Mid September!?

Hi! Since the last posting:
-I’ve had 3 ICT classes
-2 visits to Tamale to use the Internet with the students
-Run to End Poverty
-Ramadan is ending
-Sarah (my coach) came to visit
… and somehow I’ve become super busy. Not just with thoughts about my environment and the cultural differences, but with objectives for my placement, for the college, for personal development, and for connecting back to Canada.
It was great to have Sarah visit, she arrived just in time to see some of my class in action and we spent a bit of time touring the college and interacting with the students. Oh I also managed to lock the key inside the library. Turns out Moses locked it with my bag still inside lol but thank goodness in the end there was an extra key at the principal’s house. At this point Sarah had created this intense stick structure that we were going to try and put through the window to reach my bag and somehow unzip it and then unhook my keys…haha… I am curious if it would have actually worked. So we had a good time but it was also really helpful to recap what I’ve been doing so far and putting down on paper what my objectives are. It gave me a tangible to-do list that I’m excited to attack. So some of the stories below were written last week but I did add some new ones. I think the overall feeling this past week, well it’s been for the past few weeks I’d say, is that we (all the pro jfs) are surprised at how we’ve adapted to our new worlds. Nadia, Claire and I were reading entries from our journals from when we first arrived in Ghana and then recent entries and it was really interesting to see the difference, the development. I’m still struggling to put into words the difference or what happened to make our headspaces so different. Yes…me…I am struggling for words haha. Okay, so here are some stories and general observations and things that stuck with me:


Perceptions.
A bit of background is necessary for this. IVSA = International Veternarian’s Student Association. Four vet school students from Bristol in the UK paid the PT college a visit this past week. Jennifer, Simon, Morgan and Sky, four wonderful people, all of whom say “reckon” and “lovely”. They were respresenting the IVSA from the UK and were received by Rockson, the IVSA Ghanian president as well as the rest of the student association. They spent about a week or so visiting the college. They attended classes, stayed with the students in the dormitories, took part in evening festivities, met with teachers and the school administration. They donated books and surgical equipment and are expecting a few of the students from the PT to their school back in the UK. It was absolutely amazing meeting all of them, I learnt so much. We of course chatted about Ghana and all the shocks and amazements but also about the perceptions of Canadians and the British. Through them, I visited the girls dormitories for the first time and went to the “drinking spot” just off of the college grounds. We had a spaghetti dinner at my house on their last evening in PT and I was sad to see them go but happy knowing they had such a great experience.
As I was walking back to my place escorted as usual by George, we were talking about perceptions. So after having met the 4 soon to be vets from Britain, I was just thinking how diverse culture and systems are in even the developed world. Then George spoke about the perception of Ghanians about white people. They don’t generally distinguish between the nations that make up the developed world just as we tend to put the entire continent of Africa into one lump sum. He asked me the perceptions North Americans have about Africa, and then about Ghana in general. I said that the majority of NA seem to think of Africa as this continent in a state of chaos. A continent riddled with disease and corruption and primitive tendencies. Ghana I said, for those who know a little bit about the differences in history and policy between African nations will agree that it is a leader in terms of reflecting where the continent is striving to be. It was hard to think about the generalizations that NAs make about Africa, as my own view of Africa is quite different from what I assume are the generalizations and also my opinion is just that, an opinion, I cannot speak for NA and so what I perceive that the general population perceives may not be accurate. But he asked for sweeping generalizations so that is what I did. I asked the same question to him and his generalization firstly was that all white people are the same. And we all have money and therefore happiness. Again, this does not represent his personal opinion but just generalizes what he has seen and heard over the years and regions of his country.
What are your perceptions of Africa? Do you think they are correct? If not, why do you think you have those perceptions? If so, what proof or experience can back up your claim?
How would you respond to the generalization that all whites are the same?



Wireless Internet
An utter phenomenon. All of you who are reading this at your leisure on a high speed, wireless connection, take a minute and be thankful. I was fortunate to experience this luxury this past weekend, last Sunday, as Claire and I went to the Gariba Lodge in Tamale. Actually, we first tried an Internet place near the EWB house to learn that their link was down. So we took a shared taxi to another place that we had to walk to from the intersection only to find out it was also closed. The third place we tried opens at 4pm on Sundays and it was 11am. So we decided to go try the Gariba Lodge…it ended up being a great choice. The internet was fast, reliable and free! I think they forgot to turn on their server because normally you have to pay… we both got emails sent and blog posts up and research done. We were exploring some articles and things online through ewb.ca and called Nadia to ask her about one particular article. Nadia helped us out but sounded a little sad. She had missed one of her friend’s weddings that day by being in Ghana and was just feeling that familiar feeling of melancholy that creeps up on you sometimes when you are so far from everything familiar and comforting. So Claire and I decided to take advantage of our Internet situation and looked up all kinds of quotes in an effort to make her feel a bit better. We saved the ones we really liked on a word document and then called Nadia back and read them to her… we had some good laughs and even though we couldn’t make everything better I think it’s fair to say we all had some extra food for thought. Here are a few of my favourites from our favourites:

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.”
-Helen Keller
“Don’t follow your dreams; chase them.”
-Richard Dumb (it was noted beside this quote that the people who chose this one though he was very smart despite his name haha)
“The things that we share in our world are far more valuable than those which divide us.” - Donald Williams
“Know that although in the eternal scheme of things you are small, you are also unique and irreplaceable, as are all your fellow humans everywhere in the world.” - Margaret Laurence
“We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.” - Martin Luther King
“Fall seven times, stand up eight. “ - Japanese proverb
“A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.”
-Anonymous
“Our lives improve only when we take chances - and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves.”
- Walter Anderson



Run to end poverty:
A concept: Ghana time and Canada time. the run was scheduled for 2pm on Saturday. A little insane, perhaps, it is only the hottest time of the day at that point, but many members of the school community attend church on Saturday morning and then the rest attend on Sunday. So Saturday afternoon it was. It wasn’t a problem for the ghanians, I was mostly worried about us Canadians falling over into the bush on the side of the path from heat exhaustion. There were four of us who set up the race. Nadia and Claire (2 of my fellow pro jfs) as well as our friend corey, who is part of the peace corps and is also a marathon runner. They all arrived in pong-tamale on Friday and we ate well, chatted and went to bed much later then we would have liked. Saturday morning we spent discussing how the run was going to go and we started to get things in motion. We set the course (probably about 5km) and drew up banners and decided on what we were going to say and how we were going to conduct the race details. So I said the race would start at 2pm. And I believed that the students would actually show up at that time! and then I saw them all walking with bowls in their hands at 2pm. Lunch time. so 2pm became 3pm. Lol. But it was great anyhow. There were about 30 students who showed up in every variety of footwear known to mankind. Loafers, slippers, soccer cleats, rubber boots, flip flops… it made me think about companies like asics and mizuno and new balance whose livelihood is dedicated to the need for specific footwear for specific activites for specific feet. The only thing our shoes had in common with the students was the layer of red dirt that I am convinced is there to stay. Favourite parts of the run:
-the excitement of the start and the dancing the students were doing before
-a student telling me as he ran past me that he thinks the run is great because the school pushes academics but he also thinks the body needs to be healthy and active
-coming around the bend for the home stretch and knowing there is water at the end
-being doused by water sachets
-seeing the students have a great time and be enthusiastic!
(oh one of the pictures I’m going to put up seems like it’s just of dirt in the ground but if you look carefully you can the see course I’ve outlined…with a stick… it went something like this: so down this dirt path, past those trees, up where the road becomes paved, you know, where the goats always lie right in the middle, into the market, past those huts, no no the ones near the church, the church near the place where they burn the hair off the goats, down this path, no that path, past the primary school, through the soccer pitch and back to the college…anyways I knew where I was going Lol)
So all this to say, thank you to those who ran in Montreal and raised over $15,000! We had a great time in Ghana running to support the efforts of those in Canada!
You can always check out the website www.runtoendpoverty.ca to see details from the Montreal, Vancouver and Ghana races!

Mme Faustina’s stories:
I’ll introduce mme first. She’s a teacher at the college and a vet technical officer. She is full of life and energy and we get along really well. She cares about the students and is self-motivated and very dynamic. I am attending her class on Thursdays with the level 100s as it is the only course offered on agriculture extension at the college this semester. And if you recall one of my objectives is to evaluate the effectiveness of the extension curriculum so I thought it would be a good idea to actually attend the class. The class is rural sociology. It’s actually really interesting. She’s engaging and full of real examples. The main things she’s been talking about so far involve how as an extensions agent, you need to be sensitive to the culture you are going to be working in. And that building trust and empathy with the community you are going to be working in is essential to doing your job well. It actually reminds me all the time of the type of pre-departure training we had in terms of integrating culturally and building trust relationships and what not. Anyways there are 2 stories in particular that she shared in class that I’d like to pass on for thought!
(1) Building a church:
A westerner came into a rural African community and saw that they were primarily Christian but had no church. So he decided to build them a church. He got funding for it, got the materials, had some other foreigners build it and then within 2 months it was done. The people of the community were happy, they attended the sermons and enjoyed the structure. But then one day there were extremely heavy rains and half the church collapsed. The westerner would come weekly for the sermons and so when he came to the community and saw that the church had collapsed he was surprised to see the community members just sitting around. All the community members had to say to him was “hey! Your church fell down.”
-the community took no ownership in the church and therefore felt it was not theirs but that of the westerner
-they didn’t understand that they should feel like they should rebuild it because they hadn’t even asked for it in the first place
… mme’s emphasis here was on the fact that if you involved the community in a project you learn about their strengths and weaknesses and also allow them to have ownership in projects happening in the community. A better way to approach this project would have been to involve different groups in the village who would have been happy to help ie the women fetching the water, the men laying the bricks, the youngsters running little errands here and there. Then when the church was completed everyone could be proud of the work they had done. She wanted the students to understand that just going in and giving an answer is not the way to go about things. That knowledge and involvement is much more valuable in the long run than immediate treatment.
It was really interesting to hear about this because it echos many thoughts about the development industry. People debate about the need for immediate relief versus sustainability. About charity versus capacity building and empowerment and increased opportunities. And a huge one is how outsiders enter a community where the culture and norms are completely different from what they’re used to and try and impose all these solutions when often in the end they might not even be attacking the right problems.
(2) “But we did what you said! Why are our women still pregnant?!”
There was a health worker who went to a rural community to promote family planning and contraceptives. She brought a supply of condoms and was demonstrating how to use them. Unfortunately, she was using a stick model to demonstrate. So all these men and women of this community were listening and learning how to put a condom on a stick penis. So the health worker left and the people of the village continued having sex. Only they took her advice and put the condom on a stick model and put it under their beds while they had sex. Or beside their beds if their beds weren’t raised. Because that’s what they had learnt. The health worker came back a few months later and all kinds of women were pregnant. And beaten. Because now the men assumed they were cheating on them because well how else would they have been pregnant. So not only was the health worker faced with the problem of many unwanted pregnancies but she was also faced with the social problem of explaining to the men that in fact their wives were not cheating on them….
We were all sort of laughing in the class because it just seems so incredible that this could have actually happened. But it was a true story. And these were fellow Ghanaians, so you can see even within a nation the difference in education and awareness. Mme’s message here was that you need to be super clear on your delivery of instructions and make sure that you don’t assume anything. Just because you know something does not mean the person you’re trying to communicate with does as well. Needless to say, the credibility of that health worker was thrown out the window.


So those have been some things that have stuck with me over the last 2 weeks. I was told that after about a month the feeling of being shocked kind of wears off. I think that perhaps that is true to a certain extent, shock would no longer be the word I would use, but surprise is definitely still there. I am still constantly learning and absorbing… and looking forward to much more of it!