Another reason I am glad my life is boring

Today at lunch Dr. Smith regaled me with the story of her week long experience with the Ghanaian criminal justice system helping a 22 year old white American male who was arrested for possession of cannabis, although the actual charge ended up being use of cannabis which carries only half the potential sentence. To avoid turning this blog post into an African version of War and Peace I will summarize. The kid got busted with a joint. People arrested for drug charges, armed robbery, and murder are evidently ineligible for bail in Ghana. He spent four days in jail rather than the three months the judge was initially contemplating due to Dr. Smith calling in all kinds of favors to talk to various law enforcement officials as well as getting a big name lawyer for the kid. So in the unlikely event that I ever need the services of somebody in the criminal justice system, say I get robbed and I want to recover my property, I will be contacting Dr. Smith who is evidently now good friends with the entire legal system of Ghana. My week was much less eventual. The highlight was going book shopping with the rest of the department on Friday. An event Dr. Smith missed because she was busy with the above story.