Carissa in Ghana!

...and then there was the snow leopard

2010-02-22T22:52:00.000-08:00

I have now been back in Canada for two months. Two fast-paced, blurry, action-packed months. Toronto, Montreal, St.John's, Ottawa and now Vancouver.
I have been putting off sharing how it feels to be back. My family, friends and colleagues have warmly welcomed me back, asking questions about joys, struggles and differences. I have been asked if I would go back, if I'd rather still be there, if I think Canada is a crazy place now. I've been asked about malaria, education, agriculture and culture. I have debated the fact that yams are white and sweet potatoes are orange - yes, most sushi places and grocery stores have got it wrong!

Things that used to be familiar have come back as if they never left yet some things seem insane even though they have been a part of my life for over 23 years.

It is easy to fall back into routine. And it's not to say routine is bad. It's just routine. And I have to decide what I want that routine to be.

After two months, what finally inspired me to write? (I have many "starts" of blogs that I never posted...)
A 17 year old high school girl from Ontario. Let me explain.
I was on the phone tonight, answering a call while working. It was a very friendly mother calling in asking to book a flight for her daughter to Nepal. Craig Kielburger's "Free the Children" had been to her daughter's school to talk about children's rights and poverty and labour rights and she had been so touched by the presentation that she decided to get involved. She travelled with Free the Children to Kenya last year to volunteer. This call was about booking a flight to Nepal to volunteer at an orphanage.
Again - 17 years old.
The daughter came on the phone at one point, to talk about overseas experience and her desire to study international development in University and to discuss the details of her ticket. She had a sweet confidence about her and spoke true to who she was - a Canadian high school student in her graduating year who truly cares about being a part of making the world a better and more equal place.

I bet she has no idea that she inspired me. Her mother thanked me endlessly for helping her with the ticket and for talking a bit about my overseas experience. It was me that really did the thanking though. I think the most challenging part about being back in Canada so far has been seeing how invisible the developing world is in our Canadian reality. If we don't actively think about Africa, equality, dignity, human rights, security and peace worldwide then we struggle to find things day-to-day that remind us.

I worked for five months with youth in Ghana, having conversations about how they are the leaders of not only the future but of today. To be able to talk to a budding Canadian global leader, which I believe this girl will be, just went to show me that passion and dedication to the global community really is borderless.

You don't have to go overseas or want to go overseas to make the world a better place. It seems like all you really have to do is truly care. Here are a few major yet simple learnings that are now really a part of who I am:

- passion is important.
- caring is important.

I've said this in presentations and discussions: there is one thing that every single human being can wear every single day that crosses over all boundaries and that no one will make fun of you for wearing too many times - a smile.

Thank you to everyone who followed me on my journey - it means more to me than you know. And it's not over!

Love,
Carissa

ps the "snow leopard" is the nickname of the first Ghanaian ever to qualify for the winter olympics (this year!)

Hardala

2009-12-03T05:35:00.001-08:00

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 was a truly unforgettable day. It started with a dose of confusion that seems to have become a staple in my life since arriving in Ghana four months ago. I was expecting to be picked up by World Vision at 1000 so when I got a call from Samuel, the World Vision driver, at 0810, I panicked. I still had to take my bucket shower and eat some sort of breakfast! But also in true Ghanaian style, it all worked out. I think the driver sensed my panic and called back minutes later saying he would be there at 0945. Much better. That gave me enough time to really enjoy my bath; now that the Harmattan winds have started, the mornings are cool enough that you aren’t immediately sweaty after a bathing. It is a glorious transition.

Samuel arrived at the college administration building at 0945. He was driving the nicest vehicle I had been in since arriving in Ghana. Seatbelts that worked, air conditioning that also worked and an air freshener. Heaven. We stopped at the Pong-Tamale market so I could add some yams to the schoolbags filled with some few items that I was bringing to Hardala. As I was about to get into the pick-up after buying some water, I saw my friend Rahi. She is the stall-owner that I go to almost everyday. She sells me my staples: toilet paper, water and pasta. She was actually heading to the hospital to get her eyes checked. They had been bothering her for awhile; she had been to the clinic a few days earlier and got a prescription for some drops but they were not helping. We drove her to Savelugu to catch a taxi to Tamale. At this point, I had no idea what to expect for the day. All I knew was that I was going to meet that beautiful little face that had been on my shelf for months. Rahi alluded to the fact that the whole community would probably be waiting and there would be dancing and drumming. Okay, so a few people would come out I thought, I’m used to dancing with random groups of Ghanaians at this point, although they still are leaps and bounds better than me, whether they are two years old or ninety. But it ended up being more than just a few…

We bumped and see-sawed our way past people trashing rice and collecting water to the Tolon-Kumbungu district ADP (Area Development Programme) World Vision office. Tolon-Kumbungu is the district beside Savelugu-Nanton. The communities are Dagomba, the same tribe as Pong-Tamale. My little knowledge of Dagbani greetings (language spoken by the Dagombas) came in extremely handy on this day. I was ushered into Faustina’s office, the manager of the Tolon-Kumbungu ADP. We then hurried out because “the whole community is waiting for us”. Oh my. Whole community? Really? Oh my.

After many more bumps and turns (I kept wondering why we even have those little carousel-style horses that you put money into and they toss you around like a rag doll back in Canada; why would you elect to have your limbs flail sloppily all over the place?) we pulled into a village called Chirifoyili. Before the car had even come to a stop, I could already hear the drumming. I stepped out of the pickup into a sea of colourful cloths, dancing and singing. Another World Vision employee, Elizabeth, greeted me and spoke loudly so that I could hear above all the noise “They are all here for you!” Wow. There must have been close to a hundred people. And dozens of dusty little kids all staring wide-eyed at me.

I was invited to sit at behind a table at what I would call the head of the gathering. People were seated in a sort of horse-shoe shaped manner and I was placed at the top of the opening. The chief of the village soon arrived and was escorted by a procession of chanting, drums and scream/singing. We paid our respects to him and then greeted the crowd. Faustina announced the event to the community and some of the members spoke in return. They all spoke of the gratitude they had for me being there. They were so thankful that I had taken the time to come and visit their community, to see how they live. They blessed me over and over again. It was a good thing that I was almost the last one to speak (in true Ghanaian style, impromptu speeches are a must) because I was sitting there for most of the procession with a lump in my throat. I felt like I was in a movie, when the sound just vanishes and it’s like the character is just lost in their own world. I was completely overwhelmed by the colour and music and energy of all the people who had come together to honour a stranger from another country. One thing Faustina said that really stuck with me “Just as she [me] probably wonders if her sponsor child really exists, today also proves to you [Hardala and her community] that her sponsor truly exists”. I had never thought of it from the child’s perspective. Of course my world must seem just as intangible and unbelievable as hers did to me. I have never felt in my life how I felt in that moment. It was a feeling of absolutely incredible connection.

For those of you who haven’t heard the story of how this day came to be:
It really all begins from an interest in human development but more specifically it began in Metrotown, a huge mall in Vancouver. I walked into a strange looking exhibit in the middle of one of the mall intersections. It was a World Vision display. You were given an iPod; either pink, green or blue, and dependent on the color, had a child’s story to follow. I remember mine was of a little boy from Malawi whose parents lived had been claimed by AIDS. As I came out of the exhibit, I talked to one of the volunteers about the common misperceptions about child sponsorship programs. She proceeded to explain the ADPs and the idea of community development in conjunction with individual sponsorship. That event sealed it for me. A child should have the chance to go to school, to live a health and productive life. This was a chance to try and contribute to that desire. Children are the future after all. I went home, went online and picked Hardala from a number of children that is just too high. I committed to a monthly contribution. I essentially took a leap of faith based on that exhibit, that volunteer and the website. I received Hardala’s picture a few weeks later and placed it on my shelf. I admit to the sponsorship having a sort of subconscious role from that point. For the next year or so I continued to receive information about the sponsorship program thanking me for my participation and providing me with updates on the programs being implemented in Hardala’s community. It’s just so hard to picture though from the 7th floor of a Vancouver condo. So Hardala became a monthly one-liner on my credit card statement and an occasional source of wonder.

Fast forward to Ghana. I had been in the country for about a month and I was lying under my mosquito net having a precious phone call back to Canada. My mother informed me that I had mail from Ghana. Puzzling. I am in Ghana. I forwarded my mail from Vancouver to Montreal… but how did I get mail from Ghana to Montreal? I asked her to open it and she proceeded to read a hand-written letter about a little girl’s schooling. I almost dropped the phone. It all clicked. World Vision. Hardala. She lives in Ghana! I reached for my map of Ghana as my mother read the district Hardala lives in. I found Pong Tamale (where I am staying) on the map and then searched for Tolon-Kumbungu. I looked far and wide and finally found it. About 20kms from Pong Tamale. How is it that I ended up being placed 20kms away from the child I sponsor?

Running with nothing but a name, I went to the Savelugu World Vision office to get the wheels in motion in arranging a meeting with Hardala. The normal procedure for sponsor visits follows strict rules and requires much advanced planning but since I was already in Ghana, people were very helpful in making this visit a success. The manager at Savelugu contacted the coordinator of Sponsor Visits in Canada who relayed me to the manager of the Tolon-Kumbungu district. Over the course of the next few months I would check my email, fill out the necessary forms, mail them to Canada and wait for the call from Faustina to arrange the visit.
And so three months, many emails, plenty phone calls and incredible chance later I was seated in Chirifoyili.

As the speeches and greetings and drumming proceeded, Faustina asked me if I would recognize Hardala. I had to admit probably not. I hadn’t seen her picture since I moved out of my condo in May. And there were so many children all around. There was this one little girl that I did notice however. She was dressed up and was sitting quietly on one of the older woman’s laps. My exact thought when I saw her was “That child is absolutely beautiful.” It turns out that was Hardala. Timid and with a demeanor that could be described as regal humility, we were introduced and she sat at the head of the event with me. Her little sister joined us and we all ended up dancing together; as is the tradition. Hardala’s father then spoke and again thanked me so much for being there. I told him that it should be me thanking them. For making me feel so welcome and for giving me this incredible opportunity of meeting Hardala.

As the large event came to a close, we were invited to visit Hardala’s home. Faustina and I led the way like a pair of pied pipers (say that 5 times fast haha). Hardala was holding my right hand, an enthusiastic little girl was grasping my left, and dozens of little legs and dusty flip flops were following behind us. For once I was not even thinking about the heat. It just didn’t matter. What mattered was the tiny hand in mine. How different our lives are yet there we were: walking together.

We sat down on a wooden bench outside her family’s compound and the procession of children and adults formed a crowd around us. I gave the few items I had brought and proceeded to learn my favourite Dagbani word as it was being told to Hardala: Lama. It means smile. And it also means love.

We entered the family’s compound, a series of round huts connected by shoulder-height walls made of the same brown dried mud that make up the structures themselves. Standing in the middle of the compound I got to meet more family members: Hardala’s mother, uncle, grandfather and grandmother. We took some more pictures, exchanged some more greetings and before I knew it, it was time to leave.

I still find it difficult to express how I was feeling as I sat in the front seat of the almost ready to go pick-up, window rolled down with Hardala still holding my hand. As the little hand went from clasping my fingers to a goodbye wave, I turned to Faustina and Elijah in the back seat and said, “I think I am going to cry.” Faustina said, “You can. It’s okay.”

Back in the World Vision office I tried to turn down my emotional levels and turn up my inquiries. I wanted to know about the ADP and have a clearer understanding of how sponsor money is spent.

It’s the 20th of the month and the contribution amount to World Vision has been charged to my credit card. Where does it go?

The money goes to the World Vision Canada support office. Each district in Ghana is linked up to a different National Sponsorship office. The district I work in (Savelugu-Nanton) is supported by World Vision USA whereas the district of Tolon-Kumbungu is supported by World Vision Canada. So funding for the ADP in Tolon-Kumbungu comes directly from the Canadian office.

The money goes from the Canadian support office through the Ghanaian national World Vision office in Accra and then goes to the various projects in the engaged communities within the districts. The Tolon-Kumbungu district is made up of about 235 communities. An unofficial census estimates the population to be about 185,000 individuals. World Vision has sponsorship programs in 12 communities but its projects reach 69 communities.

The projects themselves are designed from the community level-up. World Vision officers will go into a community and sit down with them and discuss what their community needs for the upcoming year. Faustina said in passing something that stuck with me: that the World Vision staff are actually servants; they are there to listen to the needs of the community. Once a consensus has been reached in terms of projects, the World Vision officers will go back to the office, draw up a yearly budget estimate and then get the money from the head office-Canadian support office link.

About the projects themselves: I was really interested in how Faustina explained the partnership-style work they do while implementing their projects. She explained that World Vision does not implement projects; rather they work with the local Government and local industry to support their efforts and help build their capacity. World Vision chooses different projects whose vision and values line up with theirs in the areas of health, food security, education, water and sanitation, micro-credit and small business development, agriculture projects etc and then they offer their support. Examples of these type of projects in this district include: regular health and dental assessments for community members, nutrition and health-related information sessions, reading clubs formed in conjunction with Ghana Education service which coordinates volunteer teachers to go to remote rural areas that would not normally have any type of educational training and assistance to farmers in the form of animal traction. We also passed a rain-water harvesting system and a bore-hole (water supply) that had pipes leading to the community it was supplying. This concept of local capacity building and a bottom-up approach to development resonated as these are some of what make up the core of EWB. At this point, we got to talking about aid and how Obama summed up its role “...aid should not be aid in itself. It should create the circumstances under which it is no longer needed.” It was so inspiring to be having this conversation and seeing its principles in action.

The sponsored children themselves also do get particular benefits; school uniforms, footwear, school bags, towels, buckets; in fact Faustina explained that it is the children who tell them what they need and World Vision takes that into consideration and supplies them.

The World Vision staff themselves live in the district that they work in. This is thought to promote work efficiency and to ensure that they do not lose sight of the communities they are working for. This type of relationship/trust building within the communities is invaluable. While in Chirifoyili, it was clear that all the World Vision staff were respected deeply by the community. Each of the staff is a consistent face in their lives of the community members, working with them to try and improve their livelihoods.

So in the end it all comes down to the little drop of water creating that tidal wave of change. Building capacity, making lasting connections, promoting opportunities and circumstances under which human potential, dignity and freedom are commonplace – this is what human development should be all about. I not only saw this first-hand, but felt it.

The most lasting feeling I have from that day was one of connection. Meeting Hardala, encouraging her to continue learning well in school and seeing how engaged her entire community is in the ADP projects has reinforced my already existing pledge to promote human development throughout my life.

According to World Vision, after you meet your sponsor child, you are no longer the “sponsor” and they are no longer the “sponsor child”. Your new titles are actually the same – you are friends.

November 25th, 2009 can be summed up in one word: LAMA

OPPORTUNITY

2009-11-19T11:26:00.000-08:00

The paradox:
As kids in a developed country such as Canada, we are taught to dream. Dream big, use our imaginations, paint a thousand pictures of what it is we want to be when we grow up. A doctor, lawyer, teacher, business owner… the possibilities are endless. I even knew a kid who wanted to become a house. We dream so big sometimes we don’t even understand when we’re out of scope. Our parents, grandparents, teachers and role models not only allow but encourage us to think big, aim high, go for everything we want. Our struggle becomes finding our passion amongst all of the possibilities handed to us. How many times have you heard of a Canadian University graduate say soon after receiving their degree “I have no idea what I want to do with my life.” So we travel, we work odd jobs, we volunteer, until we find out what really drives us. And then we figure out a way to go after that. The common thread in our reality, from dreamer kid to exploratory young adult to successful individual is the abundance of possibilities.
The reality is different for the citizens of developing countries. They are taught to dream, yes, but realistic dreams. They are encouraged to get an education, but taught to deal with disappointment when it ends after secondary school due to lack of resources. A loose analogy is that they are sometimes the best soccer player at the match but they’re restricted to being in the crowd because they do not own cleats. They may have a passion but they are lacking in possibilities. Lacking in opportunities. And these opportunities do not necessarily take the form of coins and bills; they are often a lack of inspiring role models, solid family structures, successful private sector entrepreneurs, technologies that can connect them to the world, engaging and practical education curriculum, good governance that promotes security and growth, proper health care infrastructure, and peaceful conflict resolution.
The emerging youth in Africa make up over half the current population. By sheer numbers alone they will inevitably drive the greatest changes over the next few decades. We need to recognize this as a massive amount of potential and ensure that we are all connected in sharing opportunities. Our world depends on us recognizing, in the words of Obama as he addressed the Ghanaian parliament this July; that we now live in a world that consists of far more connections than boundaries.
This is realization we need to make: we need to walk off the soccer pitch after tripping over our own feet for the fifth time, hand the cleats to the young star lacking in proper footwear but brimming with potential and smile knowing that the team will now be more successful and we can now move onto finding where our own real talent and passion lies.
Let’s end this era where we show pictures of poverty and paint landscapes of helplessness to try and get people to care and start a legacy where caring come from pursuing opportunities that release the potential in each other.
“the world doesn’t need more salty water. It needs more inspiration.”

That's just a little insight to where my head space is right now regarding development :D

long overdue pictures!

2009-11-15T04:03:00.000-08:00

The last month...

2009-10-15T04:23:00.001-07:00

It really has been awhile hasn’t it? I tried to upload an album and a test post from Windows Live Writer last week but I had only a few more minutes on the internet and well it turns out albums take a long time to upload… so it’s back to the old methods for now! Quite a bit has happened since my last post, here are some of the highlights:
• To make a really long and coincidental story short, I found out that the World Vision child I sponsor, Hardala, is actually only 20kms away from Pong-Tamale! After a trip with Ruth to the WV office in Savelugu (the district’s capital) I am now going through the rig moral of protocol to hopefully get to visit with Hardala before leaving Ghana in Decemeber!
• Jody visited Pong-Tamale and we had a “5 mile diet” meal. We killed our own chickens that we bought from a local villager in PT. Yes we are chicken killers. We killed them, de-feathered them, carved them, cooked them and ate them. See “chicken killers” story
• With Jody’s help, I moved out of the former principal’s house and into the girl’s dormitories. The dorm is a one story bungalow-style building with rooms that house either 2/3 girls. There are two “bathing rooms” one at each end of the building and a large cooking room two rooms away from mine. There is also a common hall with some couches and a TV. My roommate is Florence, a level 300 (final year) student. She is the top student at the school, is highly involved with the Student Union and is one of the best teachers of the Ghanaian way of life that I have had the pleasure of meeting.
• Us pro JFs had our retreat in Damongo. The 5 of us were all together again for the first time since our arrival in Tamale in early August. Damongo is about 3 hours East and slightly South of Tamale. Just North is Mole National Park, the location for the final day of our retreat and our chance to try and see some elephants and other wildlife as well as swim in the luxurious hotel’s pool. Nadia, Claire and I arrived a day prior to the retreat to check out the Agriculture college located in Damongo. We met with the principal and vice principal and sat in on a lecture in hopes of learning a bit more about the curriculum offered at this college and their direction moving forward. The retreat itself was awesome. It was great to hear about the life and work of the other girls. We did a lot of sharing, reflecting and laughing. Sarah even managed to bring a cake for us to celebrate all the birthdays that had happened since arriving in Ghana (everyone except Jody)
• Country and Sector Meetings in Tamale after the retreat with all the EWBers in Ghana: anyone else’s account of these days would probably be more exciting than mine as I was down with malaria again. The evening we got back from Damongo I started feeling the muscle aches and fever. The meetings that I did attend were great and informative and my friends were awesome in bringing me back food from the early Thanksgiving dinner and after-ultimate Frisbee dinner. I stayed in Tamale a few extra days, got tested, saw a doctor, got medication and started to feel better.
• Once back in Pong Tamale, the visit I had arranged for the Human Resources Director to come and visit the college was underway. He arrived with his deputy on Oct 9th and we had meetings with some of the school faculty before holding a school-wide assembly on education, youth leadership and entrepreneurship. It was highly motivating and exciting. The main idea behind the meeting was to link the high-level government officials from Accra and their vision for youth to become more innovative and self-sufficient and entrepreneurial to the grassroots level reality. Overall I’d say mission accomplished with many more ideas stemming from that Friday.
That is a little summary of what has been going on for the last 3 weeks or so. On the agenda in the upcoming weeks: visit to Upper East Region to check out the work Nadia, Claire and Ryan are doing with the AAB (Agriculture as a Business) curriculum, a Halloween celebration in Tamale, Country Meetings at the beginning of November, a visit to Kumasi to check out a Fair Trade Cocoa Production as well as another Agriculture college… busy busy! Before I know it, it will be December and I’ll have to start thinking about coming back to Canada! That thought is something we’ve definitely already started to think about as we try and figure out how to make sure our experience is continued in our home country. There are some pretty exciting projects underway, I’ll keep you posted!

Chicken killers:
Those who remember that day at Sarah’s (Marsden) cottage where I stayed behind while those of you went fishing will attest that I do not enjoy the “hurting” of animals. Even for food. I am that hypocrite who doesn’t like to prepare chicken or meat but smiles with delight while feasting on dozens of saucy wings. No better time or place than 5 months in Ghana to challenge myself into preparing the food I love eating. One of those loves definitely is chicken. The idea of preparing my own chicken came about while talking about food with some students during my first week in Pong-Tamale. They were surprised at my lack of knowledge in terms of preparing food from scratch. I admitted to buying boneless, skinless chicken breasts at the grocery store. To hold myself accountable to this challenge I told a few people. Some of my new friend in PT, some of the Pro JFs, some other EWBers and some people back home in Canada. I admit I “chickened out” hahaha a few times in that I didn’t arrive in time to help with the preparation but that all ended September 26th with Jody’s presence. George was back for that weekend (he had left for teacher’s college the previous week but it turns out that his semester was postponed by two weeks) and he was to practice his teaching skills with 2 terrified Canadians and 2 more terrified chickens. The whole thing was quite the event. It started at about 3pm. I rode with George to about 4 different houses before finding chickens. The lady selling them was a Dagomba (Tribe in the Northern region, the most common one to the area where I stay) who spoke only Dagbani (the local language), George is from the South and speaks Twi and well, I just am not that helpful with my English. It took half and hour, an old lady, a young girl, fetching of guinea fowl the Dagomba lady thought we wanted, returning of the unwanted guinea fowl, fetching of the chicken, bargaining of the prices in the language of hand gestures and smiles and pauses. It ended with George and I driving away as an odd sight. I’ve never carried chickens before, much less two by their feet tied together. They were oddly heavy. And flappy. And I suppose to show their discontent with the whole situation, one of them decided to poop on my hand/arm. This was obviously the one I decided I would be showing who’s boss.
Back at the Principal’s house, Jody meets us with a look that is caught somewhere between “this is so cool!” and “but we’re not really going to do it right?”. Before I knew it I was holding a knife, had one foot on the chicken’s legs and the other on its wings and was being instructed by George on how to kill it. I’ll spare the details but suffice to say that it did not feel like me doing it. And it was in no way pleasant. And I don’t think I would do it again. Jody just watched me in what was now just one clear look: horror. As my bird was taken care of and I was sufficiently shook up, I handed her the knife to which she said “when in Rome”. Not exactly Rome there eh Jody lol. Watching her do it was probably more scarring than doing it myself. But now that was all done, no time to lose, boiling water was poured on the birds and we went to the mighty pleasant task of de-feathering. Then the nerd in me emerged. “Cracking” open the bird and having the opportunity to see all the anatomy; things that are similar to humans and those that are compltetly different but completely necessary for the birds, well that was great. Unknown to us, Sunfred’s sister Erica actually videotaped us preparing the chickens; from de-feathering to carving. So all my geeky excitement was caught on film. It was a household effort as we very slowly and expert-lessly took care of the chicken while Sunfred and her mother, Doris and her sisters all took part in preparing the “light soup” which is A. delicious and B. primarily made of tomatoes, garden eggs (kinda like a cross between a tomato and an eggplant), onions, garlic, ginger, spices and our chicken of course. Foo foo was pounded over the next hour and bit; made from boiled plantains and cassava. Pounding foo foo is definitely working for your food. Despite all the drama, it is safe to say that the meal was one of the best I’ve ever had. And although I feel a little bit more true to the ambitious assertion that “if I enjoy eating it, I should be able to prepare it all the way from living to my plate”, I saw a cow the next day and had no desire to challenge myself again just because I eat the occasional hamburger lol. Small steps. Small steps.

Val’s day:
Of the many really interesting explanations of Ghanaian culture that Florence has enthusiastically shared with me, some are just really worth sharing. Like I’ve said before, she’s great. She’s the same age as me and is very smart. I don’t have to slow down my speech or change words; in fact she’s often outwitting me. Education, politics, social issues, gender issues, development issues, relationship issues, no matter what it is I can ask her and get real answers. But I digress. I don’t even know how we got to talking about Valentine’s day but somehow it came up. It was originially adopted in Ghana by the youth and they take “Valentine-o-grams” to the next level. In high school they would send parcels between schools to the people they were dating. But somehow the special day somehow started getting out of hand and it seemed like it was sex day instead of love day. There were nation-wide condom shortages around Valentine’s day that even caught the attention of the Government. 2 years ago Valentine’s day was changed to Chocolate day. The Ministry of Tourism saw this as an opportunity to decrease the alarmingly high prevalence of sex around February 14th as well as an opportunity to promote Ghana chocolate. So now people give heaps of chocolate to each other. Ghana chocolate does not may contain nuts. For all those of you who know me well know that this is like my dream come true. Too bad I won’t be here for chocolate day…
Oh and the reason it’s called “Val’s day” amongst the youth. They have a language called Pijin. It’s like a combination of English, Twi, other Ghanaian languages, some excerpts from Nigeria and a whole lot of abbreviations. I hear the students speak it all the time and I get excited because sometimes I recognize some English but then it quickly evaporates into this quick-tongued dance that I haven’t been invited to.

Time for Justice:
In an attempt to try and stay more in touch with the world, I was browsing BBC’s highlights last week. It seems a man involved in the Rwandan genocide has been arrested. This quote stood out to me:
“There is no time limit for justice, whether it comes fast or slow it is something we want to see,” said Augustine Nkusi, a spokesman for the prosecutor-general.

“Fifteen years is very little compared to what was committed in Rwanda. There are many victims who have not yet forgotten, who have not yet received justice.”

For those of you who have seen “Hotel Rwanda” or “Shake Hands with the Devil” (or read it) think back to those depictions of the horrible events of 1994 for a moment. It has been 15 years hasn’t it? Imagine if you still don’t know who was responsible for the death of your friends and family members. It made me think of the Tiananmen Massacre and the fact that Chinese Government still refuses to acknowledge that it took place. Media and publication censoring in China have attempted to erase the travesty from its history, leaving many parents of students without a feeling of justice.
It just made me think; how many more things are happening in the world that we are being prevented from seeing? How many more people are quietly waiting for justice?

IGF
I have recently introduced a project idea to my class called IGF. It’s a play on words for
1. Internally Generated Funds and
2. Initiative Guinea Fowl
And yes, I made up the second one. I know I’m a nerd lol. For those of you who don’t know what a guinea fowl is well here is my description (I had no idea these things existed prior to being in Zambia last year):
It is a bird that is shaped like a rugby ball with a tiny head. It is already pretty unattractive but its incessant squawking at all hours makes you want to wring its thin, disproportioned neck. Its feathers are not so bad, they’re dark with light spots and the meat resembles that of chicken only there seems to be more dark meat. It’s sort of equivalent to a chicken in terms of what you eat it with and how you prepare it…I tried to capture one on camera but the thing kept running away from me…
So the idea behind this IGF project is to see if we can try and pilot an entrepreneurial project this semester at the college. It is to practice skills of doing market research and trying to find a way for a project to really be profitable. I have split my class up into groups of about 6 students and they have an initial overview of the guinea fowl and the current hatchery at the college on their to do list They have to research health specifics of the guinea fowl, explore different markets and market prices, and answer some questions such as: is it more cost effective to buy guinea fowl eggs and hatch them or to breed the guinea fowl and hatch our own eggs? We’ll see where it goes from here!

A day in the life:
So what does a typical day here in Ghana look like for me? It’s actually a much more difficult question than you would think. Everyday seems to throw some sort of unexpected twist in my direction therefore making the day anything but standard. The best I can do is give you a description of what my days are like right now and then in the future, write another “day in the life” so you can see the changes:
• 0300: My roommate, Florence, wakes up by means of her internal alarm clock, gets dressed and goes to study across the field in an empty room with benches and broken windows. I roll over in my bed, under my mosquito net, and think “Thank goodness that’s not me.”
• 0500: Florence usually comes back around this time, I’m not altogether sure what she does because I’m still asleep but according to her she either goes back to sleep for an hour or stays up and gets ready to go for morning practicals at the college farm (they start at 630).
• 0620: Florence says bye, she tells me she’s filled a bucket for me to bath and she leaves. While still sitting in bed, I pull my mosquito net off the edges of the bed and twirl it and tie it in a lump so it is now hanging out of the way above the bed.
• 0620-0730: I take my time getting ready. This usually involves me boiling about half a liter of water in a little silver saucepan on the equivalent of a Coleman stove. ¾ I use for a drink of some sort and ¼ I use for oatmeal. I read while eating and then clean the dishes using the little bit of hot water left in the pot. Then I get ready for my bucket bath. I tie my 2-yard (literally 2 yards of cloth) around my body, grab my little bucket containing my soap and a cup and head to the bathroom at the end of the hall. The bathroom has three “shower” stalls and 2 “toilet” stalls. There used to be running water here, I don’t know how long ago, but currently the big, black polytanks (just a huge, black, plastic tank filled with water) at the back of the dorm is the water supply for cooking, cleaning and bathing. I use less than your average pail full of water to wash my hair and body. It’s amazing how little water we actually need to bath.
• 0730-0745: I get dressed, put on my contact lenses, take my vitamin pill and get my bag ready. I then bike to the school with my new, white, well-fitting bike! (for those of you who read story about the green bike early on in my placement, I have since replaced that craziness with a much more user-friendly bike)
• 0800-1400: This is where the variation starts. Depending which day of the week it is I will be doing different things during the day. But typically I bike to the administration office and greet Ruth and the other workers and the Principal. I walk over to the library, which is either open because Moses is already there or I open it. I sit in the library and let the day unfold. I work on my computer, interact with students and teachers and try to get some work done. On Tuesdays I teach my class. So that means at 0945 I am in the classroom adjacent to the library waiting for my students to arrive. Half the class usually takes place in the classroom where I use the time and space to pretty much whatever I’ve chosen to talk about that week concerning agriculture, ICTs and entrepreneurship. The second half of the class we go to the library and the students have the opportunity to use the computers. This week they were given the period to finish their overview of the IGF project.
• 1400-1900: This also is a variable period. Before moving into the girl’s dorm, I would often go home and relax for a bit and then go to the principal’s house to hang out and help make dinner. My routine now has not yet been set but it seems like it will be following this trend: I’ll bike to a nearby little stall and get some bread and tomatoes if I think we’re running low and then bike back to the dorm. Florence is there doing work or napping and so I read or work. Yesterday I visited the Vet Lab after closing the library and so was actually on the internet for a few hours. Supper is made around 1730ish and so far involves me trying to help but usually just results in me watching and asking questions and then eating.
• 1900: Study time. Florence has a study partner, Christiana (who is also a student in my class, as well as the only girl who participated in the Run to End Poverty) who joins her in the morning at that ridiculous hour and also in the evenings. I joined them yesterday to study and will continue to do so as it is a great opportunity to get in a few hours of solid concentration time each night. And it is very reminiscent of my studying when I was at McGill. Only this is not Starbucks, or the Redpath library. This is the room with broken windows where you share a small desk just large enough to place one book each. Florence sits on a wooden bench and I am given the privilege plastic lawn chair. Christiana uses a stool as her desk. I keep brushing little insects off my page as I try and figure out a way of containing my textbook and notebook in a small area….I’m used to spreading my stuff out everywhere. There is no coffee, no bathroom, and no power outlet but there are goats wandering outside that scare me periodically as I look up and see figures appear out of the darkness.
• 2200: studying over. I realize that not only is it possible to study without coffee and the amenities I am used to back in Canada, but for Florence (who is the top student at the school btw) and Christiana, and all their colleagues for that matter (there is a little community of night studiers that spread throughout any building with lights at night on the college grounds) it is necessary. This is how they study. These rooms and makeshift study areas are their libraries and Starbucks and Tim’s and local coffee shops. Florence was even telling me that students from the SS (Senior Secondary school) in Pong-Tamale come to study in some of the college facilities because there is light. Apparently they sometimes stay there until class the next morning because they fall asleep and then don’t want to walk all the way home in the dark.
• 2205: back in the dorm, time for bed. I read for a bit and then fall asleep. Last night I feel asleep around 2300 thinking “Wow, in 4 hours she’s going to be up studying again…”
and sure enough, at 0300, she was up quietly preparing to make the most of her day.
My days generally turn out to be observations of the days of those around me. I had no idea of this huge studying culture when I lived in the former principal’s house because I was never around the college in the evenings. You would think after two months in a district I would be familiar with my surroundings but it seems I am still learning and discovering daily.

Acronyms:
100 standard abbreviations. That was the assignment of the level 100s from their communicative skills class. Suddenly there were about a dozen of them in the library searching through whatever book they could find to try and find a list of common acronyms. I was curious as to what they were doing so I asked. I suggested they just start to make a list off the top of their heads and then go from there. I got a paper out and started to write them down as they said them. Before you read what some of their top ones were, make a list of your top 5 that come to mind….
Okay, here are a few of the ones in the first ten given to me:
UN (United Nations)
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization)
MoFA (Ministry of Food and Agriculture)
WHO (World Health Organization)
WV (World Vision)
GCB (Ghana Commercial Bank)
…
I bet the list differ somewhat. I can think of over 20 acronyms of TV channels alone in Canada and I’m not even a TV watcher. Developmental, political, economical and social discourse is not on the top of our minds as young Canadians. But for Ghanaians of the same age these topics are life. These are the acronyms found in their daily news, newspapers, billboards. I remember a conversation I had with Jody where she was describing a day in her life here in Ghana. She works with the government and often goes out for “drinks” after work. She says that about 90% of the casual discussions she has with her colleagues is around development. In developed countries like Canada and the States, we struggle to create awareness and harvest motivation around development. Let’s let Jon and Kate plus 8 live their lives and find something more meaningful to talk about! Make BBC your homepage! When you read something you’re unsure of, wiki it! Google it! If you have kids, ask them questions that make them think: if they could change something in the world, what would it be? If they could visit another country right now where would they want to go and why? If you don’t have kids, find some to ask, or ask yourself the questions!

I'm now going to try and upload some pictures!!!!!!!!! Stay healthy and inquisitive!!!!

pictures!

2009-09-19T10:54:00.000-07:00

Mid September!?

2009-09-19T10:53:00.000-07:00

Hi! Since the last posting:
-I’ve had 3 ICT classes
-2 visits to Tamale to use the Internet with the students
-Run to End Poverty
-Ramadan is ending
-Sarah (my coach) came to visit
… and somehow I’ve become super busy. Not just with thoughts about my environment and the cultural differences, but with objectives for my placement, for the college, for personal development, and for connecting back to Canada.
It was great to have Sarah visit, she arrived just in time to see some of my class in action and we spent a bit of time touring the college and interacting with the students. Oh I also managed to lock the key inside the library. Turns out Moses locked it with my bag still inside lol but thank goodness in the end there was an extra key at the principal’s house. At this point Sarah had created this intense stick structure that we were going to try and put through the window to reach my bag and somehow unzip it and then unhook my keys…haha… I am curious if it would have actually worked. So we had a good time but it was also really helpful to recap what I’ve been doing so far and putting down on paper what my objectives are. It gave me a tangible to-do list that I’m excited to attack. So some of the stories below were written last week but I did add some new ones. I think the overall feeling this past week, well it’s been for the past few weeks I’d say, is that we (all the pro jfs) are surprised at how we’ve adapted to our new worlds. Nadia, Claire and I were reading entries from our journals from when we first arrived in Ghana and then recent entries and it was really interesting to see the difference, the development. I’m still struggling to put into words the difference or what happened to make our headspaces so different. Yes…me…I am struggling for words haha. Okay, so here are some stories and general observations and things that stuck with me:

Perceptions.
A bit of background is necessary for this. IVSA = International Veternarian’s Student Association. Four vet school students from Bristol in the UK paid the PT college a visit this past week. Jennifer, Simon, Morgan and Sky, four wonderful people, all of whom say “reckon” and “lovely”. They were respresenting the IVSA from the UK and were received by Rockson, the IVSA Ghanian president as well as the rest of the student association. They spent about a week or so visiting the college. They attended classes, stayed with the students in the dormitories, took part in evening festivities, met with teachers and the school administration. They donated books and surgical equipment and are expecting a few of the students from the PT to their school back in the UK. It was absolutely amazing meeting all of them, I learnt so much. We of course chatted about Ghana and all the shocks and amazements but also about the perceptions of Canadians and the British. Through them, I visited the girls dormitories for the first time and went to the “drinking spot” just off of the college grounds. We had a spaghetti dinner at my house on their last evening in PT and I was sad to see them go but happy knowing they had such a great experience.
As I was walking back to my place escorted as usual by George, we were talking about perceptions. So after having met the 4 soon to be vets from Britain, I was just thinking how diverse culture and systems are in even the developed world. Then George spoke about the perception of Ghanians about white people. They don’t generally distinguish between the nations that make up the developed world just as we tend to put the entire continent of Africa into one lump sum. He asked me the perceptions North Americans have about Africa, and then about Ghana in general. I said that the majority of NA seem to think of Africa as this continent in a state of chaos. A continent riddled with disease and corruption and primitive tendencies. Ghana I said, for those who know a little bit about the differences in history and policy between African nations will agree that it is a leader in terms of reflecting where the continent is striving to be. It was hard to think about the generalizations that NAs make about Africa, as my own view of Africa is quite different from what I assume are the generalizations and also my opinion is just that, an opinion, I cannot speak for NA and so what I perceive that the general population perceives may not be accurate. But he asked for sweeping generalizations so that is what I did. I asked the same question to him and his generalization firstly was that all white people are the same. And we all have money and therefore happiness. Again, this does not represent his personal opinion but just generalizes what he has seen and heard over the years and regions of his country.
What are your perceptions of Africa? Do you think they are correct? If not, why do you think you have those perceptions? If so, what proof or experience can back up your claim?
How would you respond to the generalization that all whites are the same?

Wireless Internet
An utter phenomenon. All of you who are reading this at your leisure on a high speed, wireless connection, take a minute and be thankful. I was fortunate to experience this luxury this past weekend, last Sunday, as Claire and I went to the Gariba Lodge in Tamale. Actually, we first tried an Internet place near the EWB house to learn that their link was down. So we took a shared taxi to another place that we had to walk to from the intersection only to find out it was also closed. The third place we tried opens at 4pm on Sundays and it was 11am. So we decided to go try the Gariba Lodge…it ended up being a great choice. The internet was fast, reliable and free! I think they forgot to turn on their server because normally you have to pay… we both got emails sent and blog posts up and research done. We were exploring some articles and things online through ewb.ca and called Nadia to ask her about one particular article. Nadia helped us out but sounded a little sad. She had missed one of her friend’s weddings that day by being in Ghana and was just feeling that familiar feeling of melancholy that creeps up on you sometimes when you are so far from everything familiar and comforting. So Claire and I decided to take advantage of our Internet situation and looked up all kinds of quotes in an effort to make her feel a bit better. We saved the ones we really liked on a word document and then called Nadia back and read them to her… we had some good laughs and even though we couldn’t make everything better I think it’s fair to say we all had some extra food for thought. Here are a few of my favourites from our favourites:

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.”
-Helen Keller
“Don’t follow your dreams; chase them.”
-Richard Dumb (it was noted beside this quote that the people who chose this one though he was very smart despite his name haha)
“The things that we share in our world are far more valuable than those which divide us.” - Donald Williams
“Know that although in the eternal scheme of things you are small, you are also unique and irreplaceable, as are all your fellow humans everywhere in the world.” - Margaret Laurence
“We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.” - Martin Luther King
“Fall seven times, stand up eight. “ - Japanese proverb
“A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.”
-Anonymous
“Our lives improve only when we take chances - and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves.”
- Walter Anderson

Run to end poverty:
A concept: Ghana time and Canada time. the run was scheduled for 2pm on Saturday. A little insane, perhaps, it is only the hottest time of the day at that point, but many members of the school community attend church on Saturday morning and then the rest attend on Sunday. So Saturday afternoon it was. It wasn’t a problem for the ghanians, I was mostly worried about us Canadians falling over into the bush on the side of the path from heat exhaustion. There were four of us who set up the race. Nadia and Claire (2 of my fellow pro jfs) as well as our friend corey, who is part of the peace corps and is also a marathon runner. They all arrived in pong-tamale on Friday and we ate well, chatted and went to bed much later then we would have liked. Saturday morning we spent discussing how the run was going to go and we started to get things in motion. We set the course (probably about 5km) and drew up banners and decided on what we were going to say and how we were going to conduct the race details. So I said the race would start at 2pm. And I believed that the students would actually show up at that time! and then I saw them all walking with bowls in their hands at 2pm. Lunch time. so 2pm became 3pm. Lol. But it was great anyhow. There were about 30 students who showed up in every variety of footwear known to mankind. Loafers, slippers, soccer cleats, rubber boots, flip flops… it made me think about companies like asics and mizuno and new balance whose livelihood is dedicated to the need for specific footwear for specific activites for specific feet. The only thing our shoes had in common with the students was the layer of red dirt that I am convinced is there to stay. Favourite parts of the run:
-the excitement of the start and the dancing the students were doing before
-a student telling me as he ran past me that he thinks the run is great because the school pushes academics but he also thinks the body needs to be healthy and active
-coming around the bend for the home stretch and knowing there is water at the end
-being doused by water sachets
-seeing the students have a great time and be enthusiastic!
(oh one of the pictures I’m going to put up seems like it’s just of dirt in the ground but if you look carefully you can the see course I’ve outlined…with a stick… it went something like this: so down this dirt path, past those trees, up where the road becomes paved, you know, where the goats always lie right in the middle, into the market, past those huts, no no the ones near the church, the church near the place where they burn the hair off the goats, down this path, no that path, past the primary school, through the soccer pitch and back to the college…anyways I knew where I was going Lol)
So all this to say, thank you to those who ran in Montreal and raised over $15,000! We had a great time in Ghana running to support the efforts of those in Canada!
You can always check out the website www.runtoendpoverty.ca to see details from the Montreal, Vancouver and Ghana races!

Mme Faustina’s stories:
I’ll introduce mme first. She’s a teacher at the college and a vet technical officer. She is full of life and energy and we get along really well. She cares about the students and is self-motivated and very dynamic. I am attending her class on Thursdays with the level 100s as it is the only course offered on agriculture extension at the college this semester. And if you recall one of my objectives is to evaluate the effectiveness of the extension curriculum so I thought it would be a good idea to actually attend the class. The class is rural sociology. It’s actually really interesting. She’s engaging and full of real examples. The main things she’s been talking about so far involve how as an extensions agent, you need to be sensitive to the culture you are going to be working in. And that building trust and empathy with the community you are going to be working in is essential to doing your job well. It actually reminds me all the time of the type of pre-departure training we had in terms of integrating culturally and building trust relationships and what not. Anyways there are 2 stories in particular that she shared in class that I’d like to pass on for thought!
(1) Building a church:
A westerner came into a rural African community and saw that they were primarily Christian but had no church. So he decided to build them a church. He got funding for it, got the materials, had some other foreigners build it and then within 2 months it was done. The people of the community were happy, they attended the sermons and enjoyed the structure. But then one day there were extremely heavy rains and half the church collapsed. The westerner would come weekly for the sermons and so when he came to the community and saw that the church had collapsed he was surprised to see the community members just sitting around. All the community members had to say to him was “hey! Your church fell down.”
-the community took no ownership in the church and therefore felt it was not theirs but that of the westerner
-they didn’t understand that they should feel like they should rebuild it because they hadn’t even asked for it in the first place
… mme’s emphasis here was on the fact that if you involved the community in a project you learn about their strengths and weaknesses and also allow them to have ownership in projects happening in the community. A better way to approach this project would have been to involve different groups in the village who would have been happy to help ie the women fetching the water, the men laying the bricks, the youngsters running little errands here and there. Then when the church was completed everyone could be proud of the work they had done. She wanted the students to understand that just going in and giving an answer is not the way to go about things. That knowledge and involvement is much more valuable in the long run than immediate treatment.
It was really interesting to hear about this because it echos many thoughts about the development industry. People debate about the need for immediate relief versus sustainability. About charity versus capacity building and empowerment and increased opportunities. And a huge one is how outsiders enter a community where the culture and norms are completely different from what they’re used to and try and impose all these solutions when often in the end they might not even be attacking the right problems.
(2) “But we did what you said! Why are our women still pregnant?!”
There was a health worker who went to a rural community to promote family planning and contraceptives. She brought a supply of condoms and was demonstrating how to use them. Unfortunately, she was using a stick model to demonstrate. So all these men and women of this community were listening and learning how to put a condom on a stick penis. So the health worker left and the people of the village continued having sex. Only they took her advice and put the condom on a stick model and put it under their beds while they had sex. Or beside their beds if their beds weren’t raised. Because that’s what they had learnt. The health worker came back a few months later and all kinds of women were pregnant. And beaten. Because now the men assumed they were cheating on them because well how else would they have been pregnant. So not only was the health worker faced with the problem of many unwanted pregnancies but she was also faced with the social problem of explaining to the men that in fact their wives were not cheating on them….
We were all sort of laughing in the class because it just seems so incredible that this could have actually happened. But it was a true story. And these were fellow Ghanaians, so you can see even within a nation the difference in education and awareness. Mme’s message here was that you need to be super clear on your delivery of instructions and make sure that you don’t assume anything. Just because you know something does not mean the person you’re trying to communicate with does as well. Needless to say, the credibility of that health worker was thrown out the window.

So those have been some things that have stuck with me over the last 2 weeks. I was told that after about a month the feeling of being shocked kind of wears off. I think that perhaps that is true to a certain extent, shock would no longer be the word I would use, but surprise is definitely still there. I am still constantly learning and absorbing… and looking forward to much more of it!

Pictures!

2009-09-06T11:26:00.001-07:00

A full week in Pong Tamale!

2009-09-06T11:23:00.000-07:00

This week was all about finally getting fully started in Pong-Tamale and being ecstatic about getting over malaria. I thought it would be funny to include a little excerpt from my journal from when I was sort of deliriously still in Tamale getting over malaria and pretty drugged up:

Midnight dilemma: (Aug 28)
Hmmm describing my current situation. I’m in tamale, in the ewb “house” which is essentially 2 rooms in a compound…compound being usually like an L shape or U shape structure with separate rooms with shared bathroom and shower…well that’s what this one’s like anyways…so I’m under a mosquito net with my knees touching my chest and my shins on the bed…so crouched down I guess. “Child’s pose” keeps entering my brain from my very limited knowledge of yoga but without the upper body part obviously cause I’m typing lol. Elbows on the bed too I guess I sort of am in a pouncing pose. Although my toes are not curled in preparation and I’m definitely not pouncing anywhere. I made the probably wise decision not to go out with some other volunteers tonight after dinner seeing as I’m still feel kinda icky. But the Lonart (malaria meds) is still making me sleepless and to avoid mixing benadryl in there for a sleeplessness vs drowsiness duel I’m trying to ride it out. I’ve successfully listened to many Jack Johnson songs in their entirety. He is great. Oh yes it’s raining. Pouring in fact. More like waterfalling. And the thunder was so loud at one point that even though I had my headphones on and was listening to music it shocked me to the point where I almost started crying. Like a tiny child. Lol. My dilemma: I have to pee. Once I step out of the room I have about half a meter of covered area and then about 3 of not covered, I have to fumble with a key, turn it twice (it seems all the locks here are turned twice) and get inside the room with the toilet. I will be totally soaked. i suppose I could just get changed afterwards it just seems like such a wasted event just because I can’t stop drinking water.
Did it. Wasn’t that bad. Like most things. Made it into a big deal and now it’s over. Really in retrospect I could have just used the umbrella I’m now seeing in the corner of the room.

So you can see why I am glad that is all over. Good health is definitely something I have a renewed appreciation for. I arrived back in Pong-Tamale on Sunday evening and was feeling pretty anxious about starting “work” the next day. I called the Principal as soon as I was settled in my home only to learn he was out of town until the end of the week for meetings. Hmmm so what exactly was I going to do now seeing as my plan had been to meet with him on Monday. I decided to just go into the college for about 9am and see what happens. So that’s exactly what I did. I walked to the college and greeted the teachers I had met when Evan was around and the administration. I the opened up the library and in doing so, students started to come in, probably more out of curiosity than anything else initially. Throughout the week I had numerous conversations with students about their lives, education in Ghana, their expectations for school and just some general friendly chatting. They have great energy and are always willing to answer whatever questions I ask. I “taught” my first class on Thursday ( I’ll write a separate story about that) and met four British students from a Vet school in Bristol who were visiting the college as part of the IVSA (International Veterinarian’s Student Association) I had a few great nights that week at the principal’s house, only his daughter Sunfred and “son” (not biological) George were there. I left for Tamale on Friday feeling great and feeling as though I had some clear goals in mind. Apparently when you have good weeks out here the feeling can last for awhile. I hope it does.

This weekend was wonderful; I got to meet up with Jody and Claire in Tamale. The three of us stayed in the EWB house and just caught up. We shared stories and laughs and concerns and observations and opinions and lots of good, solid food. All of our districts seem to be a little scarce in terms of food variety so Tamale has been quite the treat. We roamed through the city, visiting the cultural centre and the market and even ran into some Peace Corps volunteers we had met when we played ultimate Frisbee back at the beginning of August. It was really interesting to see everyone’s progression in terms of cultural integration and understanding and to compare!

This week should be fun, I’m looking forward to making my “pilot” ICT trip to Tamale (see the story about my first class) and also I’m organizing one of Ghana’s “Run to End Poverty”. Claire and Nadia are coming into PT for the weekend to help with it while EWB members in Montreal run after having raised a whole lot of money! Check out the website www.runtoendpoverty.ca! I’ll make sure to talk about the run and include some pictures and videos (if I can figure our how) next week!

Here are some stories from this past week:

(1) The reason why mosquitoes are so annoying:
While reading “Things Fall Apart”: (story takes place in West Africa)
“…he stretched himself and scratched himself where a mosquito had bitten him as he slept. Another one was wailing near his right ear. He slapped the ear and hopes he had killed it. Why do they always go for one’s ears? When he was a child his mother had told him a story about it. But it was as silly as all women’s stories. Mosquito, she had said, had asked Ear to marry him, whereupon Ear fell on the floor in uncontrollable laughter. “How much longer do you think you will live?” she asked. You are already a skeleton.” Mosquito went away humiliated, and any time he passes her way he told Ear that he was still alive.”
My thoughts on the issue:
Ahhh that’s why they do that is it??? stupid Ear. Why couldn’t she have made all our lives slightly less miserable and just married the Mosquito. Although I guess I don’t blame her, I definitely would not marry a mosquito. Except if I was trying to be a serial killer bride. Marry one, kill it, marry another etc etc until they’re all gone. Lol.

(2)Abermani’s story
Just as a reminder, Abermani is a Pong-Tamale local, he was one of Evan’s friends during his placement and is a great guy. He is always willing to help and always making sure I am okay. He came with me to the tailor’s this week to drop off fabric for me to get some clothes made and then we walked back to my place where I made dinner and he told me his story. I tried to remember as much of it with as much accuracy as possible:
-his father’s parents died at a very young ago leaving him (his father) alone. He worked hard and became a carpenter and found a wife.
-the youngest of 4 children, his 2 sisters and brother live outside of pong-tamale
-he was the only one of them to finish junior high. He could not continue afterwards because of the lack of money. Even while in school, in order to eat, he would often go to his friends houses for dinner. One such good friend was named Godwin, he later moved to Ho in the Volta region.
-he heard of a World Vision program which was supporting educational training for some “picked” people. The application alone was 100 GhC but he applied and thankfully got chosen. He wanted them to cover the expense of furthering his education but they said no and asked him to choose from a list of trades including land tillage, carpentry, engineering mechanics etc etc. he chose mechanics
-5 of them were then sent to Tamale to begin training as apprentices or “learners” 2 of whom left almost right away because there were 5 in one room…
-World Vision was paying for their rent, water bill and lights bill. But there was no money for food nor for soap to wash their clothes.
-abermani said they went sometimes a whole week without going to the bathroom because well there was nothing to come out if you ate nothing. And when asked when was the last time you ate you weren’t sure. They would sometimes pick some maize, roast it and put a bit of sugar and put it in their pockets and sneak it when feeling hungry at work
-their masters didn’t pay them anything for their work, as they were “learners”
-3 years of this training
-abermani stayed on with his master for another 2 years and even though the master didn’t outwardly pay him, he would get abermani to do small jobs here and there and pay him for those. He said the master loved him like a son and saw that he was a good worker. Meanwhile the problem was that the room rent, water and light bill needed to be paid. So the little jobs the master was paying him for covered this.
-abermani then decided he wanted to open up his own shop. So he called on his good friend alex and they picked and cleared a spot and then started working. But they needed tools. And tools are 1.19 million or about 100 dollars.
-he then decided to take the trip to Ho in the volta region to visit Godwin and basically plead with his parents to help him out. To get there you have to go all the way down to accra and then all the way up.
-once there, godwin’s parents unfortunately couldn’t help him financially but would try and help him find work that he could then do and then buy the tools himself. But many private companies were occupied so he kept asking until there was a local mechanic who took him on
-he was a very good worker there and in particular treated the apprentices very well. He remembered what it was like to be learning and starving and so always made sure to give them a bit of the money for the job they were doing. Little by little he managed to save enough money to buy his tools. He spent about a year in Ho as far as I can tell. Upon announcing his departure the learners were very sad but he left and went back to Tamale.
-the shop alex and him had started wasn’t doing well. Alex wasn’t self-motivated and also the market for a mechanic was very weak because there were so many of them everywhere. So eventually abermani had his electricity cut and eventually evicted out of the room.
-he went back to pong-tamale and told his father who then told him to move home. So he did that, with his tools
-he was called on by the college driver one day to come and help fix a bus that was needed to go to Contempo for an excursion. He was in Syala at the time helping a friend with work. He hurried back, fixed the bus and then was told to put his tools in it and go along in case the bus broke down.
-he was called on in the same way again when the principal died (car accident) to transport the body to Wa. He fixed the car and then put his tools underneath and set off. Dr. Bempong was on this journey.
-the bus broke down at one point and so he got out to take a look at it. turns out the tools had all fallen out at some point. A priest in a car behind them said yeah they fell out but he didn’t stop to get them. There was a body in the bus and so they couldn’t go back to get the tools. Dr bempong said he’d help abermani get them replaced. This was before they were “friends”
-it’s been 2 years and still no tools. Dr bempong sees the value in abermani and always gets him to do little jobs here and there and offers to pay but he refuses saying that his payment will be his tools.
-he has recently gotten his license and is going to put in his application to be a driver mechanic for the college. I wonder if they are hiring a driver mechanic at the moment….

World of difference. I have never known what it is like to be hungry. To be making absolutely no money and really not being able to eat or to clean my clothes. It really makes the multitude of food choices we have in Canada seem like wealth is pouring out of the crevices. My goodness.

(3) “my first class”
So I on the timetable for the level 200 students, on Thursday from 1215-1415 my name is there along with Moses under the header “ICT in Agriculture”. Until George informed me when I arrived back in PT last Sunday that one of his friends from the school mentioned I was scheduled to teach on Thursday, I had no idea. On Tuesday I was asked if my class could be moved to Tuesdays from 10am-12pm because the Thursday block suited another teacher better. No problem, I just made a note on my copy of the timetable. But I still wanted to meet the students this week and so I was told I could take the block on Thursday from 10am-12pm for this week as that instructor had not yet arrived in PT. Perfect. I would meet the students, introduce myself and tell them about how 49 students are all going to get hands-on experience with a computer when the school only has 7. The problem was no one told the students that their first ICT class was going to be at that time. So come Thursday at 10am, not one student has shown up for class. Moses tells me they will come so I just take his advice and we wait. It’s now 1020ish and still no one. I have a feeling they don’t know they’re supposed to be there because the students actually take school quite seriously. So I ask Moses if I can go and get them and he looks at me with a surprised smile and says “you’re going to go get them? Oh ok” like I’m crazy. So I march over to the boys dormitory and call out for the second year students. I’ve met a few of them over the past days in the library so I put one of the ones I know in charge of rounding up his classmates. Meanwhile I am told I am going to have to use the library for the class because the third years need the whiteboard in my classroom. No problem, I move to the library. Only the library has 2 large desks and 5 chairs. So all the second years come noisily piling in and there we are. I start by introducing myself and asking them if they have any questions about who I am and where I’m from and what not. Of course I get asked if I’m married. Haha. I continue and ask them what they want to learn in ICT and what they think will be the most useful lessons for them. They all unanimously agree that practical, hands-on usage will be imperative. And so we discuss the problem of 7 computers for 4 students. These students want to do well. They want to enter the workforce, or their next level of education, fluent in computer literacy. They want to use the internet to get information, they want to be able to do word processing. I got them to watch the Patrick Awuah TED talk I had mentioned in an earlier blog and they really enjoyed it. I asked them to write down what they thought was the most important thing he said during the talk. I got 49 answers that showed me how much each and every student wants to be the best they can be. It was amazing. I told them I was applying for the EWB Innovation Fund to try and make a push towards a new style of learning. They are used to, and are highly critical of, the teach, memorize, regurgitate methods of their past courses. A new approach to instruction is needed. The innovation fund would provide the money necessary to take the students into Tamale on Fridays so they could use and IT centre complete with Microsoft word and the Internet. I got some students to volunteer to dictate to me why they think they need practical computer usage. All in all it was quite the class, by the end I was tired but happy.

(4) “I wonder if george is home”
What did you do the afternoon of Wednesday, September 02? I was on my way home from the college and saw George’s moto outside the Principal’s house. Just as a reminder, George is a student at a teacher’s college in the Volta region and he spends his breaks with the Principal and his family. He came with Abermani that time to change my light bulb, the day when the goat was thrown into the bush. He has recently taught me how to read the electricity meter (it’s pay as you go) and he also so carefully laid out all my onions on a tray when I went to Accra so they would not rot in the bag I had them in. The principal has been out of town with his family (except his eldest daughter) and has left the house under the watch of George and his eldest daughter, Sunfred. So I knew that it was just them two and decided I would say hello before retiring to my house and making my staple pasta with tomato and onion and pepe sauce. (sidenote: I’m becoming pretty good at cooking with very little…I found out where to buy eggs just yesterday – yay protein! Ps I haven’t mustered up the courage to kill my own chicken yet…soon soon….) So I went in to say hi and turns out – he has the start of malaria! But somehow he was happy to talk and whatnot so we chatted for a bit and then went to my house where I showed him pictures of friends and family and skiing…snow seemed a little crazy for him. Banff seemed really crazy. He still hadn’t gotten medication for his malaria so I told him we’re going now. So we went on the moto to the edge of Pong-Tamale and visited one “pharmacy”. No Lonart, at least that is what I was looking for, so we continued a little further down the road and we found a single dose treatment he’s used in the past. Then we had a flat tire. Right in front of these guys who seemed to be mechanics. So with a few words we left the moto there and went for a walk. Evening prayers were taking place at the mosques, people were on the side of the street just watching other pass by. There were also the usual suspects, bikes, other motorcycles, cars, buses, tro-tros, lorries oh and of course goats. We walked back to the mechanic area and sat down as the man continued to work. I saw someone selling bananas on her head and so bought some of those. Then 0.80$ later the moto was ready to go. Back on and back to the house. I was then invited for dinner, yam and coco yam slices with what I knew what would be delicious stew. While on the moto, it was cool (for Ghana) out, I was still able to greet people, the sun was beautiful and it was just green all around. We had to avoid the cows and goats and ditches and potholes in the red earth. But somehow it just felt so great. Peaceful I think is the best word for it. George put on a South African movie “Mr Bones” which my goodness I’m going to find, buy, and show everyone I know in Canada, really funny movie. Mid-way through the movie my dinner was ready. Sunfred then taught me how to really eat Ghanian style. And you know what? It did actually taste better somehow, I mean it was already delicious but this just added to it. I mean I ate with my hands. Breaking off pieces of yam and coco yam and then scooping up the spicy stew. We both had a good laugh at first as I had a hard time breaking off acceptable pieces and then just wasn’t sure what to do. One hand only also. Right hand only. And she sat and talked with me the whole dinner. I asked her how she prepared the stew, she explained, and next time she’ll teach me how. We talked about moving around and school and her dreams of visiting countries other than Ghana. She wants to see other places in the world and learn about different cultures. Her birthday was last week also, the 22nd, she turned 23. We talked about how everyone assumes I’m married and how when they find out I’m not, they are surprised and then suggesting themselves (if they’re men) or male relatives (if they’re women). It was great to actually talk to her, the other times I’ve been to the Principal’s house it’s pretty much been Evan and I talking to him and then Evan and I eating dinner and then me trying to talk to the Principal’s wife for a bit. I could tell tonight the daughter was at ease with only George around and so it made for great conversation! So it all started with me just going to say hi… George walked me home at the end of the night and although it was not what I planned at all, I had a great afternoon and evening!
Something that George said that really stuck with me
As we were motorcycling slowly through Pong-Tamale on our way to the main road, he asked if I was offered a job in Ghana would I accept it. I said I think it is too early to tell exactly how I feel about Ghana being a long-term stay. He laughed at this and then I asked him if he were given a job outside of Ghana, of Africa, would he want to go, knowing his answer would be yes. And so I asked if he thinks he would miss home if he ended up getting a good job abroad. His answer was: “Where you are comfortable. That is home.” For anyone who has ever moved anywhere, I’m sure I will be joined in smiling at this simple truth.

Pictures!

2009-08-28T06:02:00.000-07:00

Going backwards?

2009-08-28T05:34:00.000-07:00

I started writing this blog post about a week and a half ago but due to unfortunate circumstances I could only post it now! So apologies if it is a little confusing.

This past week has pretty much involved me moving back to where I started in Ghana. From Pong-Tamale to Tamale to Accra. For those who are not familiar with some of EWB’s inner workings:
JFs (Junior Fellows! I had a few people ask me what this stood for) are sent for 4 months every summer from University chapters. Evan and his counterparts are JFs. I myself am a Pro JF. A relatively new phenomenon; the 5 of us are members of the Professional EWB chapters in our respective cities.
So this week was basically the farewell week for the JFs. They assembled on Mon and Tues in Tamale, traveling from all over Northern Ghana after saying goodbye to their communities and work partners. They had a de-brief in Tamale and then were off to Accra to catch their flight back to Canada on Saturday night! My reason for joining them: Sarah had organized a meeting with the Human Resources director of MoFA in Accra to discuss Evan’s placement summary and strategize on next moves for my placement. The idea of promoting entrepreneurialism was that of the HRDs to begin with and so there was definite value in discussing his ideas and views on where the research had gone so far. I’ll admit that I felt a little intimidated meeting Human Resources Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture of Ghana. Pretty incredible really. The meeting will be one of my stories but needless to say it was really interesting and has definitely left room for lots of progress in terms of what I want to accomplish while I am here! After that meeting we (Sarah, Evan and I) met up with Sarah’s friend, Albertine, who works for the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). She had just come from viewing the Songhai project in Benin. Songhai is a center for training, for production, research and development of sustainable agricultural practices. http://www.songhai.org/ the website is in French but there are links to English articles, or you can google “Songhai Benin” and see what they’re all about! She seemed pretty enthused about a successful agriculture project involving innovation and initiative. She is interested in what we are planning to do in PT (I’m starting to abbreviate for convenience sake) in terms of a potential entrepreneurial project. I feel she will be someone who will be great to learn from and keep in contact with over the course of the placement. Two interesting meetings in just a few hours!

It was really awesome to be back in Accra. I think I have realized that I am a city person. Or just more used to the city. I am at ease with the crowds, lights, beeping and just general hustle and bustle. And Accra definitely has hustle-bustle. I remembered where we had eaten the first night we arrived in Ghana and was excited to be back there this time during the day. After our meetings, we wandered around Osu, bought some awesome fabric, amazing Ghanian nut-free and may-contain-nut-free dark chocolate and some fair trade items at Global Mammas. http://www.globalmamas.org/ We then spent the rest of the day with the rest of the JFs wandering through the cultural centre located on the Southern Coast of Accra and around the outskirts of the main market area in Accra Central. We all then enjoyed dinner in Osu and went “bar hopping” (see story) in crazy Accra. I think it’s fair to say that everyone had a good time.

It was an interesting time for me because I was in a different head space then the other JFs. They were all talking anxiously about getting home, where they were going to eat their first meal, how much they were going to appreciate the clean showers and bathrooms and clothes washing machines. They weren’t all leaving though, for the first time in JF history, 2 volunteers, Stacey and Hassan, decided to extend their placements. So they will be working in their districts until we (the Pro jfs) head back in December. So I was having a great time in Accra but also preparing myself for the 4 months of work ahead of me and actively taking in tips they were all giving me.

Saying goodbye to them was hard, again it’s unbelievable how much you bond over such a little period of time. Is it the EWB mentality? Lots of shared passions? Or having in common being a foreigner in a culturally different country? Probably a combination of all these things. But we’ll all see each other at conference so that’s definitely something to look forward to. (EWB has a national conference each January)

Things that stuck with me/shocked me:

(1) Meeting with HRD:
The meeting itself consisted of Sarah, Evan and I and the HRD and three of his counterparts. Evan was given the floor to talk about what he had observed, researched and come up with during his placement. Then discussions around entrepreneurialism took off. The overall problem is the following: many graduated from the Agriculture Colleges in Ghana were emerging from their studies without jobs available to them. The students generally enroll in the colleges in hope that they will have employment within the Ministry of Food and Agriculture upon graduation but the reality is that the ministry just does not have enough jobs available. The obvious result is a high number of unemployed, but technically-trained, graduates. The HRD’s idea, and thus a bulk of Evan and my placements, is to promote entrepreneurialism within the colleges to prepare the graduates for the possibility of starting their own agri-businesses upon completion of their studies. This promotion is being done primarily by the formation of an entrepreneurial curriculum.
The University of Cape Coast has sent an outline to the PT college. To give this a bit more clarity: what UCC has given PT college is that tiny paragraph that describes a given course that you would find if you searched a course on a University website. What Evan has come up with is the Course Outline you would find in the physical course calendar with the paragraph expanded more detailed. And what I am going to tackle is coming up with the actually course details, the multi-page print out you get on the first day of class. The one where each week is outlined, the guest speakers if any, are already scheduled in, field trips and scheduled if need be, a grading assessment plan has been finalized etc.
The vision if the Ministry is that the style of teaching and learning change to allow students to see that they have the capacity to succeed by their own means. The greatest obstacle Evan encountered in his initial interviews around the idea of entrepreneurialism with students was that they don’t see themselves as possessing any such skills. Their knowledge of resource management, agriculture economics, accounting etc were all viewed as independent from anything entrepreneurial. The current education seemingly does not create the linkages. So how do you get someone who has more entrepreneurial skills than most of my friends put together recognize they have these skills?! It’s an obstacle that seems to be generated by the educational system, the culture and the overall mind set. In Canada at least, we are taught that we can be/do anything. We can try things and fail and not have huge risks. It is engrained in us that if we believe in ourselves, it is possible….lots to think about here… and hopefully lots of progress to be made…

(2)How do you learn best?
It is a question I’m sure we don’t ask ourselves often. It seems implicit that learning will involve teaching of some sort, followed by supervision until a task can be completed autonomously. When we want to learn something, we observe, we ask questions. We of course is my generalization of people from developed countries. From my observations and discussions with other JFs and coaches it seems the learning patterns here are very different. There are no questions ask, you just observe and hopefully get a chance to try and hopefully get it right. And if you don’t get it right, then chances are someone will just take over for you. When Evan and I were getting his inner tube changed on bike, there was a young boy who was helping out and struggling at getting the tire out but succeeding slowly… too slowly though, the mechanic eventually just took over. It was so strange because I know that if it had been me and my father for example, he would have guided me with patience until I succeeded so I would know what to do next time. Imagine playing a board game for the first time with a bunch of old-timers and not knowing the rules. And not ever asking any questions. Out of sheer observation you are supposed to learn and become a competitor. Do we have a right to criticize this method? It seems that there is a certain satisfaction to figuring things out on your own but it almost seems like for efficiency’s sake we have been wired to ask the right questions to be able to learn quicker.

Stories: (kind of a mixture of funny, hopeful and well just eventful)
(1) “clubbing” in Accra
I don’t even know if this actually counts as clubbing. Basically we all had dinner in Osu and were set on going out afterwards, it was after all the last night in Ghana for the JFs. After two pretty different attempts at a good time, the third was successful. The first was at an Iris pub. In Ghana. Yes it was odd. It was full of ex-pats and kinda reminded me of Mckibbons on a really really dead night with poor musical choices. So we left and went to a venue that was somewhat the opposite, a tiny, lit by one blue light bulb place with plastic chairs called “the togetherness spot”. We essentially took up every spot in the “bar”. Shortly after realizing their lack of consumable drink choices combined with the urinal being so close to the bar I thought I was getting peed on and just overall feeling like we were in Havana we left for the main street, Oxford street I think it’s called. We just walked towards the music. I don’t think any of us know the name of the place we went to, nor do I actually think there was a visible name, but it was the liveliest place on the street, decorated with street acrobatics, Michael Jackson impersonators and fire-eaters. And everyone was just dancing everywhere. And the locals were great. A small group of them took it upon themselves to teach us how to dance. And apparently in Ghana it is totally acceptable for guys to dance with guys and girls to dance with girls without implying anything further than instruction and good times. So we all got schooled, covered in sweat and had some good laughs. I even was challenged to a dance off by a local girl from Accra, Veracity, oh boy. People that know me know I like to dance and that I generally have a lot of energy but this was something else all together. We are just no match for their ass-shaking abilities. But it was all in good fun; I ended up making a friend out of it and actually met her family a few days later! The night ended late (or early) with us having to scale the guesthouse walls as they decided to lock the gate.

(2) “Flash me”
Yes someone saying this to you could take you by surprise. But no it does not mean lift your shirt. For those of you who are surprised I have a cell phone in Ghana, here’s a bit of insight. It seems there are 5 major phone companies in Ghana (there actually probably are more just these are the most prominent) : MTN, Tigo, Vodafone and Zain. These cell phone companies compete in flashing colours. Yellow for MTN, red for Vodafone, Pink and Teal for Zain etc etc their emblems are the outside of most of the stalls in Ghana. Somehow some are affiliated with the TV networks as well, at least Zain is. I remember Zain from Zambia however it seemed to be much more of a monopoly as everything was teal and pink.
So my cell phone. I bought it from these guys from Burkina Faso who work in Tamale (French in use!) and I’m sure it was actually the guy’s cell phone because he had to take out a chip to give it to me. But they were very eager to sell and I was eager to buy. They were helpful as well, taking me one of the billion MTN booths (which are typically no more than an umbrella, a little stool and a little table) to buy a new chip (1 GhC Oh 1 Ghana Cedi is approx 0.8 CAD or so) and some minutes. I was cell-phone ready! It may not have a camera or an mp3 player or bubble-breaking games but it has the singularly most useful feature I have encountered: a flashlight. That flashlight has already led me away from many undesirable places to step and towards a more stable path.
Okay so flashing. Basically all the phones out here are “pay as you go” only you don’t have to go to the Fido booth. You can walk down ANY street to a booth, reach your arm down from a bus, or really just ask nearly anyone, within minutes you’ll have minutes hahaha. So incoming calls and messages are free. Internationally too! Flashing means that you call someone and hang up usually because you are out of minutes and are in hopes that they want to talk to you enough to use theirs. Kinda like a combination of a pager and a collect call. You can also flash someone when you are first exchanging numbers, so that you can make sure everyone got everyone else’s number correctly. I still smirk when someone asks me to flash them.

(3) Window shopping
Now this I think is a fully marketable idea to any brave group of individuals who live in a city with traffic. It’s window shopping taken to the next and best level. Imagine on your drive home from work instead of listening to annoying radio broadcasters and increasing your level or road rage you could instead buy your fresh ingredients for that evening’s meal? Or if you just have that craving for a snack and it’s waiting outside your window on someone’s head? Or you’ve ran out of cell phone minutes and you can just stick out your hand and buy them? Everything and anything is sold in traffic. It’s very convenient. You’ll see one of the picture is Brian looking supremely pleased with himself and a water sachet. That was accomplished from the narrow window of our slowly moving bus in a crowded town. It took a few tries and a few pairs of eyes to see the sachets amongst the yams and bananas etc but so worthwhile. And I experienced my first window shopping from the bus success as we navigated through the insanity of Accra traffic coming from Tamale. I had a craving for plantain chips, and oh the lady could tell I was looking at them because as soon as she caught my eye she moved into a light jog and waved bags at me. We ended up buying about 5 bags in a matter of seconds. They were delicious.

(4) Happy Birthday to Me!
Okay so I’m sure quite a few of you can say you’ve been bedridden over your birthday at least once in your life, and not only as a result of partying for it the night before. But how many can say you were in the clutches of malaria in Ghana while celebrating? Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes, they were all appreciated and I tried to respond to the best of my ability without wanting to raise too much worry. So here is a little background on Malaria just so we’re all on the same page:
It is essentially a parasite carried by female mosquitoes that are found between dusk and dawn and in tropical regions below 2000m. That means all of Ghana. Potentially every night. When bitten, the malarial parasite travels to your liver to multiply. But doesn’t yet show any symptoms. Nice. The symptoms come when the parasite has multiplied itself enough to re-enter your bloodstream and travel around making you ill. Symptoms include fever, headaches, dizziness, possible vomiting, diarrhea, muscle aches, cold symptoms… Fever being the major indicator. We were all given thermometers in Toronto before departure. It seems that cases of malaria amongst the volunteers have been unfortunately common. Once treated though, it does go away and you are able to get back to health, it is just essential that it is treated early.
So everyone who knows me well knows that I hate mosquitoes. Look at me when playing soccer I am the one taking bug repellent breaks more often than water breaks. I am the first person to say we need to go inside on a nice night outdoors in Canadian summer because I’ve just got bitten. Talk to me when I haven’t slept all night because I kept hearing the buzzing of a mosquito in my room. I HATE them. And because of that they obviously love me. And my mom can justify for this because they love her as well. So maybe it runs in the family. So obviously I’m getting bitten out here despite my best efforts. I wear long sleeves and pants at night, sleep under a mosquito net, in fact do most of my work under a mosquito net, wear Deet at all times, and am armed with it at all times… and I’m taking Larium, supposedly the most effective malarial prophylaxis.
This was my malaria experience:
It was my last night in Accra and as I was going to bed I was a little stuffed up in my head and had a bit of a cough. I though it was just because the weather in the South was quite a bit cooler than the North so I just went to bed. But woke up multiple times during the night with muscle aches, mostly in my legs and lower back. Again I was tired so I just tried to ignore it. But when I woke up for real it felt like I had just run another half-marathon. So I though that was a little unusual. I took my temperature and it was still below 100 so I just lay down for awhile. No reason for alarm yet. This was probably at about 830am or so. I had no appetite but forced down some Milo and ran an errand in Accra. I then made my way to the Internet café but found myself with no energy at all. I tried to do some work, quickly realized I was getting nothing done, so I watched a movie until it was time to head to the bus stop. From there on it gets a little fuzzy. It was hot out and I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt and a sweater. And I was cold. But my head was hot. When I finally got on the bus and read my temperature almost at 102 I knew that something was up. I called Nadia and texted Sarah but I was on my way to Tamale. 13 hours. It seemed impossible. I forced myself off the bus at the first stop as per Wayne’s (OVS in Tamale who was going to meet me when I arrived) request so I could get my meds from my luggage… The thing about Lonart (the drug) is it tends to make you feel a worse before it makes you feel better so I was trying to hold out until arriving in Tamale. I wasn’t in the mood for keeping my eyes open never mind puking next to some poor stranger. Or worse, getting the bus to stop in the middle of nowhere because I suddenly have a toilet emergency. In fact I don’t really remember what was going on, I just know that people were calling and texting me to make sure I was okay which was really great. I made it to Tamale, and thank goodness Wayne was there. He led me to the EWB house, where I immediately took the Lonart and went to bed. And remained there pretty much until 2 days later. Not a good feeling. Pretty much the strangest illness I’ve ever had. But the meds work which is good news, I am able to think and write again!
One of the thoughts I had while in my odd malarial state (there were plenty of very odd dreams and thoughts, I’m not sure if this is normal, I’m going to ask around haha) was while I was beginning to feel a bit better, that in a way I was fortunate. I had access to prophylactic drugs to prevent cerebral malaria, the most fatal type, I had someone waiting for me at my destination, I had the treatment on me, and if I needed actual hospitalization it would be available to me as quickly as possible. My overall state of health is pretty good and I had the opportunity to just rest up. Take out any of these factors and my experience could have been a lot worse. It is a serious life-threatening disease and does actually take millions of lives annually not because there is no treatment but mainly due to already compromised health or lack of financial access to medications or a combination thereof. Same disease, totally different experience depending on where are from in the world.
So my birthday was ruled by an unwelcome parasite but in the end it was all okay. I felt a little better in the evening after talking to my parents and re-reading all the messages from the day. Wayne went out and managed to find little individual cups of ice cream and I made a wish upon blowing out a lit match.
Sarah also called me from Burkina to wish me a happy birthday and shared with me a theory I am going to share with you all:
There are two types of fun.
Type one: where you are actually having fun while doing the activity, like playing a really great sports game, riding a rollercoaster, learning how to play an instrument .. you get the idea…
Type two: where it actually isn’t any fun at all while it’s happening but makes for a damn good story afterwards…like a terrible bathroom experience… or having malaria on your birthday.

So now, after a minor delay, back to PT with a score of Carissa:1 Malaria:0

pictures

2009-08-19T07:10:00.000-07:00

New Places, New Faces

2009-08-19T06:42:00.000-07:00

view from behind my house.

So it has been a little over a week since I’ve updated this blog. I’m back in Tamale now after having only been in my district for about a week and already so much has changed. I am no longer afraid of everything, I can take a shared taxi on my own, greet people in very basic Dagbani (the language of the Dagomba tribe, I will be needing to become quite familiar with this in order to really integrate), wander through the market and streets buying what I need, asking for directions and just overall take in my surroundings. It is incredible the difference.
The internet dilemma. It seems I will be able to access the internet reliably once a week. So I’ve set up a format for my blog where I can write most of it out as it is happening to capture the raw experience and then post it when I am online. This will be the basic weekly format:
-I will write a brief summary of what happened the previous week and generally explain where I am in terms of the placement and also my personal headspace.
-the rest will consist of mainly stories as I have experienced them and then journaled them. I thought these categories would be interesting:
∙a few funny stories
∙things that shocked me/really stuck with me
∙signs of hope
To describe the past week:

Tamale to Pong-Tamale:
In country training was now complete. It was time to cut the well-established cords between the 5 pro JFs and send us separately to our placement locations. We were definitely all experiencing separation anxiety. But it had to be done. So we got on buses or lorries or into cabs and off we went!
To describe a little bit of the structure of what I am doing in my placement: I am working with MoFA (the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agriculture) and one of the Agriculture colleges in Ghana. Specifically it is the Veterinarian’s college in the district of Pong-Tamale. The aim of the 5 colleges is to allow its students to graduate as trained Agriculture Extensions Agents (AEAs) and gain employment with MoFA to be able to go out to farmer groups and communicate Agriculture as a business. EWB and MoFA came up with this AAB (agric as a business) curriculum which aims to empower local farmers to take charge of their livelihoods and see them as potential for business and therefore profit and therefore a way out of the poverty trap. At the college level, one of the major problems is that a very low percentage of the graduates actually get employed by MoFA. This leaves qualified, enthusiastic people without an avenue to reach their potential. The objectives for my placement are basically 3-fold:
1- to evaluate and make suggestions to improve the quality of the extension education (what is being taught to the AEAs)
2- to finalize a detailed curriculum of a new course at the college focusing on entrepreneurialism (to promote the majority that do not get jobs with MoFA to recognize their potential as entrepreneurs and to pursue this as a means of income)
3- gap filling at the college. I will be designing, teaching and grading a college level IT course (a little scary lol)

Evan Walsh was the JF who spent the last 4 months in Pong-Tamale piloting the activities at the college. I am coming to replace him as another EWB volunteer. His blog is an interesting prequel to my placement! http://evanoverseas.blogspot.com

So this week was about transitioning. I arrived in Pong-Tamale (I’m going to use PT to make this easier from now on), met Evan and essentially followed his lead. It was awesome to have him there, he taught me more than I think he realizes. He introduced me to key people at the college and also key member of the community. The biggest partner in both of our placement is the now principal of the college, Dr. Eric Bempong (he was formerly the vice but the former principal got a promotion in Accra and so he was promoted!) He and his family are delightful. He is extremely well educated; most of his studies actually took place in Russia and Eastern Europe. I have had my best Ghanaian meals so far thanks to his wife’s cooking, delicious and nut/bean/fish free. My current accommodations are at the former principal’s house which is just a jump away from Dr. Bempong’s house. Well in the dark it’s a little more than a jump…more like an adventure. Wasn’t I surprised when I spent my first night there and as Evan walked me to the house after dinner at Dr. Bempong’s there was a man sitting on a wooden chair like thing sitting outside my new home. Turns out he is the watchman. I have a watchman. He literally sits outside all night and guards me. Not only do I get one of the biggest houses in all of PT but I also get my own nightly bodyguard. When the other principal was still in charge of the school, he lived in the house I am in. Evan lived with him for about a month at the beginning of his placement. The location is quite remote though, it is at the edge of PT, an absolutely beautiful place though, it overlooks this endless green landscape and offers some of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen. But yes, quite remote. The community is closer to the main road, on the other side of the college. Evan decided he wanted to integrate with the community and went out and found a family to live with. I have now met them many times and they are lovely people. I also would like to live with a family but because of my very real allergy to groundnuts and their very frequent usage of groundnuts, I have to be very careful. I plan on finding a home where I can cook my own food and therefore be safe and not limit the family’s meals. So that sums up my current living situation!

So this week had been basically getting introduced to staff members, taking part in some strategic planning meetings they had and getting my bearings of PT. Knowing where the yam lady is and where to buy phone minutes and where to get tomatoes and okra…all crucial.
So now onto my stories for this week!
Things that stuck with/shocked me:

(1)to relate to all the feelings and hesitations and concerns about actually being in here in Africa:
I just finish a great book, the Poisonwood Bible and had one quote towards the end really stick out. Leah, an American by birth is expressing to her Congolese friend that she is unsure of whether her family should be in the Congo at all and this is what her friend, Anatole, responds: “No you shouldn’t [be in the Congo]. But you are here, so yes, you should be here. There are more words in the world than no and yes.” It just really made me think about things I already knew. None of us can really know what kind of impact we are going to make but we do know we are here and are going to make what we can out of it. It just reminds you that you can’t simplify a complicated situation. After playing ultimate Frisbee I was walking and talking with a girl from the US Peace Corps who has been in Ghana for a few years and actually thinks all foreign volunteers should just leave if Ghana is really to succeed. Yet she is still here working. I haven’t quite sorted all of it out in my head just yet but…yes…development is complicated.

(2)The importance of greetings:
I had been introduced to this idea in Zambia. I don’t know why I was surprised again to see it in Ghana. As I followed Evan around he taught me the basic greetings. Different things to say depending on the time of day, different responses to different greetings, different actions depending on the age and gender of who you are greeting. Everyone greets everyone. Even if you pass by the same people a few times in a day you greet them again. Always a hello of some sort and then followed by a combination or all of the following: how is the journey? How was your sleep? How is your house? How is your husband? How are your kids? How was the market? … and they all sound the same at the beginning... the kids will scream the greetings at you as well because well, we’re a riot to them, they follow you around and squeal whenever you give them attention. Sooo cute. It just made me think though, all these greetings, what affect do they have on how a community interacts. It is like a prerequisite for politeness and acknowledgment of another person being present. I think all of us Canadians can confidently say there has been at least a few occasions in our lives where we’ve wanted to say hi to someone we think we might know but out of shyness or whatever we don’t. I wonder if the absence of greetings makes us keep more to ourselves? Whose stories are we missing by not saying hi? A greeting here is literally an opening to everything, whether you want to ask a question, if you’re lost, if you want to buy something. So step one, master the greetings!

(3) slave camp:
For those of you have read the Book of Negroes well imagine you got to see a part of her journey. We took a trip to Paga, a region about 3 hours north east of pong-tamale. The most well known features of that are include a crocodile pond and a slave camp. The croc pond was awesome. We were completely surrounded at one point, crocs everywhere. You kinda want to scream but then think hmmm will they just then move closer? We took pictures with the biggest one and then watched it devour a chick. More like swallow it without chewing. It was still squawking in fact….as a touristy thing to do, the pond was really cool. The slave camp though, wow. Look at the pictures of it, basically it was in like a field like area but with huge rocks and ledges and stuff. A typical day in the life of a slave at this slave camp: they would be tied in groups of like 20 or so to a tree and that’s how they would remain all day. Then around supper time they would be untied and led to the eating area which consisted of sitting on rocks and eating out of the bowls which had been dug into the rocks (this one a mild form of punishment, digging these “bowls” into the rocks). Their water source was this crazy spring hole thing in the rocks…see pictures. After dinner they then moved about 10 feet over and the musically inclined were selected to sing and bang small rocks on the large rocks for rhythm. There were some locals who performed for us while we were there, the lyrics of one of the songs saying how they are hoping their lives will be better once they have left this place and they are looking forward to going wherever it is this journey will take them so they can better themselves and even start forming their own communities. Propaganda lyrics?! Next was the meeting place where announcements were made and where the slaves were sold. After being sold they had to then walk for about a month and a half to where they were going to be actually transported. Often there was absolutely no food given to them so they would just have to eat berries and such if they were lucky enough to have been sold during the rainy season. We then continued walking to the “watchtower” which you had to climb a tree and some huge boulders to get to the top. It wasn’t a tower; it was just large rocks that overlooked the entire slave camp. And that was the idea. They would get a local person to sit up there and make sure no slaves were trying to escape. And then we were showed what happened if you did try and escape. The mass graves were next to the watchtower. They would just dig a big hole and bury everyone that died that day together. And then mark that place with a stone so when they went back the day after they wouldn’t dig up the bodies they just buried. Right next to the graves was the “punishment rock”. My camera batteries had died at this point but picture a round boulder the size of a normal recycling bin. Then squeeze in the bottom of the boulder as this indent was made by the chains around the person’s hands and legs. And the top of the boulder was sort of flat so you could sit on it. They would make the punished person sit there naked except for leaves of their private parts all day. They would be facing the sun and not allowed to close their eyes or blink. So the sun would literally scorch them and they would be getting whipped at the same time. And all their friends and fellow slaves would be forced to watch as to prevent them from misbehaving in the same way. It was pretty crazy. At a first glance the whole area looks like nothing more than a collection of rocks, trees and grass but it was eerie. You could almost feel the history of the land as you stood there. I’m not even sure what to say about it except that it just made me really sad. This actually happened. Aren’t we all humans?

(4) one week, two dead goats
First one: something that I actually expected thanks to my experience in Zambia was to be woken up at all kinds of hours of the night and morning to a whole symphony of animals. And Ghana so far has not disappointed. A few days ago though the loudest noise to come through was that of a goat. I honestly thought it was a child at first but then went outside and saw a goat lying down making noise. It is a common thing, goats and sheep, they are often outside my house, in groups, always giving me looks like “what are you doing exactly?” Judgment stares. Anyways so that afternoon, I get a knock on my door, it is Abremani and George, local guys who are really friendly and helpful and have come to replace a light. So I’m chatting with them and then notice the same goat as I saw that morning in about 5 feet from where is was. Except now there are flies around it and it is dead. I ask the boys out of shock “is it dead?’ and they just laugh and say “yes yes” and Abremani proceeds to pick it up by 3 legs and disposes of it in the bush. And that was that.
Second: Evan and I were sitting on benches at the edge of the main road waiting for a taxi to get to Tamale. A baby goat starts to cross the street and immediately gets hits by a car. The goat flies and lands in the middle of the road, the car keeps on driving. An elder yells to a younger boy who then bikes into the street, grabs the goat by the legs and bikes off with it. Meanwhile the mother goat is going crazy. No one even flinched meanwhile I was sitting there with my jaw dropped.
I guess the observation I had of myself with regards to both these events is that I’m not used to death. It is a big deal to me… but here it is a way of life. Maybe after I kill my own chicken for dinner I will understand where the perceived apathy comes from. But even just thinking about it again makes me a little wide-eyed.

(5) chewing on metal
The first part of this story was actually pretty neat. Evan needed to get the inner tube replaced in one of the tires of his bike. Where would you go for that? He simply asked his host brother who then took his bike to the mechanic as we and about 10 kids followed. None of the local people that were around the mechanic’s area spoke English and..well.. “replace the inner tube please” was not in Dagbani for beginners. But somehow it all got done. By pointing and gesturing the tire was removed, a little boy was sent to get a new inner tube and everything was put back into working order. The shocking part for me happened while we were waiting and watching the tube being replaced. The children that had followed us were now sitting on the ground playing with each other and kind of looking at us and laughing periodically. There was one little girl who was so cute. Then she put a dirty bean pod in her mouth. And I cringed knowing that the floor is full of dirt, goat and chicken poop, children pee and poop, mud, garbage etc etc. Then she put that down and picked up a piece of metal and put it in her mouth! Aie! But what do you do? All the kids are dirty and putting things in their mouths, just being kids. Many are without pants sitting butt-naked on the dirty floor. I am nowhere close to having kids but my instincts just from intrinsic knowledge of sanitation were to want to take that piece of metal out of her mouth. And the parents are nearby; it just isn’t something that is an issue. It just reminded me of trying to convince someone to wash their hands. If you don’t believe that there are tiny organisms that you can’t see that can make you sick, why would you think to wash your hands? Until the understanding that the chronic diarrhea your child is facing is directly related to lack of hand washing between bathroom and meals has happened, there can be no motivation for behaviour change.

(6) 23 years old
where have you been in the world?
Me: Canada, USA, Australia/NZ, Europe, Asia, Africa ….
Ruth: never been further South than Tamale and never been out of Ghana.
We are both 23 years old. Ruth is the secretary at the college; she is lots of fun to talk to and accompanied us along with Dr. Bempong to Paga. Her English is very good and I therefore ask her millions of questions. She knows so much about her culture and about Northern Ghana. But her reality is so different from mine. I might have mentioned this before but Paga is on the border of Ghana and Burkina Faso and so when were there I asked if she had ever been to Burkina. No. Never been outside of Ghana. Never been even to the South of her own country. But she would love to. She asks all kinds of questions about “the place that I come from”. Her curiosity is there as much as mine is but the opportunities are definitely not.
Evan introduced me to these wonderful things called TED talks. Check them out. Specifically check out the one with Patrick Awuah speaking. He talks about the need for leadership in Africa. He says only 5% of Ghanaians receive a tertiary education. Tertiary like the college I will be teaching at. Only 5%. Another interesting stat I learnt this week: the average ratio of books to students in America is 30:1. In Ghana it is 1:1. And often that book is not a relevant book; it is a donated book that is valued because at least it is a book.
Baaaaa we all live in the same world!!!

A funny story:
Biking. Nothing like in Canada. We have hybrids, mountains, road, and every variety in between. How heavy is your bike? What kind of derailer does it have? Bahaha. Mine is a fine looking green machine handed down to me from Evan who inherited it from the former principal of the college. First off, thank you Dad for teaching me how to ride a bike. And not just ride a bike but have the confidence to get on one even when falling was a probable possibility. The confidence is what told me to get on it when all I wanted to do was drop it and run. First challenge is getting the bike out of the compound. I already look cool. Then I say hello to the man who is eating (he’s just finished chopping down a tree with his machete) and realize I have an audience comprising of children and adults all waiting to see what the funny “soumilinga”(white person) is going to do. I have no idea which way to go, I’m in between huts and little sewer streams, goats, chickens, burnt piles of garbage and children. Deep breath! Wait not too deep because as you’ll quickly learn you probably don’t want your lungs full of whatever scent is in the air. Not like riding a bike at home. It’s too big, I’m too nervous and the whole thing just is funny so I just smile and take off! And try to greet people as I pass. The paths are narrow and water-logged as it just rained that morning…I have no idea how my green machine will manage in the muck but I go straight for it. All of a sudden I am acutely aware of the deficiencies in the road and have a new found admiration for the fellow on his bike coming towards me with branches sticking out the sides and parcels hanging off everywhere. He practically waves at me with both hands as I fumble to remember it is the right hand I need to use out of respect while narrowly avoiding the baby goat and unforeseen dip in the red earth. It was not my nicest wave but he finds it funny and lance Armstrong’s his way past me chuckling. I make it home and take the package off the back filled with things Evan will no longer be needed but I might (malaria meds, Band-Aids etc) which was held on with a long piece of what looks like swimming goggle rubber. I made it without embarrassing myself too much. Never have I been more conscious of riding a bike. Oh and my troops of goats is there to judge my less than graceful arrival. I nearly curtsied for them.

A story that gives hope:
The one I want to share is that of Evan. While sharing a loaf of tea bread and draining water sachets, we got to talking about how we got involved in EWB, how we ended up in PT. He is from the University of Newfoundland chapter. He told me this amazing story about this ad he saw with Bono and the white Make Poverty History bracelets while he was in high school. It was saying to check out the events near you and so he clicked on the link. He noticed there was no event happened in St. John’s and decided he wanted to change that. One thing led to another and well he was the catalyst that made something happen. It is a much longer and more eventful story but it was just that he simply saw something, wondered why part of it was missing and just decided he would change that. People like him are what give me hope. So thank you Evan 

So that pretty much sums up the past week. New faces, new places and everything in between!

Accra to Tamale: 17 hours later

2009-08-08T08:59:00.000-07:00

Itinital impressions and feelings in Accra:

-I wish my friend and family could be here to see this!

-Obama posters everywhere

-reminded me of Zambia in many ways, the road structure, the display signs, the chaos of traffic, shops set up along the street

We walked with Wayne, an OVS, to Osu, the "downtown" of Accra. I kinda wished we had more time here, there was so much to see! At this point though I think we were just all a little hungry and jet-lagged. We ate a huge chicken and rice meal at Papaye (apparently the staple ewb eatery) and made our way back to our gueshouse. I took a shower (starting now to remember the differences in showers and toilet structures) and sat outside our room just listening to the sounds and taking in my surroundings. It was interesting how smells that I associate with Zambia came back to me.

We woke up at 630am the next morning and got ready for our long day ahead. According to Wayne, the bus ride from Accra to Tamale should be about 11hrs if we're lucky. so we'd get there at about 8/9pm. If we were unlucky...well...we could arrive anywhere from 10pm-3am. Guess what -- bus broke down hahahha. of course.

BUT in retrospect it was actually really amazing. It broke down at about 3pm in front of this little village establishment... we played with the masses of children, took pictures of them and then watched them shriek with glee as we showed them the display. We met a local Ghanian who works for "Right to Play" http://www.righttoplay.com/ and not only did he answer all kinds of questions about his organization but also showed us around the edge of the village. I learnt about food (and how to get better at avoiding groundnuts), observed the making of Fufu (local dish made from boiled, pounded cassava), talked about dating customs in Canada versus Ghana, and even had the local women laugh at me as they tried to show me how to balance things on my head...highly unsuccessful...

For a little while there, we all thought we may be staying in this village overnight. A new bus pulled up around 8pm and by that time the sun had gone down and we were ready to go. what an unexpected experience! As Kakra (our right to play friend) said " in Ghana, always expect the unexpected!"

The bus ride was another blur after this point..we stopped a few times to pick some people up and let some people off, to be honest i didn't really know what was going on, i kept falling in and out of sleep... one stop though, i did get off the bus for 2 reasons: 1-i had to go to the washroom and 2- i saw people selling GIANT mangoes by candlelight. This stop was Kontempo. Apparently there are some nice waterfalls in this area...anyways so to set the scene: I definitely looked like I had been travelling for over 12 hours, felt totally drugged/half asleep, I was trying to process everything that we had been through in the last few days. The bus was in the middle of this marketplace, but at night everything looked sorta eerie. No lights, just candles, and as i walked in between the stalls and people, you could see the neat piles of produce everywhere. i followed the masses to the "bathroom" and ...well...i've definitely seen my share of toilets even in my short life so far, but this was just something else. i was on my own so i just followed what others were doing. But some people had buckets...now i was confused. but I was too far in already, i had paid my 10 peshwas ... SO the bathroom was basically a communal area to squat along a common trough and the bucket was to rinse with your hand.........i practically fell into a woman carrying a bag on her back and baby on her front as my mind tried to just focus on one thing: get in get out.

Things got better after that. I learnt after that Claire shared in that crazy experience and well it just became a good laugh. I saw Kakra outside the bus and followed him as he bought fried yams...which are like giant fries but better. Again he came in handy as he asked in twi what kind of oil the yams are fried in... no nut oil!

From there it was another 2 hours or so to tamale and i was no longer tired. So I just sat on the aisle and watched the driver swerve the bus from side to side thinking about Ghana, Canada and everything in between.

we arrived in Tamale at about 130am and took taxis to our guest house. After a good "shower" and an improv mosquito net setup, I was ready for sleep.

Goooo GHANA!

2009-08-08T08:28:00.001-07:00

Somehow between the last few days of training and arriving in Accra I became ready. Not like ready-for-anything-bring-on-scorpions but the ready that I needed to feel to be able to approach this placement from where I wanted to be. The last night in the EWB house, I stayed up practically until sunrise. I'm not sure how to describe it... I was sitting at a table by myself in the kitchen/living room area just writing some emails and writing in my journal and I looked up. There were over 20 people in the house who all cared about making the world a better place. There were photographs with scenes of Canadians working with local Africans all along the ceiling. Right in front of me was a map of Ghana - broken down into districts. At my feet was a duffle bag full of books, the top one read "The Betrayal of Africa" ...I had read this book awhile ago on a flight from Vancouver to Montreal... for a quick second I thought it was mine...
I took all this in and then just smiled. In a completely unfamiliar setting I found myself feeling like I belonged.

The following day and a half were a bit of a blur. I made my way to the airport basically following my steps exactly backwards from when I arrived in toronto. I met my mom who so kindly was there to give me my laptop and a last minute hug. I also ran into a few unexpected former Aeroplan colleagues! I would have posted the pictures BUT turns out somehow I lost my camera...

After saying "see you soon" to my mom again, it was through security with the girls, and to our gate. A few phone call and text messages later and we were taking off from Canada.....HERE WE GO!

The flights were very smooth, I bought a camera in Frankfurt, and before we knew it we were landing in Accra. What a feeling to touch down and know that this land will be "home" for the next 4 months!

Shifting.....

2009-08-08T08:03:00.000-07:00

Monday, August 3rd, 2009 – learning zone and beyond!

Today’s sessions took place at EWB’s head office. How was I feeling that morning? I’ll admit anxious until I took a shower. The house now had about 20 people in it total as the long term OVS had arrived the night before to start their month long training. Their placements are 13 months long. We couldn’t help but tell them that we thought they were crazy for going for that long! Many of them had been overseas at some point and had felt that ¾ months was not enough and so here they were, back for more!
The first part of the day began at the office with an intro to going overseas with Parker (one of the founders of EWB) and continued with an exploration of the Sunflower case study led by Kristy. We mapped out the project proposal with post-its and tried to expand each aspect of our observations. What would make this project fail? It was a very revealing experience to see that there are so many factors I had not even thought to consider… we did a failure analysis and discussed, discussed, discussed. At lunch, we talked about the value of 1 JF versus 4 locals. I’m not sure even now if we actually came to a solid conclusion that we would be more valuable than a local. It will take us time to try and understand and partake in the culture while a local doesn’t even think about things like that. We bring in our judgments and ideas; they may not necessarily work outside our North American sphere. Who are we to impose these on people we know so little about? On the flipside though, we are volunteers, the mere fact that we want to be there shows that we have commitment and a desire to be part of a positive change. And there have been very positive, inspiring changes that have involved the work of an overseas volunteer.
The afternoon: PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal) techniques etc
-how to facilitate and not dominate
-ask questions that allow for expressive answers, not just yes or nos (leading vs non leading)
-community mapping (value of it and how it can be different when done by different stakeholders)
etc etc ...

One of the most memorable events of pre-dep:
The ZONE pushing:
Question: How do the homeless end up on the streets of Toronto?
Time: 1.5 hours.
GO.
Go where? Who do we ask? What areas do we go to? Do we talk to homeless people? I guess we’ll have to if we want to really answer the question. Who else would be a good resource? Police? Shelter director? What does the general public perceive as the reasons behind homelessness? I was with Liz, and we decided to just go. Her good sense of direction and knowledge of districts of downtown Toronto came in very handy.
What an experience. We didn't want to offend the homeless person so how do you approach them? My ground rule was that I wasn't going to talk to anyone who was talking to themselves...so that ruled out our first potential interviewee... the next fellow was lingering near the edge of a street and I just took a deep breath and went right up to him and introduced myself. I knew that if I didn't just do it I would have chickened out. But then right as I began to speak I realized I had not really thought of what questions to ask. What came out of my mouth was me just running on adrenaline. Are you from Toronto? Is this your neighbourhood? Do you have friends around here? None of these would really lead me to the question about why the homeless are on the streets but hey as we walked away, we discussed the questions asked and refined them for the next attempt. So the next homeless person was a lady and we were able to talk more and ask more relevant questions. The final homeless interviewee was a man who flipped from French to English and I think he found it quite amusing that we were talking to him.

so to answer our question:
-Homeless: they are comfortable being homeless in Toronto. The general public is nice and no there isn't much they would change about their situation.
-General public: unemployment rates, low minimum wage, overpopulation...all reasons that exempt the people on the street of blame
-Police: stats show most of them end up there because of drug abuse problems and mental illness. The police went on to say that the public tends to side with the homeless people and offer compassion without knowing that they are either abusing the system or have prior criminal records or are just always high.

SO it was quite the difference in responses....we went back to the office and met up with the other girls who had had difference experiences talking to a shelter director and another fellow on the border of being homeless. The main causes definitely came down to substance abuse and mental illness...

Apart from the actual results of the question, it was the experience of realizing what you had to find in yourself to really get out there and do something you are not comfortable with. We discussed the exercise on the way back to the house and at this point I think the idea of being in a completely new environment was starting to sink in...in a positive, exciting kind of way.

Back at the house, we were to get a written assigment ready for the next day about MFPs (Multi-functional platforms) and an evaluation tool to take a project from one phase to the next. Personally I only began my assignment at about 1230am, I felt the need to really sort out what I had been experiencing in the last few days. I could feel my mindset shifting and learning and prioritizing. As I became more comfortable with the possibility of unknowns and culture differences, I could focus more on being excited and enthusiastic....the way I wanted to feel!
....

Pre dep

2009-08-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 – 1st full day of pre-departure training

How am I feeling? I woke up feeling disoriented. Struggling between feeling like I belonged in that house, belonged in the preparation for this placement and feeling as though I was really not sure why I was there. Or if I deserved to be there…or if I would be effective at being there. And not that putting others down to make yourself feel better is a method of confidence boosting I would ever support, I would be lying if I said that the other girls sharing those feelings did not help me feel more grounded about my emotions. Their struggles and emotional battles helped me feel as though mine were normal and more importantly, temporary. We had a common ground…always a good place to start building…ground up.

We made our way to the Bahen centre at U of T where Binnu was ready with enthusiasm and motivation and lots of markers and flip chart paper. Today was to be a day all about expectations. What did we expect from ourselves, what was expected from us of EWB, what we expect from EWB and the placement. We started with mapping out how each of us got to be there on the floor that day, packsack at the EWB house, leaving for Ghana in 3 days. It was a great way to learn about each other’s lives. And to see how different our journey’s had been so far but also highlighting some key commonalities that brought us together. We set up ground rules for the next few days and then went over a quick overview of what we would be doing while in Toronto.

We moved the session outside and while sitting on the concrete steps of what seemed to be the Chem engineering building, we expressed hopes and fears. And with every hope you could see it being a fear and of course every fear could just as easily be a hope. Some of the most common fears were: not knowing how to react when asked directly for money or food, having a negative impact (consciously or unconsciously), feeling lonely and homesick, feeling frustrated and feeling like change was impossible. I mean how terrifying is that? Getting there, working, integrating culturally and feeling as though you are uncertain if what we are doing is actually making a difference. A fear of failure….
LUNCH DATE:
We each had a one hour one-on-one lunch date with a former OVS. The objective was to set up goals for pre-dep and the placement and for them to ask questions that challenged us. Delicious lunch, good conversation, great questions. Thank you Kristy!
The afternoon brought up the EWB expected criteria of an overseas staff:
From this learning we were to come up with a challenge for each of us to push out boundaries…oh yes…an important concept: zones. There are 3: comfort zone, learning zone and danger zone. EWB enjoys pushing to the learning zone and beyond. Basically it means putting yourself in a situation that makes you uncomfortable and seeing how you react to it and how you grow because of it. Not like standing up naked in front of the class uncomfortable but like standing up presenting an idea you have that has not yet been accepted uncomfortable. Or being challenged on a point of view or opinion to the edge of uncomfortable to see how you are able to defend yourself.

We went over the definitions of poverty and development. It was an interesting exercise. How do you define poverty??? And development??? Think about it for a minute. After compiling our individual answers were essentially defined poverty as a lack of opportunity. A lack of basics that would allow the creation of more opportunities. It has to do with inadequate state to reach one’s potential. Development seemed to be multi-dimensional. It is a field and institution as well as a dynamic process....

We wrapped up with a brief session with Kyle of the importance of communication and audiences. Who do we want to share our placement with? And how are we going to go about doing that? 4 questions to ask ourselves when it comes to audiences: who is the audience? what are they thinking now? what do i want them to think? how do i get them there?

It was quite the day. We left the building wow did I feel overwhelmed. It did not seem possible that I would be in Ghana in a few days. I felt that I would need a month of sessions to get me anywhere close to where I needed to be mentally. We talked and talked about our fears and the overall consensus of that overwhelmed feeling. In a way, to counter all the flustered feelings, we were supporting each other and pulling each other through.

We had delicious lasagna for dinner and read a case study about Sunflower growing as a cash crop in Benin in preparation for a session the next morning. I was the last to go to sleep, my mind racing with the sessions from the day and my heart missing those who would normally be there for me when stressed but thankful for the new people in my life that were supporting me.

Amazing thing of the day:
Right when I needed it the most, immediately after leaving the Bahen centre, after standing in the middle of the sidewalk expressing vulnerability, Nadia provided us with a line that resonated so clearly: we have to have faith in our capacity to adapt. Even though we were feeling overwhelmed and anxious and unsure, we have to be confident that we are stronger than we give ourselves credit.

In the beginning

2009-08-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

The journey really begins long before what most people would recognize as the first step. You would think that the roller coaster feeling of taking off in Toronto on August 5th would be the start. In reality, this journey started the before I even knew it. But as to not risk telling my entire life story, I will start with the day I left Vancouver. It almost seemed like leaving a world behind. A torn feeling that, in all honesty, bordered much more on the nervous side than the certain, stable side I would have like to be on. After having lived the first 21 years of my life in Montreal, I knew upon leaving it that it would actually always be there. I had had enough time to love and truly appreciate my family and enough time and good times to create bonds with friends that I know would withstand time and distance. Vancouver was different because my reality there had been much shorter. Everything I had created was still new. As confident as I felt I would have the same feelings upon returning in December, I could not ensure that everyone else I interacted with would feel the same.

All of these feelings made me feel two main things: one that I had built relationships that were meaningful enough to me that I would miss them and two was a question to myself about my worthiness of going on this placement while having such a hard time leaving. Would I be able to be effective if my mindset was not where I wanted it to be? If I can break my thoughts down into layers, what kept me going was that at one of the deepest layers, I knew that going was not only something I wanted to do but also something I appreciated. Something that extended so much further than my small existence in two Canadian cities.

I made the flight to Montreal that afternoon by running to the gate. I procrastinated leaving to the point where I almost missed the plane. I mean I even pulled on a skirt over torn jeans right in front of the check-on agent as I had not come to the airport dressed professionally. Ghana seemed far away at this point.

Friday, July 31st 2009 – Flowrescent Friday EWB fundraiser

With the help and expertise and hard work of my brother, Alex, there was to be a fundraising party that night to promote my departure and purpose in going to Ghana with EWB. It’s interesting how leaving a place, for whatever reason, makes you appreciate what you have. At a local Italian restaurant on Friday night, before the party, I sat with my amazing parents, old best friends from Montreal, comparatively new but very much valued friends from Vancouver and could not help but smile and think of how lucky I was.

The party was fun and successful. Money and awareness were raised around dollar drinks and very danceable music. At this point it would be fair to say that the reality of the next day had not fully sunk in. I was in Africa from Karl Wolf’s interpretation – it was in my mind but I still did not completely own my thoughts.

Saturday, August 1st, 2009 – “See you soon”

After a delicious breakfast and then tearful “see you soons” (because that is really what they were) I was in Toronto with a huge bag and a very vague idea of where I was supposed to be. The only thing I knew for sure was that I was to be there by 7pm. There is only one fact about Toronto that I am sure about. It is the airport code YYZ for Pearson. Oh boy. So, with a paper map in hand, 2.75$ in my pocket and the confidence that I could get there, I boarded my first bus and just looked around. People were staring at my luggage – I almost felt like I should have had a sign stating where I was going. But I guess at this point that sign would have basically had a big question mark. Bus to subway to streetcar to a long, hot, walk…finally I was there! EWB house. OMG it’s real now I thought as the cut-out of the African woman greeted me on the front door. I brought my stuff upstairs and found Liz already set up in a bunk bed. Now would be a good time to introduce the 4 other JFs going on this adventure: Liz, Nadia, Jody and Claire. Instantaneous friends. It’s amazing how well we all clicked but then I guess that perhaps may be one the founding reasons we were all there. Whatever it was that we had in common to get us to that house were the same reasons we really seemed to get along.

Once we were all there, Binnu, our wonderfully enthusiastic program leader, wasted no time in getting down to business. Upon stepping foot in the house, our experience had begun. We had her, Kristy and Genevieve go over the “bottom layer of the pyramid” concerning health, safety and well-being. Where are we going to live? How are we going to communicate? Did we bring enough? These surface questions were the first ones to get out of the way, to make room for the real learning. We ended our incredibly long day by going to a local bar with some former JFs and OVSs….And thanks to Binnu I will do this with every blog entry:

One amazing thing I learnt that night:
From Mina: His host family’s location in the Mongu region of Zambia is, to him, the most beautiful place in the entire world. He just said it with such certainty that I could do nothing but believe him. Oh, I also learnt that Mongu rice has a sweet, vanilla scent….which obviously made me hungry.