News Roach

DUDE! I completely forgot to blog about what I meant to blog about. I was so busy swerving off into emotional philosophy, I forgot to relate what I was writing to the title of the post. Here's another go - this story is one more reason to love Ghana:

Yesterday, we went to visit the Volta Star Radio station to get some video footage and pictures for Farm Radio International. Volta Star is part of Farm Radio's AFRRI research project into the usefulness of radio in supporting and educating African farmers. The station puts on radio programs for farmers in Ewe and Akan, with help from Farm Radio, and then they go out into their selected research communities and find out what impact the programs have. Most of their programming at Volta Star is focussed on something called New Rice for Africa, a hybrid form of rice designed to give high yields in African conditions.

After some brief interviews with the AFRRI team at Volta Star, they invited me on a tour of the studio, where I was encouraged to take pictures and film. However, their idea of a tour also involved leading myself, Jessi, and a Ghanaian friend who accompanied us into the studio, sitting us down, and putting us on the air for a live interview...without warning! We were suddenly called upon to explain our purpose, say a few words about Farm Radio, and in Jessi's case, discuss the need for education to prevent bushfires. Yes. You read that right. Following up on a totally random conversation we had had earlier in the day with the radio announcer, Jessi was asked about forest fires in Canada and how we can prevent them. She did remarkably well, especially given that neither of us had a clue what was going on.

Volta Star isn't a small radio station by any means, and a lot of people in Ho and the area must have heard us. When we got back to Nyive, we were minor celebrities...all over again.

This isn't unusual at all here. I end up in the newspaper every time I appear at a public event, it seems. My enstoolment as Queenmother in 2007 was covered, as well as the time I was randomly dragooned into presenting awards to students at a local school. Plus, it was just so charmingly go-with-the-flow...why not do a live interview, as long as you're here? Thoroughly Ghanaian!