The Amazing Race – Tamale edition

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

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

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)

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

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

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...

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?