Field Notes, Day 11

Interview with Wilberforce Asare, Shopping and Getting Lost

As we prepared for our departure the next day, we set up one last interview for the benefit of our research. While visiting the Judicial Service, we ran into Wilberforce Asare, a court reporter. After getting his contact information, we soon learned that he was a Broadcast Journalist for 103.5 FM STARR radio, as well as head of their legal & human rights desk. We sat down at the Urbano Hotel to speak to him about his experiences covering the Ghanaian judicial service as well as his views on the relationship between journalism and democracy. He told us that he believe journalism is integral to the maintenance of democracy and he spoke on the existence of corruption in Ghanaian institutions, and specifically, the role journalists play in holding institutions accountable while keeping the people informed. After speaking with Wilberforce Asare, I returned to the Impact Hub to collect the shoes I ordered from Santos. I learned the hard way that Taxi Drivers really have no idea where anything is, after getting lost in the side roads off of Oxford Streets. However it took twice to learn this lesson. Once when I went to pick up my shoes from Santos, and another time when I said I would accompany other members of my group back to Shop Accra. On the bright side, I got cool shoes and another dress from Global Mamas. However, I was happy to finally get to bed at the end of the day.