Going backwards?

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

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

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

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

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



Things that stuck with me/shocked me:

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


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


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


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


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


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

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