Sunday, July 27, 2008

Business Owner Interviews!

A month ago, I hit a wall. I have not talked too much about work…because work was an ever changing plan and mission to learn more. Developing a plan, presenting the plan and trying to follow through with it…and the plan failing. Again and again. Finally, I hit the point where I had gathered enough information and perspective that I was able to see what I would be able to accomplish in the time I am here. With just now 5 weeks remaining, I have resolved to a new mission: gathering perspectives of business owners on the ground and feeding it back to higher levels of REP, the decision makers who affect policies and implementation of programs that affect these people. This is the best way I can see that I can contribute to this project and benefit Dorothy. It’s appealing to me in many ways as well. I don’t need to be stuck in the infuriatingly frustrating office (which just the other day got funding…the first time since I have been here), I don’t need to try and change attitudes of people in my office who don’t want to change and I can get outside and go and talk with people and better understand this culture. Talking with clients has really motivated and inspired me, so I am happy to spend my time doing it, despite the inherent stress of it. Furthermore, despite its downfalls, REP does do good work, so even going around and encouraging people to take advantage of this great resource will help people.
Last week, I came up with my strategy for the rest of the summer, and visited with the Zonal Coordinator of REP in Tamale to get her on board and excited about the results of the interviews. This week in Damongo was spent biking around town meeting with business owners. The aim is to learn what kind of support business owners need to be more successful and what the role of the BAC and local experts could/should play. With the information I gather, I will draw out trends and key findings to present to this BAC so they can better understand the views of the people they are aiming to help, and more importantly to the Zonal Office in Tamale, because they are the decision makers who can affect not only this district, but all those in the northern zone. Furthermore, they expressed an interest in how to support existing business owners. The general outline of my research plan:

1. talk with existing business owners in Damongo of varying levels of success and interaction with the BAC
2. next week to talk with people in the second biggest town in West Gonja, Daboya, who have been trained in soap making and batik tie and dye and some business owners there
3. talk with more business owners in Damongo, including unconventional ‘businesses’ like food stall owners, and the women who were trained under my host mom in soap making.
4. figure out how to write up a meaningful report from the information I gather.

After an attempt at coming up with an organized agenda of people to meet with (something that rarely works here anyway) I decided to just make it up as I go, let the information I gather and new ideas guide the research. So with my questionnaire in hand, the loose methodology of: keep it comfortable and casual, take time to see their shop and understand their business, ensure it is beneficial to them, and play it by ear, I set out on the town.
This week was incredibly interesting, stressful, informative, tiring, moving, frustrating and wonderful. Wonderful because I was doing something, meeting people, being useful, scary and hard because…what if they don’t speak English? What if my questions aren’t good enough? What if it rains all week? What if I don’t get any useful information? Who will I talk to? Will they have time, will they trust me, expect something from me? But when I just sucked it up and got out there…I realized all the opportunities and all the friendliness and openness that Ghana is famous for.
I spoke with the man who fixes my bike and learned he is proud of the fact he is now his own boss, and not a ‘small boy’ under a master. I talked with a seamstress and her 6 apprentices who always enthusiastically greet me as I pass and without recording my measurements or the style, managed to make me a beautiful and comfortable dress. I talked with a ‘liscenced chemical seller’ who had a natural knack for buying the right amount medication at the right time of the year, and had dreams of having full shelves so people will always get what they want from her. Then the well-spoken man who ran a provision store with his brothers, clearly articulating what he thought would be most beneficial for the BAC to do with shop owners, sitting proudly in the well-stocked and organized store. Then David the ICT guy who was thrilled to learn there was a thing in town called the Business Advisory Centre, and left a government job to set up a computer training centre because of the benefit to the people in this rural community. The struggling artist, full of ideas, dreams and skills, still lacking that one opportunity to really do well for himself, and the Rasta man who is using his creativity and desire to help his community to set up a youth-powered cultural centre. And finally, the woman who was running the electrical provision store at the station…so full of drive and pride in running her business…and her seriousness and commitment to making it a success, saying “ this shop is my future, I don’t want to joke with it. with this store she can have respect, even though she wasn’t able to continue on with her education” which almost brought me to tears with inspiration and love for this woman who was so determined to do better than the cards she was dealt. Later her husband came and my heart just swelled even more…this family, business minded and friendly, working together to build towards their dream and do well for themselves. And there were many more.
Each day, with each interview I learn so much more about the business culture here, people’s attitudes about support and assistance, about entrepreneurs and about the role the BAC does and should play. I have heard some discouraging things about the BAC…the majority of people I talked to didn’t even know it existed, and those who had contacted them were disappointed with the interaction. One man, David, said when learning about the BAC, “if there is something like the BAC in Damongo, they have a job to do.” As I go around and people are unaware of it, I tell them all the services available to them through the BAC: skills training, business management workshops on financing, record keeping etc, general advice on running the business, and links to financial support. But the more I gave out phone numbers of my co-workers (which even though I warned them, I am sure they won’t be too happy about) and directed them to the office, “you can go any time and just introduce yourself”, I can’t help but feeling these people will be let down. But I have to keep faith that REP does do good work, its not all political or corrupt, my co-workers really do, deep down, want to help the community and do a good job, and there will be a few more people who will benefit.

Some of the business owners:


Some interesting things I have found so far:
  • Virtually everyone is a business owner! Some people are doing one main thing, some people are doing a bunch of small things to work towards their dream of a supermarket, catering service, building contracting company or just being able to support their family
    People feel empowered by having their own business and being able to support themselves and their family

  • The great resource which is the BAC is being wasted because no one knows about it or takes advantage of it


  • Lots of people just struggle through the hard times, and grow very slowly, expecting that no one will help them but themselves


  • Money is the major pitfall, everyone knows the only way to get to their dream or what they are planning or hoping for next year is to save ‘small small’.


  • Everyone thinks everyone else has money that they are hiding away for themselves
    I have been impressed at the creative ways people are able to make money on the side, and the longterm dreams that people have…they may be selling soap and charcoal now, but they are working towards something bigger


  • Its very difficult to drag the how and why out of people to get the information I am trying to get…but maybe it is that simple, I contact my mom for support because she’s the one I trust.

I think one of the major things that needs to happen is the BAC needs to expand who it views as business owners worthy of assisting. Helping one shop owner is not just helping a greedy businessman, its supporting an entire extended family. Business development leads to empowerment and economic development of the district, increased opportunities and reduction of poverty, so all businesses need to be developed, not just the obvious one’s who appear to be struggling. Anyway…my mind is racing with questions and hypothesis, and changes with each person I meet and perspective I hear. I really hope I can come up with something meaningful, because these people are not just slackers and waiting around for money (granted there are many of those too), they are just trying to get by and be independent and take care of their families. I feel the weight of responsibility now that I know these people, sat with them for an hour, sitting in their world, learning of their accomplishments, struggles, obstacles and dreams…I have the responsibility to do something to make their lives better. To know and not to do, is not to know. I know. So I have to do something. I just hope its good enough.

Tie Dye done right (none of this 80's t-shirt business)

Batik Tie and Dye!

Along with soap, one of the skills trainings that REP holds is batik tie and dye. Though I have come at an unfortunate time for project funding, I am fortunate that my host mother is a poster-woman for REP in a way. From her, I learned and gained great insight on soap making, about being an entrepreneur, and now on batik tie and dye!
The soap was pretty fun, but the batik tie and dye is so much fun! Tedious in its own way, but I like the creativity of it and the excitement of how it will turn out…like a kid at camp eager to see how your tie-dyed underwear would look after you took the string off, except it actually looks amazing! I’ll take you through some of the major steps of Batik tie and dye, and then just tie and dye.

1. Gather materials…needed: white cloth, dye, stamps, wax, creativity, hydro (sodium hydrosulphite…I think? Every time we use a sketchy chemical I have to laugh…how the chemistry teachers of my past would cringe!)
2. melt the wax and stencil out the plan
3. start stamping…this will hold these patterns as white
4. prepare the dye
5. soak the sucker in the dye
6. put it out to dry
7. the next stamp will hold this lovely orange colour.
8. then you can dye it again, and that will be the final background colour


materials for stamping for the Batik

melting the wax
planning for the design
first wax stampmixing the dye
dying the material
second stampthe final product!

Tie and dye is easier…in a way. If you buy the cloth pre-tied, then the dying is just a fun experiment (in my opinion). But, as Rabi aspires to, to be able to tie the cloth yourself is the best, and she hopes to learn. from how tedious it was to untie the cloth, I imagine its not so fun to do the tying, but I’m sure it is more economical.
There is dying and washing and then snipping open the ties, there definitely is an art to it, like all these things, it looks easy, but I am sure if I were to do it it would manage to be ugly! My tie dye always was!

material all tied up

after dying, cutting ties

finished product!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Youth in Peace and Development (YIPAD)

I have been attending these YIPAD meetings with 2 of the boys in my house, Steven and Junior, because I can’t help but be drawn to working with kids. The purpose of the club is to show kids the importance of education and let them know about their rights and role as children. They do things like awareness activities around Damongo and surrounding villages on HIV/AIDS and malaria, etc. Since I have been here, we haven’t worked on any of those things, the meetings have mostly consisted of a whole lot of lecturing about the need for discipline and commitment…at which point I saw a great opportunity for a place where I can contribute. Here we have a group of kids who have good intentions, are able to commit this time to come to meetings and an opportunity to become great leaders but it is being squandered on useless talk about who will arbitrarily bear the title of president or who has paid their money for a t-shirt or an upcoming trip. Even if I don’t change the way REP operates and help 100 small business owners, I know how to work with kids.
Sitting down with the group leaders I told them that I have had a lot of experience working with kids in Canada and could teach them leadership and teambuilding games so that the kids would want to be committed. They would feel committed and respect each other more because they would feel that they are gaining something by coming to meetings, other than just being lectured. They want me to help them secure an office and computer, but I want to help these kids as much as possible. This organization definitely has a lot of poptential, and has done a lot of good things already...but I have learned that I can't strive to drive huge organizational changes in 5 weeks...I need to keep my sights closer to the ground, thats where I will have the most success. So drawing on my years of experience working with rambunctious children, I slipped so easily back into my camp counsellor role.
Before the meeting start (which is usually an hour or two after the kids are told to arrive) the kids play games…football (soccer) is popular among the boys, the girls play a game like hackey sack with leaves tied together with some plastic, there is also a game like tag where you throw your flipflop at someone to become ‘it’, a game kind of like moneky in the middle except opposite, you try and arrange and mess up a pile of flipflops while avoiding getting hit with a ball (made from a bunch of rubber bags), or climbing up in the shea trees to shake down some of the fruit to munch on.
There are about 25-30 who come out to meetings…the first thing I tried with them was a song with actions. That went well. Then I tried the ‘clap to shut-up’ trick…if you can “hear me clap once clap back…” that worked wonders, instead of trying to yell at kids and threatening to beat them. The next meeting I tried the “human knot” to have the kids working together to solve a problem…it was a bit disastrous. The kids had fun and it was a start…but these games are pretty foreign to them! Breaking off into groups, working together to solve a problem…you mean you aren’t just going to tell us how to do it? It was really interesting to see the result of how children are treated here. The education systems and attitude towards children and their education are very different in Canada. I think that there is still the attitude that by virtue of going to school, a child is getting a good education…but the way they seem to be taught is how to do what they are told. Creativity and self-discovery are not encouraged…from what I have observed so far.

At our next meeting I had them break off into groups and come up with skits/plays demonstrating the importance of education…and it was a great success! I was so proud of the kids, and even though it took them a while to understand what they were supposed to do and step up and do it, before long they were huddling in their teams coming up with new and better plots and performing in front of the other groups. Though they could learn a thing or two about facing the audience, not talking over each other and projecting their voices, they did well for their first try at something like this! It was interesting that the person who had the hardest time grasping the concept of what we were doing, having the kids be creative and work together to come up with their own play, was the group leader. He had a hard time not going around and dictating what the kids should do. Maybe an individual quality, but maybe how he is used to interacting with kids…the mentality that if you are older you know better. This is one of the cultural aspects I am struggling with. I think its important to respect your elders, but more importantly respect should be based on what you do and how you act. If you show up hours late for a meeting and are distracted the whole time, that’s disrespectful, so why should you receive respect?
Working with these kids has given me a really valuable insight into the culture. How children are treated and behave leads into the type of citizens and society you will have. From what I have seen at my office, the attitude that I find frustrating…not wanting to try new things, take risks or push the status quo…can very well be connected to the mentality engrained in childhood years. Anyway, I am going to keep staying involved with the group and try and learn as much as I can from them, and teach them as much as I can, because with kids there is hope for the future!
An extra Bonus is the Wagashi, the Afrcian cheese, that we have been stopping to pick up on our way home. It is mild like mozzarella, but deep fried like saganaki...very tastey.

Cultural Confusion...Implications for Responsible Global Citizenship?

There are two German girls who are visiting the family for a week and it has been interesting to think about culture. German culture is similar to Canadian culture in many ways, but there are many small differences. We can relate to each other on many subjects, for instance the glances to each other with shared feeling that this is crazy that we are sitting in a thatched roofed hut drinking locally brewed beer our of calabashes with drunk elders sitting across the way, or the initial strangeness of eating with your hands, or the giggles at huge 'packages' animals of all shapes and sizes have here…but these girls have grown up in a different culture than I did, they speak a different language and have a different perspective. Having had time to see the impact of Europe on Ghana, I see the impact of Europe on Canada. We are all so connected and we don’t fully realize the extent (at least I don’t).

Just as many Canadians have a skewed vision of Ghana and Africa, many Ghanaians have a skewed image of Canada and North America. They catch glimpses of our culture through movies, “Desperate Housewives”, Revlon commercials, Celine Dion and hip-hop videos. At first I felt ashamed that one of the major cultural things that has flown into my house in Damongo is Akon and Shaggy music videos and random blockbusters, worried about what they thought about how frivolous and excessive we are in North America, then I realized, this has become of their culture. This hip hop music is theirs…just the way many of us can identify with Bob Marely’s songs, we know he is Jamaican, but that doesn’t mean his songs aren’t part of our culture.
So what is culture, whose culture is whose? Does it matter? What implications are the images (that many of us in Canada wouldn’t be proud to portray as who they are) that Ghanaians see of Canada? I don’t know. Let’s look at it the other way, what are the implications of what we see of Africa on the news? Think about what your impression of Africa is, and what the perception your family and friends have of Africa. What impact does this have on our actions or opinions towards Africa, consciously or subconsciously?
Many Ghanaians don’t even differentiate Europe and Canada, because compared to Ghanaian culture, ours are very similar.
Even if this train of thought is useless, it’s interesting to see snippets of different cultures integrated together. What’s the value in identifying where certain cultural aspects derived from? Is there any. For one, it shows history and how we are all connected, and that we have the potential to impact people around the world without being aware of it. One of the big implications that I can see is the choices we make in Canada really do impact Ghanaians. The fact that there is a market for people in Canada who want to buy ethical products like those from the body shop (shea butter creams from women’s groups in Busunu for instance) impacts people here. People are aware that in Canada you aren’t supposed to just throw trash on the ground. But what are other aspects of our culture that we are proud of that Ghanaians aren’t aware of? How did it come to pass that rap videos, big cars and blockbusters are the things that have come from our culture? Ease of distribution, Ghanaian preference? Not to condemn all rap videos, but personally I find many of them to be excessive, violent and degrading to women. That’s not something that I feel represents what Canada is all about. If in Canada we make responsible choices about how we live our lives, what impact will that have?
Just some thoughts that I don’t know how to sort out so I thought I would share them! Let me know what you think.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Morning in the Life of a JF in Damongo

5:00 am bowel wake-up call. I am lucky to be living in a compound that is blessed with a toilet…no seat, but no worries. Fumbling in my room for my flipflops and toilet roll, resistant to turning on the light because it will wake me up too much, I make it out the door and to the toilet. Grab a bucket, fill ‘er up from one of many places (I try and find the least useable water so as not to 10 L of good water on a flush) and fill the back of the toilet and proceed to flushing.

6:30 am: the roosters and girls who are sweeping are determined to disrupt my sleep…so is the need to pee, but I stick my head phones in my ears and try to ignore the world for another 30 minutes.

7:00 am: ok, now its time to get up. Stretches, sit-ups and a few measly pushups and its time for a bath.
Emerge from my layer, greet the people in the house, who seem less enthused and energetic than I am trying to muster up (maybe if they went to bed earlier…everyone in the house goes to bed so late, even though they wake up at 5:30am.)

7:15 am, bucket shower time. some days it’s a welcome wake-up call…somedays when its rainy and cold…a little bit of a struggle. Wrapped up in my cloth, my small bucket containing my sponge (impossibly long mesh thing that when bunched up is like a rough loufa), face wash and shampoo, I make my way to the bath-house. I use my small bucket to scoop water from the bigger bucket, and dump on my sleepy body…I usually acquaint the first dump with jumping in the lake at camp. Refreshing and exhilarating, but scary! The soap I use is one of the one's my host mother makes...all natural ingredients, nice scent and lathers well!

7:30 am: breakie with the fam. This consists of bread and tea normally (I know, tea in Africa when its so hot!? You get used to it, and these days, its rather chilly). Kids are leaving for school, and me, bede (host brother) and the parents are getting ready to go to work, so the household is moving, dynamic and busy, but there is usually someone else sitting with me enjoying breakfast and a nice chat. The tea is delicious, let me describe:


-Tetley tea bag (by far the best variety here)
-local honey (its really dark and has a smokey rich taste)
-‘ideal’ condensed milk from a small little can (delicious…though I’ve stopped taking it due to my antibiotic ridden stomach, dairy isn’t so good for it)


I’ve introduced groundnut paste to the morning ritual, which is delicious. Organic fresh peanut butter is a good way to start the day. but there is some risk involved, because I am pretty sure is not a Ghanaian thing to eat groundnut paste this way, even though the kids join in and love it. mostly groundnut paste is used in soups and stews, boiled to death, so good hygiene may not always be practiced when dealing with it raw. So far the risk has felt worthy of the benefit.

7:50 am…iron my clothes! Just because I am in Africa doesn’t mean I can be wrinkly…people are very conscious of their appearance, and wrinkles are not acceptable! I have never ironed properly in my life, so I think its funny that I have started in Ghana. I am no domestic goddess, so ironing some of my things often is unsuccessful anyway, but I need to try! Though I have been lovingly scorned that you shouldn’t be ironing your clothes the day of…but I don’t see why not.

8:15 am: jump on my bike and head to work. I carry my computer in my bag with me, usually wrapped up in a rubber (plastic bag) in case of sudden rains. I say hello to a few of the regulars I pass…Ashumaa! Awoo (good morning! Fine.)
Lanto de noosa? Awoo (how is your house? Fine).
Adesba de Noosa? Awoo (how was your sleep? Fine)
Lanto bi? Alanfia (how are the people in your house? They are well)
And so on.

Today I stopped for a boiled egg on the way to work. Food vendors sell boiled eggs, and you can just eat them like that (no plate!), or you can get it with hot pepper and onion. I just eat it straight. I clasped it in my hand, and soared down the hill. I make the sketchy transition from paved to dirt road and continue on for some way. I stop at the side of the road to eat my egg. I crack it on the bicycle handle, and begin to peel away at it. here it is customary to just litter on the ground, and even though this is just an egg shell I am dropping, I still feel like the two farmers who are passing me on their bike are going to yell at me for littering. Obviously they don’t, they greet me and continue on their way. The egg is delicious and creamy, I am satisfied and continue on to work. The day will be tough, but I have a bit of plan today, so I am feeling better than most days, and its cool out and I am not even sweating, that has to be a good sign!

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Midsummer Retreat

All the JFs together again at Mole National Park:
This past weekend all the Ghana JFs and most of the LTOV made the trip to Damongo to have our midsummer retreat. Overall the retreat was a success, as I heard the Ontario EWB retreat was as well. Seeing everyone pour out of the dusty little tro-tro (dangerous out of date van that sits 3 times as many people as its supposed to) warmed my heart. All those people who have been kicking around Ghana like me for the past 7 weeks, tanned vibrant and full of smiles, gave me hope that maybe some outward change had happened in me too.
Since I am in Damongo, I was organizing some of the logistics, and let me say, organizing stuff here is way different than back in Canada. Here, its everyone’s business, and even if you have a local helping you, the next person you meet scorns you because they could have done a better job or gotten you a better connection or deal. And having been through the experience, people do genuinely want to help you, but they also want to help their friend or cousin who is a driver or who makes food that they can hook up with a bunch of ‘Cabrunis’ (foreigners). People make promises or assure you that things will happen, but without a whole lot of nagging, things don’t just happen here. It also isn’t in the general Ghanaian nature to plan more than a few days in advance or adhere to strict timelines. But, in the process I made a friend and learned a lot, so what more can you ask for? (Above: At the Mahama Guest House where we were holding our conference)
The first day was spent updating each other on our placements, the second day was a fun day at Mole National Park, and the last day was strategizing next steps for the rest of the summer. Unfortunately after all that planning and anticipation, I was sick for about half of the activities, but I did have some very valuable conversations with people, and gained a little bit of insight on what I can be doing with the remainder of my time.
Some fun tidbits, we all (despite the fact it makes some of us sick still) were devouring and loving the Ghanaian food, and laughing each other as we were speaking with a Ghanaian twang to our English (which sometimes results in grammatical blunders). For example, when you are looking for the name of something: ‘one minute, we are just finishing our, this thing.’ And, the words:

-Plenty (its used in place of ‘a lot’. i.e., There are plenty of stars in the sky tonight, there are plenty of flies)
-Small small (do you want pepe? Small small.)
-Oh, sorry (as in, you trip and your co-worker says ‘oh sorry’, because you are a fool who can’t pick up your feet, but they make it sound nice)
-Ahaann (sound of excited understanding)
-Pick (as in, ‘I am going to pick him on my bike’, or ‘I am going to pick some bananas from town’) -how is it? oh, fine.

Mole was fun. It was amazing to go and trump around in the bush with wild animals around with a guide having a rifle strapped to his back. Here are some sweet elephant shots! There was also a pool there…pretty sketchy and dangerous as it was super murky, unsupervised and very deep, but even the lifeguard in me was way too eager to jump into that buggy murky chloriney mess because I miss swimming so much!
Leaving for the Tro-Tro to Mole, where we sang many fun camp songs and oldies!

Cop, reminds me of the wax patterns you see on cloth here
Dung Beettles working away rolling poo
Our Fearless Guide leading us through the bush
Me and Bevan, anotherJF, with an elephant skull!
An elephant up close and personal
me and an elephant up on a hill, they were strange, climbing very high. they reminded me of dinosaurs
trekking along...2 hours in the heat is hard
Warthogs, aka "Pumba and his wife spooning"
Swimming fun at the Mole Hotel

It was really amazing to spend time with the 5 longterm volunteers who were able to make it out. They are such wonderful, passionate and inspiring women (they all happened to be women). With great advice and support as we poor JFs struggle to figure out how to have impact in our remaining month and a half, when it usually takes at least the first 3 to 4 months of a long-term placement to get your feet on the ground. The whole overseas program in Ghana is slowly restructuring, so that JFs are beginning to contribute more to the work of longterm volunteers, helping to focus our short time that we spend here. Due to unfortunate circumstances, I happen to be a relic of the past system, of ‘go work in this office and see what could be improved…go!’, which is super hard let me tell you, but as frustrating as it is, a great learning experience.

Health and Development, oh my!

I’ve been able to gather some more thoughts on some of the challenges Ghana, and for that matter much of Africa and the developing world, face when struggling to alleviate poverty. This, very simply and brutally obvious now that I am here, are matters of health.
One of the links between hot climates and poverty is all the diseases that come along with hot, wet weather (yet another argument for combating climate change). Just to name off a few of the common diseases: malaria, yellow fever, typhoid fever, bacteria (e.coli, cholera, etc), parasites, worms, with which comes a horrific array of symptoms, most of which include unrelenting diarrhea, abdominal pains and fever. But in Canada we have colds, throat infections and the flu, that’s pretty bad…much to my lucky surprise these are also common afflictions in the rainy season here as well. Oh, and don’t forget the side affects of the medications that you take in vain to try and avoid these sicknesses. Not being the strongest person at fighting off illnesses to begin with, I knew I would have challenges with health, but I never knew the kind of frustration that ensues. Since I have been here I have basically been sick the whole time with one thing or another, and had some interesting experiences at the Damongo hospital and “Licensed Chemical Sellers” (aka pharmacies) around town. Being sick in Ghana is frustrating, and its not just because I am a foreigner either. Everyone is getting sick. The rainy season is beautiful and a nice temperature, but it’s the disease season.

For me, I am frustrated because I want to be at work and doing things to help people and do something useful while I am here, but sometimes, am not able to go. Sure I can find other things to do with my time if it’s something ‘mild’ and I can think clearly (like right now), but what kind of impression does it make if I miss most of the work week? How can I get frustrated at my coworkers for not working hard or having an unmotivated attitude if I am not even at work? People here understand when you are sick…that’s why sometimes things take a long time to get underway. That’s just in the office though, and I am just a volunteer. What if feeding, housing and clothing yourself and your immediate AND extended family depended on it? Working at anything, even if it is just around the house when you are riddled with energy-sucking parasites and shaking with a fever is not easy or enabling people to help themselves.

The Damongo hospital is very nice, I am a regular now, got some friends who work there, which is embarrassing, but nice. I shamefully get shuffled to the front of the lines after they leave me in a huge mob of a line for about 15 minutes when I say I want to wait, but I still wait there all day, so it doesn’t really make too much of a difference in the end. When you arrive, you give in your identity card and health insurance if you have it. Then you sit in a big line, they retrieve a card that has your health info on it. Then you wait. Then you see a nurse and she takes your temperature, blood pressure, pulse and weight (where I always realize how unhealthily light I have become). Then you wait to see a doctor. You see them, and then they say to get a bunch of tests done. Malaria is always tested for in this season (and usually the default treatment, because the symptoms are so diverse and there are so many strains) and its usually accompanied by a stool sample. Nurses, doctors, bio-statisticians and lab technicians are all very friendly and professional (unlike what I was warned of before I came, which is comforting). For the malaria test, they prick your finger and smear it on a slide, and for the stool test, well, you poop in an impossibly small jar, but they only need a little, as they reminded me after my first exasperated attempt. Then there is plenty of waiting. I admire the people who are waiting. It is mostly mothers and babies, small kids and old men. There are very few who complain. They sit in on wooden benches (the sides are open to the outside, so thankfully there is a nice breeze coming through), packed together in their beautiful cloth, for the most part quietly. It works like a clinic that takes a really long time, and you don’t get much personal attention, your test results speak for you. So usually about 3 hours later, you make your way back to the doctor, show him the results and he writes you a prescription, go to the pharmacy and pay and pick it up and go home with baggies of medicine, feeling worse than when you came, as is usually the case at any health centre.
The frustrating thing is, if your results don’t do your symptoms justice, oh well…then comes the dangerous game of playing doctor yourself. For those who can’t afford to wait or to pay for the hospital visit, you must diagnose yourself. It’s frustrating to always be sick and to have so little control. To give you an idea about self-diagnosing, some drugs that require a prescription at home can be bought over the counter at a low price…Flagyl, used to treat parasites cost me 20 peswas (the same amount I pay to buy 5 bananas, or a bag of groundnut paste, or a meal in town)…this is very cheap! Coming into Ghana it was recommended that I take an antibiotic ‘cipero’ for bad diarrhea, and I was confused when nobody knew about it and was always talking about this Flagyl. Well the difference is, cipero costs 2.50 whereas Flagyl is 0.20. That says it right there, so whether the locals or the travel doctor has it right, the cheapest drug clearly become the drug of choice when self-diagnosing.

What’s my point? Health is important to development!! Painfully obvious, but worth reiterating. Good healthcare services and education, sanitation and clean water are vital. In Canada I think these things get taken for granted because aside from a few cases we can count on one hand, contaminated water, food poisoning and endemic viruses are not our primary concern. I am feeling the weight and importance of what I am learning in school more and more. Partially the people here are really unlucky because these causes of illnesses are more prevalent because of climate, but so many of these sicknesses are preventable, or would be less disruptive with a more efficient system. I think Damongo has a pretty good facility, better than I was expecting, but its no where near as good as how we have it in Canada and it serves not just the people in Damongo, but all the surrounding villages of the district.