By Kaiya Laguardia-Yonamine

Week one is officially over! Being at Joy Multimedia has been this long, insanely awesome roller coaster ride. In just five days, I have experienced one of the busiest weeks of my journalism career in a long time.

But honestly, it was pretty rough at first. I was bouncing around multiple news departments, given different assignments and managers, and didn’t really get into a “flow” of expectations until Friday. Nevertheless, there were so many gems of memories that I will hold onto.

So, here’s my attempt to capture just a few glimpses. Buckle up.

Lesson 1: Gobe is Life

It’s 2:30 PM on Monday, and I haven’t eaten yet. I know, I know – first day of the internship. There are so many other things I could be concerned about at this afternoon debrief session, but right now, all I can think of is how to make my stomach stop growling. My internship buddy Kalani and I didn’t really know what the meal culture was like at Joy, so we split off into our different departments, hoping to eventually see where everyone goes.

And the answer is, they don’t. I genuinely don’t think I saw anyone take one nibble.

The Digital Media Journalist, Jackie, asks if I ate anything. I say no. She turns to my two other coworkers and volunteers them to take me out for lunch. Ten minutes later, Kalani, Caleb, Bodash, and I find ourselves outside a little green shack on the side of a dirt road. We’re here to try gobe – a bowl of beans with gari and plantain on top.

An aunty is frying plantains on the side of the road; oil is popping as we tiptoe around lines of elders gossiping inside. In the back, another younger man decides to sit with all of us on a bench, eating and talking it up with strangers.

I learned a lot about Caleb and Bodash on this day. Caleb does some impressive research for Joy News reports. Bodash is the main graphics guy and has been doing this work for years now. They’re both calm, cool, and collected, even when cracking jokes.

When it comes to Joy, you need to find your friends to call on in times of need. This was one of those times.

Very glad to say that I now have at least two lunch buddies in Ghana.

Lesson 2: I need to be married. Like right now.

So far in Ghana, there seems to be a big curiosity and openness to talking about relationship statuses, especially towards younger women. Besides the straight-up marriage proposals on the street, a lot of people just have a lot of questions: Are you married? How old are you? (And if you’re young, why are you not married at this point?) Do you have any kids? Do you want to have any kids? Do you want a Ghanaian boyfriend? Would you marry a Ghanaian man? The list goes on. Apparently, this level of dialogue is no different in a work environment either. There’s a gray area between friendliness and openly flirting, and a lot of my coworkers seem to crisscross that line regularly.

On Tuesday at 7 a.m., I found myself sitting in the back of the Joy TV broadcast studio. There was so much happening at once. My coworker Loretta was running the teleprompter and live graphics at the same time, one eye on each screen. The producer, Ekow, was yelling out schedule changes and running around the room to check on the status of packages. I met so many staff at once that the names were starting to blur.

And then the marriage talk started.

The anchor, Sweetie, and Loretta told me not to trust the men. Put the ring on my left finger and say I’m married, no matter what. Deliberately lie.

The men in the room definitely didn’t like that. One guy puffed up, swearing that he was loyal and would never do such a thing. Sweetie asked him where his wedding band was from yesterday. He started cracking up right away with no response. Everyone hit him. I laughed awkwardly.

Safe to say, my ring is on my left finger now.

Lesson 3: Trotros Bring People Together

By the end of the week, I was getting antsy. I realized a little too late that aside from fun side quests and meeting staff, I’ve been misassigned to the news desk instead of the short doc and feature department. And because of this, I’ve been thrown onto a daily assignment at all times this week. I’m at the tipping point of my frustration, and when I clarified this with the news editor, I was basically shut down.

So, when the documentary producer Dzivenu found out about this, he told me to just take the day with him on Friday. Within ten minutes, we developed a story idea, grabbed my camera, and headed to the streets. 

And we had a blast.

We decided to do a story on the drivers of trotros, the most convenient and affordable form of transportation in Ghana. With dozens of vans packed into what people call the “Circle,” we interacted with merchants, passengers, “mates” (the ushers), and drivers to discuss the wide spectrum of decorations on the outside of each vehicle. I even saw a staff member from one of Joy’s local Twi radio stations, and he caught up with us while he was catching his own trotro to go home.

After a few hours of filming, we headed out to a separate feature project: a story on leukemia care facilities. There is a growing concern about the lack of healthcare facilities and access in the surrounding regions. In Ghana, leukemia patients have to fundraise and either fly all the way to India or South Africa, and, by then, it’s too late for most patients. We spoke with the head of a foundation hoping to create the first leukemia care center in West Africa and make Ghana a hub for affordable healthcare. I became friends with two amazing young social workers, Jennifer and Thomas, and went our separate ways.

The day was full of shooting and talking, and that’s exactly what I wanted. Coming to this space as a doc-focused Journalism student, my soul was fed. I entered the day a little frustrated and left with new friends, new experiences, and new projects to take part in.

Going into my second week at Joy, I feel so much better about where things are going. There was a sort of rough patch at first, but being paired with the Features and Documentary team has changed things for the better. I’m looking forward to producing my own stories soon and hope to observe the storytelling practice that people use here in Ghana.