Kim in Ghana

Leaving Ghana and Returning to Canada

2008-09-02T00:39:00.007-05:00

Wrapping up work was hard…I had done 28 official interviews with various entrepreneurs across Damongo, and trying to draw out useful information and trends, and capture the individuals was incredibly difficult. I was working day and night trying to analyze the data, asking:

‘how can I make this report useful so that I can do something for all these people who are counting on me?’

‘how can I show how inspiring and relevant to work with Zeinabu was?’

‘how can I show that Issa Sole is a great entrepreneur, despite his lack of education…how can I show that though he is just asking for money he is desperate to do the right thing, that really all he needs is business management training, someone to take the time to explain to him the facts about bank accounts’

‘how can I capture all these opinions that these individuals have about the Business Advisory Centre and what it should do?’

…these questions raced through my head as I tried to pull this thing together. The hardest report I have ever had to write. No marks here, no one checking to see that I had an executive summary that was less than 250 words or group member that I can’t let down…I was accountable to no one, no one but those 28 people that I interviewed over the past few weeks, and those 20 in Busunu who I kept in my heart, and all those across the northern region who I had to potential to impact in some small way. It would be easy to say that I am just learning about development, this is my first time doing something like this, this placement is more about what learning I will bring back to Canada anyway…but this was the most important thing I ever had to write. I was able to gather perspective on my placement and what I was able to do in the time I had, but I threw my heart and soul into this research that I was undertaking and needed to genuinely do the best I job I could at it.

WHOA! Backtracking, those were horrifying pressures I was putting on myself, so I stepped back, yet again, and realized that though this was MY biggest contribution, it was a small part of a bigger process. All I could do was the best I could do. So just do it, and I did. Somehow. And in the end I was pleased with what I managed to produce.

I had already accepted that I wouldn’t have much impact on my office, it’s fruitless to work with unmotivated people, and unrealistic to try and be able to create that motivation in 3 months (one of the keys to development I have learned is to work with motivated people).
However, my big presentation at the Zonal Office went great. Though I had malaria and was out of steam in every which way, the people at the Zonal Office are passionate about the Rural Enterprises Project and were excited to learn more about how to work with and support existing business owners.

After that was over, as we say in Ghana after a big meal, I was satisfied. Though my work is not over, what I was able to do overseas was and I was ready to go home.

That was the hardest summer of my life, the greatest learning experience, about the world and myself, but hardest mentally, physically and emotionally to date. Homecoming was exciting, and as I said, my work is not yet done. I will continue to learn and share my findings with people in Canada in an effort to connect Canadians to Ghanaians, to show that we are all living in one world, and stimulate the change in our actions to reflect that reality.

I am excited to continue to work with EWB in Canada, because it is an amazing group of passionate and determined individuals, but also on my own, starting out a life of continuous learning and curiosity for the complexity and simplicity of this world.

Here are some pictures of some of the people who meant a lot to me, those who motivated and inspired me, or just brightened my day and made up the faces in my life for the past 4 months. Thanks to everyone who was a great support this summer, I hope you were able to take away something from this experience too…as we say in Ghana, somehow.

The Ghana JFs of 2008

My Family for the summer
In the office, two of my co-workers, Hardi the Business Development Officer and Pamela the Admin Assistant

Saratu and her seamstresses, greated me everyday as i passed and made lovely dresses

Two of my brothers and friends, Sherif and Junior

Madame from the zonal office, inspirational and down to earth
The station women who sold me fruit and boiled eggs

Giftey, who was just as jovial and lovely when I went back for a second visit

My shea picking partner, also just as impressive and powerful on second glance

My little Paul, the sweetest and most beautiful boy

Sarah Grant, long term volunteer with EWB, an awesome role model and friend
Sakara, friend from the village as previously viewed, but a great friend even if our interaction was short-lived

Zeinabu and her husband with their family in their electrical shop

Fouzia, who was there the whole summer, through the good times and the bad, morning and night!
Issa Sole, making my tire shoes

Kofi the chemical seller Patience who made beautiful batik tie and dye and was as sweet as anything

My phone units seller, always welcoming and having my 7.5 cards!
The woman who i bought most of my beautiful material from

Bawa, my bicycle repair man and enthusiastic greeter, anytime of the day, and numerous times!
Anthony, my landlord, host father and friend who i could share my morning tea with and frank and intellectual conversations about my work and development and Ghana

Steph in Tuna

2008-08-10T06:58:00.005-05:00

This week I visited with one of the other JFs Steph in her home town Tuna. It was wonderful to see where she was living and who she was working with. For me it was good to see a different approach to development work, a grassroots NGO versus a huge development project throughout Ghana streamlined into the government. Steph has done a great job with her work, and she could explain it better through her blog, so I encourage you to check it out, but basically her partner organization, Tuna Women in Agriculture (TUWODEP) works with women’s groups in villages working on food security, education and introduction of new income generating activities. During my visit I got to walk around and have a taste of Tuna (no pun intended), travel to two villages to meet with some women’s groups, see Steph’s living arrangements and conditions and spend time with her devoted co-worker and friend. Check out more on her blolg: http://www.stephghanasummer.blogspot.com/, or from the link along the right side of this page "Steph in Ghana". Guinea Fowl that we were given as a gift...and chopped for dinner!
Steph's compound, I like the mango tree in the middle!

clay pots that one of the women's groups make
storage facilities for grains, something steph has worked a lot on improving with TUWODEP
The TUWODEP office
Tuna Market

This is Steph and her awesome co-worker Anase
Me and Anase with 3 women's groups in a nearby village
A piggery that TUWODEP helped to a women's group set up
Local beer, 'Pito' that we were given as thanks for our visit...delicious

It was an interesting opportunity to see another approach to some of what REP is striving to do: work with women’s groups to empower them and improve their livelihoods, but on a much smaller scale. Furthermore, there is a great opportunity for REP to partner with organizations like TUWODEP because of their shared focus and intended beneficiaries. REP likes to work with people in Groups, but from what I have observed, a lot of the time the groups form because of training sessions, instead of training sessions working for pre-existing groups. I am interested to learn the difference this would make in the success of a program. It seems that a strong cohesive group would be more successful than one thrown together at the last minute. Continuing on that note, meeting with these women’s groups, they could benefit greatly from any of REPs trainings (beekeeping, soap making, batik tie and dye, etc) so its too bad REP isn’t working in this district…but I guess on the other hand good that there is a project like TUWODEP working there.

While I am sitting down and putting together the results of my business owner interviews…the question I am trying to find an answer to is: what support do existing business owners need, and how can the BAC or local support networks provide that support. It’s hard! Where would you go to for support if you were struggling to set-up or run a business? What role should an organization like REP play in the business community? What if the results aren’t in line with its existing strategy? So far, yet again, the issue of dealing with people in groups arises. But most business owners are independent. So what role does the BAC play in assisting lone entrepreneurs? The feedback I have gotten so far from the field is that the BAC should be a resource for all businesses, and it should be able to redirect and link entrepreneurs to other sources if it can not directly assist them. Money is always the major pitfall for business owners, but though REP isn’t able to financially support everyone, it should have the capacity to direct people to sources and present them with different options, give sound advice on steps to take to better manage money, and invite people to workshops that they run on business management. Of course everyone just wants a quick fix, but its up to something like the Business Advisory Centre to educate people on the various ways to become more profitable.

I’m on the cusp of my last week…somehow in the next few days I need to pull together a report on these business owner interviews, present it to my office and the zonal office, finish buying and making everything I want to take back, snap all the pictures it was too awkward to snap in the beginning, say goodbyes and then manage to pack up all my stuff, put it on a bus and head to Tamale. It feels like a mountain I need to climb in the next 7 days…I hope I can do it!

Business Owner Interviews!

2008-07-27T07:02:00.002-05:00

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)

2008-07-27T06:30:00.007-05:00

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!

Youth in Peace and Development (YIPAD)

2008-07-13T12:28:00.005-05:00

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?

2008-07-13T12:22:00.003-05:00

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.

Morning in the Life of a JF in Damongo

2008-07-11T08:58:00.002-05:00

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!

Midsummer Retreat

2008-07-06T09:36:00.006-05:00

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!

2008-07-06T09:25:00.002-05:00

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.

Busunu Love!

2008-06-22T10:15:00.006-05:00

This past week I spent in Busunu and had an amazing experience! It was wonderful to get perspective on different lifestyles of Ghanaians and appreciate the hardships of the rural clients of REP.
While in Busunu I split my time between participating in the activities of the women around the house (cooking, sweeping, processing shea nuts, etc.) and walking around the village interviewing clients who had received one of three trainings over the past year, beekeeping, batik tie and dye, and soap making.
I was incredibly fortunate that the family/compound I was staying with was so amazing and friendly, and I had a community leader who spoke English fluently to help guide me around to the various clients.

Busunu is a very interesting community that has had many different development projects passing through it, from various water installations to renewable energy to sponsorships from the Body Shop. It was good to see the impacts of the projects and the different approaches to development. For instance, you can have a private company like the Body Shop sponsor a women’s group who process shea nuts, you can have a government sponsored project like REP training people in new skills to start businesses, or you can have partnerships between universities and churches to fund pilot energy projects, or huge NGOs like World Vision coming in and supporting children through feeding programs and schools. This community had it all.

(this women's group says below, it is hard to read, "sponsored by the Body Shop"!)

And the community was developing and changing. The project that had the biggest noticeable impact was the renewable energy project. Over the past 6 months a large number of houses in the community were set up with electricity, consisting of 2 light bulbs. This has changed a lot about the community already. It has changed the dynamics of the family at night, they are able to cook later, and socialize more, there is a sense of security and safety, they are able to have cell phone because they can now be charged, and new businesses will be able to be started up (welders, more machinery, etc.). The price is better than the national grid and way better than kerosene that would be used for lamps.
Let me tell you a bit about it, because as an environmental engineering student, I found it incredibly interesting.
The main source of power is solar, but there is a naturally occurring plant in the area, jatropha, whose seed contains oil that can be used as bio fuel that powers the back-up generator when the sun is weak. The electricity lines are all underground, and the houses are metered to keep track of usage. The project is encouraging people to be growing the jatropha on their farms and around their homes as a fence, and then the project buys the seeds from them. They can use the seeds as their payment for their electricity, or just to make some extra money.

The energy facility with the solar panels and generator

Sakara, my guide and friend, showing the Jatropha plant (seeds below)The project is still just starting up, so they are still running the backup generator on diesel, but soon hope to move to the bio-diesel soon. Overall the project seems sustainable, and is being implemented slowly over a couple of years, with the aim of being self-sufficient. If it is successful, then they will implement it in other areas. The classic problems remain with projects like this...if a part of the machinery for the solar panels breaks, they have to send it to Germany to repair it. The idea of the project came from some pilot projects that were done in Kenya with the Jatropha plant, if you are interested in further research (which I definitely am, so if you get a head start, let me know!).
The family that I stayed with was wonderful, in particular my friend Gifty. She’s a couple years older than me, but intelligent, friendly and just such a beautiful person! She had an adorable 5 month old baby who you couldn’t help but love, and she let me help her out and get to know the way she was living in Busunu. She grew up there, but has since moved to Tamale for seamstress training and will leave Busunu in a couple months when the baby, Johnson, is older. I was sad to leave, because I learned more from her on what it means to be an African woman in a week than I have in the 6 weeks I have been here. Here are some pictures and I hope to be able to visit Busunu again to say hello to my friend again, I don’t know if she will ever know what an impact she has had on me.

Shea Nut Madness!

2008-06-22T09:32:00.005-05:00

Walking around the Busunu in the morning is like walking through a ghost town, taken over by packs of 2 year olds and the occasional granny watching over. Why? Because of Shea Nuts! All of the women in Busunu (and most of those in the West Gonja District) are out in the Bush before the sun rises to collect shea nuts.

Do you happen to have, or know of someone who has, any skin care products that contain shea butter? I sure do, and how much do we know about this ingredient that is so desired in skin care and makes our skin smooth and supple? Here is some info on shea butter, where it comes from and the hard work that goes collecting it.

So why are the shea nuts such a big deal? Because for the majority of those living in Busunu, this seasonal work will generate their income for the entire year. This year women are particularly serious about it because the price is high for selling and the fruits are growing well. So when it is shea nut season (it has been going on for maybe 3 weeks now, and will last for maybe 1 to 2 months still) everything else stops, and collecting and processing the shea nuts become the priority. Learning about how women (who are REPs main target beneficiaries) spend their time was amazing as I am beginning to better understand about the daily struggles and challenges they face, and how the intervention by the REP could potentially impact their lives.

So let me take you through the process:

1. Shea fruits grow on trees in the ‘bush’. They kind of remind me of avocadoes; they are green and have a pasty fruit on the inside with a large nut in the middle. They can be very sweet…but take care when they are that sweet (as you will see soon)…but mostly they taste like plain yogurt to me. The bush is the wilderness that exists outside of town. Since we are further north, it’s not as dense as a rainforest, but is just as green…check the picture:

2. Shea nuts fall from trees. This is where the women come in with their sacks and basins to come and collect them. I accompanied some of the women one day into the bush and what an adventure we had! It was HARD work! Cutting off the road and heading into the bush some times along paths, sometimes just cutting through randomly (I don’t know how we didn’t get lost) moving to one area, stopping and bending over to pick the fruits through the grass, putting them in the bin and moving on…again and again, hard work!

Furthermore, when I say fruit, you may think of a pleasant, firm, sweet smelling thing, but the majority of what we picked were hidden under grass and shrubs, rotting and covered in bugs. Another special treat was using your hand to push off the fruit before collecting the nut (because you only want the nut, expect for a few fresh fruits that you eat as you go, or take back to the house), and the fruit is being eaten by many maggots, which feel awful on your hand, squirming around, trying to bore into your skin! Ah! There are also hoards of fruit flies around the fruits…its all very natural, so you get over the bug factor pretty quick, but I just want to give you a sense of the work that goes into this, its not like picking apples.

Along our adventure we faced many challenges (personally my legs, oh god! African women are used to bending over and working, but I am not! The backs of my legs are still killing me, days later, from all that bending!), the rain…the rain came swiftly and viciously and made us finish our work early, and the forest cows, which apparently are mean and are very big with large horns and must be kept at bay with large sticks.

3. Once you have collected all that you can carry, you put it on your head, and take the long walk back into town. For me, my neck would break if I tried to carry that weight, but instead I carried my backpack wrapped up in a rubber bag on my head, emerging from the bush a little bit more African, but still very much a silly white girl.

4. Boiling. The shea nuts are covered in rotten fruit and flies, so all that gunk is boiled off in a big cauldron.

5. Drying. The nuts are spread out on the ground to be dried by the heat of the African sun. They are spread out and quite frequently have to be protected from hungry and relentless goats and pigs.

6. Cracking. The shea nuts are covered in a shell that needs to be cracked to extract the seed/nut that contains the precious oil. So women grab a stick or paddle and wack the nuts on the ground to crack the shells open.

7. Removing the shells. Now that the shells are cracked, the task of removing all the bits of shell is next. This requires taking one shea nut at a time, taking off the bits of shell (kind of like a boiled egg…sometimes it comes nicely, and sometimes you need to pick at little pieces). There are a few tricks to remove the shells, but one is not really that much easier than the next. You can sit for hours and pick through them, or you can combine it with dumping them from a height from one basin to another and letting the wind carry away some of the chaff, both methods are time consuming and hard work.

8. Drying. The exposed shea nut is laid out in the sun again to dry.

9. Extracting the oil. This part I was not able to witness. I am not sure how it is done, but I believe it involves boiling. I believe there is a press that can be used, but again, I am pretty sure that no machinery is used by the women in Busunu. Furthermore, the nuts can be stored this way for up to a year and can be traded and sold this way to those who will go on to process it for the oil.

I was excited to participate in all the steps of the process…but quickly learned it’s no game. Since everything is done by hand, and you have such large quantities of nuts to process…each task quickly becomes very tedious and blister inducing. I was fortunate to just have a taste of all the different steps, and I didn’t need to suffer every morning to get up and go into the bush if it had rained all night or if my muscles were aching. So I got a taste of it, but still I will never really know.

I have a better appreciation for rural livelihoods as a result of this trip for many reasons. First, the women had no choice but to be dragging their tough asses out to the bush every day and collecting these nuts. This isn’t a bonus income, this is it, the big deal, so if you don’t do it, you go hungry and your children suffer. There is no choice in the matter.

Everything is dependent on the weather. The reason the shea nuts are growing so well, is because of the weather, if it rains too much, it disturbs the picking, when it is sunny, you come back and spread your nuts out to dry. The weather dictates your schedule.

Everything is done painstakingly by manual labour. Each and every shea fruit that is produced passes through your hands many times before it is ready to be sold. There are no machines, nothing beyond a strainer and a stick to aid the process. But there is a sense of pride that I sensed among the women, a sense of camaraderie and respect that comes from sharing hardwork with someone else. They all understand the struggles they are facing, and for me, unlike what I warned before this village stay, I was not refused hard work, women were hassling me to come into the bush with them to get the nuts and disappointed on the days when I hadn’t gone! These women are so powerful, tough and hardworking, it blew my mind. The women I was collecting the shea nuts in the bush were maybe 50-60 years I think, and they were tough! They could carry more, bend over more and go on for hours like that…I felt pretty weak in comparison.

When I asked my shea nut picking partner whether she enjoyed it (I quickly knew it was a stupid question as soon as I asked it) she said no! she is old and if she had money to buy the shea nuts from someone else she would. All of the women who had received one of the three trainings were all out collecting shea nuts. When I asked what they do for income aside from the shea nuts, many of them said they were just in the house, or doing small selling of food in the market. For the most part the women were excited about having a new skill that could earn them money and give them something to do with their time. The biggest problem they faced was gathering enough money to start up. But they were all incredibly hard working and wanted to start up a business, not just because they had a passion for soap or tye and dye, but because it was a way to make money and be doing something productive with their time. Furthermore, it empowers them to have a skill and a means to be improving their lives that is mostly just dependent on themselves.

So, there has yet to be a positive outcome of the trainings that happened in Busunu, and there wont be more progress until this season is finished, and women will potentially have some income to contribute to their business groups (all the groups of people trained are working together to pool their money to buy resources). I hope that they are able to get started and get going. They are struggling now, but I can see their determination (and desperation) that will lead them to get these businesses started.

I think this village stay was very successful in helping me to better understand the clients, some of the struggles they face, and make that emotional connection, something to keep me working hard and accountable to those people I talked to, to bring about some change that will aid them in their first challenging steps in starting up.

Here’s a challenge for those of you in Canada who are eager to experience some of African life and investigate more into some of these matters.

1. take some time to investigate into the ingredients of some product that you use (whether it be from the Body Shop or otherwise) and try and find where the products come from. If it says a women’s group in Ghana, for instance. Think about what it means. What does it mean to be part of a women’s group. How does it impact their lives? Try and think about the work that goes into the product they are producing and take a moment to wonder at the crazy interconnections that exist in our world, so many of which we are unaware of.
2. do something really boring and tedious all day long. Feel the blisters that will form and the craziness you feel for lack of stimulation. Do this and appreciate the struggles people feel in undergoing work without the aid of machines to quicken the process.

3. take a bucket shower! Go ahead, its fun. Fill up a bucket and either use a cup or just your hands to splash the water up onto yourself. Its amazing how well you can clean yourself with less than 10 L, when the average person will take a 10 minute shower, having used about 100 L of water in the process.

More on the Challenges to Development in Ghana

2008-06-15T08:02:00.002-05:00

Road conditions! As Eric Dudely discusses in his book the critical villager, there are many communities that are overlooked in development projects because of their inconvenient location. The village we traveled to this week is in the ‘overseas’ area of the West Gonja district because during the rainy season, it can only be accessed by canoe as the small bridge we were just able to squeak by gets flooded. There is the foundations of a bridge along the road, but its been sitting unfinished for some ten years, and instead, you veer off the road, down a steep slope, over a small concrete slab used as an improvised bridge, and up a steep hill and back onto the road. It was sketchy! And the road is terrible. People in Damongo are aware the road to it from Tamale is bad, but the road to the surrounding villages is worse, if you can call it a road. All those car commercials highlighting the durability and toughness of various trucks and SUVs should be shot along this road! It’s a physically exhausting trip, hence the isolation of the communities along the way.
Through discussions with clients and various other people, the general public does not have faith in the government to help them. A client told me that people are aware of the services of the district assembly and the BAC, but that they don’t feel comfortable going and asking for help because they feel like they will shame themselves by sharing with someone their bad situation, and then still not receive help from them. I feel there is a big disconnect between the government and the people, and the people almost don’t expect anything from the government, because they don’t deliver. Watching the Ghana news at home, all the development projects are going to the south instead of the north where they are more badly needed, so yet again, another reason not to trust the government, or at least, expect disappointment. It’s interesting now that there is an election coming up in December, to see these issues resurfacing.

Guelph Chapter Questions

2008-06-15T07:57:00.002-05:00

Hey GEWBies, just wanted to address some of the questions you asked before we finished school. Hope everyone is doing well and the chapter is organizing itself and getting ready for the coming year! I can tell its underway from the emails in my uog account! Best wishes.

In what ways do you plan to grow during your JF placement? Just think of a few examples.
I hope to become more confident in myself, learn to make those big and risky decisions, and give them my all even though its scary as hell and I will likely fail, learn to overcome the mental limitations and frustrations brought on my health problems, and learn to stay open-hearted and open-minded in new situations. I hope by the end of the summer, I can look back and feel stronger and be proud of what I accomplished. It’s definitely the hardest thing I have ever taken on, but I know I will get through it, and I know that after it I will have the confidence and courage to take on anything!

Have you changed in any way yet thru your preparation?
Through the reflection on our priorities, in which ways we want to grow and learn, have been incredibly useful tools to help see where I want to go in live, and how I can take steps to get there. Through the trainings and preparations in Canada, I have learned a great deal about myself, my strengths and weaknesses, how I learn, and the role I play in groups. I am continuing to learn throughout this experience who I am and what makes me happy. What I am willing to change about myself and what I am not. Its interesting to find the fundamental things that make you happy. Like nature and bonding with people and playing with kids.

How comfortable do you feel with the concept of using your 'white privilege' while overseas? Or is it more just being aware of the concept that is important?
To be honest, I came in wanting to reject it left right and center, but when you are treated differently everyday, whether by children calling after you Cabruni! Cabruni! Or by people asking how much your laptop cost and asking you to marry them or take them back to Canada, it feels like you are taking an extra kick to the gut by expecting in other circumstances to be treated like everyone else…like waiting in line at the hospital, or catching a bus. I know it sounds awful, but its one of those things where you really need to pick your battles. Some days you have the strength to refuse the privilege, and some days you do not. Furthermore, people don’t always appreciate when you do it, sometimes they are confused that you are refusing their hospitality, and so on, so it is not always cut and dry.
On that note...Racism.
I think one of the hardest things to deal with has been the discrimination I feel. The amount of unwanted attention is overwhelming, though I am starting to get used to it, and the amount of conscious rudeness that I feel is upsetting, considering Ghana is supposed to be one of the friendliest places. So what have I experienced as racism…the feeling that all the little things that make me who I am become unimportant, and I am lumped together as the same as any other person with the same skin colour. I am just as easily European as Canadian, and there is no distinction between the two. It feels weird to represent what it means to be Canadian to so many people. Because even though I am Canadian, I am Kim Jusek! I am many things, aside from having white skin and being from Canada. One of the benefits of staying in Ghana for a couple of months is that people will know me for who I am, not for just being different. As hurtful and offensive as it is at times (most of the time), I know it is mostly rooted in lack of exposure to the rest of the world. I grew up in a multi-cultural city where it is offensive to point out peoples differences and I am used to and accept those differences.

Dorothy’s Perspective

2008-06-15T07:46:00.003-05:00

This week and next I have am pushing myself to get out into the field to try and seek out Dorothy’s perspective and experience. There are two levels that I am investigating, just as I feel there are two levels of clients REP deals with: those who have already started a business and receive business training or financial assistance and those who are trained in a new skill or trade from which they can start up a business.

This week I was in Damongo talking with some of the clients and spending time with them to see how they do their work and the challenges they face and the challenges they have overcome. I spent the day with Rabi, my host mom, as she traveled to a far off village to help establish one of the girls who graduated from her centre with her own empowerment centre. She also was expanding her market by introducing and selling her soap in the villages and towns along the way. It was interesting to see how she has taken the training that she learned from the BAC and become the most dominant producer and seller of soap in the area (aside from the commercial stuff). Another client makes furniture, like the couches we have in our homes in Canada, they are very impressive, and another was a metal worker. I learned many things from these clients, through what they told me, but even more from seeing the amount of work that goes into their product and the quality that is produced with such basic tools.

I regret that I didn’t take any pictures, but the metal worker started with a single sheet of some rusty metal that used to be the lid of something, and had a model of what he wanted to create, and I thought, there is no way I can see how he will make it without some sort of machine. But, with skillful hammering of sharpened nails and molding around a big old engine, sure enough he had made it!
It was the same with the furniture. I have never seen a couch made before. I have never thought about how it was made, where the materials came from and how they were all connected together (which is shameful because I pride myself on my curiosity about thinking how things work). But to see how each piece of wood is worked to make the curved arm, the frame, how the material is sewn together, how the stuffing and the springs are attached, how all this work is put into a single couch set for a specific family, it blows my mind. I am so used to mass production, to making something that someone will surely need, but you don’t know who it is, and thousands of the same things are made.
It’s the same as the clothing. In Ghana, you go and buy your cloth that you like, take it to the seamstress, pick out a style, they take your measurements and some time later you return for a fitting and final adjustments, and after a few weeks of hard work, you have an original outfit…when in Canada you could buy a dress that many others have for triple the price. I don’t really know how I feel about it, it’s like in Canada we aren’t aware of how all the things we have came to be. I don’t know really what it means, but I know that I appreciate the skillful hard work that goes into just about everything I use in daily life here in Ghana. I appreciate that deciding to start up a business making soap isn’t something you can just half-heartedly decide to do because it will require hard work, commitment and perseverance, an investment beyond money. I feel it is like most things I have experienced in Ghana, life is just a lot harder. Your water isn’t just flowing out of the tap, you are working in 30 degree heat, you can’t just open up a can of soup to heat for dinner, and you wake up early to sweep the dust from your compound and hand wash your clothes…you are just that much more intimate with what you are doing. To help understand, you can think about it this way: think about how many appliances you use in the day, and how much more time it would take to do the things you do without the help of those machines. I am not advocating that one way of life is better or worse than the other, but its important to appreciate the difference.

One other thing that was striking about the businesses, was to see how they started up and built themselves up. All these three clients have been established for long enough to have seen their workshops expand, and have aspirations and goals for future expansion. I couldn’t get a sense though of how passionate they were about their craft. They worked harder than ever at them, into the night and over the weekends, but when I asked them if they enjoyed it, the impression I got was that they didn’t. Maybe it’s a luxury we have at home to choose something to do that we enjoy. Rabi is a good businesswoman, and she saw an opportunity in soap making I believe, and the others, they must have started because they had an interest, or maybe their circumstances led them there, and they became good at it, and you need to earn money, so why not this way?

Anyway, it was great to get into the community and meet some people. I wish I had done it weeks ago! To be honest, I was scared, and didn’t think I could do it. Obviously I can’t do it as well as a local could do, my counterpart for instance, but I think the people I visited were proud that I was interested in what they were doing and taking the time to appreciate their struggles and successes. I hope it made them, in some small way, sit back and feel some pride in their accomplishments.

So with this knowledge from the field, I hope to come up with a work focus that will best contribute to Dorothy, which is a lot harder than I thought it would be! There are so many things that I see could be different, but every idea is based on the information I have at hand, and my knowledge of what is happening changes all the time, the fog clearing bit by bit at its own slow pace to catch a glimpse of the momentary ‘real picture’. I hope that I can contribute something while I am here, at the very least I hope to better understand how development work influences its intended beneficiaries and to touch just a few people. The goal of major institutional changes in REP was quickly suppressed when I realized just how big the world is and how small I am. Not that I have given up on the idea on helping to improve the world, but I am reevaluating how that change can be brought about. I will work tirelessly to try and have impact here at the systemic level and grassroots level...but what can we do in Canada to improve the world? Some changes can happen here in Ghana, but here is not the only place to start the changes. Anyway, some food for thought…the fundamental question: what can we do in Canada to make the world a better place, not just soothe our guilty conscience, but really do to make a difference? It’s unrealistic to think the only place to change the world is in Africa, and unnecessary for all those who want to improve the world to travel here to do it.
This coming week I will be spending in a nearby village, Busunu. There have been three training sessions run there: batik tie and dye, soap making and beekeeping. The clients are in the process of mobilizing themselves, but have yet to start up any businesses. My goal for the week is to learn about their lives and their struggles and learn if and how the training sessions were useful. I hope to come out of it with more of an emotional connection to the clients and understanding of their lives.

Some of the Challenges of Development Work in Ghana

2008-06-08T07:05:00.002-05:00

One of the topics I want to rigorously explore during my time in Ghana and when I return to Canada is: what are the challenges of development in Ghana. What is preventing all the development projects and aid money from being effective? What are the forces, internally and externally, that are keeping people impoverished? Alternatively, what is working well and why?

Now having one month experience working in an office that is both an NGO (non-governmental organization) and GO (government organization) I am experiencing some of these challenges. I will begin by explaining a bit more about what I have learned about the Rural Enterprises Project (REP) to give context on further discussions.

REP is funded by IFAD, the Government of Ghana, and the African Development Bank. It is divided into three levels, the Head Office in Kumasi, Zonal Offices, and Business Advisory Centres (BAC) in each of the participating district capitals. I am working in the BAC of Damongo for West Gonja in the Northern Zone.

The BAC works in a few areas, including business counseling and training, leadership and group dynamics, community based skill training (soap making, batik tye and dye, beekeeping, etc), and credit and financial services. The main role of the BAC is to act as a facilitator to enable the communities’ to access these services. For example, when a number of people come and request that they would like to learn how to make soap, then the BAC lets the zonal office know who then sets them up with a service provider, and the BAC helps the service provider get set up, and collecting fees from clients, arranges for a location for the session and so on. The BAC in Damongo has been operating for about 2 years now, as REP has expanded into its second phase of implementation, working off its initial success and expanding the project to more districts.

The aim of REP is to integrate the BACs into the local district government, the District Assemblies, to support good governance in the country, and reduce dependence on donor organizations for the project’s continued success. Overall I think that REP is a great project that has been well planned and executed. But, as I am trying to understand, one great project still doesn’t alleviate the many impoverished, but why not? What is missing and what can be done better to assist more people in a more effective way?

In my office, I work with four others. There is the BAC Head, the Business Development Officer (BDO), the Admin Assistant, and the driver. Everyone is really friendly, answers my millions of questions, and involves me in the work. I can tell that they are doing this work because they want to help people, even if the passion I was expecting is not immediately obvious. They have been very understanding of my poor health and have been very accommodating. There is a team mentality, though a clear hierarchy exists. So far I have found myself to be useful in making some insightful observations in reports, helping with computer training and professionalism in report writing.

My BAC is finishing up its 2nd quarter of activities for this year. Since I have been there, the work has been quite slow. One of the major reasons being they are waiting on funding to continue their activities. Its frustrating though because planning doesn’t require funding. Getting out into the community in which you live for the sake of letting people know what you do and giving informal support doesn’t require funding. Working to set internal goals in the office and having critical discussions doesn’t require funding. So when hours are spent not working in the office because of lack of funding, it’s frustrating. Furthermore, there is a culture of this mentality in offices, so its not just a matter of stepping in and suggesting a change in attitude, its quite a bit more complicated in execution, but I am trying understand the cause and to lead by example.

Over this past month we have been working on preparing four business plans of clients to be sent to the European Union for credit application. I have spent my time in the office assisting with these plans, learning about the BAC and where will be an appropriate and effective area for me to work in to help improve the organizations capacity to serve the rural poor. Having come up with some of my ideas on what areas I can focus in from the office perspective, I am now going to take to the field to get Dorothy’s perspective. This week I am going to be making preparations (physically, logistically and mentally) to go and stay in a village next week that the BAC has worked with to better understand the challenges that the rural poor, the people the BAC is aiming to assist, face in their daily lives. What do they need for the service to be more beneficial to them and achieve its purpose? Hopefully after this, I will be able to make a more informed decision on which area will be most beneficial to focus my time and energy over the remainder of the summer.

I think I will leave it at there for now, just some context on my work, and then I will get into some deeper thinking in the posts to come. As always, your questions and comments are always very welcome!

Update from Ghana

2008-06-08T06:53:00.002-05:00

Today is market day in Damongo, it is as hot as ever, and for the first time I was able to walk through the market, enjoy the strange aromas and not be afraid. To be honest, as exciting and wonderful as the African market is, it is a scary experience your first couple of times! People yelling, you buy 12 avocadoes when you just want two, nobody has change, yelling cabruni! Cabruni! (white man, white man)…its scary until you know how to deal with it, who to talk to and who its ok to ignore, learn a few phrases, and so on. Some funny things I observed in the market today while sitting with Rabi while she sold her soap were people buying and wearing toques in 35 degree heat, I tried a ball of groundnut powder mixed with maize flour and ginger, very spicy and tasty, and I learned a few more tricks in greeting etiquette (of which there is a lot). Oh and the watermelon here is the best I have ever tasted, dark red and full of flavour!
My health has been rocking me since I have been here, but I am trying hard to get my body adapted to the food (it needs transfats and other crap from home!), which is a frustrating endeavor, but well worth it since I ain’t got much weight left to lose! On a trip to Tamale to take out some money and meet up with some other JFs, we enjoyed some ‘white people’ food, including apple pie and some beer! One thing that I am definitely missing is my sweets, I will have to find substitutions in the foods here…I am on a mission.
Here is a picture of some of the street food that is delicious, and is decently safe I would say if you see them fry it in front of you and take a sizzling hot one, watching its journey from the fryer to your bag. The boy standing there is Rafiu, the driver at my office.
Here is one of my horses! They make me so happy on my way to or from work when I see them. Here is my first African outfit! I have 2 more on the way and can’t wait to buy some more cloth for other outfits.

Red Earth, Blue Skies, Green Trees

2008-05-31T07:47:00.000-05:00

Red earth, green trees, blue sky. Damongo is a very beautiful place. And it seems that, like my mom, I brought the rains. Which here is a good thing because now everything is green. Thankfully my office is a little ways outside of town so every day I have a beautiful bike ride through a bit of country. The roads to Damongo are treacherous, and everyday I take my life in my hands by hurtling down this dirt road on a sketchy, but sturdy second-hand bike, pick up trucks and motorcycles occasionally whizzing by kicking up clouds of dust…but I still think its one of my favourite parts of the day. Along the way there are scattered herds of cattle that roam through the trees and green pastures, and women carrying shea nuts, firewood, and milk on their heads into town, children walking to school, and farmers heading out to their fields. There are two horses that I have seen in these fields, sometimes they cross the road just ahead of me…it makes me so happy to see them! Even though they would probably run away if I try to pet them, I am still going to try the next time I see them.

One thing that has struck me is the lack of appreciation for the beauty of nature. People think I am strange when I ask the name of a certain tree, or where a beautiful place to go is, and so on. Perhaps in Canada we are more aware of the dangers of climate change facing our environment (or maybe just because I got the University of Guelph I am used to more appreciation). Perhaps its because people live substantially more simply here then we do in Canada. So if a truck has awful exhaust fumes spewing out the end of the tailpipe, there are so few trucks that it isn’t that noticeable. Garbage is thrown on the ground and incinerated, but again, the environment here appears to be vast and endless, so ‘dilution is the solution to pollution’ subconsciously rules here it seems. Furthermore, there is far much less stuff here, with far less packaging.

I had the opportunity to visit the family farm recently, and it was amazing! We were driving down the road, the sides of the road are covered in trees and tall grass, with ‘bush’, and all of the sudden we pulled over and arrived…it took me a moment to recognize that the area had been manipulated at all. We hiked in a bit, and mounds of dirt in rows became visible. Some trees had been cleared, and the grasses had been somewhat cleared, but for the most part it could have easily been mistaken for the wild. The family is growing yams, which are planted in a mound of dirt, and a stick or tree is nearby which a vine, much like that of a rose, grows up. They also have cashew trees, and are growing groundnuts (peanuts). There were a few sheanut trees and mango trees naturally growing in the area. It was beautiful and wonderful to be out in nature. It smelled so clean and natural. The earth everywhere has the same scent, though it may be accented with pine needles or mangos, it is still the same. (next time I go to the farm I will be sure to take lots of pictures!)

I am learning as much about myself as I am about a Ghanaian culture and development work. One thing that I have now confirmed to be fundamental to who I am is to have time to appreciate nature and its quiet wonders. This has been a hard battle: learning how to adapt to a new place, how to be effective within it, to be different and stick out, all the while missing all that is familiar and dear to me…however, its comforting and so important to realize, as I have mentioned in a previous post, that there are so many similarities, things that are fundamental to us all. Though values, language, context and history may be different, a smile, a laugh, spending time with your family, competition in a card game, worries about money, and enjoying a good meal are the same. Sometimes I panic and feel like I am on a different planet, but others I could just as easily be walking down the Danforth in Toronto, running down the dirt road at camp, or sitting in the lab in Thornborough helping a friend with excel. So even though it’s so hard at times, I think understanding another culture is so important, and identifying the similarities between this one and our own will help those in Canada identify with people and care about those who may seem completely different and foreign.

The Glory of a Fart

2008-05-31T07:45:00.000-05:00

While having severe diarrhea, you are tuned into every gurgle of your stomach…because every rumble, every pain, every pop could mean an emergency. When you have diarrhea in Africa, it’s not something to blush over, so get over that quick. Soon everyone will know you are running diarrhea and ask every time you emerge from the toilet (or just walking by) how it is doing. When you have diarrhea, making a loud or smelly fart is not embarrassing, its longed for! Because when you have diarrhea in Africa, there is no such thing as a fart. Let this act as a warning to those who have not yet experienced the wonders of diarrhea, and a laugh to those lucky enough to have a proper toilet nearby. When you are lying in bed, its still early and you want to sleep some more…but there is that pang in your lower gut, saying you gotta go to the bathroom…in the back of your mind, you are aware of the danger of waiting…is this a fart I can control with ease, or something worse? That’s when you either accept the inevitable and make a run for it, and try to deal with the repercussions of your momentary laziness, or thank god for the glorious, glorious thing that is a fart. Have you appreciated a fart today?

As can be gathered, I have, along with several other volunteers, been fortunate enough to have already contracted malaria (thankfully having only the mild symptom of diarrhea)! Going to the hospital to try and see if I was afflicted with worms or some horrible parasite as the cause of my runny stomach, I left surprised to learn that I had malaria. Who knew? I guess I should have expected it, after all, I get just about every sickness imaginable, so why not malaria from a mosquito as soon as I stepped onto the tarmac in Accra? Thankfully I am feeling better now, but resigned to the fact that I will most definitely get it again before I leave!

The Anyoka Family

2008-05-25T08:01:00.003-05:00

I have been very fortunate to be able to live with a family that is very involved in the community and who is a client of the Business Advisory Centre. Therefore, not only are they a large and diverse family who is committed to education and development, but I will learn first hand some of the pros and cons of the services that the BAC provides. There are about…15 or so people that are here all the time, and I won’t introduce them all now, but eventually you will get to know them as well as I do!

Another thing that is wonderful about this family, that despite the initial glaring differences, they are so similar to my family at home. Granted this household is a little more bustling than my own, the feeling is about the same. Kids running around (with or without clothes) eating all the food, people yelling at one another, watching TV, listening to music, sitting around talking, there is an obvious mess to an outsider that the people in the house have grown to ignore, people doing and wearing weird things laughing with one another…they are just regular people, which I really appreciate.

At first I was worried that this family was too wealthy for me to be living with….then I realized, though they may have many things compared to others, they still don’t have running water, they still have animals running around their compound, and they still sleep under the open sky when it’s too hot. And most importantly, they have worked very hard to get where they are, and are still working hard to better themselves and their community. They have a very diverse household of income generating activities. Even though many of the luxuries I thought I was leaving behind in Canada are still with me here in Ghana (electricity, toilet, privacy, etc), I think it’s important for me to understand that this isn’t that uncommon…though Dorothy may live with much less, I think it was humbling to realize that not everyone in Africa lives like she does. And although I desperately want to understand her struggles, I think its important to break the stereotypes of what we have in our heads is the norm in Africa. As one of the boys in the house said when I asked if many people had electricity (to which the answer was yes) he said, its not like it is on TV. I am looking forward to learning so much from this family that was able to work their way out of the stereotype to better understand how it is possible in this context how to get out of extreme poverty.

I have attached some pictures of my house, my room and a quick picture of 2 of the boys who have been very friendly and kind in showing me around and teaching me Gonja, the local language.

the family compound
the little house/room i am staying in
inside my room
antie, shariff and junior having some tea for breakfast

Soap Making!

2008-05-25T07:51:00.005-05:00

The past two days I have spent learning how to make soap! Soap making is an activity that the Rural Enterprises Project (REP) supports through running training sessions on how it’s made and business training for startup businesses run out of the Business Advisory Centre (BAC). Rabi Anyoka, the head lady of the household I am living in, runs an empowerment centre for girls from a village in West Gonja, training them in seamstress skills, soap making, and tie and dye, along with leadership skills and basic numeracy and literacy. She learned how to make bar soap about a year ago through a training session facilitated by the BAC. After receiving a grant and some credit, she has created a soap making and training workshop and invested in some of the start up materials. Even though she is a true entrepreneur, she is still struggling. A one year payback period on a loan is very difficult, especially when the monthly payment is substantially greater than the monthly profit. Depicted below are some pictures taken as I learned about how to make soap. Lessons learned…its long, hard work and African women are strong!

Process of Making Bar Soap:
1. collect materials (coconut oil, buckets, scoops, caustic soda, water, soda ash, perfume, mixing spoons, hydrometer, rubber gloves, moulds, plastic bags, tables, and cutting equipment)
2. the moulds are set on the table and lined with plastic
3. mix caustic soda (NaOH) and water measure out the volume and ensure correct level of acidity (pH) with the hydrometer (Note, the solution is corrosive! Gloves should be used when handling this liquid)
4. mix 10 L of coconut oil, 1 scoop of perfume, 1 scoop of soda ash, and the measured volume of caustic soda and water into a large mixing bowl
5. the contents are mixed for about 10 minutes or less, in the same direction at an average speed (don’t mess around here, or you will spoil the batch!)
6. the contents are poured into the moulds (caution, heavy lifting!)
7. These are left to dry for approximately 2.5-3 hours until they are white in colour. The tops are leveled out with a scrapper as the cooling occurs.
8. the moulds are removed, and the scrapper is used to clean up all sides of the block of soap
the block of soap is brought to cutting board, and pushed through to slice it into 10 long rectangles (caution, very difficult!)
9. these are pushed through another cutter to create square blocks
these blocks are carried back to the table, and all 6 sides are stamped with the logo (time intensive)
10. the blocks are placed outside to dry in the sun
11. the bars of soap are collected and stored inside
12. bars of soap are distributed to various sellers to sell at the market and in villages

In working with REP this summer, I will be trying to evaluate the services the BAC provides, and see in what ways I can increase the capacity of this office to improve their services. Since I have been out with malaria for the past week (I know, leave it to me to get it as soon as I get off the plane), I have made little headway at the office, but have spent valuable time learning about the struggles and activities of the clients we are working to help. One area I am interested in learning more about is to what extent creativity and innovation is encouraged and fostered in training sessions. Training 30 women in how to make soap doesn’t seem that sustainable unless the women are able to diversify and improve upon the initial training. However, easier said than done, as I observed that to experiment and try to be different is risky, and when you have a family to feed and limited supplies, to spoil a batch of soap is perhaps more significant here than it would be at home in Canada. It was dually noted that machinery would have helped the process along. However, I am going to tread lightly here, because I think a machine would be a band-aid solution, not a real solution to the problem. If I could identify someone in town who could design a machine, and make it themselves, then more business is being created from training one woman how to make soap. Training one woman how to make soap does not just improve her own livelihood, but trickles down to many others. For instance, it created work for the carpenter who built the moulds and cutter, it provided a product to be sold for women struggling to earn income, it creates more business for the oil producers, it promotes sanitation, and so on.

Fufu, Bawnku, TZ, and Kenke…

2008-05-18T10:55:00.004-05:00

There are many different foods in Ghana, but there are some essential staples that I will share with you now. For the most part, you have a starchy and gelatinous paste and a delicious soup, there are a variety of forms of starches that are from millet or maize flour and pounded yams. Preparing them is hard work, as you will see in the quick video clips below.

Also, I witnessed the slaughtering and preparing of 3 guinea fowls. It was quite alarming, but very natural. It seems Ghanaian are much more intimate with their food as much toil and trouble goes into preparing them.

So far the food is sitting ok, although I can't seem to eat as big of portions as everybody yet. In response to kyla's question...I am a bit of both the excitement phase and freaked out-what-am-i-doing-in-damongo phase. I go back and forth several times in a day. I look forward to becoming more comfortable in Damongo, learning more Gonja (local language) and understanding the pace of life better.

Environmentalism and Development

2008-05-18T10:07:00.006-05:00

Water Distribution and Waste Disposal!

I have been in Damongo for just about a week now, and am slowly getting settled. Everything is both exciting and challenging, and I have so many things to share. I will make posts about my family and my work soon, but first, I would like to make some observations on two things that I have learned a great deal of in Canada (and may be near and dear to some of you Environmental and Water Resource Engineers) which is water and waste management in a developing city.

In Canada, we are aware that drinking from bottled water is not sustainable, as it creates waste and stresses groundwater aquifers. However, here in Ghana, bottled water, or sachet water, is the way to go. That is where we see human health and safety and the environment clash. People drink sachet water because there is not safe and reliable tap water (if there is even a water distribution system at all) that is easily accessible. I have yet to see a refillable water bottle used, because where would you fill it? Depicted here are some volunteers drinking what is called pure water sachets in Tamale.

In the majority of people’s homes in Damongo people rely on Borehole water for their drinking and cooking purposes (from what I have learned there are 2 boreholes in Damongo, a city of about 8000 people). Borehole water taps into a groundwater source, and is safe to drink. One of the boys in my household, Kofi, has a truck and he pumps it full of borehole water and distributes it to households, the hospital and schools, etc. The water is stored in tanks like the one seen below.

My family also has another water tank that is filled with river water. This is used for bathing, flushing the toilet, and cleaning clothes. It is also filled the same way by means of a truck. It is an interesting substitution to having piped connections, which have proven to be unsuccessful in many developing cities anyway. Many women still go to the borehole and carry the water back on their heads, but in my family, the women are relieved of that job because of the service they provide with the truck.

Now, what happens at the other end? There are trenches or open sewers that line the streets (so you have to watch your step) that are about 2-3 ft deep and about 2 ft wide in most places. There is a picture of the back of my house where we have our bath and where the water from the toilet goes.

So what happens to the water sachets when you are finished with them? They generally get tossed on to the ground. Walking down the street and you are done with your food, just toss it on the ground. Something that was hard to get used to at first, but there are plenty of animals to scoop up what you have thrown down. Goats and sheep and pigs and fowls and dogs are all walking around eating up food from the ground. I question how healthy it is, but overall it works. Animals drink and eat the waste that people make. The main thing that doesn’t work is the plastic sachets and plastic bags. The animals do not eat those, and they do not decompose quickly. When waste is collected in the house, I believe that it is burned, but I have yet to witness it. Currently, I am collecting my garbage in my room until I figure out where it will end up.
Well, that is that! An interesting observation about some fundamentals of the infrastructure of human societies and challenges we face socially and environmentally as one world! (i have a picture of a goat eating some trash, but this computer is slow, so i will post it later).

For the Guelph Chapter

2008-05-06T00:10:00.006-05:00

Hey everyone!

Soooo, I am sitting here, at 1:15 am in the living room of the EWB house in Toronto, my first Ghanain dinner (not in Ghana) sitting in my belly, sort of sprawled on someone elses clothes, squished in a room with about 25 outgoing JFs and some of the masterminds of EWB debating about CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) and tied aid, gender roles in development, and how to create stronger linkages between the overseas and Canadian programs.

I can't help but think about how I can best make myself useful to the Guelph EWB Chapter and in turn the Canadian public at large. One of the questions that I posed to George Roter (one of the founding CEOs of EWB) was about how we (the JFs) can develop the Canadian society. After some discussion, George described EWB volunteers as a virus. Basically, EWB as an organization hasn't thought too much, or planned too much in which way we are developing Canadian society...soooo, every EWB volunteer is essentially responsible for going out and asking the tough questions and getting people thinking and starting to generate change. In my opinion, it is up to us define how we have impact in Canada, and it is very important for us to reflect and analyze how we are "developing" Canadian society, in order to ensure a positive impact.

The predeparture training has been very intense, in classic EWB fashion (as can be illustrated by the fact that it is quite late). I have learned so much that I can't hope to summarize, but can't wait to share with you all.

I have received a few placement details changes that I will update you on. I will be working in Damongo, in West Gonja of the Northern Region. Seeing as I have only 1.5 days before I leave, I haven't had the opportunity to find out too much, aside from the fact that this district includes the largest national park in Ghana that has elephants! I can't wait to get there and find out so much more! If any of you want to have a look at a government website of the region, take a gander at this website and let me know if you learn anything interesting or important.

http://westgonja.ghanadistricts.gov.gh/

Alright, I am tired, but I love you all (sorry if that's too strong, but embrace it, thats Guelph!) and thank you all for all your hard work and support!!

Kim

And I am off!

2008-04-30T12:10:00.002-05:00

Before I stuff the last mementos and do-hickey's into my pack, I want to have one last post from Canada. I am sitting here, after the weakening goodbyes and before the towering and uncertain journey and I am excited and I am scared. I can't wait to live this amazing adventure, learn about Ghana and its people, and try to better understand the world we live in. I am heading to Africa bursting with emotion, and as enthusiastic and open-hearted as I can be without actually exploding. I hope that throughout these four months I can learn and articulate my learnings through the posts on this blog. Get excited for pictures and videos, and stories of funny, challenging and enlightening moments. As always, I deeply appreciate your questions, comments and support and will do my best to act as a tool to your learning this summer.

With love and a nervous smile I am off!

Questions from Guelph Chapter Members

2008-04-16T20:40:00.003-05:00

A while back Guelph Chapter members had the opportunity to write down a question that they had about our time (myself and Madavine) in Africa this summer. There are many questions, and I intend on getting to them all, but here are some basic ones to get it started.

What are you the most apprehensive about your placement?

The thing that I am most worried about for my placement is not being able to do a good job. I am going with the hope of being useful and helping the REP become better at helping the rural poor. I am also worried about big picture development issues. For example, am I actually doing good development work, or am I merely having good intentions with a terrible impact? I am worried about getting sick, and not being able to run to the doctor to check it out whenever I feel compelled. Finally, I am worried I am going to cry a lot. I am very emotional, and I feel like I am going to be confronted by a lot of things that will really frustrate me and there won’t be anything I can do about it, and in situations like that, I cry. Not because I am a big baby, but just because I am super emotional. Finally, I am worried about finding a family to live with, and the inevitable language barriers. HOWEVER, I am excited for all the same things I am worried about because of the challenges I will have to overcome and how much I will learn.

Will you be part of a variety of communities during your placement?

There is a chance that I will travel around with a field officer to different communities to evaluate and implement projects related to the REP. However, right now, I am still lacking enough details to know for sure. Even if my work doesn’t require it, I am going to make an effort to travel to different communities by visiting other volunteers on weekends. I want to be able to see as much of the country as I can. Also, we are encouraged to stay in a village for a couple weeks to better understand rural livelihoods and the people we are working for. (For details on my placement, check the previous post)

During, After, Before going: what impact did you have or expect to have in your placement?
There are many areas in which I have thought on my impact, my friends and family in Canada, my friends and family overseas, my workplace, the Guelph Chapter, myself and of course Dorothy. Dorothy is someone I have not formally introduced yet, and it is definitely important that I do. Dorothy is a concept based off of a real person. She is person for whom we are all working. She helps us at EWB have a focus on impact. For example:

What is the difference between digging a well, access to clean water and improved health?

What is the difference between building a school and ensuring that children get an education?

What is the difference between having a public display and making Canadians aware of the challenges faced by the world’s poor?

The difference is a shift from thinking about what we want to do, to thinking about what we want to achieve. More specifically, it’s thinking about what we want to help Dorothy achieve.
Dorothy is the mother pounding fufu in Cameroon. She is selling oranges on the street of Accra. She is tending to her kids in Tanzania. She is trying to sell some crops in Senegal. She is the bright school boy who dreams of being a doctor, who is working through high school as a subsistence farmer.
She is our boss. The one to whom we ultimately report. I want to better understand who Dorothy is, and find my own Dorothy. Every volunteer comes back with a story of their Dorothy. The person who inspires them to keep on trying to make the world a better place…to keep on caring when it is so easy to ignore the realities of the billions of people living in extreme poverty and to continue exploiting them with our casual and consumptive lifestyles. I want to have that person, or those many people whom I am working for. For whom I can inspire those yet to find their Dorothy’s to work for in the mean time.

So that is who Dorothy is. In my placement, I will be working to improve Dorothy’s life, therefore, my impact plan for my placement will be slanted towards her.

Before: Learn as much as I can and humble myself as much as possible with how little I really do know about the world. Care. It is so important to care about her even though we have never met. Be open-minded. Clear my head of what I expect from her and her situation.
During: I want to meet her. I want to learn her motivations and her aspirations. I want to understand what is suppressing her into poverty, and what I can do about it. I want all my actions to be guided by how it will impact her. I want her to understand that there are people who are trying to improve her world, that there are people who care about her, all the way in a small village in Africa.
After: I want to share with as many people as will listen, and even some who will not, who she is, and how anybody can have an impact on her life. People cannot relate to figures in the billions. Not even figures in the tens. But one person has the more power to move and motivate change in the masses in our world. I hope that I can share her story and cause more people to care about her and do something about her situation.

Rural Enterprises Project!

2008-04-09T13:15:00.005-05:00

Hi everyone!

the news is in...this summer I will be working on the Rural Enteprises Project (REP) in either the Northern Region or the Upper East Region. I was thrilled to learn that this was my placement, and another exciting aspect of it is that my coach for the summer (a longterm volunteer with EWB) is Gwen Henderson, an amazing women that I met briefly at the National Conference in Montreal this past January. She has been working in Ghana since the summer of 2006. She has learned a great deal about REP and has been immersing herself in Ghanian culture so I am sure I she will be a great example to follow and an amazing resource and support.

Here is a quick intro to the REP in Ghana:

The Rural Enterprises Project (REP) is a poverty alleviation organization in Ghana that supports the creation and growth of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in the rural regions of Northern Ghana. I will likely be working in an office that is responsible for coordinating training services, credit services and business counseling for women and underemployed youth in the rural districts of the Upper East, Upper West and Northern Regions of Ghana.

What will my role be?

I will likely be working in a Business Advisory Centre, counselling micro enterprise owners in the local rural areas, and assisting in running training programs for micro and small scale enterprises owners in the local rural areas. This can be accomplished through participation and planning of workshops, working as a team with local staff, and contributing to the work of REP in a way that enhances their own work. EWB's involvement with REP has moved beyond the monitoring and evaluation stage and now the goal is to encourage our REP coworkers to put the learnings from the trainings they received, to get the clients to come up with their own ideas (possibilities of improvement), and to help them make them a reality.

Am I excited!?!

Of course! Its very exciting and relieving to learn what my placement is, it just makes it that much more real. I am still waiting on details of my exact location and will be arranging a conference call with Gwen in the next week.

The description of REPs gives me shivers. One of the reasons I felt so moved by rural poverty was because of the toll it takes on women. Born a fighter for women's rights, this struck a deep chord in me. I am passionately moved to be working on a project that will directly benefit women who are rural subsistence farmers and suffer the worst. From a link found below on the right discussing rural poverty, one of the funders of the REP, IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development)

"Women are among the worst affected. More than half of women who are heads of households in rural areas are among the poorest 20 per cent of the population – the poorest of the poor. Women bear heavy workloads. They are responsible for 55 to 60 per cent of agricultural production. Women work at least twice as many hours as men, spend about three times as many hours transporting water and goods, and transport about four times as much in volume. Yet they are much less likely than men to receive education or health benefits or have a voice in decisions affecting their lives. For them, poverty means high numbers of infant deaths, undernourished families, lack of education for children and other deprivations."

REP is a project that I feel I can contribute to. A lot of the projects EWB is involved with involve knowledge of agriculture, which I am limited in. I will have the opportunity to learn about rural livelihoods and agriculture, without pretending to know more about it than I actually do. I am eager to learn more about the project and similar ones to it around the world. Those findings will come shortly.

Just a month before I go! I took my first malaria medication today (because I am want to make sure I don't have negative side effects with Larium, and want to take it soon enough to switch to Doxycycline if I need to.)

Can't Wait!

Development or Volunteer Work?

2008-03-20T15:52:00.003-05:00

Another Engineers Without Borders JF heading to Ghana this summer, Steph, posed an interesting question:

Do people's reactions vary if you say you are doing development work vs volunteer work in Ghana?

What do you think?
Here are some of my intial thoughts, and I would love to hear what yours are.
Volunteer work implies that you are going to help people in need. For the most part, we are all familiar with "volunteer work" as this term is used widely in Canadian society and we can immediately identify activities that constitute volunteer work (i.e. volunteering at a hospital, old age home, helping ESL kids learn to read, volunteering at a food bank, etc.).
Development work, on the other hand, is less clear and harder to define. How many people have experienced development work firsthand?
This summer, I will be doing development work. I will be working with local organizations (non-governmental or governmental) with the aim of having a positive impact on the country's development.
But what is development?! "Development work" is still unclear.
Development, to me, means bridging the gap between the developed and developing world. Not in terms of material possessions and economic status, and this doesn't mean making "them" more like "us", it's a two way exchange. Just as I hope to improve people's lives in Ghana, I hope to develop Canada immensely from this experience. I think development means increasing peoples opportunities and choices in life. To me, it means learning how to create a world in which we find a balance and can live sustainably, happily and peacefully. Ambitious?...Of course, but what else are we going to strive for!
Just to complicate things...I will be doing development work, but I also will be a volunteer. I will not be paid, and will have the priviledge of being able to be focused on improving the organization, and not be worried about losing my job by questioning what is currently being done.
Your thoughts please!

Learning about Ghana, my summer home

2008-03-06T20:44:00.017-06:00

Ghana is where I will be spending my summer and hopefully learning and impacting to the max, but how do much do I actually know about this country? One of the things that I want to do is to slowly and manageably learn about Ghana and have my lovely Guelph chapter learn with me. What I have decided to do is to focus on one aspect of the country per week. Here we go!

Week 1 - (Reading Week) Ghanian Culture

major ethnic groups: Akan, Ewe, Mole-Dagbane, Guan, Ga-Adangbe
no part of Ghana is ethnically homogenous
the south has western influences and is primarily christian, the north has more of an islamic influence
Naomi Chazan: prolific writer on modern Ghana
President: John Kufour
one of Ghana's foreign policy principles is to be a friend to all
food: fufu (mashed cassava, plaintain or yam), ground nut stew, fried plantains and magoes!
sports: football (soccer) and boxing
textiles: Ashanti well known for kente cloth, in a distinctive basket-work pattern. the colour and design is a way of indicating status and clan allegiance. only men weave the kente cloth
Population: 21 million
Capital: Accra
former UN secretary General Kofi Annan is from Ghana

Week 2 - Ghanian Geography and Climate

neighbouring countries: Cote D'Ivore, Burkina Faso, Togo
539 km of coastline
the size of Britain
only a few degrees north of the equator!
very flat and close to sea level (the whole country is below 1000m)
world's largest artificial lake, Lake Volta (when the Volta River was dammed in the mid-1960s
climate: tropical
the north (where I will be going) is hot and dry and I will be there primarily for a dry season

Week 3 - Music!

Check out some radio stations from Ghana:
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/live-radio.php?popup=1
Ghana is known for its fusion of musical genres, including of American hip-hop and gospel rap!

Week 4 - Language

Twi ("chwee") is the most widely spoken African language in Ghana, where its the official language of education and literature
Hello: a-kwa-ba (response) yaa
Goodbye: ma-krow
Please: me-pa-wo-che-o
Thank you: may-da-say

Traits of a Development Worker!

2008-03-04T16:15:00.005-06:00

This is from the Guelph Chapter's working partner, Alanna Peters. She is currently working in Burkina Faso (West Africa) as a long term overseas volunteer (referred to as OVs or LTOVs) working on the improving the mango value chain. This is her response when we asked her for some traits of a development worker...its pretty funny.

Alanna Peters:

Patience - as things will always take longer than expected and your working in a context that doesn't always make sense to you

Ability to laugh at yourself - you are bound to make cultural blunders

Ability to self motivate - Often you are left alone to make you work happen and it is not always easy to see the point and purpose, but you need to value the little successes as much as the big ones. Also nothing/no one is going to come to you it's up to you to find friends and things to do so get out there.

Balance - ability to keep all aspects of yourself in balance: mental, physical, emotional and social. To know when one area is taking too much of your energy and how to bring yourself back to a balance. This has tobe one of the hardest parts and is constantly being challenged.

Curiosity, desire to learn - you learn sooooooo much while being overseas and working in the development context, it's great but can betiring

Constant questioning - it's the only way to understand!

Be humble - Know that you really don't know that much about the context and the complexities, know that your judgments are culturally learnt and may not apply to the new context/culture, be willing to say you don't know - people will respect you more if you are honest about your ability/knowledge than if you pretend you know and get caught later

Have a strong stomach - You are going to get sick as food, water, germs are all different, be ready to be acquainted with the latrine on more than one occasion, and laugh if you have an accident, I think the statistics in EWB is that 90% of OVs poo themselves at some point - so far I've been lucky, but keep your fingers crossed, just don't let it phase you

Determination - constantly push yourself, this is not always easy as you are tired some times, but with language it is absolutely necessary

Keep criticism in check - This is your criticism of yourself, of others and from others. For yourself try not to be too hard on yourself when things don't work out or are slow. Of others, try not to compare ways of doing things with ways you are used to back home. From others, be ready to accept criticism and to let some of it roll off your back. Here people are less gentle in their opinions as they are in Canada, in other words they are direct despite your feelings, but don't take it the wrong way

Dedramatize - it is never as bad as you think it is, you just need to take a step back and relax then you will see it for what it is

Have fun and enjoy the experience and exchanging with people!

*I hope that helps.

Alanna

Questions Questions Questions

2008-03-04T16:10:00.006-06:00

Have some general questions about what EWB is all about? Here are some classic questions and their response. If you have more specific questions, let me know and I will answer them as best as I can.

What is Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Canada?

EWB is a registered Canadian charity dedicated to human development. The goal is to ensure that people in developing countries have access to the technology they need to improve their lives and opportunies. EWB works overseas with partner organizations in local government, NGOs and other community development projects. In Canada we address our goals by building awareness and encouraging change at the individual, corporate and government level.

What kind of work does EWB do overseas?

Engineers Without Borders sends both long term and short term volunteers to work with established organizations to build their capacity in the rural sector in primarily the areas of water and sanitation, food production and processing, and energy. EWB parnters with these organizations through long term volunteers (LTOVs) and short term volunteers. LTVOs spend a minimum of 1 year in a community working on understanding a project in order to have a positive impact. Short term volunteers, or Junior Fellows (JFs, that's what I am), are university students who spend 4 months working on similiar projects to the LTOVs. EWB works mainly in rural Africa in Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Zambia and Malawi.

What does EWB do in Canada?

In Canada, EWB works to ensure Canada is a role model among 'developed' nations in development - reducing the barriers facing developing countries that exist from our own policies and actions. This is done through:

encouraging change in individual actions through public outreach and advocacy and school outreach
corporate practices through corporate engagement and engineering curriculum enhancement
government policies and actions through public outreach/awareness, petitions and advocacy, and direct engagement on development topics

An example of some of the things that have been done at the Guelph Chapter:

-high school outreach presentations on topics "Food for Thought" "Energy Matters" and "Water for the World"

-GROW highschool conference on international development

-Bill C-923 in canadian foreign policiy

-Promotion and education of Fair Trade

-creating the foundations for the curriculum enhancement at the School of Engineering and corporate outreach

-weekly education sessions on anything from workshops on the root causes of poverty to speakers on the role of engineers in appropriate design overseas.

Pre-departure Learning

2008-03-01T19:57:00.003-06:00

Although my placement doesn't begin until May 7th when I step foot in Ghana, there is a significant amount of learning and preparations that need to take place beforehand to ensure we are the most effective and make the most of the learning experience when overseas.
The major preparations come from:

1. Personal Development Plan
2. Past Junior Fellow (JF) coffee shop discussions
3. Foundation Learning
4. 1-week pre-departure training prior to leaving

The personal development plan is to help us identify what our strengths and weaknesses are and see how they line up with what knowledge, skills and attitudes we will need overseas in our placements. From there, we just have to take advantage of the time we have to try and improve and fill in the gaps of our knowledge.

The coffee shop discussions have been the most helpful so far. The two JFs from the Guelph chapter, Janna and Kyla, and myself and Madavine, the other 2008 JF from Guelph who is going to Zambia, meet every wendesday in the Daily Grind and they help us through our learning and preparation. They answer all our questions and tell us stories of what to expect, its lots of fun.

Foundation learning is a series of assignments for all of us JFs to do. There are different levels of learning, and an example of some things I have completed already: interviewing a past JF and seeing how their expectations lined up with their realities overseas, reading the book "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe, reading about rural livelihoods and agriculture in Africa, to name a few. We discuss our findings on myewb posts with the other JFs and our JF support Staff, Cat Dorval.

Then there is a whirlwind of a week where we learn as much as we can before we jump on a plane and disperse throughout Africa!

Team Ghana 2008

2008-02-27T13:45:00.003-06:00

Team Ghana 2008!
There are 39 Junior Fellow volunteers heading overseas to Ghana, Burkina Faso, Zambia and Malawi this summer for 4 months. Fourteen others, including myself, are heading to Ghana and are shown here with our tough and ready-to-change-the-world faces. We gathered from universities across the country for the first time in January in Montreal at the 2008 Engineers Without Borders National Conference. Though we had just met, we were assured by many that we would be best friends in no time. I am looking forward to getting to know everyone better, it seems to be an amazing group of people.