g {squared} glynnis in ghana

village stays!

2008-08-21T02:47:00.001-07:00

Hey All!

I apologize for the long silence on the blog. In between work piling up and two village stays I've been fairly swamped. I wanted to take some time on this post to talk about those two village stays. The first was to a village named Bau, which is about 8 miles up the road from Salaga. I had arranged this stay through a friend of mine, and so we set off early one morning up the road, with some bread as a gift and smiles on our faces:) We arrived in Bau about 20 minutes later, at which point he explained to his family that the white lady wished to stay with them for a few days. Needless to say they were a little surprised! Hafisu (my friend) quickly translated our questions. I wanted to know where they took their drinking water from (rainwater and wells) and where I could go to the washroom (the school was equipped with latrines or otherwise it was just freeranging in the bush). They wanted to know if I would eat their food (yep!) and whether I could drink their water (sure!). After that, Hafisu hopped back on the motorcycle and said he would see me in a few days. Luckily for me he had also explained that I wished to do the things that they did and wasn't interested in the visitor treatment, and also that I had some basic knowledge of the language but wished to learn a lot more. No one in the family spoke any English, so the next four days turned out to be quite a challenge! However, the family was so extremely welcoming and were very gracious to allow me to get involved in all of their work and daily activities. I spent most of my first day hanging out with the women as they spent hours preparing the meals for the large household (about 20 people in total). We were a little bit limited that first day as it had been raining on and off for a few days. Luckily for me, the rain meant that the insects had come out in full force and the children were fully engaged in capturing the termites that were everywhere. After they had successfully captured a whole bucketful, we got right down to cooking them up! I have to say that they were surprisingly tasty, kind of crunchy like popcorn and a little salty. While everyone was very happy to allow me to get involved in the work they were doing, they were evidently a little uncomfortable and amused by it, so I didn't entirely escape the visitor treatment. The next morning I received quite the reaction as I explained that I wished to go to the farm with the men! Everyone laughed and explained that it would be too much work for me, but I persisted for quite a while and so eventually myself and Danlandi, one of the men in the house, set off on our bikes for the farm. The family had quite a few large plots, with three set aside for maize and a few others for yams and cassava. The boys quickly set in to weeding the field, which is incredibly hard work. I tried my hand at it, but the hoe was confiscated from me after about 5 minutes of awkward weeding. I have attached some pictures of said weeding. After giving me a tour of the other crops we headed over to an empty field to sow some maize. This involved punching small holes in the ground about 30 cm apart from each other, in rows, and then dropping in 2 or 3 maize seeds and then covering them up. While it wasn't physically demanding, I was pretty tired after a good three hours of this in the sun! After being told that I had done well, we hopped back on our bikes and headed for home. I spent the rest of that afternoon participating in some shea nut processing with the women of the house. Hopefully shea nuts sound familiar, as they are present as a 'premium' ingredient in many of the lotions and pomades we shell out lots of money for at home. The shea fruit itself looks a small dark avocado, and when you peel off the skin, the flesh looks and tastes much like an avocado, only significantly sweeter. However, there isn't much actualy fruit on it, as most of the mass is take up by the large pit. Shea nut products are made from the softer mass found at the center of the pit, and the final product involves quite a bit of processing. After removing the shell and fruit, the shea pits are laid in the sun to dry. After they have spent usually a full day in the sun, the women spread them out into huge piles, where they sit themselves on top and smash the pits with a long stick. This can go on for hours and is pretty tough work. After this, the women pile the shea nuts into baskets where they sort through each by hand, picking apart the hard exterior shells and the soft centers. The soft centers are then collected and squished individually. After this they are boiled several times to create a very oily liquid. This part of the process is also significant for the amount of water it requires, so for households that rely on shea as a significant part of their income, drought or poor-quality water can have a huge impact on their livelihood. The next day I toured the village, being followed by a screaming mass of children, who insisted on introducing me formally to every household. On this tour I encountered the straw huts that you can see in one of the pictures. These huts are actually for the storage of grain, as the rainy/harvest season is about 3 months long here in Ghana, so the various staples (yam, cassava, rice, etc.) must be stored and rationed for the remainder of the year. Most families in the village are engaged in agriculture and most are at a subsistence level. It may seem that that the amount of land farmed by each family would provide more than enough to sell for additional income, but given that they must store food for the remainder of the year, there is little left over to allow most to move past the subsistence level. Finally, on my last day, I was taken to the village's source of water in the dry season, a small dam about a mile and half away. This was a decent walk on rough ground, and I wasn't carrying 20L of water on my head! I have attached pictures of the dam. The family that I stayed with seemed fairly aware of water treatment and said that they boiled all of the water they took from the dam, but that they knew that not everyone in the village did so.

My first village stay was certainly an eye-opening experience to the rural ways and means of life and survival. However, my second was even more valuable because it provided some contrast to the first and helped to expand my view of rural Ghanaian lifestyles. Whereas the first village I stayed in, Bau, had some connection to the electrical grid, Pagaza had none. As soon as the sun went down, the flashlights and headlamps came out to help everyone perform their tasks. This meant that most of the cooking was done in darkness, as was my nightly bathing, eating, and the discussions I had with Henry and his host father Mustapha. Henry is a fellow JF who has been working for the Africa 2000 Network in Tamale. To contrast the extremely urban setting of his placement, Henry has been living in Pagaza with Mustapha's family, which means he generally rides his bike 17 miles to and from town every day. On top of not having any electricity, Pagaza also did not enjoy as many water facilities as Bau. The majority of the water used for drinking and cooking and bathing in Pagaza was taken from a small lake/pond about a five minute walk into the bush. The water was visibly dirty, though Mustapha assured me that the village hadn't had a case of Guinea Worm in years. Following Henry's lead, I came equipped with my own supply of purified water. Henry and I went on a muddy walk one day to see the village's other water facilities. These included two covered wells with handpumps that had been built years ago by the Rotary club and were no longer functioning. After about 10 minutes we reached the borehole that you can see pictured. From the account Henry has heard from the villagers, when the borehole was being constructed the contractor failed to drill deep enough to reach ground water, so the borehole isn't technically providing safe water to the community as it is contaminated by ground elements. Finally, during a particularly dry dry season, the borehole and the wells ceased to provide any water and so in a desperate attempt to discover the source of the problem the community members broke large holes in the concrete pads of each to attempt to see the water. In reality, this only served to further contaminate the water sources. The problems that you can see with this whole situation are common throughout Ghana. The Northern Region is naturally quite arid, especially in the dry season, and so experiences these problems to an even greater degree.

Well there is a ton more to say about my village stays, but I seem to have rambled on for quite a while so I'll end it there.

lots of love,

g

July 21st Blog Chunk

2008-07-21T08:29:00.002-07:00

Hello All!

Well I am taking advantage of the internet today, as I had to come and download some documents from the NGO that I am planning a workshop with, and I am now completely abusing the privilege! I apologize again about the lack of pictures - the internet here is just not able to handle them. I am having a pretty great day and after this will be heading out to gather together some supplies before I head out on my village stay. This is pretty much exactly as it sounds - I will go and stay in a local village for the next week, in order to experience and understand the nature of rural life and livelihoods here in Ghana. I am super excited and I promise to take lots of pictures. I will even be able to post these pictures, as I should be in Tamale again the weekend of August 1st, where the internet will be able to handle of the images. Once I return from the village I'll have a pretty hectic three weeks ahead of me. First I have a visit from our Director of Overseas Sending, Levi, who is coming to spend a night or two with me here in Salaga. Then the Thursday of that week I'll enjoy a visit from Jen, my awesome coach, who will help me in planning my upcoming workshops and generally help me reflect on my time and work here and the best ways to wrap everything up. Then the week following I have a much awaited workshop to sum up all of our work so far on the UNICEF project, and then all of a sudden, it's my last week of work, which I am expecting will be consumed by all sorts of report writing and such. Also, as I mentioned, I'm heading to the Tamale area on the weekend of August 1st to spend some time with one of our JF's, Henry, who is living in a village on the road between Tamale and Salaga. I'm planning to spend a few days exploring his village, so the next time I write I should have stories from two villages for everyone! Well, I still have lots of work to do and my time here is dwindling so I'lll let you go but I miss everyone and I'll be seeing you before you know it!

lots of love,

g

July 17th Blog Post

2008-07-21T08:29:00.001-07:00

Well looking at the calendar today I realized to my surprise that I have only 31 days left here in Salaga. Almost exactly one month - though I think I will be much closer to that by the time I am able to post this! Next week I am heading out to the Makango area, part of our District, to spend some time in a village. I am planning on spending five days with a local family to experience the realities of rural life in Ghana - yes, mud hut and all! I plan to explore the way in which the village generates income, which will likely include a great deal of fishing, as the area is located close to the river. I am excited to interact with people outside of what has become my home community and plan on asking some questions to learn more about what, if any, interactions they have with government structures. In addition, I will have a chance to monitor and evaluate the data collection of the I-WASH project as the village I am staying in was visited by a data collector and we have received this information just recently. Finally, the village stay will be my greatest connection to 'Dorothy', as Ghana's Northern Region is it's most impoverished and nowhere is this more evident than in rural villages. I am also hoping that my village stay will provide some great personal reflection time and will allow me to think about my time here in Ghana so far and to evaluate the impact I may have had on those around me and to start to think about trying to relate all of this to those in Canada. While this blog is one of the ways in which I will communicate my experiences here with people at home, I will have a greater responsibility to my EWB chapter, our donors, and our community to actively present my work and life here in Ghana upon arriving home. It seems a bit crazy to have to really start thinking about this, as for the past few months it has seemed a distant future, but once I return from the village I'll have three weeks of work left and then will have to start the lengthy process of returning home! Wowza! I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit worried about "re-integrating" into Canada, Vancouver, SFU, EWB, and my friends and family. In my conversations with other the JFs, we've all come to the conclusion that the gravity of many of our experiences here may not be fully realized until we have departed and are back in what should be the familiar environment of Canada - and we'll find that it is not so familiar or comfortable anymore. I am already certain that I will miss the friendly and welcoming nature of Ghanaians and may in fact feel a little bit lonely given the somewhat cold nature of social relations at home. Sometimes I try to figure out what I will miss and what I will be happy to have back, but I don't know if there's much point to that at this time - because I will only know once I have left and reflect on it all then. Part of our debriefing training in Toronto, in fact, includes reflection exercises and advice on how to re-integrate and answer the questions you are likely to get. For example, how do you suppose I should answer "How was Africa?" Is this something that warrants a rant on the complexities of development and how international aid is disadvantaging local industries, or should I describe at length the community that I lived in and the people I formed meaningful relationships with, or perhaps I should just answer a simple "good" or "bad"? Throughout the past three-ish months, thinking of home has consisted of one main component - when I am feeling sick or down, I conjure an image of the arrivals area at Vancouver airport, with me sporting an excellent tan and being greeted ecstatically by my friends and family and perhaps a second image of the one or two drinks that may follow my arrival;) But simply put, home has seemed like an abstract eventuality that was so far in the future there was no point in attempting to construct what being home would actually feel like or would entail. Unfortunately, the experience of many EWB volunteers in the past, and something I am starting to grasp, is that the simplicity of that arrivals scenario is just a momentary reality and that life becomes infinitely more complicated after that as one tries to make the jump from living, in my case, with a muslim family in the impoverished Northern Region of Ghana, to Vancouver, one of the world's most expensive cities to live in, in Canada, one of the world's strongest economies and a member of the G8. Huh. On top of that, I'll have just about 4 days to get back into the groove before starting school again, for what should hopefully be my last year. I am wondering where in all of this I'll have a little time to myself... if at all. This development stuff just keeps getting harder and harder, doesn't it?

I am interested to hear your thoughts on my upcoming 're-integration'. What do you think will be one of my greatest challenges, given all that you have read here on the blog? Any suggestions for how to cope with what might be called "reverse" culture shock? I am all ears!

Well I suppose that's enough heaviness for now!

until next time folks,

g

July 16th Blog Post

2008-07-21T08:28:00.001-07:00

I thought I would take the opportunity today to write on a topic that has been on my mind basically since I arrived here in Ghana, but especially over the past two weeks. This is of the issue of child labour. Now, you might think that with Ghana being in the medium grouping on the Human Development Index (HDI) and being generally one of the most prosperous and 'developed' (whatever that means) countries in Africa that child labour would be a feature of the past. However, the practice is alive and flourishing here in Ghana, and is so pervasive that I have found myself desensitized some days to the image of a small child carrying a load of firewood on their head, pulling a handcart loaded with goods, or selling trinkets and biscuits in the town center. Pretty much everywhere you go in the larger cities you will be bombarded by small children attempting to sell you sachets of purified water for 5 cents or unpurified water for even less. If you are looking for essentials such as toothpaste or a toothbrush, you will likely find these being sold by a child of anywhere from 5 years to 18 years, with a string of each strung over each shoulder, as well as an assortment of various other inconsequential goods. I have had an internal struggle over this practice while being here. Should I purchase anything from these children? Clearly they and their families are in need of the money, and I might in fact be contributing to these children going to school. On the other hand, I don't want to contribute to the viability of child labour and so sometimes contemplate only buying goods from adults so as to indirectly influence the parents who have set their children to work by making them unprofitable. I am constantly going back and forth on this issue. However, on my return trip from our mid-placement retreat in Damongo, I spent a good 5 hours waiting for my bus in Tamale. The bus station is essentially an informal market, with men, women, and children of all ages attempting to sell anything from bread, apples and mangoes, to watches, jewelry and cloth. I had one small girl approach me who couldn't have been more than 8 years old, carrying a tray of small chocolates and biscuits on her head - she was so cute that I just couldn't resist. I bought a few chocolates and crackers from her and she comfortably settled in next to me on my wooden bench. Soon two of her friends had joined her, one of them selling a selection of mangoes and the other also selling biscuits. To my surprise, the three of them spoke fairly good English and so I took the opportunity to find out more about their lives. As it was around 1 in the afternoon I had assumed that they didn't attend school, but I had failed to consider the fact that it was a national holiday and so they had been selling for the whole day, whereas regularly they said they would attend school in the morning and then come to the bus station afterwards until dusk to sell their wares. One thing that impressed me so much was how much they seemed like, I hate to say it, 'regular' kids, despite the fact that they were spending upwards of twelve hours a day in the heat and crowds selling their goods for an average price of about 5-20 cents (more for the mangoes than the biscuits). They were laughing and joking with each other and had giant grins plastered on their face for the whole of our conversation. They eagerly wrote their names for me in my journal and were quite pleased when I asked if I could take their picture. I just couldn't believe what spirit they had in such conditions. Considering that the money they earned at this assumedly contributes to their school fees, what is your opinion on this? Suddenly it seems like not such a straightforward decision when you consider that their participation in the practice of 'child labour' allows them the opportunity of education, which greatly increases almost every significant statistic - lifespan, income, etc - and decreases the chance that their own children will be engaged in the same industry. However, I doubt that the majority of child labourers have access to education and so if the practice continues to remain a viable way of supporting families, it will undoubtedly continue, with extremely undesirable effects on the health and futures of hundreds of thousands of children in Ghana, and millions worldwide. What is the role of child labour in the world and in development? Can it contribute to a country's development? Is it called for in today's economy and in a culture of large family sizes? Or is this an issue of basic human rights and should it be punished accordingly? I think that my answers to these questions would have seemed much more obvious before coming here, but a lot has changed now.

To further illustrate my questions, I'll present the case of my host father. I was quite familiar with the fact that he had received his secondary school education, and owed his English as well as I think many of his business skills to this. However, I had made the assumption that all of his siblings were equally educated. Not so, as I found out! Z and I had an interesting conversation where he explained to me the circumstances of his education. He is the youngest of his family, with 7 older siblings. None of them had been educated and he was to be the same, until a friend of his father's insisted that Z be sent to school. Unable and perhaps unwilling to pay for his education, Z's father allowed him to attend, as long as he could pay the fees himself. So, Z would attend school every morning and then every afternoon would tramp into the bush to collect firewood, which he would then carry into town and sell each day until he had enough money to pay for his lunch the next day and his school fees every term. Thus, Z, my successful and generous host father greatly benefitted from child labour. Does the issue seem perhaps slightly more complicated now? Thought so:)

While I can't deny the extreme conditions that most children labour under, I also am now incredibly dismayed at the thought that it could contribute to Ghana's development in it's own way. What are your thoughts on all of this? I'd love to hear them in the comments!

Until next time folks,

g

July 14th Blog Post

2008-07-21T08:24:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

Just a warning... the following post is a little bit, um, delicate so if you aren't big on anatomy or bodily discussions you could avoid it, although you'd be missing out on a laugh!

--------

Well it is the beginning of another week here in Salaga at the District Assembly. The last week has been an interesting and trying one, with some challenges presenting themselves on many fronts. The first being that last Sunday I fell sick, and continued to feel that way throughout the week. As we have all experienced before, feeling less than optimal can really interfere with your motivation and capabilities to do all sorts of things. As I blogged about previously, being sick here seems to intensify those feelings. I felt extremely useless and slow last week, and this was added to the frustration of already being behind schedule on our data analysis. So, after a sleepless Thursday night, I biked into the hospital Friday morning to see if I could get some answers and hopefully some respite. Now, I wasn't feeling so bad that I felt that I couldn't go to work, but I still felt that my mild fever, fatigue, and general achey body shouldn't be continuing on for this long... Well, the hospital just seemed to add to my frustrations. I visited the same male nurse that I had on my previous visit to the hospital, and was optimistic at the outset. My last visit, about 3 or 4 weeks ago, involved me sitting down with him and describing my symptoms, at which point he suggested I take a malaria test, but that I was also possibly suffering from Diabetes. Given that I was fairly certain I had malaria, I didn't think much of this second diagnosis. I took a quick and relatively painless malaria test, which came up positive, treated myself, and began to feel better almost immediately. This past friday, I wasn't so lucky. I had arranged to meet the nurse at 8, though he didn't show up until half past, at which point we sat down and I described what I was feeling. He then asked me what my washroom facilities were like in my home and I explained that I was living with a local family and so was sharing their latrine with them. He then proclaimed that I had gonorrhea. Imagine how surprised I was to hear this! I explained that this didn't make much sense to me, for two fairly significant reasons:

1. Gonorrhea is an STD. I am not sexually active.
2. I have none of the symptoms associated with Gonorrhea.

His response was as follows - and though it seems almost comical now, let me assure you that I was close to throwing something at his face, that was how frustrated I was.

Me: I'm fairly certain I don't have Gonorrhea.
Him: Are you urinating frequently?
Me: Yes, but I think that would have a lot to do with the fact that I have been running a fever and so trying to drink lots of water
Him: Well that's one of the symptoms of gonorrhea
Me: Um, ok... Well I don't have any of the other symptoms associated with Gonorrhea and more importantly I'm not sexually active so I can't have gonorrhea, it's an STD
Him: Well anything that affects your private parts (his words, not mine) are referred to as an STD, regardless of how you contract it
Me: Really. I'm not too sure about that. But I'm not sexually active, so I can't have gonorrhea
Him: You don't have to have sex to catch it. Someone in your family likely has it and you've caught it by using the same toilet facilities
Me: But we don't even have a toilet, it's a latrine
Him: So you've caught it through the air - it's an airborne disease
Me: Huh. Listen, I am 100% certain I don't have gonorrhea. I think I might have a parasite or maybe malaria again.
Him: I don't like to use drugs when I don't know what it is though
Me: Ok, well I'll take any test you give me
Him: Here, take this book (of female case histories) and read through the symptoms listed and see if you can figure out what it is that is afflicting you

No Joke!

Now, you may be saying, Glynnis, why didn't you see the doctor instead of this clearly incompetent male nurse? Well, the answer, my dear friends, is that it was Friday so the doctor was not in and wouldn't be in until the following week, despite the crowds that were gathering to seek treatment. After quickly skimming the book and explaining to him that I didn't have any of the ailments listed, I quickly bolted from the hospital so angry I was almost in tears. I went to work for a few hours and then headed home to take a nap. I decided that my self-diagnosis was better than nothing and took a course of malaria medication and felt immensely better the next morning.

As I said before, this is all pretty funny now, but imagine what my experience means for the quality of medical services here in Ghana? Now, I feel on some level that it has much to do with this particular individual's personality - I have a feeling that he has a need to seem intellectually superior to others and so is always looking for the non-obvious diagnosis, but regardless there was no form of oversight or trained medical professional to contradict his suppositions. Imagine the mountains of consequences that could have happened from his 'diagnosis' - perhaps out of his neglect I had developed a severe case of malaria and died? Suppose a parent brought their teenage daughter in with the same symptoms, were told she had gonorrhea, and disowned her for having contracted an STD? I could go on, but it just serves to frustrate me more. Now, Ghana doesn't seem to have a shortage of medical students, but certainly a shortage of doctors. In fact, the two doctors in Salaga aren't even Ghanaian, they're Cuban. So where do they go? Well, like Canada, Ghana suffers from the power and positions offered to it's medical students by more developed countries, as their medical students have a fairly good reputation on the international scene. So, after their graduation, many of them follow the 'brain drain' and take positions in North America and Europe, leaving their own country to be seriously understaffed and for people to receive treatment from the likes of the man who treated me. This only adds to serious problems that exist in regards to access to medical services, as now once someone has managed to travel the distance to receive treatment and has managed to save their money to pay for their treatment, they may not be receiving care that is anywhere near the quality that should be offered.

The problems of receiving adequate medical care in Ghana just seem to keep mounting and I think it is one of the foremost problems facing the country's future development. Any thoughts on what I've related here?

I'll share a quick bit about the rest of my weekend. I woke up feeling much better Saturday morning, which was a good thing because I had a visitor for the weekend! Sophie is a teacher in Toronto with a good friend who is part of EWB's overseas team. She stayed with me for Saturday and Sunday night, before heading onto Kitare, a village in the Kpandai District just next to ours (which formerly used to be part of our District until last year.) It was great to show someone around Salaga and share my experiences here with, as most people will only read about them and/or see the pictures. I hope that I was able to give Sophie a good welcome and introduce her to some more Ghanaian food and cultural activities, as she has only been here about 10 days so far. Saturday we attended a local ceremony called Passing Out, which is a graduation ceremony for semstresses, and then Sunday we took a nice walk down the road on which I live, in the opposite direction in which I usually head, out in to the countryside. It is certainly a beautiful site and we stumbled upon the local muslim cemetery, which I have included a picture of. One thing you'll notice is that some graves have cement markers, while others don't. My cousin explained to me that there is some disagreement within the Muslim community over whether these should be used or not. Additionally, if you look closely you'll see that each grave is marked by a cactus, which will presumably survive much past the lifetime of the formal cemetery. I really liked this feature of the cemetery and am considering introducing it back home!

Ok well, I guess that's enough for now. Until next time folks,

g

July 7th Blog Post

2008-07-21T08:21:00.000-07:00

Well it is week nine of work here in East Gonja. Had a pretty interesting weekend. Spent saturday morning catching up on my washing and cleaned my room, which I had fallen behind on last week due to the retreat. Funny how that got in the way of my life here. One thing the retreat accomplished that I hadn't planned on, was making me realize how comfortable I am here. When I arrived home tired and sweaty from traveling on Tuesday night, I was so relieved to climb into my own bed and was happy to be around people I knew in an environment where I could fully function. Had some interesting reflections on that. Anyways, following my washing on Saturday, I took a quick bucket shower and raced into town in my best outfit to meet up with Sister Babe (pronounced Baby) (I've gotten into the habit of calling everyone here sister, as that is simply how you're referred to once you know someone, regardless of their relation - in reality she is a cousin of the siblings in my home). We then headed over to something called 'Passing Out' which is essentially the graduation ceremony for the seamstresses that have finished their three years of apprenticeship. Before we arrived, each had been given some material and was asked to create an outfit. Upon completion of the outfit, each was walked into the centre of the circle of people and knelt down on the pillow and rug that had been set up. They were then sprinkled with glitter and what appeared to be baby powder and attended by a small girl holding a bucket under their chin. Music played as people then proceeded into the circle to press money onto her forehead which was then collected into the bucket. I am assuming this is essentially her start-up fund for creating her own seamstress shop, but this is essentially unconfirmed. Following this, each girl was given a certificate, which certified their 'graduation' by the Ghana Seamstresses Association. I watched all of this seated with Sister Barkisu, my host father's sister, who is a seamstress and quite a senior one too, judging by her participation in the ceremony. When Sister Babe and I first arrived at the ceremony, I attempted to quietly take my seat, but this was ambushed by everyone's enthusiasm to see the white girl dance in public once again! Oh lord. So, despite my protestations, the man in charge of the announcements kept chanting 'Sister Alala' into the microphone, until I finally got up into the middle of the circle to dance with Sister Babe. The even more interesting part came when the second girl was being given her certificate, and I was called up to take a picture with her, even shaking her hand and handing her the certificate. Despite the fact that not only am I not a seamstress, nor even Ghanaian, I can barely sew a button onto my sweater without severely injuring myself and said sweater. This is just one example of the reality of being a white person living in Ghana. You are constantly being held up as a permanent 'other', someone unique who is to be treated with respect, while all the while you are trying so hard to work against the perception and establish yourself as just the same as them. At one point, the girl I was presenting the certificate to bent down a little lower than me and I thought this was to prevent blocking the people behind us in the picture so I bent down a little as well. The entire crowd burst out laughing, and someone pulled me back upright. Turns out she was simply bowing to me. No joke. What the heck! Anyways, I extricated myself from that situation as soon as possible, as I didn't want to be held up as such an example, but my refusals were simply not being listened to. What an interesting paradox of respect and cross-cultural communication.

Anyways, following that I headed over to the family store to share some lunch with Ajia, my host mother, and then collected a large bag of pure water sachets to take home on my bicycle. Following a brief interlude conversation during my bike ride home that involved turning down a marriage proposal by a man who wanted to have 'light-coloured children' with me, I arranged that for $2000, some goats, some cows, and some cloth, he could maybe marry one of my friends from Canada. Any takers? I seem to have a knack for negotiating bride-price, so maybe I'll just stay in Ghana and make a business out of it:)

Ok, so I finally arrived home and then started to feel really exhausted.... time for another round of sickness! I think it has come from a parasite that has been lurking around in my body for the past few weeks, so I spent Saturday night and all of Sunday lying in my bed, dozing, drinking water, reading a book, and popping some antibiotics that target anerobic bacteria and parasites. While I'm still feeling a little weak, I'm at work today and raring to go to get our data collation and analysis finished. However, before I get started on that I'd like to offer some reflections. I actually think that being sick will be one of my most valuable experiences here in Ghana. There's nothing quite as lonely as being sick in a foreign country with, let's just say, less than adequate health-services. Outside of the personal reflection time, I really came to understand the insecurity experienced by the average person living below the poverty line. It was a sunday, so I was unsure whether the hospital would be open. On top of that, having visited the hospital previously for a malaria test, I was reluctant to visit the hospital should it be open, as it is a teeming mass of sick people and confusion. It can take hours to be seen by a doctor or be administered a test of any kind - and this doesn't even speak of the supposed reliability of said test. On top of that, you must then travel back into town to buy whichever combination of drugs the doctor has recommended, although this could be supplemented by anything else deemed necessary, as drugs do not require a prescription here. When buying the drugs, there is always the worry that they are counterfeit and won't actually do anything towards curing you, which would then necessitate a repetition of the process already undertaken. Now, however laborious this process may seem, this is the experience of a person living in the city with relatively easy access to health services and drugs. Imagine the average Ghanaian, who lives usually some distance away from a hospital or clinic, attempting to access the same services when sick, with perhaps only a bicycle for transport, and all of that transport and treatment time being taken away from time devoted to livelihood activities or the care of their family. On top of that, there are the fees associated with the hospital services and drugs. So, what happens when you aren't able to access the services and drugs needed, either for reasons of distance or money, or simply because you are unaware or intimidated by the whole process? Imagine the uncertainty of lying sick and wondering first and foremost what it is that is affecting you and whether you will manage to pull through, and then wondering how this will affect the livelihoods and health of those around you? In the past three years, Ghana has instituted a National Health Insurance Scheme, though it will be at least a few more years before coverage and the provision of benefits reaches an adequate level. So, the same thoughts were running through my mind feeling pretty, well, shitty all day yesterday. I couldn't imagine feeling any worse, and yet I didn't have to worry about any of those things. I knew that if I suddenly took a turn for the worse I would be given the utmost care and attention by my host family and my EWB safety net. I had the money to access the service and medications needed and if it turned out to be a dire problem, EWB would arrange the proper treatment for me, either inside or outside of Ghana if necessary. In reality, I had nothing to worry about, other than attempting to get better quickly so that I didn't miss a day of work. And, even then, me missing my work has no direct impact on me, other than feeling down that I have missed it. It doesn't affect my food supplies or my ability to purchase basic necessities for my family, as it would influence most other people here. Ok, so this has been kind of a rambling attempt to communicate everything that ran through my mind here, but I hope that was able to get accross the basic insecurity that comes as part of life here. When you are living so close to the level of basic subsistence, getting sick is simply not the same experience as we have in Canada. I just couldn't imagine having felt physically as I did yesterday, while knowing mentally that I had no safety net whatsoever. The possibilities that entailed for me really overwhelmed me yesterday, and really made me feel how incredibly unequal the world is, in that I can experience such things and not really have to worry about how the end result will turn out. It is hard to acknowledge that my reality is just not shared by many people here, or the world over. Sigh. I guess that's what I'm here to change, but yesterday and today it seems pretty daunting. I think the full reality might not even hit me until the next time I get sick at home, and am able to curl up on my couch, drink some tea, read a book, (not watch tv though - i am still a student!) and generally drift off, not having to worry about anything in my life being affected by my physical condition. Maybe the next time you contract a cold or the flu or some food poisoning, or whatever, just think about how secure you really are in relation to the rest of the world.

I hope I haven't been too much of a downer today. Wishing you all the best, really:)

lots of love,
g

July 2nd Blog Post

2008-07-21T08:17:00.000-07:00

Hello again everyone!

I trust and hope that this post finds you well. I am finishing up my second month here in Salaga and am enjoying being back home (definitely feels like that now!) after the retreat. I wanted to write a little bit about that, as my return trip internet access was pretty rushed and unsuccessful at sharing many things. Our first day was mostly a travel day, with all 14 of the Ghana JFs meeting at the Mahama Guest House in Damongo, joined by 4 long-terms overseas volunteers (including my coach, Jen) and our super-awesome JFSS (Junior Fellow Support Staff) Cat! The transformation in our team over the past 7 weeks was just amazing. It was immediately apparent based on physical appearance when we first arrived, but we spent the next three days diving beyond that to really explore the learning and growth that we all have experienced. I really feel as if our team this year was meant to be, as we all really enjoy the company of each other and were feeling pretty bonded after pre-dep and I am now basking in the glow of 5 wonderful and inspiring days with Team Ghana 2008!

I really enjoyed being able to learn more about everyone's placements, as they are all so different and I am the only JF actually working for government, and it was really constructive to be able to analyze each in depth and the action plans that we have set in place. It was very validating and encouraging to discuss my workstreams with others and to get their support and suggestions. I was on a bit of a down slope the week leading into the retreat - mostly justing getting a little bit tired and worn out with everything - but now I am feeling extremely invigorated and excited about my placement and my life here in Ghana! When discussing everything one on one with my coach I actually said "I just wish I could be here longer." My biggest worry at this point is that I won't have the time to do everything I want to do before I have to leave... so I have to stay pretty committed to the goals and outcomes I have planned for the next seven weeks.

Following some in-depth discussion and general sharing of our placements and experiences we had a fun day to head to Mole National Park! The park is absolutely huge and the only park in Ghana that isn't fenced or structured like a zoo. From my recollections of the guides schpeal (how do you spell that?) the park is something like 4000 square km, but those who know me know that is entirely unreliable. The park was originally established to control the spread of sleeping sickness because many people thought that the large animals, such as the elephants, were spreading the disease. Eventually this view changed and more people began to realize that the animals were something that should be preserved for the people of Ghana. The guide gave the right numbers, but I can't remember, but it is sufficient to say that the park holds an infinite number of mammal, bird, insect, and reptile species. These animals include lions, hyenas, and cheetahs, but they aren't present in the area of the park that we were in. However, this was probably a good thing as our time in the park was spent on a walking tour - not the ideal introduction to a pride of lions!

Because I had been away from the internet for so long, I didn't really know any of the details of all this ahead of time, so I had assumed that we were going on a driving tour of the park, as I didn't know that a walking tour was a possibility. As a result, I hadn't packed close-toed shoes and was forced to wear 6-sizes too large rubber boots provided by the park... yum! There is quite the attractive picture of me sporting these before the walk, but it was taken by Kim, one of the other JFs, so I'll have to post the picture once we can share all of our pictures during our debrief in the middle of August. Anyways, we departed on our walking tour after all of the sandal-wearers embraced the stinky rubber boots and split into two groups. Our guide carried a rifle slung over his back, "just in case", but he informed us that in 20 years he had never had to make use of it. We were all hoping that would still be the case at the end of the day. Not too far into our walk we spotted a bushback, one of the 3 or 4 species of antelopes we would encounter (my memory is particularly bad today!). We soon encountered a few more and then heard a loud grunting sound in the bushes to our right as we were walking, followed by some crashing in the bush - perhaps some noises you don't want to hear on your safari walk! No worries though, it was simply a family of warthogs rooting around in the dirt, perhaps scouting out the best location for a dirt bath, which is ironically the way in which they 'clean' themselves:) Though warthogs can be quite aggressive, our guide informed us this was mostly dependent on your behaviour towards them, so we stood quietly and waited for their crowd to pass, not more than 15 feet in front of us. As our walk progressed, we came upon a group of old buildings from before the park had been constructed, as well as newer building which we learned was the school for the children of the guides who reside in the park. It was while standing in the midst of these buildings that we realized we had company - elephants!!! We stood in awe as a group of 7 slowly lumbered through the overgrown buildings and stared right back at us. It is truly a surreal feeling to see such a storybook animal right in front of you, no more than 20 or 30 feet away. It is so hard to believe that animals can grow that large! Now, I had heard somewhere that elephants don't have knees and I have to say that I certainly looked as if they did, so a spirited debate took place between all of the volunteers about whether or not this was true, similar to the debate that took place during pre-departure training in regards to their being tigers in Africa... this actually isn't as easily settled as you might think! Nelson Mandela even devotes some time in his biography about the topic... and doesn't come to a conclusion. I have actually heard from some locals that there are tigers in the Upper East Region, but that has yet to be confirmed:)

Anyways, following the amazing walking tour that also included a view of a far-off crocodile sunning itself with it's mouth locked open, we returned to the hotel located within the park to frolick in the pool. It was great just to have some truly relaxing and fun time with the Ghana team - outside of it being a break from having to always consider communication with those around you here in Ghana, I really enjoy the company of our JF group and was excited to spend some time with them.

The next day was followed by more great discussion and self-reflection and the creation of some plans for the remainder of our placements - now we are almost done week eight! My return to work has been great as I feel that I have formulated some good plans for the rest of my time here and have already managed to accomplish one of them today - planning a village stay! So the week after next, which makes it July 14th - 18th I am heading to the Makango area of East Gonja to stay with a family in a village - mud hut and all. As my placement doesn't involve a large volume of field work, I am really excited to be able to really engage and involve myself with the rural lifestyle here and to learn more about the livelihoods that the majority of people of Ghana are involved in - farming, fishing, and agricultural processing. I hope to have some great thoughts, insights, and of course pictures once I return.

Well I suppose this is enough for now cause I seem to go much farther beyond what is necessary in all of these posts, but there is just so much to share and not enough time or space! I have included a group shot of the JFs when we arrived at the park, taken at the edge of a cliff over which we could see the elephants bathing themselves in the lake. Later we saw a group of 3 wade in the lake and then flop over on their sides, completely submerging themselves with only their trunks above the water for air - this was an awesome sight. Again, I'm pretty sure others have pictures of this so they'll have to wait until August. I've also included a picture of myself and the herd we encountered as well as a picture of Steph and myself engaged in some great conversation overlooking the most amazing landscape.... one of my most serene memories so far of Ghana.

Ok, I promise that's it for now,

lots of love,

glynnis

On the road again...

2008-07-01T06:10:00.000-07:00

Hey All,

Well our retreat here is somehow already coming to a close. We took the early tro-tro from Damongo this morning back into Tamale and I've utilized the internet again before catching the bus back to Salaga. I am exhausted and excited and inspired and have my brain firing on all cylinders it seems as we were able to discuss the experiences of living and working in Ghana for the past two months and share our triumphs and failures and everything in between. I really can't emphasize what an awesome team we have here in Ghana and encourage everyone to explore the blogs I've linked on the side of the page to see what they have been up to, as we are all in extrememly different placements and living situations. I apologize that none of the new posts from today have pictures, as I am just using the internet cafe and for some reason the wireless isn't working so I haven't been able to transfer. Anyways, let me assure you that the elephants were awesome and I have lots of pictures that I will post at the next opportunity, though that may be at the end of July/beginning of August. I hope everyone is well, lots of EWB Team Ghana love,

glynnis

Thoughts on beauty

2008-07-01T05:57:00.000-07:00

Coming to a new culture and attempting to integrate and simply fit in can be fairly daunting. You have to reconfigure yourself to new standards of behaviour, dress, eating, manners, etc. I think that I had prepared myself quite well mentally for most of these shifts, but as I am reflecting on the first half of my placement (already!) and my time here I identified one area that I had been quite surprised by - the notion of beauty and gender. Before leaving home there were plenty of jokes about me being a 'small white girl' journeying to Africa. However, the reality has been remarkably similar to the humour intended by the phrase. For those who are only reading along, I 'm about 5'5" and maybe 125 lbs. At home, I don't usually suffer a crises of worry over my body or physical capabilities. In fact, I would say that I am pretty confident in my physical strength at home. However, over the past two months, I have definitely spent more time thinking about these matters than I normally would. It seems that women here kind of regard me as something of an oddity and most definitely not a threat romantically! Both at work and at home it is constantly assumed that I am physically incapable of doing things, some which are true cause women here are incredibly strong, but some which are just laughable, such as being able to double someone on the back of my bike or being able to walk any significant distance. I have to say that personally this has been a bit of a challenge because as those who know me will tell you, pretty much the worst thing you could ever say to me is "you can't do that"... and I hear it constantly here. When I had my first outfit made by my seamstress she kind of laughed when I suggested that I may be a little bit larger than she was giving me credit for. Sure enough, my first pair of Ghanaian pants were a little tight in the rear! I have been making a conscious effort to prove my physical capabilities, from doing all of my own laundry which is a good few hours of exertion, to always making an attempt at the things they tell me I am not capable of. I have been largely unsuccessful in discovering where this impression comes from. Is it just because I am physically much smaller than the majority of women? Although, they give extremely hard work to young girls and boys here who are much smaller than me, so that doesn't entirely make sense. Is it because I am white? Although this too doesn't entirely make sense, as from my conversations with some of the male JF's, they haven't faced the same problem. I wish I had an answer!

In terms of beauty, it is a bit of an understatement to say that we are not using the same frame of reference. I have come to realize over the past two months that the concept of 'beauty' is entirely a cultural construction. I can't say that this was unexpected though, as I think it is a common notion that beauty is different all over the world. However, what I was surprised by was the change in my own perceptions. Upon arriving, I had no idea what would be considered the ideal here, and so I found myself regarding women, and men, with almost a new pair of eyes, because I didn't know what standard they were holding themselves to or what they were attempting to live up - I found that I couldn't judge (rightly or wrongly) my impression of their beauty. In fact, that has been incredibly refreshing! Every time I meet someone here I am going into it with no preconceptions and can simply look at their features, assets, and the way they carry themselves. As a result, I have found beauty in the most unexpected things and people, no matter what their size, height, abilities, clothing, or body type. I have to say that at home I try not to be judgmental but I am only human and so engage in physical judgements all the time. However, I have felt incredibly free from that here and it is definitely something I hope I can carry home with me.

As part of these different standards comes different cultural practices and expectations. Both men's and women's clothing is almost unanimously printed in bright colours and bold prints. Again, not a surprise given the common impression of Africa and Africans, but it is another thing to be walking down the road and see so many brightly coloured fabrics all around you. Similarly, women are almost always dressed in long skirts. While my sampling is not entirely representative as I am living in the Northern Region which has a higher concentration of Muslims and specifically Salaga itself is about 80% Muslim, I would say it's not entirely related to religion. While certainly a hallmark of the modesty called for by many religions, it is not to say that jeans, pants, and shorter skirts don't exist here. However, it seems to be largely younger girls who wear the alternatives. While, again, this could be attributed to Western influence and such, I still think the longer skirts have as much to with signalling maturity and womanhood. On top of that, the longer skirts are incredibly comfortable in the heat, certainly more so than a pair of pants or even shorts. The prints are extremely practical as well as they hide the dirt quite well, which is essential when performing arduous tasks in a dusty environment where water can easily be in short supply. Finally, I have to say that the long skirts are not even all that modest, as they cling and flare in just the right places making the women look extremely shapely and alluring no matter what the size, and even more so when in motino. When wearing my first Ghanaian tall skirt to attend the Muslim festival of Maulid, I stepped out of my room and the women in my family actually said a collective"wow" as I think they had failed to reailze that despite my small stature I may actually have some curves!

Another practice I have embraced is the wearing of "ashimbe." These are long strings of coloured beads that women wear around their waist, usually 2 or 3 or 4 at a time. They tie them on and don't take them off, wearing them at all times, even when bathing and under their clothes. My sister Tahira and her cousin Babe introduced me to them last weekend, selecting a string of small blue beads and a larger string of multicoloured beads and tying them around my waist, confirming me as a Ghanaian woman. So far, the only explanation I have been able to gather is just that it signals one as a woman, no matter what age. I have seen many babies wearing them and nothing else, and they are also worn for the fact that they simply make you beautiful - as Tahira put it, so even when you are bathing you can look beautiful, and I think she's right:)

Another interesting facet of beauty here is the practice of facial tattooing. While most people assume, as had I when I first arrived, that it has religious significance, following a few investigative conversations I have discovered that at least here in the Northern Region it is simply for beauty. Finally, and this again has much to do with Salaga and the Northern Region being heavily Muslim, but most women and even many of the men wear kohl around their eyes. Even young infants and the elderly wear the kohl - I just wish it would look as good on me as it does on them!

Finally (really!), one other thing worth mentioning is the pride in which people take in their appearance here, no matter how arduous that may become. Clothing and fine leather sandals are extremely important to Ghanaians, so even those living in the most rudimentary conditions will put a lot of effort and money into appearing otherwise. There was a part of me that was thinking I would return from Ghana wanting to give away many of my possessions and live a simpler life - and this may still be true, but it won't include my wardrobe, as I have found that Ghanaians love vibrant and expressive clothing even more than me and this has only increased my love of beautiful clothing since being here, if that was even possible! However, after observing the influx of foreign clothing and fabric upon Ghanaian markets and people, I will definitely need to rethink my buying habits. Read on to the next post for my thoughts on that...

Finally, I have included a couple of pictures from another wedding I attended recently, one of a group of women dancing in their vibrant outfits and another of myself and some of the friends I've made dancing as well.

lots of love,

glynnis

Day in the life...

2008-07-01T05:55:00.002-07:00

A Day In the Life...

I figured that snippets of my life have been brought up in my posts, but I was wondering if the whole picture was incomplete so I thought I would do a bit of a "day in the life" post. Here goes...

4:30am - Wake up to the Muslim call to prayer (and roosters). This comes from the few mosques that are in town as well as from those that have assembled in the prayer area that Z has constructed at the front of our house. The prayers continue until just past 5am. I generally am woken up by the call and the roosters who live just outside my room, but then roll over and drift in and out of sleep...

5:30 - 6:00am - Continue drifting in and out of consciousness, cursing the friggen rooster that insists on crowing before and after the sun comes up. Listen to the sounds of the day getting started outside of my room. This includes many series of greetings between those who had come to pray and those setting up their stalls on the street outside of our house, which is home to the "new market" in town. These sounds can also include a steady rhythmic pounding of foo foo, as food preparation can often being this early in the morning.

6:00 - 6:45am - I gradually crawl out of bed, take some vitamins and then get ready for my refreshing bucket shower! This involves fetching water from the well outside of our house or if it has been raining steadily, using the water out of the rainwater catchment container in our compound. There can sometimes be quite the brisk breeze at this time which really makes it exhilarating, but I actually really enjoy this sometimes startling start to my day. I take my showers in one of two stalls/rooms in our bathouse, which has windows that conveniently look out onto another family's compound. Makes it an interesting guessing game as to whether anyone can see you:)

6:45 - 7:30am - Z generally calls my name while I am getting dressed to come out for tea. As I've said before, I really look forward to this part of my day as it gives Z and I a chance to catch up and to share some heavily creamed and sugared black tea. Mmmm. Following this I have quite a bit of time to kill before work. The kids will head off to school around 8, Z will either hang around or head out to the farm or family house around this time too. Ajia Mother has usually already left for the store between 6 and 7, so I generally don't see too much of her in the morning, though when Z was out of town I biked into town and we had tea together, which was pretty nice if a little bit more quit given our language barrier.

8:00 - 9:00am - I technically start work around 9, but given all of the time I have in the morning, I generally show up around 8:30. It takes me about 10 minutes to bike from my house to the District Assembly, and this ride can be one of the most enjoyable parts of my day. Salaga is already pumping by this time and there are bikes, pedestrians, motorcycles, trucks, buses, and tro tros traversing the streets already. I get to greet people as I ride by, and now that all of the people along my route are used to me, they know that they can greet me in Gonja and I will respond in kind. It really is a great start to the day to have people warmly wishing you a good morning and asking how your night was or how your family are. On my way, I sometimes stop to buy some snacks for the day, such as groundnuts (peanuts) or some mangoes or crackers.

9:00am - Here is where my day becomes less predictable. Once arriving at the office, I do the rounds, greeting those that I know and introducing myself to those I don't. I have formed some good relationships here at the office and really enjoy these informal conversations. EWB speak would say they are 'trust-building' in their informal and personal nature, but I simply think it's getting to know people as you would in any new office environment, though perhaps it's more encouraged and expected here. I set in to work on my workstreams, which may be the UNICEF I-WASH Project, computer training, organizing a follow-up meeting to the Development Partner Review Workshop that took place at the end of May, or doing some independent research into the relationship between the District Assembly and the local NGOs/Development Partners.

12:30 - 2:30pm - Lunch can happen anytime around here, as my counterpart takes lunch quite late but when the office girls are organizing lunch we eat a bit earlier. In general I have about three choices for lunch. I can wait for my counterpart, the District Planning Officer, to take his lunch and that means we'll go to a local restaurant called Kanyitipe. The menu varies, but it is generally a choice of foo foo with light soup and goat meat, or wache (rice and beans) with chicken or egg. The second place is just up the road and a quick bike ride if I'm the only one eating. The choices are generally the same as the others - foo foo or rice. Finally, there is also a local food stand that makes awesome Kenke, fried fish, pepe, and wagashi (fried cheese) that the girls and I eat every Friday and sometimes a little bit more often cause it's soooo good:)

5:00 - 5:30pm - I usually end my day around this time. I enjoy my bike ride home just as much, as it gives me the opportunity to say good evening to many of the people I have become familiar with along the way. Sometimes I will stop by the seamstresses shop maybe to get something made, but oftentimes just to say hello to all of the girls who are training there and Fauzia, my seamstress. They can be pretty fun and are always talking about things going on in town so I am sure to keep up with the latest gossip:) If I am in the mood for a treat, I can stop on the way home and pick up some mangoes or bananas or oranges or apples - which are kind of expensive because they are imported from South Africa. I can also choose from any variety of street food, which can be quite good once you've figured out where to buy! If I am feeling a little homesick, I can do the 10 minute bike ride to a store called C-90 which sells some unusual things, such as canned tuna, shortbread and chocolate. Understandably, I try not to visit there too often!

6:00 - After arriving home I can do anything from washing some clothes, cleaning my room, hanging out with the kids, reading a book, doing some work for EWB or the DPCU, writing a blog post or journal entry. This is usually about a half hour to an hour of time just to myself as the compound is pretty empty at this point. However, soon enough the kids start to arrive, as do many others once the evening call to prayer is heard. Then there is a steady stream of people who come to use our water to perform ablutions or grab the prayer rugs from where they are stored in the boys' room. At this point, if dinner is being made at home, I try to insert myself in the process as much as possible. I have now been allowed to cut the vegetables, de-bone the fish, and peel and cut the yams - which is quite the feat!! I have included some pictures of a typical yam. One is of one of the boys I live with, Muzambiru, hoisting it over his head. The other is of the same yam beside my foot for a little scale. Two or three of these yams can feed 10-15 people! Other times, dinner is made at the family store, so I may go there to attempt to help but given that it is regularly attended by the women of the family and many of the local women who come to sit and chat, I am most definitely not allowed to participate in the cooking and am treated more like a guest. Either way, I usually spend time both at the store and in the compound on a regular night. Following dinner, I generally try to pay as close attention to the conversations going on around me at the store to try to pick up some more Gonja, and the women are pretty great about speaking a little bit slower and attempting to explain in their extremely limited English what they are saying. Oftentimes the kids and I , and even Z, will play a rousing game of 'go fish' or I will bring out the computer to do some typing exercises with the older kids. However, because Ghana has been plagued by an energy crisis these past few years, I only bring the computer out if I have managed to charge it at the office, as I have gathered that charging it at home would drastically increase their electrical bill. Other times we will watch Nigerian movies or the Ghanaian news (in English) on the TV at the store. The Nigerian movies are pretty melodramatic and are certainly in line with Latin American soap operas, which are also apparently quite popular here. Other than that, my evenings are generally spent relaxing and talking with those around me, which changes pretty quickly and is pretty unpredictable in the evenings, but I always look forward to them! After that, I'm a bit of a party pooper.... I head into my room sometime around nine to do some exercises to work off the massive amounts of carbs I've eaten and then I head to bed!

Well, I think that's all folks! Though I should emphasize that 'routine' around here isn't exactly that, but this I hope has at least given you a sense of my life these days:)

lots of love,
g

June 13th Blog Post

2008-07-01T05:55:00.001-07:00

Well, decided I should write a brief post, given how awesome the last couple days have been! Yesterday we ran an extremely successful training session as part of the UNICEF I-WASH project. This was done to familiarize the area supervisors with the data analysis sheet - which I have been painstakingly working on for the past month - all 52 pages of it! Next week, from Tuesday to Thursday, these supervisors will reconvene here at the District Assembly to collate all of the data collected thus far. As I mentioned before, our District encompasses about 540 separate communities so it may be a little ambitious, but we're pretty sure that we can get it done! Making it this far already has been very encouraging, we here in East Gonja are apparently light years ahead of the 9 other Districts participating in the I-WASH project. Awesome!

Following work yesterday I was greeted to a larger than usual crowd at home. Because of the death of my host father's mother, as I wrote about before, we are now hosting upwards of 30 family members both in our compound and at the family house in the center of town - which is just a 5 minute bike ride down the road. Because of the festivities (really, the most appropriate word!) there was an enormous amount of food last night. I finished my serving of foo foo and light soup, which is quite the gut-busting feat, only to be given an equally large bowl of rice! I was feeling pretty disgusting after that... but there was more to come. Following dinner, we walked into town to the family house because there was a funeral event happening which was essentially a giant dance party with traditional dancers and a crowd of about 200, at least! It was there that I also ate some cokapul, which is made from maize flower, bananas, sugar, and spices. It was essentially banana bread, but less sweet and more spicy. However the best part is that it's formed into palm-sized balls and deep-fried - YUM! Man am I loving the deep-fried proclivities of Ghana! After that, I had the chance to witness the awesome live music and dancing that was meant as a funereal celebration for my host father's mother. One of the visiting family members, a cousin named Babe (pronounced Baby) has really taken to me, as she is only a few years older and is hellbent on embarrassing me in front of the whole world - ok, not really, but she is trying to get me to dance at every opportunity, and last night was no exception. So, once again, I was dragged into the fray, although last night all of the dancing was done in a large circular direction, within the larger crowd - kind of like a high school dance where everyone dances in a circle and awkwardly stares at each other - though there was significantly more rhythm and no awkwardness in the circle last night, besides my initial steps!! Just as before, the whole crowd began to get a little bit more excited and laughed and cheered once they realized I was becoming part of the circle. I was actually stoked to be included, as the atmosphere was incomparable to anything I have experienced before. Everyone was so super excited to be there and to be dancing and were laughing and smiling and singing along to every song played, though they were all in Hausa so i couldn't tell you a word of what was said! There was so much noise and action, and yet it wasn't overwhelming or uncomfortable but simply uplifting. Last night, while watching all of these people celebrate together on the occasion of a death, I actually came close to tears. Everyone was so jubilant, I couldn't help but hope that when I die people celebrate in a similar way! Not to be morbid or anything, haha. Anyways, each 'song' lasted almost an hour so I was pretty pooped by the end of the night and didn't make it into bed until 12:30, by far the latest I've been up here as I am usually up by 5:30 every morning. Needless to say I'm a little tired today, but it was all worth it.

Now, it is somehow already Friday again and I am heading into the weekend and soon my sixth week of work! It is incomprehensible how long I have been gone because it certainly feels much shorter than that, but I guess I've got to put in even more effort now to have the impact and the experiences I am aiming for. I should finish up as I've just taken some time after lunch to jot this down. I actually really enjoy my Friday lunches because me and a couple of others here at the office have established a little tradition of having Kenke every Friday. I think I may have briefly detailed this in an earlier post, but mmmm am I loving Kenke! It is made of fermented maize flower that is boiled and beaten twice and then served in large fist-sized balls and wrapped in maize husks. It has a slightly sour taste and is a little more dense than the other staple carbs here. Everyone says it makes you fat, but seeing as everything here is served in huge portions with inordinate amounts of carbs, I have a hard time believing it's any more deadly than anything else - although perhaps that's just wishful thinking:) Finally, the kenke is served with 'pepe' which is the generic name for any sauce containing tomatoes and peppers. The woman that we buy our kenke from makes it quite spicy, so you have to have lots of water available! You can have it with your choice of protein - eggs, chicken, small fried tilapia fish, or my personal favourite, wagashi, which is deep fried mild cheese. Oh man it will be a miracle if I haven't gotten massively fat by the time I get home - but it will be well worth it! Hopefully I worked off all of those calories dancing my heart out last night:)

And now the moment you've all been waiting for.... video of last night! Although, unfortunately (for you!) it doesn't include me, but is simply the whole exciting scene. I have also included a picture taken of my host mother whom everyone calls Ajia Mother, on the far right, with some of her sisters and sisters-in-law watching the dancing. I have to say that one of my favourite moments of my whole trip so far came last night when I finally emerged from the circle and there was Ajia, who speaks very very little English, shouting my Gonja name (Alala) and pumping her fist in the air - clearly very happy that I had taken part. In fact, despite the laughter and feeling like a bit of a fool, everyone here is so overwhelmingly positive when you try something you are clearly unaccustomed to. I often am asked the question from new people I have met, "meji code?", which means "do you eat TZ?" TZ is a Ghanaian staple that I detailed in an earlier post and is kind of like the national dish here in the North. People seem so surprised when I answer in the positive or when they see me eating with my family - perhaps they think I brought a four month supply of Western food? Anyways, people are so congratulatory when they see you doing things that are definitively Ghanaian or African - such as eating their food or dancing in their ceremonies, even if their English is limited, they will often say "You've Done Well!" which is one of the greatest parts of my day here when someone says that. It makes me so happy that people can see that I am making a genuine effort to "integrate" and they sincerely recognize that you are out of your comfort zone, although I feel as if I have entered my comfort zone here cause I'm loving life. Anyways, just wanted to finish with that thought as it is something that I look forward to everyday:)

lots of love,
g

Ruminations on Rice

2008-07-01T05:54:00.001-07:00

I have been meaning to write this post for some time, but have only now had the chance to do it. I may have mentioned in an earlier post that I had done a field visit with our District Planning Officer and a representative of IBIS, a Dutch NGO that works here in Salaga. We travelled out along Kpembi road (so named because the town of Kpembi can be reached by it) for over an hour and a half. Much of this travel time had to do with the extremely rudimentary condition of the road (read: dirt road that mainly consisted of potholes and areas where it had been washed out). The field visit was interesting, as it gave me the chance to see the concrete results of a donor project in the area. IBIS had funded the building of a permanent concrete school building to replace the 'temporal' structure that currently existed. I have included pictures of both. While it was informative and interesting to visit the site, I will say that I learned just as much if not more during the long car ride to the site. About half an hour into the trip, we found ourselves on a dirt road that was much higher than the surrounding ground, which stretched for miles and miles without trees. The area stretched for as far as the eye could see, though there was no activity anywhere on the land to witness. It was at this point that my friend from IBIS clucked his tongue disapprovingly and informed me that all of the land had once been rice fields. The land seems ideally suited for such a purpose - it was at a lower level than the road and would enjoy flooding once the rains began to happen steadily. Environmentally, there seemed to be no reason why there wasn't currently being rice grown on the land, so I asked why it was now laying fallow. My friend informed me that the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) used to subsidize rice production here, but that at one point, the competing subsidies from Western countries became too much and the government ceased subsidizing rice production in Ghana. Now, there may be more to the problem than competing subsidies, but the facts themselves are quite disturbing. I may have mentioned in a previous post that rice is one of the major staples here in Ghana. Ghana produces a native rice that is very similar to the 'wild rice' we find at home - thick, dark brownish black, and very hearty. In fact, Ghanaian rice, like our wild rice, is much more nutritious than the white polished rice we usually eat. However, Ghanaian rice does not enjoy a large market share here in Ghana. The white rice, with its clean and unbroken appearance and simplicity on the tongue is greatly preferred and seen as somewhat of a status symbol. This is not helped by the fact that foreign white rice floods the market here, essentially monopolizing choice - although you could choose, I suppose, between the Thai, American, Chinese, or Vietnamese brands you see prominently displayed everywhere. While I knew that Ghana's Northern Region had great agricultural potential, I also learned during my conversation that technically, the Region could produce enough rice and/or cereals to feed all of West Africa. Instead, the Northern Region and Ghana as a whole is a net food importer, meaning that they must import food to meet their basic needs. This has raised some serious flags for me. It's pretty disturbing that these foreign companies are making a killing here in Ghana, while undermining the local means of production and consumption. It also pains me to hear someone say, "because of the subsidies in your country, our farmers can't afford to farm", and have nothing to say to defend yourself or your country. And this is because it is simply true. Though I don't have access to the figures here, the comparison between the amount Canadian, and Western farmers as a whole, are given in agricultural subsidies is astounding. However, it is also ironic to compare this figure to that of the amount given in food aid every year, which is quite simply aid donated to countries in the form of food instead of funds. How can this imbalance be reversed? And what can we do as Canadian and Western citizens do to influence something as seemingly simple as rice in Ghana? I think this is an important topic for each and everyone to consider, as it is an example of how our purchasing habits and country's policies affect those here in the "developing"(?) world. Some may argue that Ghana has advanced beyond that term, but after witnessing some of the conditions and patterns of life here in the impoverished Northern Region, I hold a different opinion.

Anyways, because we were on a mission, I was unable to stop and take a picture of the unused rice fields but I did take an extremely bumpy video to try to communicate the sheer size of this land that was simply sitting there. Hopefully I have figured out how to embed this on the blog properly!!

Finally, I would really appreciate it if anyone reading this from EWB could post in the comments those figures we often refer to about food aid and subsidies and such. Thanks!

until next time folks,

glynnis

Development?

2008-07-01T05:42:00.000-07:00

Hello Again,

Today I am going to share some thoughts on the development environment here in Ghana. I couldn't have imagined how things are here before I arrived. I knew there were NGOs working in the country, but Ghana likely has a presence from from every major, and most minor, NGOs in the world. You name it, they're here. Red Cross, World Vision, UNICEF, HiPC, CRS, UNDP, UNWFP, and on and on and on. So many of the essential and development services are provided by these organizations, certainly more than are provided by the government. Why is this so??? Ghana is Africa's oldest independent country (except for Ethiopia which technically has always been independent as it was never formally colonized... but the history major in me digresses) and while certainly needing a significant amount of social and economic development is fairly stable and prosperous as compared to most other African nations. Now, this is the only country I've visited in Africa so I may not be telling the complete truth, but from my conversations with others there is a greater NGO presence here than in many of those that are more at risk and impoverished. Why is this so? It seems to me as if Ghana's development is almost a sure thing to many of these NGOs and that with a small amount of effort they will become a great success story, and perhaps this is a greater attraction than many of the countries that seem to be in all sorts of economic, social, and political dire straights. However, I wonder if after 51 years of independence and 'development' and a significant international presence whether the NGOs have almost done more harm than good? They all operate independently of each other, and there is only a minimal amount of interaction with the government. This has been one of my primary ponderings since arriving. How can we maximize the effectiveness of these NGOs through their interactions with the government so that they end result is that the government has essentially learned how to provide these services from the NGOs and are then able to provide them without outside influence? At this point, the relationship between NGOs and government is supposedly a cooperative one, with everyone working towards an end goal of the 'development' of the country, whatever that means. However, this relationship in reality can only be classified as sub-optimal. Following experiences with corruption and the inefficiency of District, Regional, and National governments many NGOs have understandably decided to go it on their own. However, by doing this they are robbing the government of the learning opportunities provided by the accumulated knowledge and experiences of these NGOs and simply serve to perpetuate an environment in which their presence will always be needed. This is the second dimension to why NGOs work on their own - attribution and perpetuation. If the NGOs partner with the government on projects that takes away their ability to attribute successes to their organization for further prestige and funding. Additionally, if they directly help the government learn from their projects and build their capacity the end result is that the NGOs become unnecessary! While all of this makes academic sense, we are not just debating something in a university classroom - these services and the way in which they are provided are matters of life and death for people here in Ghana. Take, for example, the Malaria prevalence. It is easily the number one health problem and the number one killer here, and in much of Africa. Children under the age of 5 and pregnant women are particularly susceptible. However, the diagnosis is a simple and quick blood test (having taken one myself) and there are a myriad of treatments available from about 2-10 Ghana cedis (essentially the same in Canadian dollars). On top of that, prevention is even simpler - reduce sources of stagnant water in which mosquitoes breed, have children and pregnant women, if not everyone, sleep under mosquito nets, wear covering clothing at night, burn mosquito coils, use bug spray, and fumigate large cities. The amount of money needed to prevent the majority of the population is minimal compared to treating AIDS or the amount given to Western farmers every year in agricultural subsidies. However, Malaria still persists here in Ghana and the continent.... what is stopping this from being eliminated? Could you imagine if every NGO dealing with health issues and the Ghanaian government formed a harmonized strategy for dealing with Malaria? And then each one took its existing Malaria programs and learnt from each other's processes and in the end partnered with the government on every single initiative so that in the end the government would have the capacity to provide those services? Man! While not to say that this wouldn't involve an enormous amount of work, is it really more work than is currently being done, or just a different orientation....

Thoughts such as these have been on my mind virtually since I arrived. They have influenced my workstreams here at the DPCU. The first one is something I have taken a whole other post to write about, which is the UNICEF I-WASH project. What I like so much about this project is that being one of Ghana's oldest NGO actors, UNICEF has decided to do something different this time around. Instead of carrying out the project entirely on their own they have placed individuals within the District Assemblies of each District that they project is being carried out in (9 in total, including us). This way, the District Resource Person (as they are called) coordinates the activities of many of the government departments to carry out the necessary individual projects in order to reach completion. For example, our DRP will direct the School Health Education Program (SHEP) that exists within the Ghana Education Service (GES) to carry out workshops on handwashing and hygiene education. The DRP will also coordinate our District Water and Sanitation Team (DWST) that exists here at the District Assembly to carry out the rehabilitation of existing boreholes that are no longer functioning. Early on, I recognized the unique approach that UNICEF has taken and have decided to virtually attach myself to the project, essentially becoming our District Resource Person's resource person:) I hope to learn a lot about how donor projects are carried out in Ghana and perhaps learn some important lessons about how donor projects can better partner with the government. In addition, working on this project gives me the opportunity to have a direct impact on the people of our District in providing them with access to the water and sanitation services that are absolutely essential to their health and survival.

My second major workstream is to organize a follow-up meeting to the aforementioned Development Partner Review Forum. This was a really great opportunity for 'development actors/partners' in our District to actually meet and create a harmonized action-plan. However, as I detailed, the discussion was excellent but the action-plan never materialized. I have established a relationship with IBIS, a Dutch NGO that has an office here in Salaga and helped to organize the first meeting, with the goal of organizing a second meeting to maximize the potential for government and NGOs in the District to communicate and collaborate in the near future.

Phew! Well that was a lot of stuff, but hopefully I've communicated it all! I know I've probably left a lot out but someone advised me at some point to keep these things short which I haven't been very good at, so I should end it here I guess:)

until next time,

glynnis

June 27th Blot Chunk!

2008-06-27T03:49:00.000-07:00

Hey All,

Well it is late June and we are officially half-way through our placements here in Ghana... which means the mid-placement retreat! I apologize for the long silence on this blog, as it turns out that the internet in Salaga really was just a myth and so I have not been able to access the internet since my last trip to Tamale, at the end of May. No worries though, I have been writing posts regardless and have posted some of them below. I am in Tamale once again to meet up with the other volunteers who are coming from all over the country and then this afternoon we will travel to Damongo for three days of fun, sun, Mole national park walks (=elephants and antelopes!) and some great reflection and training. I will be able to post once again on our return trip so don't fret, there is more to come! I apologize that the posts have gone a little out of order chronologically but I hope that makes it even more fun to read and maybe invites some second read-throughs. As always, feel free to email me questions or comments or leave them in the comments section below. Just for fun, I have included a picture of myself helping to prepare dinner last night. I am stirring the TZ, which I think I detailed before as the local staple which is made of maize and cassava flours and it is a bit of a lengthy (and tiring!) process to create, so I'm pretty happy that I was allowed to participate, as sometimes it can be difficult to involve yourself in work when everyone wants to treat you like a guest, even after two months!

Hope everyone is well,

until tuesday,

g

June 10th blog post

2008-06-27T03:48:00.001-07:00

Well time seems to pass quickly here in Ghana, although I suppose that means I'm having fun! I am well into my fifth week of work here at the District Planning and Coordinating Unit (DPCU) and am enjoying a brief overnight visit from my coach, Jen. Jen is an awesome long-term volunteer (LTOV) here in Ghana, though she is only three months into her one-year placement. She is placed in a similar position to mine, though one rung up the government ladder - she is with the Regional Planning and Coordinating Unit (RPCU). If you've been following, Ghana is divided into Regions, and then each region is divided into Districts. It has been great to have Jen here to pass some ideas back and forth about potential workstreams and the successes and difficulties we have both encountered. While we are just winding down our long day of discussions and reflection here at the office, I am looking forward to bringing Jen home and introducing her to my family - and boy, will she ever get to meet the family! Unfortunately, the mother of my host father passed away last week, but this has lead to a massive influx of family from all over the country! Many of them will stay for the next month, so it's going to be a little bit crowded and it has been a little bit intimidating to be introduced to everyone all at once, but pretty fun as well! 40 days following her passing there will be a prayer session in her honour, and at that point much of the family will disperse. So, it looks like I'm going to be having a lot of company over the next month. I am actually really enjoying the situation to be honest, because funerals here in Ghana are mostly times of celebration of the life of the individual. While certainly still mourning their loss, the atmosphere in our compound and at the family house in town is quite festive. There is always food being made and plenty of people to talk to and make fun of my Gonja:) These past few mornings my breakfast (and my waist) has benefitted from their presence, as Z has introduced me to 'rice water.' Rice water is essentially rice pudding and is served warm with a large helping of sugar and condensed milk - yum! I can't believe that I am essentially eating dessert for breakfast, although my days become decidedly less sweet from there. I suppose it will be a miracle if I don't gain weight. Oh well, at least that would help my integration here!

I started this post while Jen was here and am finishing it a few days later:) Time seems to be passing even more quickly now somehow! I really enjoyed having Jen here, partially to help me formulate and formalize my workstreams and to get some valuable feedback, but also because I was able to introduce her to my family and give her the chance to see where I live and work and what my days and nights look like. My family was so welcoming to her and it made me feel proud to be a part of them and was more proof positive of their generous outlook. It was also a little refreshing to not be the only white woman, as Jen had to experience the shouts of 'baturia' and 'cabruni' during our morning walk to work. Both of these words mean 'white woman' in the two local languages, Gonja and Hausa. It is frequently shouted by small children who look genuinely excited to be seeing you and will wave profusely. Oftentimes it is shouted by many adults as well, which is an interesting lesson in cross-cultural communication. I have had a few conversations with people about it, as my first instinct was to think they were being quite rude. If I yelled out "black person" at home, it would be taken as an offense, as rightly it should. However, in all of my conversations people here just laughed and explained that they didn't mean it in such a way. Most simply said that they want to greet you, as greetings are so important here, but they don't know your name or how else to get your attention. So, I have had to overcome my gut feeling when being referred to in such a way and just make an effort to keep smiling even when it's grating on my nerves! However, I have done two things to try to take back a bit of control and claim some 'ownership', if you will, over the terms. First of all, there are frequently times when I will be hanging out with the family, often at the store, and new people will enter the picture. They will inevitably refer to me in their conversation, or will simply address me as cabruni or baturia. If I feel comfortable, which I definitely do when with my family, I simply laugh and say "baturia/cabruni is not my name." I usually take a few people by surprise and then things go fairly well from there - either they will ask my name or I will ask theirs in Gonja which establishes a bit more of an equal and mutually respectful relationship in my opinion. Sometimes, if their English is good, I will jokingly ask if I should call them 'black man' to which, surprisingly, everyone says yes! This has helped me understand that their referring to me as 'white person' is not meant in an offensive way, if they are so willing to accept the reverse. There is also a second thing I have done in an attempt to take a bit of ownership over the term. When I first arrived and began to familiarize myself with the family house and store in town, I also acquainted myself with a very young kitten that had adopted the family just as I had. She was extremely skinny in those first few weeks, but has started to fatten up slowly but surely. One night, I asked Suweba if the cat had been given a name. As she had not, I suggested we call her "Baturia" which brought forth some great laughter from everyone present. I thought it was pretty appropriate - she has also adopted the family and in fact has some large white splotches on her fur, so she is almost a white person! Suweba laughs every evening when I ask "Baturia dunsu?" which means "How is Baturia?" to which she replies "Alimfia" - "Better."

While there have been an infinite number of cross-cultural experiences, this post would extend forever if I detailed all of them, so I will end here, but I am sure that there will be many more to come!

lots of love,
g

Thoughts on clothing and such...

2008-06-27T03:45:00.000-07:00

Following my cultural post concerning beauty and such, I thought I would include my thoughts on how this could be related to development. Ghana as a country is quite famous for the quality of its cloth. In particular, the Ashante people are known for weaving 'kente' cloth, which I have attached a picture of. Traditionally, it is woven only by men and is done so in long thin strips of one pattern which is then sewn together piece by piece to create the larger cloth. This cloth is highly valued and at the cheapest would cost 35 Ghana cedis (essentially 35 Canadian dollars) for four yards - while four yards of regular cloth cost me only 8 Ghana cedis just the other day. To capitalize on this, you can buy cloth that is printed with the kente design for much cheaper, but I guess you could say it's the equivalent of wearing imitation brand name clothing at home. Even outside of the kente cloth, Ghana has been known for the vibrancy of its prints and the quality of its cloth. I suppose it only makes sense then that multi-national corporations have begun to profit from this. When buying fabric here, I have learned to be careful of the type that I am buying, as many of the fabrics are in fact manufactured in China and Holland. I am always sure to ask the merchant where it was made and will even go so far as to check the outer edge, where the manufacturer's seal is printed. Problem is, for me living on a stipend and every other Ghanaian, it is cheaper to buy the foreign cloth that has been printed to look exactly like traditional Ghanaian cloth. What does this mean for the clothing and cloth industry here in Ghana!? I would imagine that it is virtually impossible to compete against these foreign products, and extremely unlikely that any new native cloth manufacturers could start-up at this point. However, this is not the biggest threat to Ghana's domestic clothing industry - we are! Everywhere you go in Ghana you will see people either dressed in brightly coloured traditional prints and designs or in Western-style clothing. I suppose this wouldn't be so bad, if it wasn't for the fact that this clothing is overwhelmingly second-hand clothing from the Western world, and certainly isn't manufactured in the country even if it isn't second-hand. This clothing comes from all of those church and school clothing drives at home, as well as second-hand stores like Value Village and others. While the clothing is certainly needed in times of national disaster, war, and other factors which cause people to suddenly leave their homes en masse, it is not needed by the average African. Once the clothing is collected on our shores, it is generally sold by the pound to companies who specialize in such things. These companies then ship the clothing all over the African continent, making a massive profit selling the clothing to those hungry for Western styles or to those who can't afford anything else, as it is carefully priced to undercut the bottomline of more traditional clothing and cloth. As a result, you can walk down any road in Ghana, no matter how remote, and be greeted by people wearing clothing bearing slogans and sayings of which they have no idea of the meaning. A few weeks ago, a young girl wandered into our office at the District Assembly, asking to use the photo copier. After I informed her that it, once again, was on the fritz I motioned to the t-shirt she was wearing, which proudly displayed "Vancouver, Canada" and said that her shirt was from my country and my town. She was completely confused as to what I meant and though I tried to explain, she politely smiled and said 'ok' as if I was certifiable. I have seen shirts and clothing in general from all over the world here, and all languages, from a t-shirt that read "Kitsilano" to my sister's Tahira's pants which are the blue athletic type that the employees wear at Athlete's World, and as the tags on the pockets attest, hers are one and the same. Though I suppose by now the answer is obvious, what does it mean for Ghana if the majority of their clothing is manufactured outside of the country? Is this much different from Canada? Is this 'globalization' a good thing? I'll leave to to form your own answers, but I would suggest being more careful about the people and organizations to whom you donate your used clothing. Ask about their policies. Is it used for charitable purposes, or is the company for-profit? Even if it is a charity, how will they dispense of the clothing? Will the money they raise come from selling the clothing domestically or internationally? If the person you are speaking to can't give you an answer, ask to speak to someone who can, or simply find another outlet. I would recommend those that will simply give the clothing away for free domestically to those in need. Because of my limited access to the internet I haven't been able to do much outside research on this matter, so if anyone knows of companies to use or to avoid or a place to go to learn more, please leave it for everyone in the comments!

lots of love,

glynni

June 11 Post/Guest Post

2008-06-27T03:42:00.000-07:00

Hey All! Today I have a very exciting post... because it's not written by me! Haha, but seriously. Here in Ghana they have a program that mandates that all post-secondary educated graduates must complete a ten-month term of voluntary service. This is called the National Service, and these students are posted all over Ghana. Here at the District Assembly in Salaga we have two National Service students - Beata and Awudu. Both have been instrumental in helping me learn the ropes here and have been great companions both during and after work. Some days, I feel like a National Service student myself, being that I am almost done my degree, I'm also volunteering my time (although mine is completely voluntary in this case:)), and we are all in very unfamiliar circumstances! However, Beata and Awudu are almost done their service and so have been here for almost 8 months now and will be finishing just after me at the end of August. I was really interested in their viewpoint on things here in town, at the Assembly, life as a university student, and Ghana in general as we are similar in circumstances but with one very important difference - they are actually Ghanaian! (Though I am trying my best:)) Beata has shown great interest in my blog and so below I have included her first piece, as well as her picture so that you all know who is speaking - and no proposals in the comments please, I know she is very beautiful:) A few points of clarification - Beata is from Navrongo, which is in the Upper East Region and approximately a four hour trip on dusty "roads." She studied at the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Wa, which is in yet another region, the Upper West. Finally, the VSOs that she mentions early on in her passage are volunteers from the UK with the Voluntary Service Organization (I'm about 90% sure on that one...). They are generally teachers and stay for a year or two. We actually have three VSO teachers here in Salaga, although they board at their secondary school campuses on the outskirts of town so they are minimally integrated here. Well, I think that should be it in the way of introductions, but feel free to email Beata herself or leave any questions/comments in the comments section.

lots of love,
g

MY LIFE AS NATIONAL SERVICE PERSONNEL IN THE EAST GONJA
DISTRICT ASSEMBLY – SALAGA

Every thousand journey begins with a step as the saying goes. Life after the University in Ghana is really not very easy, my postings to the East Gonja District Assembly was received with mixed feelings, one may ask why, and my response is that, I knew nobody in Salaga and how was I suppose to cope with life in such a place; but on second thought I said it was a service to my dear country (Ghana). My source of inspiration was derived from some friends from Ireland who are VSOs in Navrongo in the Upper East Region where I live with my family. I must confess, I told myself that if these whites’ have left all these nice things, their families and friends to Africa ( Ghana), then what stops me from doing so even in my own country, thus I accepted the postings.

I actually arrived in Salaga on the 1st November 2007, and upon reaching, I was warmly received by Chief Zimblim of the Ghana Education Service (GES) who then sent me to the District Assembly where I was posted to. Upon my arrival at the assembly I was unfortunate I was not able to meet any of the officers I was to work with, specifically the District Planning Officer ,therefore I left for Tamale immediately because I had no place to pass the night. I later on proceeded to Navrongo where I was preparing to finally leave to my service post.

I finally reported officially on the 12th November 2007. I was not effectively involved in the official activities in the District Planning coordinating unit (DPCU) until after four (4) months of my stay in Salaga; this really made a lot of things very boring. I complained about the way I was always idling and in February 2008, I was then integrated in the DPCU activities where I was involved in workshop training, with which I wrote most of the reports and minutes. I took part in project inspection at Ekumdi, Makango and Kulpi, all communities under the District Assembly.

I am currently involved in the I-WASH project under UNICEF , my contribution to this project started with the inception phase, including the WATSAN mapping exercise where I was involved in the printing of the Data collection instruments (Questionnaire) for the whole April 2008 – 5th May 2008. I am also involved in activities carried by the Community Based Rural Development Project (CBRDP) where support is given to Area Councils for their development.

Moreover, I’ve learnt how the various development partners work in collaboration with the Assembly, especially with the activities of IBIS Ghana, UNICEF and other local NGOs such as JIDA etc. This has improved on my level of thinking and critical analysis of social issues and development issues.

Through the national service, I’ve improved on my computer skills and I am quite fast in typing and using Microsoft Excel very well. I’ve been able to improve on interpersonal relationships with people from different walks of life, this goes on to include inter- cultural integration with the Gonja community, other ethnic groups from Ghana and even with foreigners especially with Canadians who are from Engineers Without Borders, I can make mention of Miss Glynnis and Jennifer.

My social life after work is a little bit boring , because I mostly sleep and have nothing doing , at times what I do is listening to music on the radio and on my phone, this is so because I like music a lot . I enjoy my Sundays and Wednesdays because I go to church on Sunday’s morning and Wednesday evenings, I spent a lot my time with God these days, because it is a source of encouragement for me to live a decent and acceptable life.

However, I faced some difficulties especially with finding my accommodation and acute water shortages which lasted for three months, November-February.

Aside this, I’ve been able to make friends who are colleague national service personnel, others from my work place and some from my church (Catholic Church). Names worth mentioning are Paulina, Sumaya, Aida, Awudu, Emmanuel, Isaac and Eric. I thank Glynnis for introducing me to writing my blog; I hope to continue to write more of this on other issues concerning my private life, my family, friends and life when I was in the university.

Thanks to anyone who reads this.

Miss Akanyani Beata Awinpoka
National Service Personnel
East Gonja District Assembly
Salaga, Northern Region
Ghana
awinpoka85@yahoo.co.uk

June 4th Blog Post

2008-06-27T03:38:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

Well folks, I am more than halfway into my fourth week of work here in Salaga - man, time flies! Although my work week was a little truncated as I was home sick Monday. No worries - I am all recovered thanks to some antibiotics to treat the nasty bacteria I likely contracted from food in Tamale - ironically, I am thinking it was the "Western"-style food I indulged in Saturday night!

I feel that this week will really be my gateway into my projects for the next few months - although I'm not too sure how, but I am left with less than 50 work days left within which to achieve all of my goals - ackk! How did this happen? I guess that is the nature of a Junior Fellowship placement... development on the double! I will spend this post discussing one of my identified workstreams: the UNICEF I-WASH project. While I'm sure the first acronym is fairly familiar to everyone, the second may not be. I-WASH is being used as the slightly truncated acronym for "Integrated Approach to Guinea Worm Eradication through Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene." If you are unfamiliar with the nastiness (really, I think that is the most appropriate word, given the viscious and disgusting nature of the parasite) that is Guinea Worm, see the pictures I have attached or just Google it for more information. Guinea Worm is a parasite that enters the body from the drinking of contaminated water. The carrier is unaware that they have contracted it until anywhere from 1 to 4 months later. At this point, they will experience itching all over their body. The worms can grow up to two meters inside the body and will eventually work their way out via a large sore that usually emerges on the lower leg or foot. The pain is debilitating and causes the carrier to essentially be disabled for many months. The process can be helped along once the sores emerge by extracting the worm bit by bit. This is the picture that I have included above, of one young man helping another by extracting the worm. This is also extremely painful and usually leads to infection. To make matters worse, if the contaminated water is the only source available, many people end up contracting more than one worm. Finally, the cycle continues as those infected go to fetch water and place their feet on, near, or in the water source, which re-introduces the worm and completes its lifecycle, leading to further infections. Guinea worm is present in nearly every district of the Northern Region and is said to be endemic in the 9 districts covered in the project, including ours, East Gonja. The project has a four year scope and we are currently at the tail end of the first year. Below are the expected outcomes of the project, taken from the official proposal:

- Reported incidence of diarrheal diseases among children under 5 years decreased by at least 40% by the end of the project
- Guinea Worm cases reduced by 90% in the project area by the end of the project
- Increase in sanitation coverage in the project area by 35 percentage points from baseline between mid-2007 and mid-2011
- 70% of the target population understand the importance of hand washing and link hand washing to improved health by the end of the project

The initial phase of the project involves surveying the current conditions of every community in the district, which is a massive job, given that East Gonja is geographically Ghana's largest district and encompasses 536 different communities. The survey process involves training area supervisors and enumerators that are capable of traveling to each community to carry out the survey in the local language and then record the results in English. The final result of the survey will be to establish the sanitation baseline for the District, referenced in the outcomes above, to understand where IWASH should focus its energies based on need. The surveying was begun some time ago, and our office has now started to receive the completed surveys. Thousands of pages of paper are being stored in the office that I share with my counterpart, the District Planning Officer (DPO), whom is affectionately referred to as Planner. Though there is an IWASH District Resource person stationed here at the DPCU until the completion of the project, his workload is overwhelming. In my initial observations here I began to understand that the IWASH project was one area in which I could be of great use. The amount of work is overwhelming and many obstacles stand in the way of the work being done quickly and efficiently. One such obstacle was the design of the survey and the plans for the data collation. In addition, the Resource Person has become just as exasperated at times as I have with the pace of work, as it has served to make communication and accountability with the Supervisors very difficult. Finally, my involvement with the IWASH project represents a unique opportunity for both myself as a JF and the EWB JF program as a whole. One of the stated goals of my placement here is for me to use my organization, motivation, and communication skills to 'lead by example' and inspire others with my successful outcomes to revitalize their work ethic and commitment. I am sure that the same thing could be said for the BC and Canadian civil services, so don't think that this is only appropriate for this environment. But I digress. I also believe that my integration into the implementation of such a vast and highly funded donor project will give myself and EWB valuable insight into the successes and difficulties of donor projects in the District and Region. Hopefully, this will lead to a greater understanding of how EWB can place JFs and long-term volunteers with donor projects/NGOs to achieve the most substantive and far-reaching results. Finally, I am excited to become involved in IWASH simply because it will be the activity that will give me the most concrete connection to and impact upon Dorothy. It has easily been among my most pleasurable activities here at the DPCU to work on revising the data collation and analysis strategy, as I could see that the final outcomes of this activity would determine how and where UNICEF and its partners would be applying their efforts. It is definitely at this time that I can easily make my connections and shout (silently) that I am doing it for Dorothy!

till next time folks,

g

May 31st/June1st Blog Chunk!

2008-06-01T04:37:00.000-07:00

Hey All! As you may have noticed, I have headed into the larger city of Tamale for the weekend pick up some supplies, meet with my coach, hang out with some other JF's and, of course, use the internet! Just a reminder, because I have such intermittent internet access, I have been writing blog posts and posting them all at once when I have access. So, many of the posts below are dated May 31st, but they were in fact written on the date that I have indicated in the title. Thus, if you want to read the blog chronologically, which I would suggest as then you can follow the evolution of my work and thought process, then you will have to read from the bottom up:) I hope everyone is doing well, and rest assured I am completely recovered from my malaria and feeling recharged after an evening of good food and laughter and general relaxing with Henry and Kim, some fellow JF's. I am hoping to use the internet in Salaga now that I have found out at which office it exists, so expect some posts soon on my work, as I have identified my workstreams and am excited to be jumping into some new projects! My time here is almost up, as I have to go catch the bus back to Salaga, though first I have to hunt it down, but I am wishing you all well and hope that the things you read here stay with you during your days and provide a welcome break from all that Canada has to offer!

lots of love,

glynnis

May 29th Blog Post

2008-05-31T06:26:00.000-07:00

Ok so there seems to be so much to catch up on already and it's only been a day or two since I've written a post. Firstly, I said that I would discuss the Canadian High Commissioner's visit. Again, this is just a fancy term for Canada's ambassador to Ghana. It seems that CIDA and CCA have been funding a number of programs in Salaga for the past few years through the SEND Foundation, as well as supplying them with an intern. One of the projects that SEND has been working on concerns issues of food security and one way in which they have chosen to tackle this was through the promotion of soybean cultivation. Soybeans are quite the hearty crop and do well in the soils in the Northern Region, but are obviously not a locally cultivated crop, so SEND and others have been experiencing with both training of the farmers as well as enterprises training that focuses on cooking and creating with the soybeans once cultivated. SEND brought in a group of farmers from the region who have been participating in the program who demonstrated the foods that they make with the soy. These included incredibly scrumptious soy kebabs, as well as the most delicious cake - the only cake I've had since I've been here. I couldn't believe how delicious the end results were, as I'm even not that partial to many soy products at home. So, these farmers quite proudly displayed their products to the High Commissioner, his wife, and his son who was visiting from Canada. I suppose I was invited, along with Kristy Minor - a long-term volunteer who happened to be in town for the day, to represent the Canadian contingent. Kristy and I doubled the number of Canadians there, in addition to Andreas and Julia who I have finally had the chance to meet. Andreas and Julia are both Canadians - by way of South America -who have been working with SEND since September and December, respectively. It was definitely nice to be around a couple of people who I didn't have to explain to where Vancouver was! Though the visit was a nice break, it did raise a few questions for me. The food they had created was truly delicious and while I know there is some soy available in Tamale, it is virtually non-existent here in Salaga. So.... realistically, what is the impact of SEND's programs locally? After speaking to a couple of the attendees it seems that they have run into some problems of cultural bias. The soy farmers have been able to sell their crops wholesale for export and to the urban areas in limited quantities, but there seems to be no market for the soy locally - either because it is a foreign concept or because it is similar to sorghum in that there is a negative view of those who choose to grow it. While I don't have much access to the information to answer these questions, Dean, one of my fellow JFs, is working in the Yendi district on issues surrounding soybean cultivation. So, if you'd like to learn more, pop on over to his page that I have linked conveniently on the side, and indulge your soybean curiosities as I have done!

Today was a day that I was really really looking forward to, as it was the start of a two-day workshop at the District Assembly entitled "Development Partner Review and Forum - East Gonja" This would give all of the development partners in our district the chance to come together and share what they have been working on in the past year, their achievements and challenges, and for us to harmonize some strategies with which to deal with our common problems and hopefully allow ourselves to move forward at a faster and most effective pace. I have definitely taken my liberties from the title, but as you can tell I was very hopeful for this workshop! Well, the day began on a bit of a frustrating note. My counter-part had asked me to show up early, at 8am, to help set-up as the festivities (my word, not theirs:) were to commence at 8:30. Well, there I was, promptly at 8. Much to my continued chagrin, my counterpart, the one who had asked me to come in early, didn't show up until half an hour later, the supposed start time of the workshop. Long story short, things didn't truly get underway until almost 10:30. By the end of the day, we had only made it through the mornings activities. Just when I though I couldn't get more exasperated, the facilitator, who had been brought in especially for the review, made a short announcement. It had been brought to his attention that tomorrow was Friday, and apparently it is very difficult to get anyone to stay for a meeting past noon, so we would be cutting tomorrow's activities at that point. That means that my much counted-on two day - 17 hour - development review was now supposed to fit into about 8 and a half hours, given meal breaks. Arghhh! This development thing is really getting hard - and not for the reasons I had anticipated!!!!

However, the day most definitely improved from there. We had extensive presentations from the major organizations involved in development in the district - including us, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Ghana Education Service (GES), Ghana Health Service (GHS), SEND Foundation, IBIS, our co-workshop organizer, and a few others. We then broke ourselves up into sector groups to discuss the common challenges we face in developing East Gonja. I placed myself in the governance and peacebuilding group and was really happy with the results! I have attached a picture that one of my co-workers snapped of our focus group in action. I was going to outline everything that we formulated, but perhaps I will leave that for a follow-up post and give everyone a chance to ruminate. What do you think is the core development challenge faced by those in governance in East Gonja? And secondly, what are the causes of that challenge and how does it affect the district? These are the questions we were posed, so I will give you our answer at a later date, but feel free to leave your answers in the comments section!

And one last note, because the rainy season is just beginning here and we have intermittent intense rain and thunder and lightening storms I have headed this post with a shot of the coming rain clouds from this past weekend, taken over the front wall of our compound. I've never had so many people be so happy that I brought the rain with me!

lots of love,

glynnis

May 27th Blog Post - Markets, Matrimony and Malaria!

2008-05-31T06:24:00.001-07:00

Well ladies and gentlemen this past weekend has been another bundle of experiences! As I mentioned in my last post, I spent Saturday exploring the slave baths and wells of Salaga, and then had the opportunity to assist Ajia Mama, the matriarch of my family here, at her provisions store in town. I spent much of Sunday doing the same thing, helping her to make small individual bags of sugar for sale for 500 pechwas each, which is roughly 5 cents. Currency here can be quite confusing, but is fairly straight forward once you understand the rules. The units here are termed cedis (cee-dees). In July of last year, the Ghanaian government revaluated their currency, following inflation that had taken place many years in the past. Under the new currency, what was once 10,000 cedis became 1 Ghana cedi. So 20,000 cedis became 2, and so on. Now, each cedi is made up of pechwas - cents, as we would call them. Just like us, there are 100 pechwas in a a new Ghana cedi, or 10,000 in the old - hence, Ajia selling her sugar packages for 500 pechwas, which is the same as 5 new pechwas. Confused yet? Haha, it can become a bit frustrating in the market, as many people still term their prices in the old currency, but all of the bills and coins available are in the new terms. However, once you have the rules down, it becomes fairly simple.

After I had spent much of the day helping in the store, I headed over to the house of my seamstress, Fauzia. Fauzia had introduced herself to me earlier in the week by asking if I was the new white lady in town who was looking to have some clothes made. I joked that I hadn't seen any other white women yet, so it must be me! On a side note, there is apparently one other white person, a Canadian man by chance, working in town but I have yet to encounter him. So earlier this week I headed over to Fauzia's store, where she not only makes the clothing but also has a crew of women around my age who are there to learn her trade. They all wear a uniform and will train with Fauzia for the next three years before they can call themselves seamstresses. Fauzia takes great pride in her abilities and left me quite astounded when she simply took a look at me and created an outfit of a top and trousers - without even taking my measurements! Following a very successful completion of my outfit, Fauzia invited me to visit her at her house on Sunday, so just as planned, I headed over there Sunday evening. Much to my surprise, the whole gaggle of seamstresses were there and were in quite an excited mood. They then informed me that we were going to a wedding! I looked down at my dirty jeans, t-shirt, and flip flops and insisted that I couldn't possibly go, but they were very positive that my attire wouldn't matter in the least. So somehow I found myself riding my bike, while doubling Beyonce (yes her real name!), on the back of my bike. She had offered to ride my bike while doubling me on the back, but I insisted, given that I was in jeans and she in a long skirt. I am assuming that they thought I was incapable, as my small stature seems to translate to most everyone here as an indication of physical weakness, but I have been determined to prove everyone wrong. My suspicions were borne out half-way to the wedding when Fauzia shouted back from her bike, asking me if I was tired yet. They seemed quite impressed once I responded that no, I was in fact just fine. Once we arrived, the whole scene was pretty intimidating. The reception consisted of maybe 200-300 people all seated in a circle, with the empty space in the center reserved for those who wanted to dance. The girls informed me that when it was our turn, I was to dance with them! To make it even more intimidating, the crowd was almost entirely women, so those of you who understand that we are each other's harshest critics will understand why this was worse than a crowd full of men! It seemed that we had only been there scant moments, when a everyone around me leapt up and grabbed my hand and somewhat forcefully dragged me into the circle. At first I was motionless, as the crowd began to laugh once they realized someone had dragged the baturia (white person) into the center. At that point, I flung all of my pride to the side and counted on what little rhythm I was born with to not let me down. The moment I began to dance, the whole crowd let out this huge cheer that was so uplifting and surprising I found myself raising my arms in the air and cheering with them. It was a truly wonderful moment, and a definite conquering of fears. I wish that I had some video of this moment, but my rushed instructions to Fauzia seemed to do little and I only have a momentary video of my feet:( However, I have included a picture that I snapped of a women shaking what her momma gave her in the middle of the circle. The crowd in the shot represents maybe 1/4 of the people there, so try to imagine how many people I made a fool of myself in front of!

The rest of the evening was quite mundane, although i started to feel a little unwell around dinner time. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was one of the few JFs so far to not have gotten sick or had digestive problems. Well it seems it was my turn! I spent that night and all of Monday completely knocked out in bed with a fever and all of the other symptoms of malaria. With my luck, Monday was a holiday here for African Union Day, so I wasn't able to head to the clinic and instead took my malaria meds that EWB had supplied us with just in case. While I was surprised that I had already managed to contract it, I decided after re-reading the malaria fact sheets we had been given that if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck.... it's malaria. It is now Tuesday evening and I am feeling much better, though still pretty tired and planning on calling it an early night. I stayed home from work today, though was called in on account of a visit by the Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana. I think I will save that story for my next post, as I am still feeling pretty tired and am ready to call it an early night.

lots of love,
glynnis

May 24th Blog Post

2008-05-31T06:12:00.000-07:00

Well today was a day of experiences. First off, I started the day like any other - having tea and biscuits with my host father, Z. This has become our morning ritual and I can't say that I don't look forward to it every morning. It is a chance for us to talk about anything and everything, and just a generally relaxing time, perfect for starting a day full of unforseen events, as each day here has been. Following our tea, I decided it was time to whip my room into shape. I organized all of my junk and clothing, which I have strung up using clothespins all over my room, seeing as I didn't want to be living out of my backpack for four months! I then proceeded to sweep my whole room and my small little veranda out front. This took a considerable amount of time given the broom that I was using... which is the picture below. Not that the technology is all that different from ours, just that I am not very practiced at the technique needed, so it turned into quite a workout. Following that I had the chance to do one of the things I had been greatly looking forward to. Tahira, my host sister, and I biked out to the Salaga slave wells, just on the outskirts of town. For those of you who haven't done any independent research on the place I have been living, Salaga was once called the Timbuktu of Ghana, as it was a major trading and travel center, much of which had to do with its prominent role in the slave trade in West Africa. After being brought to Salaga, the slaves were bathed in a series of wells and then chained in the nearby grove of trees until they were ready to be brought to the market. There were over 100 wells, so you can imagine the volume of slaves bathed everyday. I have included a picture of the slave master's well, which was reserved exclusively for them and is the one built out of bricks. From there it would have been about a 45 minute walk in the hot sun, and upon arriving in Salaga market, the slaves were chained to the large baobob tree in the center of town for all to see. If they died, from diseases, infections, and often heat stroke, they were buried under this tree. A large baobob still stands in the centre of Salaga, though this is not the original, which actually didn't die until the 1970's. It was quite surreal to be standing on ground that actively facilitated the slave trade here, and under which countless artifacts from that time are doubtlessly preserved. Following our ride, Tahira and I rode to the family store, which is located around the corner from the restored buildings of the slave market. Tahira's mother, Ajira mama, as she is called, runs a small provisions store in town, which is where I spent the rest of the afternoon, eating kenke and fish, and peeling some sort of seeds that looked like gigantic raw sunflower seeds, but are apparently grown on trees and called 'aktia.' I have managed to pick up the series of local greetings by now, which include greeting someone 'good morning', 'good afternoon', or 'good evening' depending on the time of day. There are then a series of questions, such as "how is work?", "how is your family", etc. that have a regular pattern. Everyone seems pretty surprised when I can get through these, so I had the opportunity to meet many of the local ladies as they stopped by the store throughout the day. Oh, and today I was given my Gonja name! The Gonja are a large language group in Ghana and are concentrated in the Northern Region. Gonja is the predominant language in my district, East Gonja (duh!), so it was only fitting that I be given a new name I suppose! I am now referred to as "Alala" which means "the goodness". It is a word used commonly here in many of the local proverbs, as I discovered today, and given that I ceased to hear Glynnis after being dubbed this, I suspect I will be hearing a lot more of it. Finally, we settled in at home for a dinner of foo foo and groundnut (peanuts) soup which was delicious, which was followed by a couple rounds of cards and some typing practice on my laptop for a couple of the kids. This was also followed by a brief attempt by Muzachir, the youngest child - 2 years old, to eat some powdered insecticide. Luckily we are all in one piece following the interlude, and I am now settling into my room for the night, just as soon as I go a take my bucket shower. You would be surprised how clean you can feel after bathing with some local well water and a large bucket - woo hoo! Well, that's all for now folks, I'm pooped!

lots of love,

glynnis

May 20th Blog Post

2008-05-31T06:10:00.001-07:00

When I first arrived, and still currently, I had bouts of depression concerning what I was realistically going to be able to accomplish. Most days it seems that 'systems' here are just barely constrained chaos. Cars, trucks, tro tros, bikes, motorcycles, and people share the road with no prevailing rules or consensus on operating procedures. Horns are used to signal many purposes and I have learned that eye contact is key while trying to navigate the road in the morning. Service at restaurants and bars is horrible - sometimes they bring what you asked and sometimes not. Sometimes they will make frequent visits to your table and sometimes you will only see them once. Garbage collection is supposedly performed by a private company - Zoomlion - though in Salaga and most of the places I have visited or driven through, there remains garbage sprinkled throughout the streets and it is common practice for people to just throw whatever they are using on the ground once it is done. Even here, at the District Assembly, sometimes people show up for work, and sometimes they don't. Yesterday, by my estimate, there was me and approximately three other people in the office at the end of the day. Some of them were out in the field, while others had just failed to show up, but this raised no alarms or ire amongst their coworkers. This entire way of doing things can be extremely frustrating at times. I am not used to operating in such a system, and I find it very hard to get through life not being able to get concrete answers or plans or timelines for anything! In fact, this nature of society has left me so frustrated as to leave me completely enraged at the end of the day. However, I knew that this was one part warranted and one (larger) part culture shock. So I began t o reflect on my ideas. I have come to see that for a large part, Africans are extremely independent thinkers. In a world where food, water, and basic necessities can quickly grow short, people have establish their own independent systems for through which to achieve their ends, regardless of what the party line or law might be. I think this has largely transferred itself into the greater community of the continent. People here are no less intelligent for their lack of timelines or adherence to the rules of the game. Instead, I have come to think that it is simply a failure to identify with a common goal and to understand how a harmonized system could in fact facilitate the achievement of the ends. In speaking with a couple of my co-workers, I explained that to me, life here seems to be organized similar to the road - everyone is driving in the direction that they need to go to achieve their ends, but the road is full of people taking different routes to the same destination.

I think this will be one of my greatest obstacles here at the DPCU - How to ensure that everyone: DPCU employees, NGOs, Regional government, and the people of East Gonja, work together in the way that accomplishes the most for for those who need it and that the services a government should perform are in fact being carried out. To be honest, I leave here most days completely stumped as to what to do. I feel as if I have my foot firmly planted on the cultural side of things - I am super comfortable where I am living and really enjoy the company of those around me. I wake up everyday feeling pretty good emotionally and physically and I think I have already begun to establish some great relationships. I have been able to make my way around Salaga on my bicycle to carry out the things I need to do. I even paid my first visit to a seamstress yesterday to have my first new outfit made. I have even managed to fearlessly travel on the good and bad buses from here and back to Tamale, solo. However, everyday once I arrive at work, I start to feel a little lost. I am undoubtedly the first person to arrive, even if I show up 'late', after 9am. There is never any structure to the day, as everyone just does their own thing - which may be field work, office work, a workshop, or nothing. I am quite puzzled as to how I can affect change here. I want to walk by people's offices and see that they are actively engaged in something. I want to lead by example, but when I show up early there is no one here to see the example, and when I mention to people the time at which I have shown up they just laugh. It is also difficult to lead by example in terms of work ethic because at this point I am relying on others and the work they are doing. Argghh!

However, though I am currently venting I must say that working here represents a very welcome challenge. This whole exercise is about me stepping, or perhaps jumping, outside of my comfort zone and into my learning zone. I will learn to adapt! I will keep you posted on how it goes, although if I adapt too well then I will not be doing much posting:)

Because I couldn't think of a very good picture to represent my frustrations, I have included a picture of myself and Courtney, a fellow JF, from our in-country training session drinking pure water out of a sachet. Purified water can be found in these sachets virtually everywhere and they come in handy large bags with something close to 20 of them for a dollar, or in these little individuals which are each 500mL for 5 cents. They are pretty handy, and you simply bite off the corner and drink up although they significantly account for much of the garbage that can be found sprinkled throughout town and the country. My awesome coach Jen has created a long blog on this issue, so hop on over to her site to read more about "recycling" in Ghana.

lots of love,

glynnis

May 19th Blog Post

2008-05-31T06:03:00.000-07:00

Well, it is officially my second week of work here in Salaga, and I for sure feel much differently about it than I did last week! For starters, I was able to buy a bicycle this weekend, which on top of giving me my independence and allowing me to show up on time for work (horrors!) also provides me with some much needed exercise and a really enjoyable ride to work in the morning. I have included a picture of my new wheels, taken in front of my room in fact, with some of my washing on display. I was a little bit apprehensive about navigating the bumpy dirt roads of Salaga on my one-speed beachcomber special, while lugging my heavy backpack and wearing a skirt, but it turned out beautifully and has really been a great start to the day. I was a little bit sweaty by the time I arrived, but not nearly as much as I had feared, and I had the opportunity to meet people and say hello to nearly everyone I passed. That has been one great thing about Ghana, is that outside of the stereotype of "Ghanaian hospitality", people here are just much more willing to acknowledge you as you pass, and will wave and smile and say "Good Morning", to which I usually reply back with "good morning" in Gonja - "Anshema" - which always elicits a good laugh. I feel that so far I have developed some great beginnings of relationships here in Salaga, in only my first week or so. My coworkers are truly enjoyable and have been very welcoming and accommodating of my many questions. Little do they know how intense those questions will become! Muahahaha!

Anyways, moving on from the evil laughter, I also feel extremely comfortable in my new home. Zackaria, my host father, whom I shall refer to as Z after this, speaks a good amount of English and has been very tolerant of my questions concerning his family and businesses and general way of life. We have a great routine of tea and bread or biscuits in the morning which really starts the day off well for me. Because things start so much earlier here, I am usually wide awake by 5:30 and so this gives me plenty of time to relax over tea and conversation with Z before beginning my day. The tea here is interesting and definitely caters to my indulgent side. Generally made with some brand of dark tea, which varies widely between Lipton, Nestea, and other unknown Sri Lankan brands, the Ghanaians generally add heaping mounds of sugar and a good dose of Nestle Ideal condensed canned milk. This makes for a very sweet start to the day, which has greatly appealed to my resident sweet tooth. However, I have even found it too sweet! So Z has kindly handed the sugar reins over to me. Outside of this, there are surprisingly few sweets in Ghana - instead, the main staple here is any and every form of carbohydrates imaginable. Breakfast consists of bread or cookies/biscuits, although in Tamale this weekend I had the most amazing omelette with tomatoes and onions and served on a huge piece of grilled bread.... man, my mouth is just watering thinking about it. Lunch and dinner are generally the same format: a stew or sauce with small pieces of meat, served with any of the following: banku (fermented corn mash), kenke (another form of fermented corn - I can tell the difference in my mouth but couldn't tell you how they differ in composition), foo foo (glutenous mashed yams here in the north, and cassava in the south), TZ (a mixture of maize and cassava flours), wache (rice and beans), jollof (fried rice in tomato paste and vegetables, made with dark local rice or white foreign rice), and finally, some form of pasta, either spaghetti or rotini noodles. Luckily for me, Salaga is relatively close to Lake Volta, so fish is frequently used. At home, dried fish or fish stock is generally thrown into all of our meals, which gives me a significantly higher portion of protein than most other regions I'm thinking. The meat here can be a little scary, as nothing is really butchered, and is instead thrown in whole - skin, fat, fur, et al. For this reason I am eating pretty much eggs and fish, which has completely satisfied me and which seems to be the majority of what my family cooks, with the exception of small amounts of beef. I have lucked out in that the beef that they do eat has been cleaned and is quite good. Generally, any type of meat can be found here, from chicken to beef, goat, fish, guinea fowl, and a delicacy called grasscutter, which is essentially a large rodent that is apparently very good though I am not sure if I would try it even if the chance arose. I have committedly avoided goat, as they run wild here all over town and the countryside and are just too darn cute for me to think of eating them - I know I'm a softie:)

This morning, a young boy wandered into the compound selling food and Z and his second youngest son Baba (short for Babangida - little boy - not his real name, just a nickname!) conferred and decided to purchase a large bowl of Masa. I sampled two, while each child in the compound was also given two to snack on, and then Z sent Baba out to give the rest to the people who congregate in the market outside our door and in the prayer hut that Z has constructed outside of his house. I am definitely looking forward to more of these! They were made from maize flower and onions and some spices, as far as I can tell, and fried like little dumplings. Z used our sugar for the tea to sprinkle overtop and they were just absolutely a scrumptious way to start the day! I hope the boy stops by more often.

The fact that Z had sent the rest to the people outside did not surprise me, as I have come to regard him as one of the most generous people I have ever met. I believe it is a combination of his natural predisposition combined with his stated belief that whatever he gives out will be returned to him in a time of need. Z and his family are quite well off in relation to much of Salaga. In my experiences so far I would say he is likely upper middle class, although here in Ghana that still means no running water:) He has taken me in, and took in our past JF Evonne last year, with no misgivings. I am paying 7 cedis a month in rent, which roughly translates to about 7 canadian dollars. And this includes any meal I am home for, as well as full inclusion in all family activities, my own room, and full access to the pipe-borne well in our courtyard. However, I am not the only stranger he has taken in! Z and his wife have six children, some of whom live with us in the compound and some of whom live in town at his family house. On top of that though, there are other children who live at the house with us. I may have already gone over this in another entry, but I wanted to emphasize this facet of my life here. Suweba is 16 years old and is close friends with Z's 15 year old daughter Tahira. Suweba's father died about four years ago, and her mother was not able to continue her school fees or support them both. Z has taken her in, and she lives and works with the family like everyone else. However, because she missed a few years of school, she is not attending school now and her English is not comparable to others of her age. Instead, Tahira has told me that she will spend the next few years saving money for her marriage, which will likely come at 19 or 20. The second child that lives with us in the compound is Nasiru. Z has taken him in as he was being raised by his grandmother in a house just a stone's throw behind the compound. Her house is extremely rudimentary and I believe has no water or sanitation facilities. Z expressed that it was not a healthy environment for Nasiru to be raised in, and I think he was referring to both the physical health aspect, as well as the mental, given that there is a crowd of young boys that is up to no good in Salaga, similar to every city and town I have ever lived. Finally, there is Muzambiru, who has been with Z for just under a year and was brought from one of the surrounding villages. Again, I believe that this was done because of the poverty of his area and perhaps Z knew his family, but I am not quite sure how this came to be. Both of these boys, between 9 and 11, as far as I can tell, are sent to private school on Z's dime - although private school here is not the same concept as at home, it is still significantly more expensive than public. In fact there are interesting debates in Ghana at moment concerning the school system, but that will have to wait until another post. I have encountered many more instances of Z's charity, in the purest sense of the word, but this has turned into quite the extensive post, so I will sign off and surely will include more in the coming months.

Oops, one more thing... I have also included pictures of my compound to give you a bit of a feel for where I am right now!

lots of love,
g

May 17th Blog Chunk!

2008-05-17T06:14:00.000-07:00

Well, as of last week, on May 8th, I have safely arrived in Ghana. After arriving in Accra, the capital of Ghana, late on the 8th, we rose extra early the next morning to catch the 12-hour bus to Tamale, a large city in the upper-third of the country. From there we had two days of in-country training and as of Monday, May 12th we were off and running to our placements. I am placed in with the East Gonja District Assembly in the District capital, Salaga (SAL-aga). I have as yet been unable to find regular internet access in the town, so I made the 2-hour sketchy bus trip back to Tamale early this morning to run some errands and connect myself to the outside world. As a result, I have posted a couple of blog posts that will all be dated today, but I have placed the date they were written in the title.

There is much written about my work so far, but I realise I have failed to mention my living arrangements. EWB JF's are placed with local families in order to experience and understand the environment within which they are working - and I am no different! I have been placed with an awesome family in Salaga and they have taken great care of me so far. I have my own room and have already learned how to make many of the staple meals and wash my clothes. I have included a picture of some of the many children I live with in the process of making foo foo - a Ghanaian staple made from pounded yams using traditional tools.

I don't have much time left at the internet cafe before I have to catch my bus back to Salaga, so I will finish here, but I should be able to post at least once every week with a whole chunk of posts that I have been writing independently of internet access. I hope everyone is doing well and feel free to post any questions you have about my life, work, or Ghana in the comments and I will make sure to respond to them!

lots of love,

glynnis

May 14th Post - Health and Handwashing

2008-05-17T06:05:00.000-07:00

Much to my surprise there is great commotion at the office today. According to the sign, May 4th - 9th was national Children's Health Week in Ghana. Though today is the 14th, I am happy to see that their efforts have continued - perhaps an example that african time works in both directions? There was a large procession down from the local private schools, though I am unsure if the public schools are included, with many of the children bearing signs with messages such as "meat and eggs are not taboo" and "proper nutrition for children is needed". There seems to be two aspects to todays activities. The first is the advocation of proper nutrition for children as well as the introduction of proper sanitation and hygiene techniques. There is also a clinic set up here for all government workers in the district to receive free medical checks. All in all there must be almost 150 adults and children in the courtyard. I am interested to sit in on the lessons given to the children regarding proper nutrition and hygiene, as one of the workers here informed me that the intention is for them to pass this information on to their parents. This is an essential part of the activities, as many of these children will be the last in their families to eat tonight, especially the girls. As a result, they are left with mostly rice and little protein, and I have not yet received a meal with a whole vegetable portion, though the stew stocks are made with tomato paste. In addition, according to the statistics I reviewed yesterday, up to 70% of these children will not have a latrine in their household, and instead will utilize community facilities or practice open defecation. Finally, many have failed to make the connection, or be taught the connection, between handwashing and health, and so for many, they will be learning this lesson for the first time today.

After listening to the presentation, I have many questions. I was very happy to see that they emphasized the fact that our bodies are of a high percentage of water, and as such, the quantity and quality of the water we put in our bodies matters very much. The presenter then went on to speak about the fact that the Ghanaian diet is very high in carbohydrates and we need to concentrate on more fruits and vegetables and more protein, especially for children. Finally he emphasized the need for rest as well as exercise and utilized the phrase "walk for life" which I found to be a good tactic. However, the technical aspects of the presentation left much to be desired. The speaker system would not cooperate and as a result they were forced to use a bullhorn that did not effectively communicate their message. As well, their main audience was the children, who were all forced to stand and many of them directly in the sun. As well, the adults who had gathered did little to quiet or listen to the message, and I am afraid that much of it was lost. However, the man they chose to speak was an excellent speaker and very powerful in his delivery.

Following the presentation I introduced myself to the speaker and it turns out the he is the resident doctor in Salaga. Though we didn't have much time, I expressed my enthusiasm for the messages he delivered, as I have already seen in this short time how essential they are for the Ghanaian people. This is based on the incredibl poverty that I have witnessed so far, as well as the results of the Water & Sanitation survey that I have been reviewing at work. It is hard to believe that so many people can function without proper sanitation and hygiene practices - and indeed this is true, as the health of the Ghanaian people has suffered accordingly. I hope that my work here this summer can have at least a small impact on the awareness of these issues, as that seems to be at the root of many of the behaviours I have witnessed and the survey evidence I have examined - a simple lack of knowledge.

Well there is much more for me to say on this, but I am running out of time today, so I will leave it there as food for thought.

lots of love,

glynnis

May 13th Blog Post - First Day of Work!

2008-05-17T06:04:00.000-07:00

Well it is officially my first day of work here at the East Gonja District Assembly, also known as the District Planning and Coordinating Unit (DPCU). My first night in Salaga was quite interesting, as apparently I brought the rain with me! I was awoken at about 2 am by the loudest thunder, lightening, rain, and wind I have ever heard. It seemed impossible that so much could happen at the same time, and without causing a flash-flood or ultimate destruction. After various bouts of this throughout the night I eventually learned to sleep through it and to my amazement woke up to my host family being even happier than the night before! The rains had finally come and this was good news for everyone. I have found my accommodation in the same compound as Evonne, EWB-Carleton's JF who was placed with the DPCU last year. I will be living with Zacaria and his family for the next three and a half months. When I first arrived, I was simply an oddity to be looked at by most of the neighbourhood. Zac's family is in posession of the strongest well of pipe-borne water and as a result, the women and children of the community use this as their source of clean water, as it is supposedly treated before it is sent into the system... I am still drinking pure water, so I am unsure if this is true:) The family has been extremely welcoming and given that they have had previous experience with past volunteers, they have been quite gracious in understanding that I am not yet able to eat the extremely large amounts of food they have placed in front of me. I am thinking that I will make an effort to eat a small lunch with many vegetables in order to prepare myself for this in the future.

While I had heard from many people about "African time" I discovered today that it is certainly one of those stereotypes that is based in truth:) One of my co-workers at the DPCU had insisted on picking me up in the morning, as I had not yet had the chance to buy a bicycle to transport myself to work. However, 9 o'clock had already passed with no word. It seems that following the rains, life moves even slower here. My host sister did not attend school until almost 4 hours later than usual, because of the rains, and my co-worker did not make it into work until almost 10:30, all attributed to the rains. I am welcoming the change of pace as it applies to life, as my evenings have been quite relaxing as I attempt to learn Gonja with my family as well as use a computer typing training program that I downloaded to teach my host sister how to type - she is quite fast and we are planning a competition for before I leave at the end of the summer! However, it has been (in only two days!) very hard to adjust to this time scheme as it applies to work life. Few plans are made, and those that are are not kept. Goals are strived for, but are constantly off track by the inevitable interruption of others and their tasks. I approached my counterpart on this matter and he explained it quite simply - for the assembly, which is tasked to attend to the region's largest district, they cannot refuse to speak with those who have often traveled for two days to come and speak their peace. Some people, if possible, will call, but because even the District Assembly is not equipped with internet, they rarely receive anything in writing from the public. Instead, the preferred method of communication is face-to-face. I believe that this certainly has its advantages, as I related the reality of communicating with the Canadian government, and how many people become extremely frustrated at the convoluted process of applications and written communication before one can even hope to speak with a real person. However, my co-workers do not lack the understanding that the face-to-face nature of communication in Ghana serves to create a blockage for the timely achievement of goals. However, how do you alter this within the District Assembly, when the entire population will continue to expect to be served in such a manner? There are many obstacles that I have identified in just this one workstream already, and already I am overwhelmed at the thought of how to possibly overcome them in a country and culture that operates on such different basic ideas. I am also wary of importing my ideas from my experience working for government at home, as these would be equally inefficient. I expect that these are the confusions that will continue to confront me for the rest of the summer, so expect that I will be ruminating on them quite often in this forum!

On a lighter note, those that know me will understand that I am enjoying the daily interactions with animal life here in Ghana! I am currently sharing my room with a number of spider friends, some as yet to be determined whether they are dead or alive:) I also had a miniature gecko visitor last night who ignored my romantic advances:( There are a great number of chickens and roosters and chicks that wander around my room and our courtyard, though I have not yet determined whose exactly they are. There is a chicken who roosts on the top of the wall at the entrance to my room every evening - she is the picture I have attached below. Also, there are a number of larger lizards who are constantly running about, and when you startle them they do a great imitation of pushups to evaluate their situation. I will attempt to get video of this sometime soon. On top of that, it seems Ghana as a whole is occupied by a large number of roaming goats and sheep, many of which tend to wander around our courtyard and one of which decided to check out my room this morning as I was getting dressed. On my first night here I also had a little field mouse dart into my room, only to quickly exit as he realized that it was already occupied by me. And finally, my amazing coach Jen took us to see the only monkey in Ghana (I think!) which was tied to a tree in the rural community surrounding Tamale - where we stayed to do our in-country training. I have some great video of him doing an excited dance to see us, though apparently he is actually quite vicious. When I have access to a greater amount of internet time and bandwidth perhaps I will upload it.

Well, I suppose that's long enough for now... I am off to continue to unravel the East Gonja District Assembly and jump right in on the surveys recently conducted to evaluate the current conditions of water supply and sanitation in the District. I will bring you those exciting results soon!

Lots of love, glynnis

Pre-departure blog from the plane! (so... mid-departure, I suppose)

2008-05-17T05:51:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

Well I apologize for the delay in making a real substantive post, but as you can imagine, the last few weeks have been quite hectic. I have only just now found time to recap the amazing events, though I am currently 35,000 feet in the air on the way to our stopover in Amsterdam. From there we have a lengthy stopover and then its a relatively quick jaunt to Accra, the capital of Ghana. After slightly over 24 hours of travel time, the 2008 Ghana JFs will have arrived!

However, our journey officially began last wednesday with the commencement of our week-long pre-departure training session. This involved the co-habitation of 23 JFs (14 to Ghana and 9 to Malawi) in a house built for approximately 5! The cramped quarters and limited hygiene resources (read: one shower to 23 people) were surprisingly enjoyable and definitely helped in fostering a collective "we're all in this together" outlook. However, on top of the living conditions, Team Ghana has come to foster an incredible dynamic that made the intense pre-departure sessions both extremely fun and incredibly transformative.

For the past 6 days, our team has listened, facilitated, learned, debated, discussed, and drawn (EWB should have stock in flipchart paper!) our way to a greater understanding of development, poverty, Africa, Ghana, and even ourselves. However, the brilliant team here at the national office has worked very hard to ensure that we have all come out of this with an exponentially larger number of questions than answers. We have learned how and why to question our own actions and assumptions and how this outlook can help anyone anywhere diagnose their own problems and propose potential solutions - yet somehow, we couldn't even come up with a concrete definition of "development." Our awesome team has spoken to strangers, role played, and jumped way far out of our comfort zones in order to grasp Ghanaian culture and our role as westerners within that context - and yet, we continue to heatedly discuss what is best for Dorothy (the name EWBers use to address the realities behind the true faces of poverty and what that experience entails) and how best to achieve that. I could continue on with specific questions our group has formulated over the past week, but it is sufficient to say that we have simply learned to ask questions - when to ask them, which ones to ask, who to ask, and how, if possible, to drawn conclusions from them.

As for my own personal experience, I have significantly changed over the past week, as from the very first day I have been challenged to think of the ways in which I learn and how that affects my listening and teaching skills. I have come to understand my adversarial nature and how that could perhaps facilitate my critical review of processes and procedures, while on the other hand building a wall between me and those who have equally great ideas. Cat and Levi, our amazing facilitators and support system have really challenged me to step outside of routines and to voice my concerns, while still considering different points of view. As a result of this sometimes emotionally intense process, I have vowed to remain committed to the true experience of Dorothy this summer and will attempt - no! I WILL - create a link between those whose opinions are never sought and those who control which resources and services they receive. In short, I have vowed to ask questions at all levels of Ghanaian society and hierarchy to understand how the developing world understands itself and how that can be tied into what level services are currently being provided.

Perhaps it is the late hour or the intense amount of debate now firing within my brain, but I am unsure if any of that made any sense:) However, what I would like everyone to know is that this blog will become a direct conduit to the average 'Dorothy' in Africa - I will relate my experiences, impressions, assumptions, frustrations, and breakthroughs in my goal to understand development and how the MAJORITY of the world lives. Please feel free to fire me an email with questions that you would ask 'Dorothy' - this is as much your opportunity to understand development as it is mine. I will do my best to ask those questions of others, and continue to ask myself questions about my own approach and perhaps concerning the questions I have chose to ask.... essentially a jumble of questions directed in every possible direction!

Finally, I have updated the pictures on the side of the blog to highlight exactly where I will be headed for the next four months. And finally, really, I have included a picture taken by my awe-inspiring coach who is currently in Tamale, of a latrine with its own built-in security system! I have affirmed my belief this week that humour is the way to a healthy heart and head and would like to extend a hearty thanks to all of teams Ghana and Malawi for sharing this time with me and allowing me to explore myself in an incredibly humorous and entertaining environment.

Wishing you all the best!

Glynnis

Inaugural Blog - with requisite overuse of exclamation marks!!!

2008-04-15T17:36:00.000-07:00

So, here it is - the inaugural blog post!

Currently, I am still in Canada, sitting at the library studying my life away. However, I would be lying if I said my thoughts weren't entirely occupied by the thought of leaving so soon - my various countdowns include:

-11 days until Toronto (April 26th)
-15 days until pre-departure training begins (April 30th)
-22 days until we leave for Ghana (May 7th)

It seems as if I have so much to do before then! Exams to study for and term papers to finish. Supplies to accrue in preparation for four months overseas. EWB assignments and readings to prepare before I leave so that I can be my most effective once I arrive. And, on top of all that, friends, family, and loved ones to spend quality time with before I head out. Luckily for me, I have awesome ones of all the above who are definitely making an effort to see me off with a bang!

First up, a pre-departure bbq - likely (and hopefully) the last hot dog I'll have for the next 4 months!

Secondly, a date with destiny - bungee jumping this weekend in Whistler!

Which brings me to my point for this first post, and no matter how many times it's been said already, it should never fail to lose its meaning - follow your dreams! My beloved roommate and I made an effort about a year ago to create an actual list of things we wanted to do in life. This, for me, has been the year of realizing many of my dreams. A trivial one, bungee jumping, will finally be realized this weekend - much to my mother's chagrin. However, the JF position for me is the culmination of much hard work and dreaming about a bigger goal - to work to change that which I feel is unequal in our world. So, from someone who has finally taken some of the big steps towards the rest of their life, I encourage you all to do it! I have committed myself to EWB and the JF program and all that it speaks for because I truly believe in it - and I hope you can all find something that you so wish to commit to.

Well, after all the motivational speak, I'm out for now. Good luck to everyone on their exams, and I shall blog again soon!