Introducing Edward Chao

Eddie is an eleven year old kid that lives in my neighborhood in Madina, Accra. His father and sister both died when Eddie was really young and he now lives with his grandmother in a one-room wooden shack on Estates Road. I presented the camera to Eddie's grandmother and she agreed to let him take pictures and tutor him, if I would also advise to him to come home on time from school and be obedient in her household by doing his chores. She says she really likes photographs and we spent an afternoon looking through baby pictures of Eddie from the mid nineties and Eddie's grandmother in the seventies. When we found this one of Eddie's father, Eddie said he wanted to hold it while I took his picture.


"Edward Holding His Father’s Picture"
This one is me, Edward Chao, the writer of this book holding the one who gave birth to me. That’s my father, the man who never lost his plans. His name is Vadis Chao. He was a hard worker. He did Tie and Die. And Edward the handsome boy with handsome hair.





My Grandmother Preparing Yakayaka, Edward Chao 1/22/05
My grandmother and I came to live at this place called Social Welfare. At first, she was selling pepper, tomatoes, and onion and fried fish. She carried it and went around selling them up. She stopped selling those things and started to sell salt and people liked buying the salt. But a man was saying people will never buy the salt again and my grandmother became worried and stopped selling the salt. She started to sell only Yakayaka and fried fish. Now, when she is coming to cook, I fetch the water and light the fire.