He Looked for Justice But Behold... a Cry For Help: Ghana Update #5/ Congo Update #1

Hello again everyone!

Well, I noticed that a lot of people did not receive my final update from the field in Ghana so I thought I would start with a quick re-cap on that before I get to what I've been up to in the interim and where I am now. I have to do it in two parts because of the amount of photos in the post.

So first of all, yes, I was able to finish my project in Ghana and I returned to Canada on December 14, 2013. I was quite happy with the final product and I think it has the potential to be quite useful in educating and equipping both the public and the government in ways to significantly reduce the rate of economic violence against women in Ghana and to deal with the incidents economic violence that are currently going on. Crossroads is also currently exploring the possibility of publishing the written part of my legal research project so that it can reach a wider audience, so we'll see what comes of that. In the meantime, like I mentioned in the last update/post, if anyone is really that interested, you can read my research paper at the following link (but I am currently working on creating an executive summary so that people don't have to sift through the whole thing. I'll post that later): My Analysis of the Property Rights of Spouses in Ghana

After finishing up my project, I said goodbye to my colleagues, my lovely landlady as well as the amazing Christians up in Kumasi (Joseph and Heather Frimpong let me plant a tree in their backyard as a remembrance of sorts!) and headed back to the East side of the Atlantic...

(This is my TRYING to plant the remembrance tree...)

(This is Joseph ACTUALLY planting the tree shortly thereafter)

(This is Emma and Jesse dressed up for their Christmas performance. Yes, it was above 30 degrees at the time, around December 7th or so)

(This is Heather and Joseph in front of the new sign that Daniel recently put up outside of the church (aka his house) This family and the Websters and the others at Believers Bible Assembly and Elim Church in Accra were basically THE reason I didn't go crazy in Ghana)

(The teen Bible class singing songs at the last class I got to spend with them)

(me with the whole Church after they finished singing me a beautiful goodbye song)

(pictures of the Christmas Yankee Swap at Elim Bible Church in Accra right before I left)

Since I left Canada in the summer to go to Ghana, I had not really thought to bring any winter clothes with me to travel home in, so this is where I went to try and find a "coat" to arrive home in. My friend Nana from French class helped me find the perfect one at this gigantic market (Makola market) and she bargained it down to $3.50 for me...

This is the guys putting up Christmas decorations at my office building. I couldn't stand out in the sun long to take this photo because it was like 40 degrees... Talk about juxtaposition. (I know I go on about the weather way too much!)

Saying goodbye to my amazingly sweet landlady, Mrs. Kyei

I had a twelve hour stop-over in Heathrow on my way home and enjoyed a whirlwind walking tour of London, guided only by my trusty tablet and GPS. Among other things I got to see Buckingham palace, and I am somewhat chagrined to admit that my first and lasting thought after seeing it was "Man, Downton Abbey is SO much nicer..."