The Project

So the project is moving right along. It is the most confusing but rewarding projects I have been on to date. The confusing part comes from it being a community development project. What I mean by community development is that the community decides what the project is and how to accomplish it. The community in this case is two-fold; one community is the project team that is made up of students and faculty from three universities (two in Ghana and one in Canada, Malaspina), the other community is actually four communities that are neighbouring villages around Sunyani. At this point in the project we are mainly working with the project team, and in March and April we will start more actively engaging the neighbouring communities.

The roles that Amanda and I are playing are quite undefined, and that is where the confusion comes for me. We are currently acting as facilitators, leaders, and participants of the team, and in any one meeting we may play all three roles! The Ghanaian team members seem happy to let us lead, as last year the Canadian team took a more leadership role with ideas and plans for their time here. Yet in order for this project to be sustainable the Ghanaians need to take the leadership so that when there are no Canadians here, the project will continue. So even while Amanda and I take leadership roles we are also constantly putting ideas and decisions back to the group to make as a team. Having to constantly make decisions as a group can be very time consuming and very frustrating for some, yet it is imperative so that the team feels completely responsible for the direction and objectives that are being determined. This buy-in from the team will ensure that they have ownership of what is happening.

Despite the time consuming nature of community development, the team is moving ahead very quickly. The team has split into three groups that are each responsible for one of the topic areas – HIV/AIDS education, Plastic Waste Management, and Bush Fires (for now we have put eco-tourism on hold). We have been busy researching the topics, looking at the findings from surveys done in the neighbouring villages last year of perceptions on these topics, and visiting various local authorities of these topics. The information is being compiled and put into a radio show interview format. Radio is an important media medium here and so we will be taking the education to various radio stations to reach the target markets each topic has identified. We will also be distributing informational posters from various authorities on these topics to the neighbouring villages and the campus’s. Then in April when the rest of the Canadian team arrives, we will be formatting the information we have gathered into educational programs to take to the schools in the various villages. We will pilot the programs this year with the idea that they will be improved upon and revisited over the next few years.

It’s all very exciting! Amanda and I are constantly discussing the project, the team, the progress, the culture, the people, etc etc. It is keeping us busy…mentally, as much or even more so than physically.

Life in Ghana

It is very hard to believe that we have been in Sunyani for almost two weeks! We have settled very nicely into life here. Living in the university dorm has given us a great way to meet people, as with 400+ students in the building there is always someone around and lots of new people to meet and visit with. Ghanaians are very social people, and there is always something going on in the dorm.
We are learning and practicing Twi, which is the most common tribal Ghanaian language in the country. As with many cultures I have encountered, the people here are thrilled when we attempt to use their language…even if done poorly. The cleaning ladies in the dorm building speak very little English, and have made it their mission to ensure we learn more Twi while we are here. We also try and use as much Twi as we can when we go to the market for groceries. We have got a few regular stops now where we shop and we practice our Twi with them. We go to a really sweet lady named Akua (pronounce Aqueea) for our fruit, and yesterday her 17 month old daughter was there with her. She just stared at us with her big brown eyes…not sure what to make of these two obrunies (white people).
We have also become regulars at a stall that sells nice tomatoes. The first time we went there I smiled at one of the ladies and she looked so surprised to see my braces. She pointed and said “your fingers!” The other ladies around started killing themselves laughing and saying “not fingers, TEETH!” The woman became very embarrassed but eventually told me that she though my teeth looked very beautiful! They think I have ‘bling’ on my teeth! Now when ever we go there, they laugh and tease the lady about my ‘fingers!’
Vincent, one of the students that was part of the project last year, and is again this year has become our Ghanaian culture guru. We have a ‘code’ that we (meaning both us as Canadians and him as a Ghanaian) can speak very frankly about our cultures and our values etc and discuss them openly and honestly. He is a gem of a guy! We had our first cultural booboo this past Friday evening and a true test of our 'code.'
There was a German exchange student here for four months named Jan, and he was leaving on Saturday, so we decided we should all go out and celebrate his last night here. We told Vincent that he should invite who ever was close to Jan, the more the merrier. Vincent called me a little later and asked if it was okay to invite one more friend. I told him of course, he should invite who ever he wanted. Not long after the call Vincent was knocking on our door a little concerned. It turned out that in Ghana if you invite someone to go out, it means that you are offering to pay for this person. So we had put Vincent in a very awkward situation as he didn’t have enough money to pay for other people’s dinners, but we had told him to invite people! Poor guy. It was great though that he felt comfortable enough to come to us to explain the situation. It all got sorted out, and we had a great evening.
Oh, BTW I unfortunately left my camera cord at home in Canada, so I can't access my pictures to share, but here is a link to a few of Amanda's pics. They are a bit out dated...from when we first arrived, but more should come soon. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=93568&l=937f2&id=855290180

Water, Glorious Water!!

Yes, the water started running yesterday afternoon! Woohoo and Yipee! Amanda and I were so excited that when our friend Vincent (another resident of the dorm) came to visit we were high five-ing and jumping around and telling him how we had flushed the toilet without a bucket! And when we paused to get his reaction, he was laughing so hard because he had no idea what we were talking about, we had been talking so fast! Once we slowed down, he was just as excited! He hadn’t even realized the building had water again. So we had our first real showers this morning since arriving in Sunyani…cold showers of course. Let’s not get too carried away!
I had a real moment of reflection yesterday afternoon that had me pause, and get a bit emotional actually. I realized that I have laughed more, longer, and harder since I got here then I have in…months! I feel like I have reconnected with a part of myself that had gotten lost in the daily grind of school and work etc. This awareness is really having me look at how I live my life. I don’t think I have been very good at balancing my time with work, friends, family, exercise, and time for myself. I think this is a common struggle for people...so how do we change? This is something that will have me thinking for awhile and hopefully making some changes for the better when I return home.
The first team meeting yesterday was a real success. We tried to focus on just getting to know each other and building a foundation for the future success of this team. There are four students from the two Universities and six faculty members in total. I’m very excited about all that are involved. They all seem very keen to be part of this project and are looking forward to getting started on the creating the objectives for this year.
I feel so honoured to be here and have this opportunity. Already I feel like my brain has been working overtime since we got here analyzing, questioning and learning about the culture and how this will impact the project. I feel like we have enough time here to actually make an impact on the future of this project, and that is very exciting.

Settling In

Our transfer to Sunyani was postponed by two days, as some of the faculty from Sunyani Polytechnic (or S. Poly as they call it) was in Accra for a workshop and it made more sense for the van to pick us all up at the same time. We were disappointed not to be heading out, but were also able to spend more time with George and Sandra which was nice.
We arrived at the dorm for the Forestry University at about 6:30pm after the bumpiest 8 hour drive I have ever been on! In Ghana they use speed bumps to try and slow people down…‘try’ being the key word! There will be 3 -9 speed bumps as you enter a town or village and then a few throughout, and then another 3 -9 as you leave. Over the 450km distance, there were a lot of villages!! But the van was air conditioned and for that I was truly thankful! :)
We were greeted by some of the students that Amanda had befriended last year, with whoops of delight and lots of hugs! Our accommodation is in a four story cement building that is built around large common grounds that are still under construction, but will eventually have some grassy areas, a badminton court, and a basket ball court. They are working very hard to get it completed. We are on the fourth floor in our own bedrooms that have a shared hallway and bathroom. They are quite large rooms, and each has a balcony, though not much of a view. The only down side to the accommodation is that the day before we arrived there was a power outage that affected the water system, and so we are without running water. We take buckets across the street onto the campus and fill them up to wash with…it’s pretty sad how weak we are compared to the other students here!! They carry the buckets without too much difficulty, some even carry two at a time, while we can only accomplish ten or twenty steps at a time before we have to stop and rest! I don’t know who laughs harder at us try to carry it, us or the other students watching us. I don’t know how long we will be without water, but we will definitely get stronger in the mean time…once we get the water back to the building we then have to carry them up 4 flights of stairs too!
I had my first really local food today. It was banku which I have no idea what it is made of, but it is kind of like a dough that you pull pieces off of and then dip it into the groundnut (a groundnut is a peanut, but I didn’t really detect a peanut flavour) soup that had fried chicken in it. The banku was not my favourite…although I figured out if you take very little pieces it was not so bad. The soup was quite spicy and had me sweating even more than I already was, but was pretty good. Only time will tell how my stomach reacts to the meal! I’m keeping my fingers crossed!
We went into town yesterday and bought some equipment to enable us to do some of our own cooking, so we do not always have to go out to eat. I think we are both feeling very good about this arrangement!
We have met most of the students and faculty that we will be working with, and have scheduled our first team meeting for Monday morning. I’m very interested to see how this all plays out, as while we have ideas about how we should proceed, this is a community development project and so as a group we need to decide how to best move forward which can be very time consuming. Also we are students and so I’m not sure how our input will be taken. I’ll keep ya posted!

p.s. about the lack of pictures…I forgot the cable for my camera to be able down load pictures in Canada! Hopefully it will be brought out with the next team members that will arrive from home, in the mean time I will try and copy some of Amanda’s. :)

The 'Cold' Season

Apparently we missed the ‘cold’ (as in temperature) season here by about a week. They say it was cool in the evenings, but I have a hard time imagining that. It is definitely not the cold season now…we having been waking up to about 30C in the mornings, and it climbs to 35 and higher during the day! The worst moments are when getting stuck in traffic with no air conditioning and I can feel myself begin to melt into the seat… ‘I’m melting!’
I’ve really enjoyed my time here in Accra. George and Sandra are excellent hosts, and have helped ease us into Africa. They've fed us well, and chauffeured us around. But I’m also really excited to head to Sunyani tomorrow and get out of the city. A Ghanaian friend of ours in Nanaimo told us before we left that locals here can tell when she is back visiting Ghana and not living here, because the whites of her eyes are actually white. It is so dusty here that the whites of peoples eyes turn a yellowy/red colour, and I noticed in the mirror last night that the whites of my eyes have already been affected.
We met with another Canadian woman today that is working on her Phd from the University of Guelph. She has been here in Ghana for almost a year, but also volunteered here for two years previously. She seemed pretty knowledgeable about Ghanaian life, and was very encouraging about our project. We will hopefully meet up with her again before she leaves in March.
I’ve had a list building in my head to share with you all. It’s the top five things I like about Ghana so far…
#5. BIG beds are very common…double kings are practically the standard!!
#4. When you wake up in the middle of the night to go pee, you aren’t rudely shocked by a cold toilet seat, it’s a nice room temperature. You ladies will know what I mean!
#3. You can buy pineapples for 50 cents, and they are delicious!!
#2. It’s HOT here! I’ve always said I was born to live in the tropics with my constantly cold hands and feet. No cold feet here!
And my number 1 thing I like about Ghana so far is…
Big bums are all the rage!

The First Leg

Arrived in Amsterdam at 4:00am home time…ugh. With statistics showing that people are increasing in size with each generation, you’d think the airlines would get a clue and start making seats that actually fit a normal sized person! With about an hour of sleep each, Amanda and I went straight to the hotel and crashed for about 3 hours. I’m still fighting this cold, and want to be as well as possible before arriving in Ghana, so decided sleep was more important at this point than sightseeing in Amsterdam.
Not much else to report yet; arrived safe and sound at the end of this first leg of the trip. We fly out tomorrow at about 1:00pm and arrive in Accra at 7:30pm Ghana time! Finally feeling EXCITED about going!!

The First Step

On February 6th I leave for Ghana in west Africa! Only 6 more sleeps now!
The project that I am going with has a website www.mala.ca/ghana if you're interested in checking it out. I don't think it has been updated with the new students involved for this year, but it has some background on the project itself.
What exactly am I going to be doing there? Well...that's a good question! Amanda Moore, a fellow Malaspina student, and I are leaving on the 6th with an overnighter in Amsterdam before arriving in Accra, Ghana on the 8th. We'll have a few days in Accra before heading out to Sunyani where we will be based. This is the second year of this five year project, so the first week or two will be settling in and reconnecting with contacts that the team made last year in Sunyani. We will also be going out to the four villages that are part of the project to reconnect and continue to build support within the communities for the project.
The four areas that we will be working on, that our partners in Sunyani have identified, are AIDS awareness/education, waste management (particularily plastic recycling), forestry management (particularity bush fire prevention), and ecotourism.
Amanda and I will be staying on campus of one of the universities that we are partnered with. They have a new dorm that we will be staying in...not sure yet what it will be like!? Staying on campus will give us a great opportunity to meet with the Ghanaian students and faculty involved. We are also planning on doing some homestays while we are there, but nothing has been finalized yet.
In mid-March one of our instructors will join us, and then in mid-April the rest of the team arrives for three weeks. There will be 11 students and faculty from Malaspina, including Amanda and I, during these three weeks!
I must admit that I have been having a hard time getting excited...not because of the upcoming experience, but because of all the stuff that has to be done before we go! I know though that once I am on that plane...!!!!! Woohooo!
We will have access to internet, so be sure to check in from time to time!
L.