Ghana for the summer

Some thoughts (and photos) near the end

2009-09-05T17:32:00.000-07:00

I had plenty of time to myself on the trip south from Paga to Tamale, it took about 3 hours in total: first a taxi to Bolga then in a nice new Ford pickup to Tamale. I just happened to get ushered by a pushy guy to a private ride to Tamale with another women passenger. 4 months ago I would have been much more skeptical and uneasy but at this point in time I was excited for the comfortable speedy ride. I should have left the day before like all the other volunteers but didn’t wrap things up in time so I left really early in the morning and arrived just in time for the start of our debriefing workshops.

Even while in Tamale with all the other Ghana volunteers my head and heart were in Paga with friends, coworkers, and farmers. I remember a few times sitting with the volunteers discussing our placements and what it might be like ‘reintegrating’ back in Canada, while still receiving and making phone calls to friends and coworkers in Paga, like giving an AEA Nadia’s cell number so they could set up a farmer group meeting. Sure I wanted to see my family and friends back home but I just didn’t feel ready to leave.

Here’s some of the reasons (i.e., people) why I didn’t want to leave just yet:

Awudu, Saphia, me,and little Muftawu - they were my family in Paga,

I still talk to Saphia over the phone and we still refer to each other as brotha (nabo) and sista (nako). Saphia and I had some really good conversations and really connected, she taught me a bunch of language and more general life/cultural/social norms. She really was like a big sister always watching out for me and caring, she was definitely the manifestation of Ghanaian hospitality

Fatauh,me and Ayeesha -

her and Saphia always shared a meal with me every night,

and Fatauh walked and talked with me the first night I was

there. By the end we refered to each other as father and son

Michael and me -

He lived in the compound and works a water company so I always refer to him as boss and he does the same with me. We lifted weights together sometimes, he clearly did more often than me proving that not all Ghanaians or Africans are thin and hungry like they show on the news. I also went out with him and the guys for his birthday having some drinks and dancing it up (which they of course found amusing), but he was there if I needed him and helped me out a few times.

Awudu and me -

I always called him 'big boss' because he worked for the water company with Michael and because he's built like a tank. He always responded by calling me 'champion', not sure why but we always had a good laugh about it. We didn't really sit and hang out or talk all the time but he also helped me out all the time, like letting me use his old bicycle, repairing some popped bike tubes, answering any questions I had about social interactions and such. He was like a big brother, which I sometimes called him in local language Kasem, and I always made him laugh by speaking Kasem or basically anything I said or did because after all I'm a strange white guy

me and Kofi -

Even though we didn't run into each other until late in my placement, Kofi and I became pretty good friends. Aside from being a great tailor he's a great guy who's kept a positive outlook on life even though he's had a rough ride so to speak. I'm going to do a separate post about him and few others so I won't get into too many details here, if you're interested I'll be posting more soon.

Vitus, Sarah, and me -

Vitus and Sarah work at the internet cafe which is also a computer training center. Because I was there pretty often posting blogs and sending emails I became friends with the two. Sarah would always randomly say Mr. Brian in a weird pitch that made me laugh, and Vitus and I had some good conversations (I'm also going to post a story about Vitus regarding his life's past present and future which we sat and discussed).

Wisdom -

This my good friend and coworker Wisdom, we became great friends and joked around all the time for some constant good laughs. He's what I call the champion of the Agriculture as a Business program not just because he's following along or something, but because he's a great AEA and has been using the program to really benefit farmers. He's fully capable of running the program on his own and has contributed important feedback to us on what works and what doesn't, what areas it can improve on, and so on. Wisdom is great at what he does and gives me hope for the future of Mofa's extension services.

This is the Nyania Farmer's Group, Wisdom and I would meet with them every week to discuss different issues involved in the program and others they would bring up themselves. They are serious farmers and are o motivated to improve their livelihoods through their farming business.

This is Wisdom's other group the Zenga Farmer's Group, we would also meet with them every week. This is the group that gave me the chicken and eggs that I mentioned in the last post.

Because of the relationships with people including work, it was tough leaving. It’s not so much that I had unfinished work to do, I know Nadia will do a great job, it’s just that after 4 months I had plenty of momentum going. For example, I felt comfortable with all my coworkers and build some great relationships with them, I was working on getting some more AEAs involved in the program, I was working on getting the local bank involved with our program, and so on. I felt like I had a lot going on and things were happening, like farmers taking initiatives and trying new things to improve their farms and therefore livelihoods (without any handouts). It took for 4months, maybe 3, to get in the zone and feel very comfortable with work, friends, and my home life, and then it was time to leave. It wasn’t easy, but luckily I can (and do) stay in touch with people over the phone. All in all I had a great experience, I learned about on the ground development work and got to experience a different culture and people across the world and for that I’m extremely thankful. Aside from my personal learnings and experiences, the Agriculture as aBusiness program was successfully started in this district and EWB now has some good relationships and reputations with Mofa and farmer groups. With our team of hard working, critical thinking, thoughtful volunteers and staff alongside dedicated, hard working, caring, and intelligent Mofa staff working to assist hard working small scale farmers I see hope. Hope for the majority of people in this area living off a dollar or two per day, hope for the women and men putting in long hours of work often physically demanding for just enough (and sometime not enough) to meet their basic needs, and most of all hope for the young girls and young boys who deserve a future where they are entitled to the same opportunities given to girls and boys in North America or Western Europe. I have hope for Gertrude, Sulemana and all the other young ones:

Gertrude

Sulemana

So, our program isn’t perfect, we have a lot to learn and many challenges ahead, but we realize that this AAB program always needs to change, always needs to improve, and most of all always needs to put farmers and their families first. AAB is working, it is helping some of the Ministry’s staff better assist farmers and some AEAs are using it with little to no help from EWB. The main incentives I saw AEAs working with are an internal drive to help farmers and contributing to food security in their country so everyone has enough to eat and then some. I loved being in Ghana, surrounded by some warm hearted people who are striving for a better tomorrow, working with people who had few resources and moderate to low pay for the large work load they carried, but who still did a great job and put in the time and effort while receiving little to no recognition from their superiors or coworkers. With that said I’m looking forward to applying for a long term placement (1 year) and (God willing, as they say in Ghana) hoping to return to Northern Ghana next summer to work with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

This isn’t the end of my ‘experience’ or ‘journey’; it’s really only the beginning, and I know that must sound pretty cheesy but it’s the honest truth. And I’m very thankful for the opportunity and privilege to travel to Ghana and live and work there, but that was only possible because of people like yourselves who donated out of their pockets to help our EWB Windsor chapter raise the money for my placement, and equally (or more) important was all your support, whether is was directly through contacting me via emails, text messages, phone calls, and blog comments or through your prayers and positive thoughts/energy. Even the mere fact of knowing that so many of you were supporting me and wishing me well really made a difference especially during those difficult times where I felt down and out. It’s so incredible how people can positively influence one another and sometimes all it takes is a few kind words to help someone up after they fallen, and believe me I fell down more than a few times overseas but with simple short email or blog comment or phone call I got back up and tried, tried to do what I could. I think that’s all we can really ask of ourselves and one another. We can try, and continue to try so that future generations, the Gertrude’s and Sulemana’s all across the world, may live in more fair and just world without the hardships of poverty…

Thanks everyone for everything you’ve done.

I still have some more stories, photos, and a few videos to share, and I’m open to any comments or questions regarding any aspect of my placement.

All the best,

Brian

My last few weeks in Ghana

2009-09-05T17:12:00.000-07:00

As most of you know I’ve been back home in Canada now for a few weeks and settling into my apartment in Windsor. Since I haven’t posted for almost a month now I’ll fill you in from where I left off, my last 2 weeks in Ghana.

As you can imagine my last 2weeks were pretty hectic as I attempted to wrap everything up like writing reports, saying all my goodbye’s to friends, coworkers, farmer groups, and people I stayed with in Paga and the village in Kandiga. On top of that I had the new volunteer come and stay with me during my final week. Nadia from Toronto was my replacement and is currently working in Paga. I had the chance to introduce her to everyone and show her around hoping to make her stay comfortable and getting off on the right foot. As all this was happening I continued to work and meet with farmer groups. Basically I had a difficult time ‘finishing up’ and leaving, in other words I didn’t want to leave.

On my last official day of work with Mofa in Paga, my coworkers (some of them good friends after 4 months) gave me a smock, which is a cultural garment worn mostly in the north:

Some of the District Mofa Staff and I in the courtyard outside of the office in Paga

Me and Maggie (one of the great AEAs I worked with)

Me and Dominic (the District Director of Agricultue aka my boss)

Me and Azuntaba aka John (smock buddies)

Most of us went to the local bar for a drink after giving me the smock at the meeting. I have to admit that I pretty much knew it was coming because I bought a smock from the same tailor and he dropped a hint. But I was still happy and appreciative of their thoughtfulness, and all across the 3 Northern Regions almost all the volunteers were given smocks by coworkers, friends, or host families. I ended up wearing the smock all day Friday after receiving it and the response I got in town felt incredible! Numerous people that I knew, mostly acquaintances but also friends, commented on me wearing the smock. Everyone loved that I was wearing it! There were laughs and clapping and lots of compliments, one person even mentioned that “now you are a native of Paga!” while another person mentioned how they were happy that I have accepted their culture by wearing a smock. On the whole most people I encountered that day were happy to see a white guy wearing their cultural dress, I tried not to let it all go to my head, but I must admit that I was pretty happy with all the compliments, smiles, and (friendly) laughter.

But that wasn’t the only going away gift I received. On one of my last days in Paga some of the executive members of a farmer group we work with stopped by my place with a rooster and about 3 dozen eggs.

An unexpected gift

You see, this happened when I first arrived with another group and boy did I feel uneasy about accepting it! I know how much these cost (which I can easily afford) and I wished they would keep it or give to someone who actually needs it. It’s interesting how my outlook changed by the time I left. Sure I still wished that they would give it to someone in need, but I felt that I understood a bit better than before. Even in Canada we give going-away gifts if a visitor has come from afar to work with us, even if they hold a prominent position (in my case one I didn’t earn nor deserved). It’s similar to this situation but the wealth difference still makes it uneasy. On the other hand, rejecting their gifts would have been worse, and if they found out that I gave them away that might not have gone over so well. What if you gave some visitors a going away gift and found out they immediately gave it to someone else?

Basically I accepted the gifts without as much uneasiness and much more gratitude and appreciation. I understood it was a gift of thanks for a visitor that spent time with them trying work together for their benefit (and not just coming to help the poor ‘other’ but discussing issues, listening to their concerns and ideas while sharing our own so the farmers can find solutions to their challenges as myself and the AEA support and encourage them). Let’s face it, development work consists of intervening in people’s lives, it’s just the way it is, but how this is done is what makes or breaks it. And if a Ghanaian NGO came to work with them and was leaving I’m pretty sure they would give them a chicken and eggs too. Anyways, they said thanks by giving a chicken and eggs, and I said thank you and appreciated their kindness/thoughtfulness and also gave them a printed photo of their group that I had the previous week.

2.5 weeks to go!

2009-08-03T01:11:00.000-07:00

Time is winding down and before you know it i'll be exiting a plane in Toronto. I'm feeling about a 50/50 split between excited to come home and sad to leave. Luckily, or rather thankfully, there will be another volunteer replacing me for another 3.5 months and she's arriving really soon so I'll get a chance to show her around Paga and introduce some good people. I feel pretty good with my placement on the whole, sure there's plenty of things I "should, could would" have done which I'll be sharing in my final report, but I'm very thankful for the opportunity to meet all the incredible people, see-hear-feel all that I did, good and bad, and I'm thankful for all the learning. Being far from home help me appreciate all the wonderful people I'm lucky to have in my life, and I truly mean it when I say thanks for all the different types of support.

I don't know if I'll get a chance to post a couple more times before leaving, I'll put in the effort though, as you probably guessed I'll be quite busy finalizing all that I'm doing. Whatever the case, when I get back to Canada I'll put up a lot more pics, blog writing, and of course the videos I spent hours trying to upload here. When I head back south to Tamale in a couple weeks I'll try to prepare another post about my work and hopefully some pics about the people from the compound and work.

Until then...

Village stay part deux

2009-08-03T00:49:00.001-07:00

Here’s photo of the family I stayed with left to right: Tony, Peter, Alice, and Robert in the back then the two kids Gertrude and Solomon in the front.

One of the things I noticed from my short stay in the village is that Alice and her daughter Gertrude do a lot of work. Alice, the mother, works as a seamstress sowing women’s dresses and garments that are commonly worn by women, but before starting work she is up very early (I woke up at 545am one morning and she was already up and moving) and fetches water, sweeps, and prepares food for everyone, which is pretty labour/time intensive. After returning home from working the whole day sewing at the market she began to prepare dinner which took a couple hours or so, served everyone, then sat down to eat. By now it is dark, after eating she washes all the pots, pans, and dishes before resting and retiring for the night. From what I saw she’s the first one up in the morning and the last one to relax at night, basically working double shifts within and outside the home. Her young daughter (probably around 10yr plus or minus 2) does much of the same work. She’s also up very early helping her mother with everything I mentioned above before and after school, and she also weeds people’s farms to gain money for the family- either after or before school, I’m not sure, I just saw her leave in her school uniform with a hoe in hand and was told how she weeds on peoples farms. This young girl works hard, like a grown woman, and if I were to do her work for a day I’d be pretty exhausted and sore. She also help to take care of the small boy Solomon, she helps him bath and prepare for school in the morning, and plays with him in the evening. I kept thinking that Gertrude, a young girl plays the role of a mother while attending school and working on the farm here and there.

Here’s photo of Solomon, or as Tony calls him ‘Sulu-macho’. He’s the son of Peter and Alice’s daughter and was he was pretty apprehensive and shy around me for almost the whole time I was there, on the last day I was taking a lot more snaps and he opened up a little and I caught him smiling a couple times – he usually has a somber and shy look on his face.

I spent a lot of time with Peter’s son Anthony (Tony) who is a year younger than me and home for the summer holidays. He studies at the University of Ghana in Accra and is doing a BA taking sociology, religion, and Swahili. He showed me around and we talked about many things, I asked him many questions about village life. It was good to hang out with someone my age who speaks good English, he made my stay a lot more comfortable.

His friend and relative (although in our culture they wouldn’t be related) Samuel or Sammy was a good character to chat with and have around; he’s a local teacher and was working on the farm with us the one day.

I had a great time in Kandiga, learned through experience how difficult farming is, met a number of kind friendly people, learned about people’s culture and way of life and was able to experience a small part of it. I also learned that the term “village” evokes many preconceptions and expectations, but here in Northern Ghana there’s so many different types of villages with different cultures. For instance, another JF/friend Spencer took a small boat to his villages stay, met the chief, went hunting and gathering, and the village was like a big compound and semi-isolated in the bush. You can imagine the large contrast between my stay with a solar panel, concrete courtyard, sparsely located family compounds, and located about 20 mins from a paved road. Basically there’s not one type of village that we’ve seen in movies or pictures. Anyways, I’m planning on heading back there by the end of this week with some pictures I told them I would print, I can’t wait!

Village Stay in Kandiga (part one)

2009-07-20T06:48:00.000-07:00

When you think of a village in rural Africa what comes to mind? Stop and think about it for a minute….

Without getting into a discussion into why we think of certain things, I have a hard time deciphering where the village begins and where it ends, and what a village actually is. The place I stayed, ‘the village’, wasn’t isolated or far from “civilization” it is a community comprising of spatially separated homes by fields, dirt roads and foot paths, boreholes to pump safe clean drinking water shared by everyone, no electricity, and where just about everyone greets everyone. This isn’t the most detailed description, but how many of you reading this will actually sit here and read a 5-10 page description? Anyways, the home that I stayed in judging by my observations was a little better off than others but not as wealthy as some. The courtyard, I guess you could call it, was concrete instead of earth, they had zinc metal roofing on all the rooms except for the one I slept on, and they have a solar panel:

The solar panel only powers 3 lights and an outlet that can only handle a radio or black and white TV, not powerful enough to recharge a cell phone – the batteries are weakened since they are about 4 years old, a common problem with solar power. I think Peter, the father, said he paid around 300 Ghana cedis for it, but now they are more expensive because of a high demand and short supply, which is unfortunate because the area is perfectly situated for solar power with lots of sun and spaced out homes/compounds making infrastructure expensive to run all the power cables. Basically there’s different levels of wealth in villages, not everyone lives in extreme poverty and people have some ‘modern’ amenities and possessions like you or I - not all villages are isolated communities in the bush.

One of my favourite things about staying in the village was sleeping under the stars up on the roof of an older style room:

rooftop camping

I had the chance to lie under a sky full of stars every night with a cool fresh breeze carrying the scent of dew and millet crops (similar to corn field smell). It was incredible to wake every morning to a cool breeze and beautiful sunrise over the millet fields:

I’ve mentioned millet quite a bit because it’s the main food staple in this village as well as the district and maybe even region. We ate millet every day, mainly in the form of TZ with leafy stew and a couple times in the field we had it in grinded floury form with water added:

We also ate rice, bread and tea, guinea fowl (similar to a chicken), and gari which is kinda like cold sugary oatmeal, pretty tasty! Millet is very nutritious and suited to the environment so fertilizer isn’t needed, and the stocks are used after the harvest for thatched roofs and to make fences for dry season gardens to keep animals out. Here’s a pic I took as we made our way along a path between millet fields on our way to weed the groundnut field (another nutritious staple suited to the environment not needing fertilizer):

more pics are yet to come!

Agric as a Business and development

2009-07-20T06:24:00.000-07:00

With the Agric as a Business (AAB) program things still feel like they are going slow especially since I’m only here for such a short time, but from what I’ve gathered it’s a normal feeling among JF’s past and present. I guess I see my greatest impact in laying the foundation for EWB and AAB in this new district, and building the relationship and credibility that we need to be effective in working with Mofa and farmers. Basically I’m trying to document as much as possible about as mush as possible.

AAB involves a series of meetings with farmer groups that focus on building strong groups and gaining basic business skills so farmers can make more income, therefore profit. We work with farmers that are small scale and mostly subsistence, and if you ask any of them if they want to make some money or more money I’m sure they will agree. The hard part I’m finding is the approach AEAs are taking. The AAB approach is to let the group do the analysis, make a plan, and make decisions while Mofa/EWB guides and supports them in this process. This process is done through facilitating discussions with groups with guideline questions and facilitation tips outlined on the AAB laminated cards given to AEAs.

The problem I’m finding is that AEAs are so used to a top down dissemination of knowledge/information and some aren’t letting the group decide, plan, and analyze at least without telling them the importance of record keeping or group meetings for instance (which are 2 topics covered on the cards). “Top-down” and “lecturing” sound like pretty harsh words so I need to clarify what I mean. Most of the AEAs, the ones I work with or not, are from villages and some even in this area, so they aren’t treating the farmers like unintelligent children, they are attempting to do what their regular job requirements: transfer knowledge which they’ve learned and are given by MoFA so farmers can adopt practices and techniques, like growing a new variety of maize that mature faster and can be harvested earlier. AEAs are doing their jobs the way they’ve been trained and also following their superiors instructions, they aren’t arrogant or condescending in how they talk with farmers.

Here’s where it gets complex: to a certain degree AEAs have the education and knowledge about some things that farmers don’t; many farmers we work with are illiterate for example. At the same time, it appears that to a certain degree farmers want to be educated on business skills and technical knowledge that will help them improve their livelihoods. So, if AEAs want to educate (through a form of lecturing, not harshly or anything, and even with jokes) and farmers want to be educated, then why are we trying to change this? This is one of the things I’m struggling with. Where’s the balance between pragmatic and appropriate, or participatory and teaching? Maybe those aren’t good words to describe the situation, but I think you get the point. Another factor could be farmers paying lip service to please the AEA who gives them fertilizer coupons that reduce the cost of a bag of fertilizer by about half.

From what I’ve observed in the field, through talking with long term volunteers, and reading reports and past experiences, the issue is that farmers voices aren’t being heard enough and their input, opinions, ideas, and concerns aren’t valued as much as they could or should be. As a result, our hypothesis is that: if farmers have more of a say, if they are able to honestly and openly share their ideas, if they are given some more power to do so, then we can learn from them and better understand how to support them in their activities so they can improve their livelihoods. I say hypothesis because we don’t want to make assumptions and present things as facts, for then we close ourselves off to feedback and potential changes. That said, we’ve found through our work with Mofa and farmer groups focusing on the 8 areas in AAB (group: strengths, meetings, finances, work/farm, business plan, record keeping, marketing, and evaluation) can make farmers more profits and improve their lives while feeling more in control over their futures and taking pride in the fact that they succeeded without a handout – usually in the form of a white man in a 4x4 giving money to the “helpless” (which is needed in some cases, but can lead to dependency and helplessness).

Hopefully I’ve been clear and haven’t confused anyone reading this. With all the uncertainty and complicated issues affecting our work, I’m staring to see some farmer groups that initially met with us and expected handouts like money or inputs (fertilizer, seed, chemicals, machinery) that are now starting to strengthen their group from within, make plans and set goals, and feeling like they can succeed. Groups express their appreciation for our support, knowledge and know-how to improve, and in a way we are doing this. At the same time, farmers are taking the initiative, driving the discussions, making the plans, thinking about what they want to do, how to do it, why it’s important or not, if its relevant and so on.

I think it’s also important to note that the groups are getting something tangible from AEAs in the form of fertilizer coupons which are subsidizing the cost of fertilizer (other groups and individuals are also receiving coupons, not just farmers involved with AAB). Groups are also discussing and planning with us through AAB, and receiving encouragement and information. Whether I like it or not, or accept it or not, I’m a white man in Africa working with an NGO - that means a clear wealth/power difference exists between farmers and myself. One of the implications or effects is that I’m treated with a certain amount of respect and prestige that a prominent older man would receive, therefore groups are somewhat encouraged to meet with us and participate in this program; they listen to what we have to say, and when I encourage groups or give my opinion my voice carries a little weight (definitely more than it should). I do struggle with this ‘white privilege’ and power disparity, but I try to be altruistic about it all and “use my powers for good” by encouraging and giving recognition, trying to understand and be open about what I’m doing and why I’m here, and leverage whatever weight my voice or actions carry to motivate farmers and AEAs.

I truly believe that this AAB program will help farmers earn more income, and one of the main reasons is because of the people involved. Most of the AEAs are good at what they do, they want to help farmers and do a good job, yet I can’t speak too much about this because of my limited time here and I don’t have the greatest understanding of all AEAs since I’m only working with and regularly communicating with 4. On the EWB front I can speak more confidently because I’m closer to them and communicate better with them: we have amazing people working here who are incredibly thoughtful, caring, hardworking, dedicated and motivated, and critically analyzing and reflecting to the extent that just about anyone you ask will explain how they’re not doing enough, things are happening too slow, or not enough progress has been made. They most likely will speak of their challenges and short coming more than their successes, but I like to quote Levi, our EWB director of overseas, on his description of EWB overseas volunteers: “insecure overachievers”. My coach the other day also said something along the lines of ‘we’re always undercutting our successes and whatever successes or progress we admit is usually an understatement.’ We are making progress and farmers are working their way out of poverty, but its hard to measure, it’s a slow process that takes time, it happens in different ways, and all the while we are always looking to improve and questioning our actions, assumptions, decisions, and ideas – hence, it’s complex and difficult for me to explain or understand clearly.

The approach we’re taking with AAB might sound flaky or not very concrete as we are always second guessing, and questioning our approach to see if it’s appropriate, relevant, and effective, but that’s the way it should be I think. People’s lives aren’t static they are dynamic and their surroundings are as well, therefore ‘development work’ must also be constantly changing and adapting to assist people in the changes they face. This changing atmosphere leads us to try new approaches and ideas leading to successes, insights and of course failures and shortcomings. We can learn just as much or more from our shortcomings and failures and use the learning to improve, the problem is that donors large and small always want to see results, which can lead to projects that show short term immediate gains that can fall apart soon after the project ends.

For instance, a project manager I interviewed at the local bank said the main problem here with NGOs is that they come for a short period of time, run their project, then leave, and when the project is over so are the benefits. He basically said there is no long term or sustainable projects happening in this district I’m in. However, it’s understandable why donors want to see direct and immediate results, if you donate 10, 100, or 1000 dollars I’m guessing you won’t want to hear about how the project didn’t produce the expected results, and how the NGO/charity learned valuable lessons that they will put into practice to ensure long term sustainable improvements on the ground are achieved, or the NGO/charity trying to explain the complexities involved on the ground and how concrete results may take 1-5 years, and the like. I think it’s much more comforting to read or hear about how your money went into the bricks of a school that was built, or the wages for labourers and materials that built a latrine or borehole, or polio vaccinations, etc. All important in their own respect, and I’ll be the first to admit that I enjoy reading a fuzzy letter with pictures and results from a charity I donate to, it makes me feel like I did something good – donate money – and people benefited – like a health center opened, or a family received livestock. But the point I’m wandering around here is that other types of projects that won’t produce immediate concrete results and focus on long term results are just as important, yet not as appealing to donors.

Here's a few photos of farmer groups involved with the Agric as a Business program:

The Kakungu Farmer's Association

The Zenga Farmer's Group

The Abulu Zenga Wopolo Women’s Group proudly standing in front of their almost finished building they constructed on their own to hold meeting in

Children of the Street

2009-07-20T06:21:00.000-07:00

Children of the Street

By Lora Akati

(published in The Daily Graphic July 19, 2009)

Hear now, the voice of the voiceless,

Of us, who have no representatives.

We are the children of the street

With nothing but dust to eat.

Policies have promised to save us

But instead like maladies,

We are stuck in the abyss of hopelessness.

Education is alien to our world

For though we have heard of rights,

They are meant for the bright.

Despise us or dismiss us,

We are still the homeless, children of the street.

We may not have homes,

But we do have hopes.

Just as the earth has never ceased in its orbit,

So our dreams grow each passing minute.

We do not beg for respect, for it is foreign to us.

All we seek is a tomorrow,

Where education will replace rape,

Where food and shelter will exist.

Where we will be bright enough

To demand the respect of our ‘rights’.

This is the dream we hold on to

As we wake up each morning under the bridges

And bare our souls to the dangers of the street.

This is our silent prayer,

That one day, our voices shall be heard

By none, but ordinary people with respect for lives.

Ordinary people like you.

The writer graduated from Keta Secondary School in 2008, where she read General Arts. She has been admitted to the University of Ghana, Legon, and looks forward to reading political science, English, and social work. Currently, she is studying French at Alliance Francaise, Accra.

Slow internet

2009-07-11T11:24:00.000-07:00

So I've been trying to upload a video I made for about 2 weeks but the internet hasn't been cooperating. I tried again today with no luck, and I also tried to upload some more pics from Mole National Park without success. This is just a very quick update letting you all know that things are going great and I'm healthy and happy. I'm heading to the village on Monday and i have farmer group meetings all day Saturday so I'll try to post on here in a couple weeks. I have pictures, a video, and more info about my work so if you can bear with the slow internet connection (and the frustration it can bring) I'll pretty much spend a good day of posting when i return from the village!

Bye for now!

Brian

Mole part 1

2009-07-02T08:37:00.000-07:00

(sorry about the delay in posting, the internet hasn't been cooperating and work has been getting pretty busy, luckily today I have relatively fast internet so I can post some pics. The next posts following this will be about my work and my village stay. Thanks for your patience!)

June 26

A couple weeks ago all the JF volunteers got together for some meetings, catching up, sharing, story telling, workshops, good conversations, and of course fun. We were together for about 2-3 days before meeting up with the long term volunteers for the in country meetings, workshops, and ultimate frisbee. It was a great opportunity to unwind and share experiences while learning about everyone’s placement. It was also a great opportunity to be a tourist for a day, and that’s just what we did.

We all met up in Tamale, the Northern Region capital and hub, had some food, then waited about 2-3 hours for the bus to show up before heading west to Damango. The road from Paga to Tamale is paved and relatively smooth, the road from Tamale to Damango is poor according to Ghanaians. The bus ride was pretty rough and bumpy, but manageable especially since we all knew that Mole National Park wasn’t far from Damango and awaiting our presence. We arrived in the evening after a long day, ate a late dinner and crashed. The day before I left I started to feel my health declining and some sickness coming on, and by the time I awoke in Damango I wasn’t feeling too good. Between the diarrhea, head ache, fever, and aches I managed to ride out the day of workshops and discussions without falling to deep into a negative attitude, and the strangest part was that these symptoms ranged from bad to ok. The up and down feeling of sickness allowed me to somewhat enjoy myself throughout the 4-5 days.

We were up early around 5am to head north to the Mole Park with high hopes of seeing some elephants in the morning. Luckily a long term volunteer, Wayne, was able to find a trotro for hire the night before to take us to Mole in the morning. The tro ride was pretty bumpy but we were all in good spirits: anxious to see elephants and a container of Ghanaian chocolate spread was being passed around:

Aline and Spencer living the high life

Very early and bumpy tro-tro ride into Mole

Mole is the largest wildlife reserve in Ghana, and after passing through the front gate we encountered a family of baboons on the road to the ‘visitor centre’, a nice welcoming committee indeed.

We got to the centre, piled out of the tro, used the nicest, cleanest washrooms in Ghana (nicer than my bathroom in my Windsor apartment) then were off with the armed ranger for a walk in the park

Cleanest washrooms and funniest signs!

Ranger and our "field trip chaperon" Alanna (she's our support staff/coach/big sister)

While we stopped to listen to the ranger brief us on the parks history and wildlife habitants, to warthogs darted out of the bush and were running towards us. They turned about 5m before reaching us and took off down a path. We all got a good laugh especially because they have hair like 80’s rock stars, aka mullets: short in the front long in the back. He finished talking and we walked down an open path in pretty open forest. About 5 mins later near the worker’s quarters before getting into the forest/bush we encountered a heard of elephants. It felt like Jurassic Park with the buildings and equipment all around and a herd of elephants grazing.

We stood around in awe for about 20mins quietly observing and taking photos of the elephants before they slowly walked on by. Our primary goal had been achieved in a matter of 5 minutes! It was a great way to start the day, and thankfully in terms of my health I was feeling fine, and the weather was just about perfect this day: overcast and not too warm. We continued on our tour and got up close to some warthogs sleeping:

Further along our walk we came across a family of baboons ‘monkey-ing’ around, some antelopes, more baboons, and of course more elephants:

To be continued............

Agriculture as a Business (part 2)

2009-06-18T10:35:00.000-07:00

To date, along side AEA’s, I’ve met with about 12 farmer groups to introduce myself and the AAB program. This week we’re hoping to meet with some groups to discuss where they are at in terms of what strengths and challenges they have, and which areas should we address? I’m hoping this will be a two way street where famer groups can express their concerns and opinions about which areas they would like to work on, and the AEA’s and I can also assess where the groups could use some support. To assist with this I held a meeting with 4 AEA’s I’m working with and we discussed how we should initiate this program. We agreed to start by filling out a document I provided (but didn’t create) called the “farmer group evaluation” in order to get some baseline info about the groups. Also, the first card is about group strengths and involves questions that will help assess where the group is at.

Directly following these initial farmer group meetings coming up this week, I’m planning to sit down with each AEA afterwards and get some feedback, or in other words discuss what went well, what didn’t, and how we can improve things for next time. I’m hoping we get into the habit of feedback and I’m planning to give praise when it’s due and offer suggestions to challenges. I’m lucky to have a great group of thoughtful people to work with, and I’m getting to know them more and more. It might seem like I’m focusing a lot on AEA’s and not impoverished farmers. It’s true. I am focusing on AEA’s. The reasoning behind this is sustainability, a word that’s thrown around a lot but to me it means something that’s long term and stable on its own.

EWB works with Mofa because Mofa will more than likely be around for a long time, and they’re in a good position to assist impoverished farmers. For too many years and in too many countries, including Ghana, NGOs come in with money and resources, run a project, then leave. Many projects are quick fixes, or don’t last as long as they should, or don’t take the time to understand peoples’ realities and needs. I’m not discrediting all NGO’s or aid work, I know it’s needed and useful when appropriate. However, if I focused my time and energy mostly on famers for 3 months then what happens when I leave? If EWB gives me money to purchase fertilizer then gives it to poor farmers then what about next year? My 3 month placement would be a waste if the project was solely run by myself, it would finish as soon as I leave. In this regard, we feel the best way to help impoverished farmers is to work with the Mofa staff that directly works with farmers year in and year out. So I’m putting in time and energy to have some sort of long term impact with the Mofa staff in this district.

In development language it’s called “capacity building” or “sustainable development” in parable lingo it’s the “give a man fish – teach a man to fish” story, but to me I’m here working with AEA’s to help them improve in different ways so they can help farmers work their way out of a cycle of poverty. Farmers know how to farm and AEA’s know their jobs, I’m just offering a different approach that EWB has developed with Mofa. It has worked in other districts and we’re hoping it will work here so farmers can live better lives. We’ve had some amazing volunteers and AEA’s pour their heart and soul into working with Mofa on this program and I’m lucky and proud to be a part of it. I’ll do my best to be accountable to the money raised which sent me here as well as the chapter and everyone supporting me, but most of all I’m trying to work hard and be accountable to the people working their way through poverty. Depending on how things go in this district there might even be another 3 month volunteer replacing me when I leave.

I’ll be sure to explain more in the near future and I’d be happy to read or answer and questions or comments on the work EWB is doing with Mofa, so if you’re interested then send me an email (brianvenne@ewb.ca) or post a comment and I’ll be sure to respond. Once I’ve been to a few more farmer group meetings I’ll start to take photos and post some as well.

Stay tuned for elephants!!!

Agriculture as a Business

2009-06-18T10:22:00.000-07:00

I spent another day of farmer group meetings with an AEA named Margret aka Maggie - the only female AEA I’m working with. On our way to meet with the group we passed the 2^nd largest man-made dam in Ghana. I never knew there was such a large body of water up here; it looks like a small lake! The first group we met was small number of younger guys who recently formed a farmer group. They have also obtained a pumping machine in order to farm hot peppers (pepe) and tomatoes during the dry season. To me it seems like this group has a lot of potential and can hopefully benefit from the AAB program.

The Agriculture as a Business (AAB) program that I’m implementing with Mofa focuses on AEA’s encouraging and supporting farmers to manage their farms as a profitable business, not just for subsistence, or farming because that’s all you know how to do, or because your parents were farmers. One of the aims of AAB is to end up with farmers who feel proud to run their profitable farming business and earning more income therefore improving their standards of living. At first I was a little skeptical of AAB with its profit and monetary focus, but at the end of the day if you ask a farmer if she or he would like to make more money, I’m positive they will say yes. And with high poverty rates around here it makes sense.

There are 8 areas we’re focusing on: group strengths, group meetings, finances, group project, business plan, record keeping, group marketing, and evaluation. They are in the format of laminated cards with pictures and sometimes stories of other farmer groups on the front and steps/directions on the back to help the AEA have discussions and ask questions with the farmers. Here’s an example from the finances card:

step1: ask the group what is the meaning of the picture? Step 2: ask the group how we can improve group finances? What is the group’s plan for their savings? Does the group keep financial records? The card also provides more questions to help the AEA facilitate a discussion on group finances. The approach is to talk with farmer groups and encourage them to make their own decisions on how they can improve, while supporting and helping them in their decisions. For instances, in this case the card also says ask the group what plan they want to make and encourages them to record it. Essentially the AAB cards are a tool to help improve the service AEA’s provide to farmers, and to discuss and encourage rather than dictate information to farmers. The more tangible aspects of AAB are encouraging farmers to keep records and make a business plan while talking with them about if they already have or have not and why. A less tangible aspect would be talking about group meetings and discussing the importance of strong meetings.

I think it’s important to note that the majority of farmers in the Upper East and all the farmers we work with are locally producing and small scale, that is, not overseas exporting and using large acreages with heavy equipment like tractors and combines (but some groups are able to contract tractor services to plow their fields, others rent bull-plow services, and many prepare their land by hand tools). Few individuals own more than 5 acres of land around here.

Field Visits and Pito

2009-06-18T10:19:00.000-07:00

June 3

I spent the day meeting with famer groups with AEA, James. I felt kind of awkward and intimidated, and felt a little pressured to do something. I guess I thought that I was just going to introduce myself, say a few words and schedule the next meeting. But James pretty much introduced me, so I proceeded with asking the groups some questions like what did you farm, how were the yields, why did you form a group, and what are your challenges. Almost of all the groups mentioned that land preparation was an issue, especially regarding bull plows that are in short supply and expensive. The meetings were brief for they were simply an introduction, which farmers didn’t mind seeing as how they were busy sowing, tilling, and weeding their fields. On the whole the farmers were pretty friendly and thanked me for coming; we even stopped by one of the farmers homes and sat for a calabash of pito: basically a bowl of homemade sorghum beer. I thought I’d try it, my mistake. I regretted it the next morning.

On a different day, another group was very enthusiastic and wanted to show their level of motivation and dedication along with gratitude by giving Wisdom (an AEA) and I a live rooster and about 2 dozen eggs. We both felt uncomfortable about receiving the gift because we haven’t really done anything yet. Wisdom said this group has tried to give him gifts in the past and he politely refuses and hops on his moto before they give it to him, but we accepted the gifts this time after trying to refuse. I felt pretty uncomfortable about it seeing it as: a white man from a foreign NGO comes along and farmers give him gifts of gratitude for helping them. I don’t deserve this gift but what can I do? To be honest, in an area with high poverty rates – the Upper East Region has the highest in Ghana – a group of farmers during the lean season giving Wisdom and I a chicken that we could afford to buy, I felt guilty accepting it. But what if I flat out refused? I talked with a local about it later and who said it’s an insult to refuse such a gift. Well, we hung the chicken around the handle bars of the moto by its bound feet, thanked them again, and waived goodbye as we rode off to meet the next group. But not before dropping the eggs off at home, and bringing the bird to the butcher/roaster, it was a pretty tasty gift.

Back to the day with James: After James and I got back to Navrongo we went to a bar and had a couple beers and some grilled meat (goat/lamb). We sat around and talked some business, some family, and some joking. Here’s one thing that stood out. After we left the place he told me that one of the men sitting at another table was the district judge. James noticed that when we were talking about my moto helmet, and the roads and drivers in Ghana, the judge started paying attention to our conversation. You see I get many jokes and laughs directed towards me for owning a helmet but not a moto; my coworkers, friends, housemates, taxi drivers, and strangers all get a good laugh out of this, but if you witnessed the roads, traffic, speeding, and condition of vehicles here, you would understand why I don’t mind the laughter and continue to wear my helmet. The roads aren’t too bad just occasional potholes scattered in patches; the traffic is pretty hectic sometimes; speeding is common practice, same with pretty close encounter passing, but many taxis don’t have functioning speedometers so I’m not sure if there even speeding but it feels as though they are; and most of the vehicles have seen better days.

James later joked about how the judge will probably use this example in a court case: ‘a white man came to Ghana with his moto helmet without even owning or operating a moto. He brought a helmet only for the sole purpose of riding on the back of someone else’s moto!’ I guess he meant that the judge could use my example to leverage the importance of helmets and safety, while discrediting cases where people are injured from accidents without wearing helmets? Not quite sure, but after all the flak, laughter, staring and jokes about me having a helmet but no moto, I felt good that I might help set some precedence in regards to helmet use.

(I’ve begun to meet with the majority of AEA’s I’ll be working with and we’ve held introductory meetings with farmer groups. My next post(s) I’ll specifically shift the focus to my work with Mofa and farmer groups.)

Poor Man Will Never Eat Grass

2009-06-18T10:06:00.000-07:00

This is one of the many slogans I’ve seen painted on stores and food stands (stay tuned for a whole post on these if I remember), and the other day I had the opportunity to inquire into the meaning of this saying. I was sitting and talking with some younger guys and asked them about it. They said it’s related to hospitality, people in Ghana help each other out, and if a poor man is hungry people will feed him so they will never have to eat grass. I have no doubt that this sort of hospitality is practiced, but I’m unsure about how often to what extent. I have seen both extremes: where clearly blind old man was being ushered around by a teenage girl collecting money and a couple of Ghanaians gave some money, I don’t want to share the other because I don’t understand what was happening due to language barriers but it involved someone who appeared to be mentally ill but causing a nuisance.

I relaxed with the two younger guys for quite some time discussing a wide range of topics: Barack Obama, the WWE and if it’s real or fake, special effects in movies, cocaine in Columbia and the West (the problems, the money, the demand and some moral issues around it), poverty and homelessness in Canada and Ghana, why some people in America don’t like Christopher Columbus (an anthropology can of worms), California and rap artists, Arnold Swartzenagar, English speaking skills, how Kasem is not valued or taught very much anymore, and so on. They mainly asked questions about these and I gave them my opinions, basically they had many questions about the West. It makes me realize how much access to information we have in comparison to many people in the world. 24 hours a day 7 days a week I have a world wide web of information at my finger tips, a privilege that’s simply not widely available here.

During our conversations I had the opportunity to express some thoughts about world issues with the intent of providing some different perspectives they might not hear too often - I kind of felt like a biased small encyclopedia. My perspectives, thoughts, opinions, and feelings are different, not better, worse, or enlightening, but different due to my location in the world, background, education, and so on. When I think of positive changes in my own life, what comes to mind is hearing new and different perspectives, and that’s what the three of us shared that afternoon.

Pounding/preparing a fufu feast

These aren't the guys I talk about in this blog, some of them live

in the same compound. For dessert we watched some football

Taxi Rasta

2009-06-09T06:19:00.001-07:00

One day at the taxi station in Navrongo, one of the drivers asked me if I wanted to go to Paga just with him for 2GHC, the private chartered price instead if sharing a taxi with 3 others. I thought he was just trying to hustle me like some taxi drivers have tried to do by getting me to accept a private instead of shared cab. So with a couple bottles of Guinness in me and feeling pretty comfortable, I flat out asked him which price he would rather pay 2GHC or 50 peswas (cents)? He responded: “If I was in a hurry or if something was urgent then I would pay 2GHC”, I replied “I’m in no hurry”, and then he said in a friendly way with a smile, “Well I can’t know what you’re thinking”. We laughed and slapped/shook hands (I’ve never shaken more hands in my life here). He called me on my assumption but in a great way.

I didn’t realize that he was the driver of a different taxi than the one I tossed my (sealed) pillow in the trunk of and opened the door to, which already had 4 passengers. (I’ve noticed it’s not uncommon to cram 5 people in a taxi). He asked me if I was getting in with them, and I said with a smile and some confidence, “why not? We’re all brothers and sisters. One love (a one-liner from a Bob Marley song, an artist that you hear all the time around here)”, I can’t remember his exact words but it was something along the lines of “one people uniting”. We then exchanged this kind of handshake that I learned from some Rasta’s I was hanging out with Bolga: instead of shaking hands, with a closed fist you extend your arm and touch fists at the knuckles then bring your fist to your chest over your heart. It happened pretty fast and I didn’t even think before I spoke, it just felt natural, and so did the handshake thing, it’s like we both knew about the same thing, or felt the same way about something without even thinking about it. I left Navrongo with a great feeling: a happy heart. The feeling even returned as I exited the taxi and said goodbye to the woman I sat next to but didn’t end up talking to. It was such a flicker of time, an instant, maybe 2 seconds, but a genuine smile and goodbye from a stranger I was uncomfortably squished against in a sweaty taxi felt incredible.

Litter

2009-06-09T06:16:00.000-07:00

The other day a woman approached me on my way home about the empty plastic water sachet in my hand. She mentioned how I carry my trash and don’t throw it on the ground and pointed to a bag on the ground to emphasize that people litter. Off the top of my head I said “I want to keep Ghana beautiful”, this might be something I read on a sign or side of a trash container here, or maybe it’s from the old Ontario license plates “Ontario. Keep it beautiful”. I remember that’s what our license plate read on my parents ’83 oldsmobile. Regardless of where the phrase came from, she took the bag from me and said she would put it into a trash can in front of her business.

I’m not patting myself on the back, because regardless of where you put the plastic it will end up either on top or underneath soil, or more likely in the atmosphere after it’s lit on fire – a common practice is burning your garbage. Yet, one of the reasons that I try not to litter is because people might notice. You don’t have to look far to see plastic bags and sachets lying around here, and it’s totally understandable without recycling infrastructure and minimal garbage disposal funds. The way I see it is that people living hand to mouth probably don’t prioritize where they toss their plastic trash. Yet, I realize that just about all my actions and inactions are observed by locals, and even I may be setting an example by not littering but what end does this serve? What changes can come about this? What’s the point? I’m not sure, but I know that people’s lives aren’t going to improve and break through the cycle of poverty if a westerner or members of the community stop littering. I just think that I wouldn’t do it in my home town in Canada so why would I do it here? Maybe if the trash was only found in one specific location then people’s perceptions of Paga might change, leading to….?

I’m just speculating from my western point of view, and outsider and foreigner’s ignorant perspective. I really don’t understand people’s lives here and I don’t pretend to comprehend what people go through on a day to day basis. Hopefully I can learn more by talking with people, and start to understand and empathize. And in the coming month I’ll be staying in a rural village for about a week to learn more about rural livelihoods. From what I’ve seen and heard so far, I don’t think garbage disposal is high on the development list above water and sanitation, food security (eliminating hunger), high unemployment, expensive education fees, infrastructure projects, and so on. At the end of the day if you’re concerned about how you can make enough money to support yourself and family’s basic needs, where you toss your trash probably isn’t an issue.

May 29, 2009 - Working on working

2009-05-31T11:35:00.000-07:00

Today, being Friday, there was at a meeting at the office with most of the Mofa staff and we worked out that next week I’ll accompany the AEA’s to meet with their farmer groups. It’s been a couple weeks but with some issues going on at work like the director loosing his mother, the former director passing away after being in the hospital for a while, as well as some trouble with securing tractor owners and operators to plow a certain amount of acres for a rice expansion project funded by Mofa at the national level. With this in mind, I haven’t quite found my niche within Mofa as some things are out of my control, and I’ve been trying to put myself out there as ready and willing to contribute but with little success so far. Maybe I’m used to the work setting in Canada where you start a new job and things are clear as to what your responsibilities are and other’s expectations become clear pretty quickly usually.

However, at the director set the tone and told the AEA’s that I’ll be working with them next week and then I set up the dates where I’ll go with them to meet farmer groups to introduce myself, ask some questions, and give the heads up about the AAB program that we’re piloting in this district, which means future meetings with farmer groups to discuss the AAB curriculum facilitated by AEA’s. Once the momentum picks up I’ll explain Agriculture as a business (AAB) in more detail.

I’m not entirely sure of my audience, i.e. who is following along and reading, therefore I’m trying to cater to a diverse audience and cover many different aspects of my experiences in Ghana. I also just realized that a blog setting may have prevented people from commenting – apparently you had to have a blog account to do so – but I changed it so anyone can comment. Hopefully I’ll receive some input from readers so I can answer some questions and describe specific things in more depth.

I was given the opportunity to attend an important meeting in Bolga that concerned the entire Upper East Region though. It was the launching (or sensitizing as they say here) of the Northern Rural Growth Program (NRGP) which is a 100 million (US$) project designed to help develop the three northern regions of Ghana mainly funded by the African Development Bank and the International Fund for Agriculture Development? (I think that’s what IFAD stands for). Anyways, the program looks like it’s taking a good approach and the potential is exciting. I’m not naïve and remain critical and skeptical but I don’t know enough to judge and I’m remaining positive and thinking about how EWB can fit into this project which overlaps a bit with AAB. In fact, Roy is the program coordinator who used to be the regional director of Mofa and helped develop AAB in collaboration with EWB. Meghan (my coach/colleague) and I chatted with Roy after the meeting about how the funds will be made available to the districts through what they’re calling the Commodity Business Plan. Stakeholders from the district like farmer groups, land owners, Mofa, banks, town planners, and so on will come up with a business plan based on the commodity they are planning on producing, which will be based on the demand and market. This approach seems pretty interesting: looking at markets and demand before actually producing a commodity.

For instance, one can look at how Guinness here in Ghana is only obtaining about 10% of its sorghum needs locally while importing the rest. A district could then come up with a business plan and apply for funding so it can improve infrastructure like roads and irrigation, in order to produce sorghum for this particular market. Although the stats here are factual, I came up with a simplified example trying to illustrate the approach. Of course many other factors and issues around the production of sorghum exist and I’m not entirely sure how the business plan process will be carried out. I was actually talking to the accountant here at Mofa about this issue and we both had a number of questions about how the funding will be disbursed. For example, how can they ensure that farmers’ voices will be heard as much as bank managers and investors or wealthy land owners? Who will decide which representatives will be involved in the process of creating the business plan? Will some people from certain districts have the upper hand by gaining access to certain market information that is not widely available? The district I’m in, Kassena-Nankana West, was formed only about a year ago and I can say with some level of certainty that it’s an underdog district lacking basic funds, so these questions literally hit close to home – seeing as how I live across from the Mofa office.

Struggling with white privilege or lack of independence?

2009-05-31T11:29:00.000-07:00

I never seem to know whether people are being very kind and welcoming and sometimes going out of there way to assist me, or I’m being privileged because I’m white/a westerner. I think both cases apply to different situations but I can’t quite decipher the two. But if someone from another country was my neighbor and was clueless due to the new environment, then I’d go out of my way to help them on their feet. On the other hand, I can tell that in some situations I get the same treatment as a prominent older male Ghanaian. Maybe I’m worrying too much about “white privilege”, I’ve only been here in Paga for about two weeks and I’ll eventually figure out the difference between feeling dependent and being privileged. But I’m still uncomfortable with people always do things for me and would like to be more independent. However, when I do ‘go-it-alone’ I usually mess up and people even say ‘why didn’t you ask one of us?’ I guess I’m so used to being capable of taking care of myself it’s a difficult shift to having to depend on people for many things, even food and water.

For example, the other day I was walking about and decided to look at how much a used bike costs. I ended picking one up but it wasn’t very good, and a couple days later a guy at my compound who I’ve started to talk with said I was cheated (ripped off). He came with me to try to get my money back, and after he argued for about a half hour, we left because the guy didn’t have the money so I’m pretty much stuck with the bike. On the walk back he said that I should have asked him to help me find a bike, or asked one of them at the compound. I know he helped me out because he’s a good guy who doesn’t want to see people get cheated regardless if you’re foreign or local, and I’m lucky the guy who sold me the bike was an older man (50’s) because he said he probably would have knocked him out otherwise.

This instance got me thinking, and I thought that I had better learn something from this affair. Since no one can change the past, I believe that we can change the future by focusing on the present. With that in mind, the lesson I gathered from this instance is: ask for help when you need it! Something I struggle with regardless of what continent I’m on. I also think that I’ll do what I can to fix up the bike, which means going back to the place where I bought it, probably getting laughed at (which is becoming the norm) and facing the fact that I was naive and paid too much for a used bike. Oh well, I’ll just have to add it to the uncomfortable list and suck it up, I’ve got it easy.

After the bike incident I felt pretty down and out, and fell into a negative mood feeling stupid for having been ripped off and causing some drama. Luckily today is a holiday here, African Union Day, so there were some people around the compound to help me out of my rut (probably unknowingly). Sophia - my senior sister, she says, since she’s 3 years older than me – had the day off from her job at the bank and she thankfully showed and helped me hand wash my clothes. Not easy; for me at least. She washes clothes better than a machine. My unfit hands and arms were no match to Sophia’s, but at least I learned and tried so that next time I hopefully won’t need her help (for one thing at least).

Sunday clothes washing, with no help this time! I'm learning small small.

“White man! Are you going to see the crocodiles?”

2009-05-31T11:18:00.000-07:00

I’ve heard this phrase a number of times walking around in Paga, and on Sunday I became that tourist that many people thought me to be. Another volunteer came and visited with her host brother from Zuarungu, near Bolga, the place I was originally supposed to be living. We hit the 3 tourist destinations and contributed to the local economy by visiting the old slave camp, the crocodile pond, and some older style buildings with artifacts from a time long since past.

I’m hoping this post gives the pics I previously posted a little context.

The slave camp wasn’t what I expected, but then again basically everything has been different from what I expected since I landed in Accra. The site was very rocky which I found odd in this flat landscape, and dates back to the 18^th century but peaked in the 19th when slave raiders would send their captives from areas where Mali and Burkina-Faso are now found on the way to Cape Coast to be shipped off to the Americas. The guy, who worked there, our guide, said the slave camp was like a hub where African Slave owners would sell their slaves who would then be forced to walk to the coast. Although slavery was found in Africa and elsewhere before Columbus and colonialism, it never reached such severe levels and millions were rounded up to meet the high numbers demanded by Europeans to be sent to the plantations and mines of the Americas.

After leaving the slave camp the three of us traveled on a single moto to the Chief’s Pool Crocodile Pond! I don’t know too much about this place except that it’s an eco-tourism spot and some of the crocodiles are very old. Now, some of you might not agree with this next part, and to me it didn’t seem too ethical, but who am I to make that judgment. We bought a “sacrificial chicken” which they lure the crocodiles out with and then feed to them. I don’t know if I’m just trying to justify this or not, but the chickens are going to die either by knife and then end up cooked in my bowl, or down a croc’s throat, basically they have no chance. Anyways, an older guy working there was really friendly and informative and could tell you the name of each croc and the crocs actually listened to him, and when he assertively snapped at them, they stopped moving. We had a lot of fun and snapped some good pics of the crocs, us on the crocs, and yes the feeding (which will be showed upon request only):

Finally, across the road we went to see some small buildings that are characteristic of an old village with the friendly guide (sorry I’m horrible with local names, but I’ll be visiting this guy again so stay tuned). He showed us the old mud and dung huts with about a foot and half sunken in roof were people slept when it was too hot and also hid from slave raiders. You could access the roof with a wooden carved latter. We went inside and he showed us some pretty old looking artifacts, good ‘ol archeology! Then ended the short tour by showing us some good looking locally made tourist-type gifts like wallets, jewelry, cloth, all hand made which will end up in some of your hands when I return. Here's fun one:

Picture Party!!!

2009-05-27T09:11:00.000-07:00

(some old artifacts that been dug up in the area)

(Aline, Meshach, and myself at Chief's Pool crocodile pond)

(waiting for lunch)

(I think the guide said that this one is about 80-90 years old)

(The big one is coming to eat...)

(When slaves would try to escape or revolt they were forced to sit on the rock and their hands and legs were chained around the bottom, then they were beaten and left in the sun to die)

(Grave sites where the slave masters would bury about 4 people at a time, a few metres from the Punishment Rock)

(The lookout rock)

(This is the view from the lookout rock at the Pikworo Slave Camp. It's where the slave masters used to stay perched to spot anyone from attempting to escape)

(My Ghanaian staple foods: Mangos, malk n milk cookies, groundnuts, and purewater)

(This is behind my compund where I relax from time to time under the tree and converse with an old man named Alagi Baba Mamudu - probably spelled his name wrong)

(Here's the compound I'm staying at, what I'm calling "Home" for the summer)

(The weight bench at my compound. I lifted some weights with some of the guys at the compound the other night, they got a kick out of me lifting for they are pretty built)

Ok so for those of you who haven't struggled with internet overseas, I hope you enjoy these pics as they took a long time to upload - over 5mins per pic, I've been on the net for almost 3 hours. I'll keep them coming though, and once I get to know people a little better and get settled in more I'll get some people pics.

Chief's Palace

2009-05-27T09:10:00.000-07:00

My friend Dolbert also brought me to the Chief's Palace upon my request. He said we might not be able to see the chief right away but we can ask the elders, I asked if it's ok to be doing this and he said it wasn’t a problem. I later read in a travel book on Ghana that I have here that the Chief's Palace is a tourist attraction, and although there is a sign indicating the place, it sure doesn't seem like one. But from what I've heard chiefs like to meet foreigners, at least in some places in Ghana. Anyways, when I think of chiefs and chief palaces I think of traditional attire, maybe some kind of different customs or ways of greeting, maybe mud huts with thatched roofs (that are common in villages here), drumming and dancing also come to mind. Basically some of the "exotic" things found in movies, television, cartoons, books, pictures, and so on. I won't get into an anthropological discussion around the problems with what this implies but just close your for a couple seconds and imagine what a chief in Northern Ghana looks like. What comes to mind?

So I talked with one of the chief's elders (I presume) and I told him why I was in Paga, who I'm working for, and this and that. I didn't know at the time but the chief was standing right beside him. He translated that I should come back with the District Director (basically my boss) because the chief was just on his way to a meeting. The chief was wearing a cap that is common around here with no rim, I see a lot of Muslims wearing them, and he was wearing a sort of poncho-like garment that's also not uncommon called a smock. He also had on some regular pants and shoes. Now what caught my attention were the huge gold watch and the nice cane he had, along with the nice looking Mercedes that pulled up with a leather interior. When I think of it, it's really not that unusual. Important people like political leaders tend to have money, nice watches, and are driven around in expensive cars all over the world, and the Chief of Paga is of no exception.

Health Conscious

2009-05-27T09:05:00.001-07:00

I friend that I met the other day in the market named Dolbert, showed me around town. I don't remember how we got to the topic but I asked him to show me where the clinic was as well as the police station. I probably should have looked into finding these places as soon as I arrived but since my health and safety have been fine and it felt like a thousand other things were going on I didn't think of it. A couple days later as I write this, I'm thankful I looked into finding the clinic because I went there yesterday feeling pretty sick. I think it might be something I ate, but I got some medicine so I should be feeling better soon. One thing I realized that I take for granted is my health and availability of medical care. The clinic was good here, I'm not comparing it to Canada, but what I realized is that because I have money, i.e. a privileged westerner, I can buy any medication or medical care I need, in fact, worst comes to worst I have health insurance through EWB that will fly me to the nearest ‘western’ hospital if needed.

Now that's privilege. And for what reason do I have this privilege? What did I do to deserve such luxury? Well, I don’t actually. I won the lottery of birth and was born in Canada into a white middle class family, had I been born here in Paga I may or may not have enough money to afford medical care or might/might not have to sell something or go without something in order to pay for it. I'm just guessing because I don't know the realities people face here, but I know there's plenty of people living hand to mouth, day by day, week by week, month by month. I guess the reason I brought this up is because while I was at the clinic I had a malaria test done, which turned out negative but I was showing all the symptoms. I'm not worried at all because again I'm privileged: I have money. I'm thankful, but not proud of this privilege. About a meter away from me lie a box of pills that will kill the parasite and cure malaria. It's so common for EWB volunteers to get malaria that it's kind of a joke to get it, mind you an uncomfortable, eye-opening, and regrettable one. Maybe joke is not the best choice of words, but it's talked about as not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things because at the end of the day we can afford the cure.

Now what blows my mind and upsets, discourages, depresses, yet ultimately motivates me into some sort of action are the stats I've read stating that 3,000 people die every day from Malaria (I don't know the accuracy of the stat, and I don't have access to high or med speed internet, but I'm sure anyone can look it up on google). It's just astonishing how so many people, whatever the number, die everyday from a curable and moderately preventable disease. I'm sure bed nets like the one I'm under right now significantly reduce the rates, and they're not very expensive. I remember a while back seeing a bed net campaign from (of all people) Rick Mercer, I think it was promoted like 10$ can save a life, or something along those lines. I didn’t think much of it at the time and I can't remember if I donated or not, but hearing how many people die from malaria, being in a high risk area, and hearing how horrible it feels, brings a little more perspective and reality.

Kind of changing gears, I'm thinking about the approach of encouraging Canadians to buy an inexpensive tangible item like a bed net or a goat or seeds to assist someone who could use a hand. I think it's a great idea and I encourage everyone to chip in if they can. I also think it appeals to most people back home because we can relate to direct cause and effect things like buying something and an immediate result coming from that purchase, no questions asked, simple. Maybe not the case with bed nets but I have read and heard first person accounts of this type of approach being too simple. Like building a well/borehole and assuming people will automatically benefit, while not taking into account a plethora of other variables and factors that could inhibit the potential benefits.

Now contrast this previous example to donating the same amount to a 5 year plan that focuses on attitude and behaviour changes among the field staff at MoFA so they can sustainably improve their assistance/service without direct outside intervention and rural farmers can gain access to opportunities and overcome some of the challenges they face on a regular basis. And this project may or may not succeed, the results will take some time and are not as clean-cut. Now we can up-scale the small individual donation to a large donation from the Gates Foundation, Oxfam, or CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency). This is a fragment of the complexity of development, in my opinion: trying to obtain funding from large donors to fund projects where the people involved are in control over the use and implementation of the project and ultimately are in control over their own development, but without easily measurable, concrete results that look great on an excel spreadsheet or financial report.

Making Friends

2009-05-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

Day by day or what you would say here “in short time” I’m feeling better about being here in Paga. I’ll just go through some randomly selected examples of my experiences here so far. Along the lines of my last post, I’ve starting talking more with the people living in the compound and made some friends. There’s mainly one lady Sophia, who’s been a world of help for me and a really friendly person to talk to. She’s kinda like my mom here in Paga so far. We have a couple good conversations about the lifestyle here in Paga and she’s taught me some valuable things like an easy way to wash my hands, how to greet people properly, and also helped me out by giving me water and a couple cooked meals so far. I was very hesitant to ask her or any of the other women for water or food because it didn’t feel right asking to be basically waited on. I talked to her about this the other day and told her how I lived alone back in Canada and did all my own cooking and cleaning so it didn’t feel right to have someone do it for me. I gave in a couple days ago and asked a small boy if I could pay him to wash my clothes because for one I’m clueless as to where the water source is, and second I don’t have large pales/basins to do it. Also, when Sophia gave me a warm meal I offered money and she refused and said it was taboo. She said that we are all one family in this compound and everyone helps each other and shares water, food, or whatever. But I persisted and tried to find another way to contribute and found out that I could buy some uncooked food in the market or other supplies to help chip in. So tomorrow I’m going to ask her what I can pick up from the market when I head out. On the whole, the more I step out there, swallow my pride and make the effort to talk and ask questions, regardless of the embarrassment and uneasy feeling, the better I feel. Ghanaians aren’t lying when they frequently say “you are welcome”, I just have to believe it.

(P.S. I’m going to take my camera out soon, maybe this week, if not then definitely next week. I just want people to be somewhat familiar with me so they don’t think I’m just another tourist who made the trek up to Paga to see the tourist attractions: the crocodile pond and the old slave camp. I want to start off on the right foot. Patience is a virtue, trust me. And I just tried to upload some pics with no luck, I'll try again next week in Navrongo )

What you give is what you get…

2009-05-19T08:50:00.000-07:00

After getting some tasty breakfast (the usual) and talking with some of the guys hanging around there about where they play football (soccer) in town, I headed home and sat in my room for a bit. From time to time I feel pretty lonely having my own place and not really knowing anyone too well, and I sense myself slipping into one of those negative moods. This was staring to happen so I took a deep breath and ventured out in the town. After picking up a couple things I noticed a couple people I met before hanging out under a large tree behind my compound so I grabbed my book that I’m reading The Alchemist and my little notebook and joined them. I’m finding that when I’m feeling culture shock and isolated and falling into a “I just don’t care” mood, the hardest step is that first one, where I have to pull yourself together and make a decision that inevitably leads to uncertainty. Yet, it’s always the most rewarding because you live and learn. Even negative or uncomfortable experiences are learning blocks, but this time it was all good.

Under the tree there was an old man lying on a mat with a pillow just relaxing-half-napping in the shade, and a 25-35yr old woman sitting and reading as well as a couple kids. Because the main water pipe that's being installed had the valve open and clean water available, there was a small of army of kids mostly in there underwear carrying various sized pots and bins of water on their heads and then running back to the water source. Even little toddlers with small cooking pots wanted in on the action and were walking to and from. Since the tree we were under was right along a path and near a couple barrels for water storage, I had a front row seat.

After I sat down, an older woman who I met before came out to join - she could probably hear me bec her place wasn’t too far away - and through translation she asked me why I didn’t come and greet her. This is one of the cultural differences I’m having trouble remembering to do, greet people all the time. Sometimes I just forget I don’t think of it but it’s pretty much a rule of thumb to great everyone you know especially if they’re nearby. But she is very friendly and like everyone else I’ve encountered she gets a kick out of my attempts to speak the local language. She helped me learn a lot more today and taught me a number of expressions and words that I quickly scribbled in my notepad. After the older woman left I continued to learn from the younger woman who was reading. She speaks English quite well and really helped me learn some more Cassin (I still have no idea how to spell it but I’ll make it goal to get the spelling down). Looking back at it all, it seems incredible that so much can happen and how much you can learn and how much better you can feel when you make that decision and take a chance.

Day 3 - Meet the AEA’s

2009-05-19T08:49:00.000-07:00

Friday was my first semi-official day at work because the director in this district MoFA holds a meeting with all the AEA’s and staff each Friday. He basically just introduced me and I talked for about 2mins introducing myself and mentioning why I’m here, to help get the program Agriculture as a Business up and running. It went ok, I didn’t know what to expect because I’m still trying to figure things out here. I even have to work at fully understanding people because of the different accent and expressions. I think next week when I run a workshop explaining in depth who I am, why I’m here, and the what the program is all about I’ll hopefully break the ice. But I did get to talk to a couple people after the meeting and I think I’ll be able to go with one of them to their meeting with a farmer group next week. While a couple of us were talking outside the office, a funeral procession was making it’s way down the street. Now I’m not sure if any of you have heard about funerals in Northern Ghana but you can probably guess that they’re nothing like funerals in Canada. This is what I saw. There was a group of about 25-30 guys from old to young dressed in different outfits, what we would probably call costumes, and at the front there were drummers (the medium size hand drums) and at the front there was a man leading the way. They were sort of dancing or marching to the rhythm which stopped frequently at the call of the leader, and most of them had fake weapons like bow and arrows, or spears. It almost seemed like the leader was leading them into battle or something, because they would mimic the use of the pseudo weapons at certain times. Anyway, they came right up to us and performed for us, and the man to my right gave a little money, which apparently is the custom.

I’m hesitant to label this funeral procession as “traditional” because it evokes meaning that can be misleading. For instance, traditional is often used in comparison to “modern”, and traditional usually refers to something of the past. Now I don’t know much about the cultures up here in Paga, but I do know that the majority of the people dressed up in the funeral were more than likely carrying cell phones, and some of them were going to hop on their motos after it finished and might head home to watch the football game on tv. The funeral performance may have some links to the past but I’m guessing remains tied to modern life in Paga. Nevertheless, it was an interesting activity to witness, and next weekend there’s a funeral in the neighbouring town of Navrongo which I was invited to and will taking many pics and videos of, so keep an eye out for a future post of the funeral/party!

Still Day 2 - Thursday Night: The rains have come

2009-05-19T08:47:00.000-07:00

The night before I could barely fall asleep due to the intense heat and humidity, but now I had a fan! Aha! Turns out I didn’t really need it that night because it rained and cooled off quite a bit (very-rough guess: 37 to 27???) And when it rains it pours! It’s dry up here in the Upper East Region, and there’s only about 3months of steady rainfall that people’s lives really depend upon. I was glad to see the rain on my second night in Paga. You can imagine the sound of a thunderstorm on a metal roof, therefore I ventured out on the patio-type enclosure outside of my door catch the action of my first storm in Ghana. One of the women residents was filling up buckets of water at one of the corners where the rain drained off and transported then into a large barrel where the water is kept for later uses like bathing, and washing dishes. I though to myself, that’s a great idea! It’s not like you’re drinking the rain water, it’s being pretty resourceful and efficient I thought. I proceeded to place my bucket at the end of the roof where it would have filled up very slowly, but the woman quickly grabbed one of the buckets she was filling and poured the water into mine. I felt kind of stupid and useless because it was another thing I couldn’t get right, but I thanked her and was grateful that I had enough water to clean myself with tomorrow morning. One step at a time…

Day 2 - Thursday

2009-05-19T08:46:00.000-07:00

At this point I’m still clueless and have to ask everyone about just about everything, where to find this and that like water to bathe and cooked food, this can take a while when people tell you to go one place then they tell you another and so on until I found what I was looking for. Luckily, some people have been helping me out filling my bucket up with water from the borehole that I still don’t quite know the location of. Again, I felt awkward, uncomfortable, unsure…..culture shock. The past 24 hours felt as long as days So I talked with the director for a bit before he left early to visit a relative in the hospital, and then asked around to find out how I can get to Bolga. Luckily, there was group of administrative teachers (I later learned) who were heading out to Navrongo which is where I needed to go to get to Bolga, free ride with nice people, awesome.

I hope by this point in my blogging, I’m not boring you with too many details and I’m even leaving some out, I swear, but I’m trying to keep everyone informed enough so they can sort of get a feel for what’s been going on with me in Ghana. Anyways, enough insecure reassurance fishing, here’s what happened next.

So I arrived at the taxi station in Bolga, which is also a market - I’ll do my best to describe it. Compared to Paga, it’s pretty busy, with taxis, tro-tros, buses, motos, cows, goats, chickens, women, men and children, stationary venders, mobile venders, women and girls walking around with bowls, platters, and many other things balanced on their heads, drivers yelling the name of town their vehicle is heading, and one white guy all going in multiple directions with multiple things to do. I guess in one word I’d say hectic. I roamed around looking for things I needed and wrote down on my ‘shopping list’ and actually managed to find just about everything after doing a couple laps and zig-zaging. After meeting with Aline for a mineral (pop) which took quite a while even though Bolga isn’t very large. I got a ride from her host brother to the taxi station where I waited for a bit until the taxi had enough people then off to Paga. I arrived just after dark so the women in the market had finished cooking, and since the road isn’t too lighted I settled for bread and groundnuts (peanuts) for dinner at a stand near my place. The lack of a good meal didn’t really matter though because now I had a light bulb that wasn’t going to drive me insane and a good fan to put me asleep, so I was happy.

First day in Paga - Wednesday

2009-05-19T08:43:00.000-07:00

So up to this point I’ve been under the care and guidance of Canadians who’ve been in the country for much longer than myself, in other words they’ve been taking care of me because I’m clueless of how things work here in Ghana. Well all that changed in an instant when Ryan took off back to Bongo on his moto and I was in Paga at the MoFA office. It was an interesting day, a long interesting day, and to completely honest it was probably the toughest day and the most unpleasant so far. So the landlord to my place was in Bolga when I arrived so I had to wait, first at the MoFA office with the Director (my new boss, real nice guy), then we had to take off, I was sent to the border where there’s an office that deals with agriculture import inspections and such. So I waited there for a while in the shade with some of the people who worked at the border. By now I’m feeling some anxiety, feeling out of place, awkward, and so on. Finally after a while Solomon, who is a director there, showed up and drove me back to my new place.

As I’m typing this now I’m laughing but I wasn’t on this day I’m describing. So, we get to the place which is a compound (a rectangle set up of rooms with a courtyard in the middle) but the room wasn’t ready, that is, they had to install the (only) light. So seeing as how there was nothing in the room except concrete walls/floor, a window, light switch, and outlet, Solomon was kind enough to take me to the neighbouring town of Navrongo (15min) to pick up some things like a couple buckets, foam mattress, chair, and a mat. So here I am expecting to be welcomed by a host family and get settled in, have a local meal, and relax. Nope, that would be too easy hahaha. So try to picture it, I just get to the place I’ll be staying at for the next 3 months and there’s nothing there but an empty room without a light, I just met the people I’m with, there’s very few white people who come up here and I’m new so just about everyone stares at me (not exaggerating), can’t speak the local language that everyone is speaking but the majorty know English, and I don’t know where anything is located like food or the main water source. In EWB there’s a lot of talk about “getting outside your comfort zone”, well I was flying past the line of that zone at record speed.

But I’m lucky, Solomon really helped me out, he took time out of his day to drive me to Navrongo and back, then brought me to his home for a hearty meal of rice balls and stew. Here’s another thing that threw me off: I felt like I was back in Canada in his house. It was like a standard middle class home in Canada, tile floor, nice couches, entertainment center, average sized TV with the dvd “Madagascar” playing, nice dishes, and not too hot. So he took me in, fed me, helped me buy things (which sounds simple but is pretty tough freshly on your own in a foreign country), and drove me from place to place. This one of my expectations that has not fallen through so far, the warm welcoming by Ghanaians, everyone I meet here almost always says “you are welcome”. But when I was comfortable and full I headed back to my place, which was finally finished, Solomon dropped me off after asking if everything was ok and I had everything I needed and hahaha I was alone in my new room with a neon-blue light shining on touquiose greenish walls. So I went out to find water, and I bought a big bag of clean water satchets but not without breaking a couple bags by not carrying it properly, and feeling ridiculous as people stared. I laugh now, but at the time I thought to myself ‘just get through the night and tomorrow I can get a new light and a fan’ and everything will be ok. And of course everything was ok.

Into the Upper East

2009-05-19T08:34:00.000-07:00

I haven’t posted in about a week because things have been pretty hectic, traveling from here to there and trying to get settled into to my new home in Paga right near the border to Burkina Faso, about a 5min drive to the border.

I guess I’ll try to keep with the chronological posts, and continue from where I left off in Tamale. From the guest house there I went with Ryan (a long term volunteer) and Aline (another JF) to Bolga via the tro-tro. Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with the tro it’s one of the more interesting ways to travel in Ghana. I think I sort of explained what a tro-tro is before, but it’s basically a van crammed with people. There’s really not too much space left for anything, especially what we might think of as comfort, but the trip to Bolga really wasn’t too uncomfortable with 2 people to chat with about development, the environment, charity, movies, and plenty of other things. By this time I’ve started to get used to sweating constantly, so a van full of people isn’t so bad, and it’s the cheapest way to travel.

We stopped by the MoFA regional office when we arrived in Bolga and dropped our stuff off, Aline stayed there and I grabbed enough for a couple days and headed to Bongo with Ryan where he’s been living for 6 months - my place wasn’t ready in Paga quite yet. I stayed with him and his host family who were very kind and welcoming; I think I even made a pretty good impression with his host grandfather (the owner/head of the house) by greeting him in Frafra which gave him a few laughs and smiles. I love the food here in Ghana, and in Bongo it was delicious as usual! We had millet TZ (doughy goodness) with bito (leafy green with bean soup for dipping) and also some whatche I probably didn’t spell that right but its beans and rice. A don’t forget the fried egg, Ryan’s on a six month streak of eating one everyday, impressive.

Anyways I was feeling great in Bongo, bucket bathing feels great in this heat, and it’s not too hard to figure out, here’s the method I learned: splash water on yourself, soap and lather, pour bucket of water all over yourself to rinse. Simple yet refreshing. I also got some work done at the Bolga office the next day while Ryan and Meghan (my JF coach) were in a meeting all day.

But then came the “fun” part of my travels….riding on the back of Ryan’s motorcycle (from here on referred to as moto) with my big heavy backpack strapped to my back. Of course I had no idea how far Paga was from Bolga so I thought “ahh its not too far, lets save some money and time and go for it”. Not the best idea. Wearing a 40lb+ backpack on a moto for about 45mins is not a good idea, please don’t try this at home, and the roads can be a little bumpy with occasional potholes that may or may not be large, and don’t forget the roaming cattle, goats and fowl. Don’t worry mom Ryan is a good driver, and it may sound a little odd but it was probably safer than getting in a tro-tro or taxi judging by how and what they drive around here, but that’s another blog post in itself trying to explain it and then discussing the reasons why like public funding for roads, employment rates, incomes, regulations, plenty of large trucks heading to Burkina, etc. Anyways, I made it to Paga alive, safe, healthy (a little sore), and happy.

Last Minute Change of Plans

2009-05-10T02:11:00.000-07:00

One last thing I though I’d share before retreating to my bed net to sweat myself to sleep (ok I’m exaggerating but it’s pretty hot in here). So here’s a good example of ‘rolling with it’ and how things sort-of work here. I talked with my coach tonight who’s setting up my placement and she asked if I wouldn’t mind staying in a different district other than Bolgatanga. Apparently with a little miscommunication on EWB part and also some timing on the part of our partners, they are not ready for me in Zuarungu, but there’s a placement near the Burkina border just north of Bongo where another JF who’s leaving Canada in 3 weeks because he’s writing exams due the strike at York University. So Aaron was supposed to go north of Bongo but they are ready and expecting a volunteer, and already set up a place to stay, unlike in Zuarungu. So come Monday I’m heading north, which has its ups and downs, the downs would be living closer to desert ie: hotter, the ups being a new district EWB hasn’t worked in (as far as my knowledge goes) and with partner that is very motivated and excited to have an extra set of hands from what I’ve heard. I'll post up the details as soon as I can, probably later this week.

Confusing….check. Complicated…check. Last minute changes…check. Stress….nope, that’s optional. Well looks like my placement is turning out to be pretty normal after all, Did you really think that all the preparing, blog posting, trying to contact my coach and others who’ve been to the region, trying to learn the language, getting excited and comfortable about where I’ll be staying with its close internet access and proximity to other volunteers was all going to be nicely packaged awaiting my arrival? Nope, this is development. You just have to roll with it.

The Amazing Race – Tamale edition

2009-05-10T02:09:00.000-07:00

I’m not sure how chronological these post are perceived, I’ve tended to write them all at once and post about the past several days. I figured that breaking them up and adding pictures might be a little more pleasing than a 4 page post to read. And you might get tired of me asking this, but if you have any input I’m ready and willing to shape this blog to fit the interests of whoever is reading it.

Anyways, I’m still writing on Sat May 9th at like 12:30am. It’s been a long day but I’m not feeling too tired so here’s another post. So after arriving in Tamale at around 1:30am two overseas volunteer staff (OVS) picked us up from the bus station and herded us into cabs and off to our new home for 2 days the Catholic Guest House, again like a motel. After unpacking a bit and getting organized and hydrated me and my short term roommate Adam aka AFK his initials, crashed around 3:30am when prayers were beginning at the Mosque and the roosters were crowing. We slept in till 9, I had an awesome cold shower which feels amazing after the incredible amount of sweat one accumulates in this humidity, then breakfast was waiting for us in the middle of the compound

And yes, you guessed it, fried egg sandwiches, but this time with sliced mangoes and milo malt milk (kinda like hot chocolate). It was a great start to a great day, I gotta give it to Shamir, Gato, and Ryan for making us feel welcome, just like Mary and Kelly did in Accra. It was a pretty relaxed day, we sat around for a while and talked and asked questions, then went out to lunch where I had Banku (a doughy/starchy substance with sauce and fish) with an ice cold Fanta, again thanks to the OVS’s for leading our “field trip”, a good analogy our past Windsor JF Ashley told me was new JF’s are like puppies that are constantly learning and making mistakes, very cuirious, won’t stray because of fear of the unknown, and will pretty much follow you anywhere. After stopping by the bank we were off our leashes and the amazing race began! Well…..it wasn’t quite an amazing race but we were in groups roaming around Tamale on a scavenger hunt for things like Malaria meds, cloth, cell phones, the 2nd season of Lost (doing some chores for the OVS Ryan), and couple other things like Fanmilk (a tasty frozen ice cream treat). It was pretty fun talking to people in the market, or at least attempting to, which was pretty busy. If you don’t look where you’re going you easily run into someone or something. Everyone we talked to was pretty friendly and helpful often sending us to talk with someone else who might have what we’re looking for or know where to find it. Of course, being pretty ignorant and clueless our group ended paying thrice the actual price of some things, we didn’t know any better and didn’t know much about the Old Ghana currency which everyone tells prices in, and the new Ghana currency which everyone uses. On the whole it was a good day, learning how to interact and talk with a Ghanaian accent/different words to use among other things.

Another thing, although I’ve heard about it and seen pictures, it still amazes me how elegantly and gracefully women carry large items upon their heads without hold them with their hands. There’s so many new things to soak in it’s hard to cram it all into blog post without exceeding 20 pages, but I’ll do what I can. We ended the day by visiting the new house of 2 other OVS’s (Sarah and Wayne) and enjoyed some good food and drinks as well as good company.

The long and winding road

2009-05-10T02:06:00.000-07:00

The title of my previous post is probably going to be a common theme throughout the rest of my time in Ghana, and most likely in Canada as well. One of the tips or words of wisdom I received before heading to Ghana was “be comfortable with ambiguity” – good advice indeed. For instance, on our bus ride to Tamale when we were about 7.5 hours along, about two hours outside of Kumasi, we pulled over because the driver said there was a problem with the engine. So we waited, and waited, and waited, and waited some more until just after dark for another bus to arrive, then reloaded that bus. Luckily it was a pretty nice spot to breakdown with beautiful thick green forest surrounding us, and redish-marron earth to compliment it.

It was pretty peaceful there, but by the time I began to get irritated by the humid heat, the other bus arrived. We stopped once and ate some good food: fried egg sandwiches, red plantains, and water - there was obviously more variety but at this point I’m still clueless about what to eat, how much it costs, how to interact with people, and so on. So I stuck with what works.

From what I’ve seen so far in the past two days is that people are friendly if you are. Everyone I talked to about Ghana said the people are friendly, even travel books, but one thing I noticed is that if you’re standoffish and not friendly than people aren’t going to jump through hoops to please you, and rightfully so. It will be interesting to look back on these initial thoughts near the end of my placement and see if my assumptions change, but so far I found that if you offer a smile 90% of the time you get one in return.

Don’t worry, I’ll be uploading pics hopefully within the week

Just Roll With It

2009-05-10T02:00:00.000-07:00

So I’m at the Catholic Guest House (like a motel) in Tamale, Northern Ghana not too far north but far enough to feel the heat. We arrived here at about 2am on Saturday, and as I write this it’s about 11pm Saturday. A lot has happened in the past few days, but here’s a make shift itinerary of our travels, I didn’t bother with the time change:

Wednesday

Left EWB guest house: 12pm

Arrived at Toronto airport: around 1:45pm

Left Toronto: 6pm

Thursday

Arrived in Rome: 7:45am

Left Rome: around 3pm

Arrived in Accra (Ghana): 9pm

Friday

Left guest house: 6am

Left Accra on bus: 7am

Bus broke down (engine troubles): 3pm

New bus arrived: 7pm

Arrived in Tamale: 1:30am

Asleep around 3:30am

Ok, so the traveling didn’t exactly start off too smooth. At the Toronto airport there was a problem with my ticket because since the day of departure was changed a couple days before I hadn’t been re-issued a ticket, so I had to call EWB they called the travel agent and things were sorted out. At security, I had to go in and out because I had my water bottle filled with water, my mistake. And of course to complicate things I came down with a cold on Wednesday so the aches/stuffed sinus/headache didn’t help. But one thing I was told in advance by a number of people, and I had to put into practice before landing in Ghana, is “just roll with it”. Basically, when things don’t go as planned or things change at the blink of eye you have to take it in stride and deal with it, there’s no sense in getting upset or stressed out about things that have already happened and you can’t change. So the plane ride was alright, pretty good food on Alitalia, lay-over in Italy was fine, had some time to read at the airport. During the flight to Ghana we got a clear view of the Sahara, but other than that just had some time to read and think, and kind of relax.

A couple people came and met us at the airport in Accra at night. It was kinda hectic at the time but kind of funny to look back at it. 13 westerners (or obrunis) jet lagged and clueless as two white younger women direct them like children on a school field trip into 4 cabs while other cabs try to get the business. Mary and Kelly were very nice to take the time to “hold our hands” and set us up in at the guest house, which is similar to a motel. So after a tasty fried egg sandwich from a nice street vender (equivalent to fast food but healthier I’d say), we hit the sack for about 4 hours before heading to the bus station in the morning.

Pretty much all of us volunteers have heard about the transit system of Ghana, which is affordable and will get you anywhere, but it may take a little longer than planned due to breakdowns. I’m not mechanically inclined with cars or buses or anything, but I’m sure the heat and humidity aren’t exactly helping. Anyways after some more confusion and awkwardness on my part at the bus station trying to sell an extra ticket our group had and buy something to eat for the trip (fried red plantains are amazing), we’re off to Tamale. So I’ve heard it’s about a 12 hour bus ride, but depends on the traffic, the driver, and breakdowns. It took us a little longer…….about 6 hours longer. But first some context, I’m sure this is similar to other countries, I witnessed it in Peru at least, but the roads are pretty crazy. Crazy in the sense that there is usually a furry of traffic going every which way on motorcycles, tro-tros (small mini-busses), buses, trucks, mopeds, and all. They drive fast and close, but unlike in Canada they use their horns and lights more as a function than as an expression of frustration or greeting. Like when cars are switching lanes all the time, they use their horns (at least from my perspective) to let the other car know they are their, they also use it when passing. I think someone referred to it before as “organized chaos”, organized because traffic flows pretty smooth with horns/lights and the bigger vehicles take charge and other smaller ones know their place. It’s easy to feel pretty nervous when in a vehicle because everyone drives a lot more aggressive than in Canada and the rules of road are lot more lax, but in my opinion when the bus you’re on is passing a truck at night up a hill and laying on the horn and flicking the bright to let potentially oncoming traffic know we’re passing, you just have to roll with it.

Ghana Tomorrow (after half a day in Rome of course)

2009-05-05T20:57:00.000-07:00

Ghanadians

So we’re at the end of pre-departure training and getting all packed up for the long journey ahead tomorrow. It’s been a long week of early mornings and late nights with my brain working overtime. At the beginning of pre-departure we had a brainstorming session about what it takes to be an effective ‘development worker’, so as we’re about to leave Canada I thought I’d look back on some initial thoughts. Here’s some of the things we came up with: constantly aware, dealing with uncertainty, optimistic, positive, humility, reflection, empathy, asking questions, self awareness, knowing your limits, recognizing your own assumptions, building trust, and honesty. It looks great on paper, and these are great things to strive for, but I know it’ll be quite a challenge, a challenge that I feel ready for. Any other characteristics you can think of? One thing that comes to mind is something that Levi brought up. All of us heading to Ghana know we’re going to make mistakes, it’s pretty much a given, but the key is to minimize the time between making the mistake and realizing you made it.

My blog is your blog

2009-05-05T20:37:00.000-07:00

In a workshop at UofT.
We were in this room all week, or what
Adam D. referredto is as 'the jail'

On the way home from school

We’ve had tons of workshops and discussions about a wide range of topics, some including rural livelihoods, culture shock, health and safety, gender issues, monitoring and evaluation, and communicating and messaging while overseas. The last one here, I’ve been thinking about more and more especially with this blog. I’m not exactly sure but I think people reading this blog are pretty different and interested in different things, so I’ll do what I can to keep that in mind so as to not focus only on one or two things like only work or only my home-stay. One of my goals of this blog is to keep everyone involved and hopefully feeling like they are a part of this experience. I understand that not everyone gets the opportunity to travel to Ghana, and I’m lucky to have been given this chance, so I’ll do what I can to illustrate one perspective of Ghana, but if anyone has any suggestions, ideas, questions, comments, or any feedback (positive or constructive) I’d really appreciate it. I don’t want this blog to only be about me, it would be great to get some of your perspectives and answer some questions about people and places in Ghana.

I guess I’ll leave off with a question that Parker (co-CEO) sent me via text message: should EWB work more with women or men farmers? What are the pros and cons of both?

Good Times Good People

2009-05-05T20:31:00.000-07:00

Our days here in Toronto have consisted of some good times with pretty inspiring people. It feels like I’ve known these people for quite some time, and it may sound crazy but I’m sure I’ll miss living with 14 people. It feels like we’ve been roommates for years, and I’m getting used to the bunk beds and waiting lists for showers. Maybe it’s a nice change from living solo in a bachelor apt, to some good company 24/7.

In the beginning...

2009-05-05T20:16:00.000-07:00

I arrived in TO on time and made it to the EWB house no problem, it was a good start to what I think will be a long summer. There’s only (what I call) “Team Ghana” or “Team G” here for pre-departure training to my surprise – I was expecting like 40 people crammed in a house sleeping on the floor. Apparently the other JF’s going to Burkina Faso, Zambia, and Malawi will be here the next week for training, so right now there’s only about 14 of us heading to Ghana.

I’m enjoying my time with everyone so far, sharing some initial feelings and talking about this and that, I’m sure that by the end we will become friends and get together once in a while in Ghana. Today we start our training sessions at the UofT with Levi (overseas program director) Alanna (JuniorFellowSuportStaff West Africa) and Melissa (JFSS Southern Africa). I already enjoy being around a group of like minded people and ‘talking development’ and everyone seems pretty friendly, so I’m really looking forward to this week of thinking and learning. I’m reading to find out what I know and what I don’t know, and find out if I really know what I think I know?

Starting to feel real...

2009-04-25T14:30:00.000-07:00

I’m off to TO in like 3 days and this is starting to actually feel real! I’m still at home with my family in Chatham and getting pretty excited to go! I’ve been running around getting things together as well as relaxing with the fam, waiting for Tuesday when I take the bus to Toronto for a week of training then off to Ghana (May 6^th)! I’m confident because I know what I’ll be doing and where I’ll be living, but I’m nervous because I don’t know what I’ll be doing and where I’ll be living….does this make sense??? I can picture how things will be as much as I like but I’m sure things will be different, unknown, foreign, and uncertain when I hit the ground.

So I’m getting all packed and pumped to go, and it’s been good to see some friends and family before leaving. I’ve been thinking a lot about this blog, so if there’s anything any of you would like me to post about or share, or if you have any questions now or during the summer please don’t hesitate to share them with me and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Where I'll be living and working

2009-04-14T12:09:00.000-07:00

Here's closer view of the region I'll be in for the summer, as far as I know I'll be in the Bolgatanga district in a village called Zuarungu

Akwaaba! (welcome)

2009-04-12T12:33:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, welcome to my first blog (ever)! As many of you know I’ll be spending the next 3 and a half months in Ghana as a part of an Engineers Without Borders (EWB) volunteer program: the Junior Fellowship in International Development (JF for short).
For the next 4 months+ I’ll do my best to offer a glimpse into the development work, culture, challenges, experiences, personal feelings, and beauty of the small piece of Ghana where I’ll be living and working. Please feel free to contact me through email, phone, or commenting on blog posts, I’ll be looking forward to hearing from you!

I should warn you that there will probably lots of acronyms used (development is notorious for this I hear) so I’ll post something on the side bar of this blog with a list of any acronyms used, and I’ll try to not to use them too much.

Here’s a little info about the JF program and what I’ll be doing in Ghana:

The JF program is a four month overseas volunteer placement for university students where EWB partners up with local non-government and government organizations. There’s really two parts of the JF program: one is working and offering outsider perspectives and assistance to local development organizations, and the second is back in Canada sharing your experience with people and trying to influence attitudes and behaviours that can lead to some much needed positive changes in a world where billions of people are working to break through the cycle of poverty, especially in ‘developing’ countries. What this may look like or pan out to be, I’ll post about when I return, but for now if you’re interested in what EWB does in Canada or Windsor specifically check out these websites: www.ewb.ca, www.uwindsor.ewb.ca.

I’ll be working with the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) in the Upper East Region. My placement is with MoFA at the district level, which is equivalent to municipal level here, where I’ll be working with agriculture extension agents (AEAs) to help implement the agriculture as a business program. Basically, the just of my work will be working with extension agents who will be meeting with farmer group trying encourage them to adopt more business oriented practices in regards to their crops, inputs like fertilizer and seeds, and the like, so they can get their crops into the market and improve the efficiency of their small scale farms in order to make more money. It’s important to note here that scale farming makes up a huge percentage of livelihoods in Northern Ghana, and in the Upper East Region the poverty rate is an astounding 88%. Yet from talking with volunteers past and present people have so much pride and respect and maintain very positive attitudes while working so hard to make ends meet. I’m intrigued to see this first hand and contrast it to here in Canada where many people (my self included) complain and are negative while having so much privilege and opportunity. I’m pretty curious to see how my perspectives are similar and/or different from the people I encounter in Ghana.

In terms of work, my perspective from here in Canada right now is that I’ll be working with MoFa and AEA’s to help farmers make more from their crops so they can buy food, medicine, send their kids to school, buy housing materials, or a multitude of any other things women and men purchase. It sounds kind of simple but I think it might be pretty complex and with challenges as well as success abound.

As for living arrangements: I’ll be living with a host family and trying to understand to the best of my ability what it’s like to live in Northern Ghana. I’ll be sure to take many photos although I’m not sure how many I’ll be able to post from Ghana due to the dial up internet connection, we’ll see how things go, but I’ll definitely post all of them when I return.

So it’s already April 12 and I’m set to leave for Toronto for a week of training before I fly out on May 5th! Where did the time go? Let me tell ya, I’m having some difficulty actually focusing on exams and final papers with all this floating around in my head. My mood/feelings have been all over the place lately from excited, nervous, sad about leaving friends and family, happy to have the privilege of this coming experience, confident, worried, and other emotions that I can’t think of right now. One of the main things I’m kind struggling with in my head is that I know this will be a great experience for me and “it will change your life” as I’ve heard from many people, and at the end of it all realistically I will most likely have benefitted the most, but I plan on doing everything humanly possible to ensure that this placement is not all about me. Whether it be through work, personal interactions and relationships, EWB’s long term overseas volunteers and work, this blog, email or phone conversations, or through influence back in Canada, I’ll do my best to have some positive impact.

So I guess I rap up this post by mentioning EWB’s ultimate goal and what we’re all working towards: a world with equal opportunities for all and an end to poverty. Now it can seem insurmountable especially if you follow mainstream media or read and research all the problems in the world or believe that humans are inherently greedy and power hungry. But I think we can all look to history in order to realize that it is what some people call “idealists” who have created the most amazing and unthinkable change. Here’s some examples: Abolition of slavery, civil rights movement, South African Apartheid, and women’s rights (even though we still have a long way to go). If you look at any of these accomplishments in context and think about someone saying in the 50’s, for instance, that an African American would become president they would be have laughed at and people would have written them off as an idealist. And to add to this example of civil rights, Mr. Luther King Jr. wasn’t the civil rights movement, there were thousands of women and men working hard and making small changes that lead up a large change/victory. So the point that I’m making here is that something such as extreme poverty and inequality can be changed and it’s small the changes that lead to great things.