Zak the guard/guide/translator

Meet Zak, my guide/guard (or guy-with-big-gun)/translator during my time in Mole. The first two are obvious, although I am glad I didn't encounter too many occasions in which I was glad to have someone with a gun 9and the knowledge how to operate it) with me. But in the end the 3rd appeared to be essential: it appeared that no-one in the villages spoke English, despite English being the official language in Ghana. What is more, almost each community has its own language, and sometimes even two, which was the case in one village which had been merged when the park wwas established and the villages within the park's boundaries were forced to move outside. So Zak proved to be the necessary translator for my interviews with the villagers.

Here Zak wears his traditional Friday's gown, not only because it was a Friday but primarily because it might have promoted openness of respondents compared to his guard's costume (including the gun).