. I didn't go swimming but I lay on the beach for a while, reading and writing. Kokrobite is a strange place, filled with rastas and white volunteers who are escaping for a weekend. I feel kind of guilty being there, because it's such an escapist kind of place, such a backpackers' beach resort haven, but at the same time, we don't escape, we mostly talked about camp and Liberians and volunteering and all the issues we deal with on a daily basis but don't really have time to talk about. Guy, a former PCO volunteer now anthropologist, is always interesting to talk to because he knows quite a lot about camp and yet is always learning things from us as well.

What made this weekend excursion feel complete for me was this:
We were walking back to our hotel in the dark with our flashlights. On the path a man stopped us and asked if I could shine my light on my foot. It appeared he had cut his toe on a rock while walking. I still had my purse with me then, and in it Band-Aids. So I shone my light on him and gave him some band-aids. Last time I was at Kokrobite, I cut my foot and some boys helped me. This time, I had an opportunity to do the same for others. I was, for once, able to return a favor, and help someone out in a simple, yet meaningful, way.

there are no cats in america

The myth that the streets are paved with gold in America still persists. Kyle and I were talking to a Liberian friend on Friday who genuinely told us he thought that the average person in America can earn $1000/day. People here know only of the rich celebrities of America, besides the international volunteers whom everyone assumes have money to give, and so believe that most people in America live the way the rich and famous do. They don't realize that a few miles from a celebrity's mansion are starving, homeless people, that most of the wealth in America is held only by a few. America remains the land of opportunity, of wealth and freedom. They think that if they can get there, they can get a job automatically - though Guy did point out that they usually can get jobs pretty easily because they are willing to take the badly paying McDonalds jobs and high paying construction/manual labor jobs that a lot of educated Americans/Australians/Canadians don't want. Still, $1000/day, it's hard to imagine.

Even the Cape Coast Castle museum, which followed the slaves' journey to America and then focused on the diaspora in the United States left a pretty simplistic and positive portrayal of the United States. There was about one sentence on the Civil Rights Movement, the glorification of a couple African-American leaders and performers, and no recognition of the fact that there are still a lot of problems to be addressed.

the times they are a-changin'

and I'm trying to figure out just how.

June 30 marked the official closing of voluntary repatriation to Liberia, worldwide. The UN is marking this significant closure as a success. However, while Liberia may be much safer than Somalia or Sudan, and thus many more refugees have returned, the fact remains that between 23,000 and 34,000 refugees remain at Buduburam. Many don't want to go home, and that is why they did not take advantage of voluntary repatriation. They would like to integrate into the Ghanaian community, or get resettled somewhere like America or Norway or Australia. The chances of resettlement are slim but many refugees still hold out. There is also, however, a significant portion of the population that would like to return home to Liberia - but not yet. They do not think it is safe, for the present peace is fragile. The current government has not brought about all the improvements it promised and has been accused, like every Liberian government before it, of corruption. People are getting angry and antsy, in Liberia and even at Buduburam. Another reason people don't want to return home yet is that the people who have hurt them, who killed family members in front of them, are still in Liberia, not brought to justice and often in positions of power. Prince Johnson, a rebel leader who killed many innocent Liberians, is a Senator. And so thousands of Liberians remain in Ghana, in a perpetual state of limbo.

There were many concerns about what might happen after June 30. In the international volunteer community the fear was that the UNHCR would pull out completely. This has not happened, and will not until around 2009. The limited UNHCR services will remain available, except for voluntary repatriation. The UNHCR claims it will be moving its focus to Liberia, and that its presence here will focus primarily on establishing long-term plans for integration. As Ghana has gotten tired of playing host (though from what I hear about the Geneva convention or some tripartite agreement or something, legally cannot kick the Liberians out), the UNHCR's role in faciliating integration will be significant. The head of the UNHCR was in Accra on Monday, largely because of the African Union conference, but he spoke to Liberian refugee delegates. He told them that voluntary repatriation was over but the refugee contigency appealed for it to be extended for the rest of the year or at least two months. The UNHCR has yet to respond to that appeal, though the leader of the women planned to get many people to register for repatration in the hopes that if enough people did so in the next two months, the UNHCR would help them return. This two months thing caused some rumors on campus, with people believing that after August 31, the camp may be closed and everyone not registered for either repatriation, integration, or resettlement becoming illegal and ending up in jail. There was a rumor that Nigeria gave all the Liberians there 24 hours to get out. The two-month extension was passed around as fact, and it wasn't until going to the Liberian Refugee Welfare Council and reading an article pasted outside that I learned that it was only a wish, an appeal.

So piece by piece we're putting together the situation. Tomorrow there's a press conference/meeting with Mr. Sambola, head of the welfare council, to clear things up. In the mean time, PCO is doing what it can to diffuse tension in the community and provide a forum to discuss their concerns.