Been eating ludicrisly well the last few days, think I might be gaining back some of the weight I'd lost. Getting it all back over here might be impossible though, and to be honest I feel somewhat healthier without it. Managed to catch a lift out to Pag on a moto with working gauges, can't convey the novelty of that, so I was able to get a semi-accurate measurement of the distance I've been biking for the last few months. Turns out the estimate I've been getting of 15km ain't off by much, measured out as 17.4km from hut to office. So not counting any side jaunts that comes to a daily total of around 35km a day, six days a week, on a beach comber single speed...not too shabby if I don't say so myself. Back to the food though, had my coaching visit with Cat, who is...ah...my coach. As usual good times, we decided to take in the swad, essentially the exorbinantly overpriced white people resturant, neither of us had been and figured it was as good a time as ever. Got this mini pizza, which should have fed two so said the menu, tasted good but didn't last too long in the stomach. I genuinely think I might be lactose intolerant and just didn't know it before now, cause anytime I try to eat dairy products they last in my stomach for about 15 minutes elapsed! Continuing with the food theme, decided to indulge in some of my care package treasures and made some african fatis. Since I don't have any sort of refrigeration, once I opened the wraps I knew I was going to have to eat them all in fairly short order I decided throwing a dinner party ghana style at the ewb house with two of the other volunteers would be the best remedy to this deliemma. Got some tooboni (this bean paste food), avacado (which they call pears..took me a bit on that one), some spicy groundnut powder, and fried up veggies. Mix in a couple of boxes of sangria and I was essentially in utopia. On an entirely unrelated note got to go for chocolate cake later that week as well...killed my gut but was definitely worth it.
Working to finish up my final report on the shea association for Adisa, turns out she's coming up for a workshop the last week of july so it'd be good to have it done by then. Partly so I can talk it through with her in person, and partly so I can cross it off my list of things to tie up before I head back over the pond.
Anyway, work on getting a few more of these up but things are getting a bit crazy so forgive me if they aren't as frequent. Vanishing into the village for a chunk of time too, so probably end up going native and forgetting how to write anyway! Plus I don't got no power..
Cheers
Friday, July 18, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
So Friday was an odd day. They've been rolling blackouts through all of Tamale for the past week or so, which has been seriously hampering any attempt I've been making at productivity. You'd think they'd broadcast the times, or the reasons, for the blackouts right? Nope, Ghana just don't work like that ladies and gents. The point of this story though is that I ended up having a fairly serious disagreement with my boss. Seems he lost his key to the office, and since there's only one other key he wanted that one, problem is that I needed it to get into the office on Sunday to teach Mustapha computers. To try and solve this most vexing of dilemmas I suggested numerous plans, such as hiding the key, calling me so I could come in and get it on Saturday, or leaving it with the watchman. In the end I managed to get him to get him to agree to the last, but not before he went off on a hilarious tangent...well as least hilarious to me. Starts tearing into me, full of finger pointing, and yelling over my responses, about how all my options don't consider the security of the office and how resourceful thieves are. How resourceful does a thief have to be to pick up the labeled key you dropped and open a door? Security of the office? Sure there champ..Tried to play it nice but in the end I was laughing cause he was trying to pull that "I'm bigger than you" physical intimidation crap. This guy might be taller, but he's a fat, dagomba princeling...kinda throws him off that I look him in the eye and ain't culturally programmed to take his shit. To top it off he's a total chauvinist too, you should have heard his tirade on Thursday, I honestly thought he was going to say women have smaller brains. Speaking of which if the women in this country ever got a mind to, they'd physically dominate the male population..no jokes, their jacked. Anyway the guys a wanker, and guess what? Mustapha and I biked into Tamale, 17km, and he didn't give the watchman the key to let us in. Even considering the no go computer lesson, Sunday was an awesome day. Bought Mustapha lunch, biked back to pag, stopping to talk to his friends along the way, it was sunny and clear for the first time in a while, got some food and chilled out. There's this great banku joint along the way. Put on the aviators, did some reading/trying to mitigate my beater tan, and taught Hanan how to use the camera...which lead to a LARGE number of ridiculous pictures. Finished if off by walking into the bush, climbing a huge tree and watching the sun set. Ain't no pint at the pub, but still a good way to end off a day.
Interesting thought I've been having recently is how a community like Pag would survive the apocalyptic world that is being predicted with the demise of cheap oil. The global north, if it gets its act together, should be fine since it has the intellectual and technological capital to adapt when it has to. The south though has been steadily pushed by development projects and media influence into emulating the same unsustainable lifestyles, yet they do not possess the aforementioned capital in the same quantities. Strange to think that the people the burgeoning middle class in this country look down upon, the subsistence or small scale farmers are the ones that will best weather the storm. Pagazaa doesn't employ too many outside inputs, they have the tractor, but that is only to increase production for income generation, not to meet basic food needs. They eat, from what I've seen, almost exclusively community produced foods and have large, stable, livestock herds. Indigenous knowledge and teaching are still strong. Anyway it's just weird to think that the tsunami that everyone is bracing for would register as little more than a blip in their eyes.
Just found out the boss got malaria...ain't karma a bitch..
Hoist one for me,
Cheers
Interesting thought I've been having recently is how a community like Pag would survive the apocalyptic world that is being predicted with the demise of cheap oil. The global north, if it gets its act together, should be fine since it has the intellectual and technological capital to adapt when it has to. The south though has been steadily pushed by development projects and media influence into emulating the same unsustainable lifestyles, yet they do not possess the aforementioned capital in the same quantities. Strange to think that the people the burgeoning middle class in this country look down upon, the subsistence or small scale farmers are the ones that will best weather the storm. Pagazaa doesn't employ too many outside inputs, they have the tractor, but that is only to increase production for income generation, not to meet basic food needs. They eat, from what I've seen, almost exclusively community produced foods and have large, stable, livestock herds. Indigenous knowledge and teaching are still strong. Anyway it's just weird to think that the tsunami that everyone is bracing for would register as little more than a blip in their eyes.
Just found out the boss got malaria...ain't karma a bitch..
Hoist one for me,
Cheers
Work...maybe..?
So I got back my shirts, for the second time, from Mustapha's tailor yesterday. First time
round he did a great job, but I figure he must have mixed up the measurements cause both
shirts were too short and the head opening on one was too small. The shortness wasn't so much
a case of them being unwearable, more that self-conscious feeling when you wish it had just
a bit more length. Anyway I ended up cruising past the guy's shop again, turns out he still
had some scraps of my material left and was able to add a few inches to them both...all in
all a fairly successful culture outing if I don't say so myself. Major problem now is that I
went all out bling on one of the shirts, it's green with this gold foil patterns on it,
definitely ridiculous and awesome. Thing is the consensus around the office is that it will
all rub off the first time I wash it, so the eternal dilemma is do I wash it and continue to
wear it in-country? Or do I use it sparingly in an effort to preserve it as a
memento/exhibition piece for back home? Thoughts anyone?
Now that I've dispensed with my vanity for the day, I wanted to put down some of the
work streams I've been chipping away at lately..cause I am supposed to be working and not
just perusing the Internet right? Want to forewarn y'all though, I'm going to be posing some
questions that I don't know the answer to, so if any one's got any suggestions throw them my
way.
My first, as well as my only really mandated work stream, is the processing of the community
baseline data. Fairly sure I've talked about it before, but for those starting here it is a
basic community survey that was designed to profile demographics, shea butter production
practices, as well as unearth some indicators that could be revisited in later years to
determine what, if any impact the association may have had on an individual member level.
Guess the first things I've noticed while compiling the data? That all these type of surveys
come with a truck load of assumptions, are never administered as planned, and when there the
first stab of some bush wild civil engineer, they sometimes got a..cough...few holes! All in
all though I've been able to glean some meaningful information, particularly with regards
to production and profitability. Seems that near all the members buy their raw shea nuts in
the market as opposed to picking them locally, which is contrary to what the association had
believed, or at least publicly stated. Quality, effort involved, and availability out of
season are some of the rationals I've come up with for the practice, but if this output
could be minimized or eliminated the profitability of shea would greatly increase. So the
question is, how do we do this? Been thinking that establishing a stronger connection
between nut pickers and processors would be a good start, as well as perhaps devising a
system by which individual groups could be divided into specialized units, while still
sharing the profits jointly. This though requires an analysis of the effort input needed for
both practices. Another thought is developing a better system of storage for the nuts, so
that when they are in season, and thus cheaper to purchase, groups could buy, all the while
stockpiling nuts to use during the more expensive off-season. Segwaying to the profitability
track, on the outside the activities of the producers seem to be relatively profitable,
averaging out at 40ish%, yet the general consensus is that they are losing money overall.
Would have been nice if someone mentioned that BEFORE we did the survey so a question along
those lines could have been included, but eh, what you going to do? My thought is to further
investigate the processes of the individual groups, since all returned that they were using
the best practices instructed by the assoc., which should be efficient and thus profitable.
Chains got to have a busted link somewhere though....
Maybe this next one reeks a bit on societal tampering, but nonetheless I believe it would
not only benefit the development of the shea industry, but also the community as a whole,
both long and short term. What I've been batting around is the idea of community centers,
like the ones we take for granted back home, as a tool to not only improve the productivity
of individual shea groups but also as a method to promote more equality and leadership
tendencies...pretty lofty, aye? Looking first at the shea industry, I systemic problem seems
to be a lack of organization both collectively within the assoc. as well as within
individual groups. Sure they have a group exec. and individual group execs, but it isn't the
kind of structure that will actually make a tangible difference in production or
efficiency. To do that I think each group must be run like a small scale production factory,
having a central processing and storage centre, as well as a set work schedule. An
additional bonus to this approach would be that it would allow each of the groups to
successfully develop individually while waiting for a larger scale international buyer.
Which, when it arrived, could facilitate a quasi corporate merger of the groups, which since
already organized and productive, could actually yield the strong, one voiced market force,
that as of now is nothing but an A2N pipe dream.
Turning to my own personal trip, thrashing around with the JF brain trust we hit upon one of
the major factors in the slow development of Ghana being a lack of strong leaders. Delving a
bit deeper we stumbled on a few possible factors(obviously these are generalizations), one,
people are largely taught to be subservient and obedient and thus are completely out of
there element when asked to take on the responsibility/risk involved in leadership
positions. The result of this cultural conditioning is the chronic buck passing mentality
that seems to be present here. Two, community meetings are usually held in the chief's
compound, so while they my have the appearance of a democratic forum, decisions are made in
a autocratic manner. Wherein the male segment decides, and above them the chief decides.
Both of these problems could, at least in our minds, be addressed or at least mitigated by
the creation of community centers. They would offer a neutral site for meetings, and drawing
from my own youth, could provide a location for sport and other activities. Which when we
looked back on it was where a lot of us feel we first started to develop leadership
tendencies, wanting the puck on your stick so to speak.
Rambled on a fair bit on this one ladies and gents, I'll try and shorten it down for the
next few, but I hope some of the points came across.
Hoist one for me,
Cheers
round he did a great job, but I figure he must have mixed up the measurements cause both
shirts were too short and the head opening on one was too small. The shortness wasn't so much
a case of them being unwearable, more that self-conscious feeling when you wish it had just
a bit more length. Anyway I ended up cruising past the guy's shop again, turns out he still
had some scraps of my material left and was able to add a few inches to them both...all in
all a fairly successful culture outing if I don't say so myself. Major problem now is that I
went all out bling on one of the shirts, it's green with this gold foil patterns on it,
definitely ridiculous and awesome. Thing is the consensus around the office is that it will
all rub off the first time I wash it, so the eternal dilemma is do I wash it and continue to
wear it in-country? Or do I use it sparingly in an effort to preserve it as a
memento/exhibition piece for back home? Thoughts anyone?
Now that I've dispensed with my vanity for the day, I wanted to put down some of the
work streams I've been chipping away at lately..cause I am supposed to be working and not
just perusing the Internet right? Want to forewarn y'all though, I'm going to be posing some
questions that I don't know the answer to, so if any one's got any suggestions throw them my
way.
My first, as well as my only really mandated work stream, is the processing of the community
baseline data. Fairly sure I've talked about it before, but for those starting here it is a
basic community survey that was designed to profile demographics, shea butter production
practices, as well as unearth some indicators that could be revisited in later years to
determine what, if any impact the association may have had on an individual member level.
Guess the first things I've noticed while compiling the data? That all these type of surveys
come with a truck load of assumptions, are never administered as planned, and when there the
first stab of some bush wild civil engineer, they sometimes got a..cough...few holes! All in
all though I've been able to glean some meaningful information, particularly with regards
to production and profitability. Seems that near all the members buy their raw shea nuts in
the market as opposed to picking them locally, which is contrary to what the association had
believed, or at least publicly stated. Quality, effort involved, and availability out of
season are some of the rationals I've come up with for the practice, but if this output
could be minimized or eliminated the profitability of shea would greatly increase. So the
question is, how do we do this? Been thinking that establishing a stronger connection
between nut pickers and processors would be a good start, as well as perhaps devising a
system by which individual groups could be divided into specialized units, while still
sharing the profits jointly. This though requires an analysis of the effort input needed for
both practices. Another thought is developing a better system of storage for the nuts, so
that when they are in season, and thus cheaper to purchase, groups could buy, all the while
stockpiling nuts to use during the more expensive off-season. Segwaying to the profitability
track, on the outside the activities of the producers seem to be relatively profitable,
averaging out at 40ish%, yet the general consensus is that they are losing money overall.
Would have been nice if someone mentioned that BEFORE we did the survey so a question along
those lines could have been included, but eh, what you going to do? My thought is to further
investigate the processes of the individual groups, since all returned that they were using
the best practices instructed by the assoc., which should be efficient and thus profitable.
Chains got to have a busted link somewhere though....
Maybe this next one reeks a bit on societal tampering, but nonetheless I believe it would
not only benefit the development of the shea industry, but also the community as a whole,
both long and short term. What I've been batting around is the idea of community centers,
like the ones we take for granted back home, as a tool to not only improve the productivity
of individual shea groups but also as a method to promote more equality and leadership
tendencies...pretty lofty, aye? Looking first at the shea industry, I systemic problem seems
to be a lack of organization both collectively within the assoc. as well as within
individual groups. Sure they have a group exec. and individual group execs, but it isn't the
kind of structure that will actually make a tangible difference in production or
efficiency. To do that I think each group must be run like a small scale production factory,
having a central processing and storage centre, as well as a set work schedule. An
additional bonus to this approach would be that it would allow each of the groups to
successfully develop individually while waiting for a larger scale international buyer.
Which, when it arrived, could facilitate a quasi corporate merger of the groups, which since
already organized and productive, could actually yield the strong, one voiced market force,
that as of now is nothing but an A2N pipe dream.
Turning to my own personal trip, thrashing around with the JF brain trust we hit upon one of
the major factors in the slow development of Ghana being a lack of strong leaders. Delving a
bit deeper we stumbled on a few possible factors(obviously these are generalizations), one,
people are largely taught to be subservient and obedient and thus are completely out of
there element when asked to take on the responsibility/risk involved in leadership
positions. The result of this cultural conditioning is the chronic buck passing mentality
that seems to be present here. Two, community meetings are usually held in the chief's
compound, so while they my have the appearance of a democratic forum, decisions are made in
a autocratic manner. Wherein the male segment decides, and above them the chief decides.
Both of these problems could, at least in our minds, be addressed or at least mitigated by
the creation of community centers. They would offer a neutral site for meetings, and drawing
from my own youth, could provide a location for sport and other activities. Which when we
looked back on it was where a lot of us feel we first started to develop leadership
tendencies, wanting the puck on your stick so to speak.
Rambled on a fair bit on this one ladies and gents, I'll try and shorten it down for the
next few, but I hope some of the points came across.
Hoist one for me,
Cheers
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Hitting the fields....
Running with some of the themes of my last post, I figured I'd through up a brief explanation of the farming practices within my community. Also heard through the grape vine, I choose not to use the word criticism cause I ain't bothered, that people might be itching for some more practical topic matter.
Pagazaa is what I term a subsistence plus farming community, by which I mean they generally always meet their basic needs and thus are able to approach agriculture more as a business venture, as well as engage in other income generating activities such as petty trading or trade work. Community organization and crop diversification seem to be critical catalysts to this success, but since I've only really explored this one case I don't have any concept of whether this is a unique feature or indicative of most communities. Taking Mustapha as an example, he farms rice, maize(kinda African corn), yam, cassava, and groundnuts(peanut like), and not in small quantities either. Maybe that needs a disclaimer, compared to many subsidence farmers his 6 acres of groundnuts is a huge field, but not so much so when measured against the 1500+ acre industrialized scenario we see back home. I think this ability to farm on such a relatively large scale is completely predicated on the presence of the tractor. Haven't been able to get a concrete answer as to how the arrangement works, but here's what I've garnered so far. It seems to be something that is either communally owned, or is a service that everyone contributes to , and that the system of whose field gets plowed and when is fairly intricate. Literally it's been operating day and night since the beginning of the rainy season, and gives the farmers a massive leg up by removing the need for them to till their fields manually. Speaking of that, manually working a farm = balls...no jokes I've been working the groundnut farm lately and I'm surprised every one's back here ain't totally shot. The work ethic of the farmers is incredible though, take Mustapha for example, he gets up around 4.30 for morning prayers, goes to the farm till around 8, then teaches in the school till 2ish, before heading back out to the fields till around 7.30 or so at night. That's a weekday, so you'd think he'd chill out some on the weekend right? Nope, he just uses the time that he would have been teaching to stay on the farm longer, honestly I don't know how he keeps it up. That was a bit of a tangent..what was a talking about, ahh..community farming. So the people in the village have this communal labor practice, wherein once a week or so everyone from the village comes and works of the land of a particular family. Pretty impressive sight to see hundred or so men, women and children, working a small plot by hand. Exceeding practically as well, since the community was able to completely weed Mustapha's groundnut farm in one day, which then freed him to put more work into some of his other crops without suffering any consequences. Another major aspect of farming culture I've noticed is the manner in which skills and knowledge or conveyed to the children of the family. From the time that they can walk a child is brought out to the farm constantly, even though lots of them aren't able to contribute anything meaningful. The principle is that they thus learn though observation, so that when they are able to work the fields the learning curve is basically non-existent. Children from say 11+ are also given their own mini-fields, where in the can plant whatever they want, thought they seem to all choose yam and groundnuts from what I've seen. One of the kids a live with Hanan, 13, has this yam field where, no lie, the mounds are easily over half as tall as he is! A side note to this is that these mini-plots only seem to be given to male children, since males are viewed as the administrators of the farm while women are just generic labor. Also yam is viewed as the most powerful, masculine crop, so that's likely why the children gravitate to it.
In terms of agricultural inputs and add-ins the only one's present in the 'pag appear to be a minimal amount of herbicide that is applied to the maize and rice crops. I haven't really noticed, or heard of, any fertilizer use, thought there is an epic amount of livestock so it's definitely, ah, naturally abundant! With regards to seeds the heavy emphasis is on having large enough yields that you are able to a lot a portion for use as seed next year. Purchasing seed seems to be a last resort, only happening under unexpected conditions, like drought the previous year, and even then seed is generally bought and sold within the village as opposed to looking to outside traders.
Tried to cram a lot into this one, so hope it all came across ok, and if you got any questions feel free to throw them up. If I don't know the answer I'm more than game to dive into village to try and figure it out.
Stick on the ice but elbows up.
...didn't anyone see the pickups detroit made? Re-sign Stuart and sign Hossa! Looking like it might be a repeat for the winged wheel...
Pagazaa is what I term a subsistence plus farming community, by which I mean they generally always meet their basic needs and thus are able to approach agriculture more as a business venture, as well as engage in other income generating activities such as petty trading or trade work. Community organization and crop diversification seem to be critical catalysts to this success, but since I've only really explored this one case I don't have any concept of whether this is a unique feature or indicative of most communities. Taking Mustapha as an example, he farms rice, maize(kinda African corn), yam, cassava, and groundnuts(peanut like), and not in small quantities either. Maybe that needs a disclaimer, compared to many subsidence farmers his 6 acres of groundnuts is a huge field, but not so much so when measured against the 1500+ acre industrialized scenario we see back home. I think this ability to farm on such a relatively large scale is completely predicated on the presence of the tractor. Haven't been able to get a concrete answer as to how the arrangement works, but here's what I've garnered so far. It seems to be something that is either communally owned, or is a service that everyone contributes to , and that the system of whose field gets plowed and when is fairly intricate. Literally it's been operating day and night since the beginning of the rainy season, and gives the farmers a massive leg up by removing the need for them to till their fields manually. Speaking of that, manually working a farm = balls...no jokes I've been working the groundnut farm lately and I'm surprised every one's back here ain't totally shot. The work ethic of the farmers is incredible though, take Mustapha for example, he gets up around 4.30 for morning prayers, goes to the farm till around 8, then teaches in the school till 2ish, before heading back out to the fields till around 7.30 or so at night. That's a weekday, so you'd think he'd chill out some on the weekend right? Nope, he just uses the time that he would have been teaching to stay on the farm longer, honestly I don't know how he keeps it up. That was a bit of a tangent..what was a talking about, ahh..community farming. So the people in the village have this communal labor practice, wherein once a week or so everyone from the village comes and works of the land of a particular family. Pretty impressive sight to see hundred or so men, women and children, working a small plot by hand. Exceeding practically as well, since the community was able to completely weed Mustapha's groundnut farm in one day, which then freed him to put more work into some of his other crops without suffering any consequences. Another major aspect of farming culture I've noticed is the manner in which skills and knowledge or conveyed to the children of the family. From the time that they can walk a child is brought out to the farm constantly, even though lots of them aren't able to contribute anything meaningful. The principle is that they thus learn though observation, so that when they are able to work the fields the learning curve is basically non-existent. Children from say 11+ are also given their own mini-fields, where in the can plant whatever they want, thought they seem to all choose yam and groundnuts from what I've seen. One of the kids a live with Hanan, 13, has this yam field where, no lie, the mounds are easily over half as tall as he is! A side note to this is that these mini-plots only seem to be given to male children, since males are viewed as the administrators of the farm while women are just generic labor. Also yam is viewed as the most powerful, masculine crop, so that's likely why the children gravitate to it.
In terms of agricultural inputs and add-ins the only one's present in the 'pag appear to be a minimal amount of herbicide that is applied to the maize and rice crops. I haven't really noticed, or heard of, any fertilizer use, thought there is an epic amount of livestock so it's definitely, ah, naturally abundant! With regards to seeds the heavy emphasis is on having large enough yields that you are able to a lot a portion for use as seed next year. Purchasing seed seems to be a last resort, only happening under unexpected conditions, like drought the previous year, and even then seed is generally bought and sold within the village as opposed to looking to outside traders.
Tried to cram a lot into this one, so hope it all came across ok, and if you got any questions feel free to throw them up. If I don't know the answer I'm more than game to dive into village to try and figure it out.
Stick on the ice but elbows up.
...didn't anyone see the pickups detroit made? Re-sign Stuart and sign Hossa! Looking like it might be a repeat for the winged wheel...
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Time Block: Pre-Retreat/Post Accra
The first few days back at the office after returning from Accra have been among some of the most interesting I've had so far. A journalist from the Japanese news agency was in town, along with Adisa (she got to fly while I took the bus), to do a story on the soap room for the upcoming G8 summit. Tagged along for a few days, and it turned out to be a great idea as I got to see the entire processing aspect of the shea soap value chain, from the plantation to butter to soap. Wicked stuff. Tried my hand at the butter making, looked ridiculous, but figured "when in rome...."
Engaged in a bit of cross cultural communication with the reporter, I'd be lying if I said I remembered his name, but the conversation was insightful nonetheless. Turns out he's been living in Nairobi for about a year now, and has no plans to head back to Japan, "life is too structured and rigid". Really struck me, since while his statement rang true with what I would have assumed, I never would have expected him to stand so adamantly against that way of life. Guess it just reinforces the ideology that people are individuals the world over.
The last of the JF's, Rachael, arrived in Tamale a few days back, she got here late on account of finishing up an internship at the UN in Vienna, and I took her out to do some errands she needed to get done. Was a self realization experience. When your in a new place, surrounded by locals, it's easy to loose sight of the fact that you are adapting since you will always be behind those you are interacting with. By taking Rachael around town and particularly acting as a quasi "translator" at the immigration office, it hit me how far I've come. Everyone was speaking english, but the officer had no concept of what she was saying so I had to jump in to get the point across, it's a stunning case of same language but entirely different dialects. Don't know if that makes much sense, but hopefully it paints the picture.
Took my first look at the results of the baseline data collection that happen in my absence. Jacked that it is essentially completed, decidedly less jacked about some of the data collected. The aim of the first section was to detail the demographics of the communities by taking a sample and extrapolating, except that instead of working with a sample of 15 I'm now working with one of 3. Bit of back round, the methodology was that the sample group would be divided into three groups of roughly five people and that each of the participants would answer the demographic component individually before moving on the first the rest of the survey collectively. Turns out only one person from the smaller groups was polled on the demographics, so instead of averaging fifteen results and multiplying by a factor of two, I'm averaging three and multiplying by ten. Can you say increased statistical error? Doesn't help that on the individual surveys the responses range from 30+ to 5. This isn't what grinds me the most though, as perhaps I didn't convey the concept right and I should take solace in getting back what I got, it's the complete absenteeism of the assoc. exec. One of the biggest beefs they had when I met with them was that they though A2N was taking too much a front line role in running the assoc. and that more initiatives should come from the them. So with this in mind I worked it into the budget that a member of the exec could come on each of the community visits. Guess what happens? They blow off everyone, including their own communities! It's honestly ridiculous. They were getting picked up from their homes in the morning, had lunch included, and have offered no tangible reason for dodging calls or not showing. Ain't going to rant..instead I'm going to use it to segway into my next thought.
Since work has been going into the shitter, which isn't to be confused with my still having an incredible experience on this journey, I decided to take stock of all my assets. The end result is that I leveraged much of the energy and time I'd been spending stagnating in the office into diving into my community life. I figure what's the point of sitting in an office in Ghana reading sports highlights, when I can instead be out on the farm learning about an entirely different way of life. Thus I've been staying out in Pagazaa more and more during the days, and hitting the farm like a champ. Which has lead to some great insights, as well as selfishly I'm just happier. Started teach Mustapha computers once a week as well, which is awesome. He comes into town after teaching at the school in the morning, we work for a bit, adjourn for lunch ( I buy, he won't accept rent but seems to let this slide), then come back for a shorter lesson before heading out into the market. I've got a list of places I want to go, and things to buy, so the idea is that by striking them of a few at a time I can limit some of the franticness at the end.
Apologizes if this post ain't as fluid as some of the others, I wrote it over a stretch so it wasn't the one shot wonder that most of the others have been.
Got reminded of a Chomsky quote I read a while I was cruising on bike through town pondering..."development without freedom is the devils gift"..think it's definitely got a correlation to past and future of this place, but I got to contemplate it more.
Engaged in a bit of cross cultural communication with the reporter, I'd be lying if I said I remembered his name, but the conversation was insightful nonetheless. Turns out he's been living in Nairobi for about a year now, and has no plans to head back to Japan, "life is too structured and rigid". Really struck me, since while his statement rang true with what I would have assumed, I never would have expected him to stand so adamantly against that way of life. Guess it just reinforces the ideology that people are individuals the world over.
The last of the JF's, Rachael, arrived in Tamale a few days back, she got here late on account of finishing up an internship at the UN in Vienna, and I took her out to do some errands she needed to get done. Was a self realization experience. When your in a new place, surrounded by locals, it's easy to loose sight of the fact that you are adapting since you will always be behind those you are interacting with. By taking Rachael around town and particularly acting as a quasi "translator" at the immigration office, it hit me how far I've come. Everyone was speaking english, but the officer had no concept of what she was saying so I had to jump in to get the point across, it's a stunning case of same language but entirely different dialects. Don't know if that makes much sense, but hopefully it paints the picture.
Took my first look at the results of the baseline data collection that happen in my absence. Jacked that it is essentially completed, decidedly less jacked about some of the data collected. The aim of the first section was to detail the demographics of the communities by taking a sample and extrapolating, except that instead of working with a sample of 15 I'm now working with one of 3. Bit of back round, the methodology was that the sample group would be divided into three groups of roughly five people and that each of the participants would answer the demographic component individually before moving on the first the rest of the survey collectively. Turns out only one person from the smaller groups was polled on the demographics, so instead of averaging fifteen results and multiplying by a factor of two, I'm averaging three and multiplying by ten. Can you say increased statistical error? Doesn't help that on the individual surveys the responses range from 30+ to 5. This isn't what grinds me the most though, as perhaps I didn't convey the concept right and I should take solace in getting back what I got, it's the complete absenteeism of the assoc. exec. One of the biggest beefs they had when I met with them was that they though A2N was taking too much a front line role in running the assoc. and that more initiatives should come from the them. So with this in mind I worked it into the budget that a member of the exec could come on each of the community visits. Guess what happens? They blow off everyone, including their own communities! It's honestly ridiculous. They were getting picked up from their homes in the morning, had lunch included, and have offered no tangible reason for dodging calls or not showing. Ain't going to rant..instead I'm going to use it to segway into my next thought.
Since work has been going into the shitter, which isn't to be confused with my still having an incredible experience on this journey, I decided to take stock of all my assets. The end result is that I leveraged much of the energy and time I'd been spending stagnating in the office into diving into my community life. I figure what's the point of sitting in an office in Ghana reading sports highlights, when I can instead be out on the farm learning about an entirely different way of life. Thus I've been staying out in Pagazaa more and more during the days, and hitting the farm like a champ. Which has lead to some great insights, as well as selfishly I'm just happier. Started teach Mustapha computers once a week as well, which is awesome. He comes into town after teaching at the school in the morning, we work for a bit, adjourn for lunch ( I buy, he won't accept rent but seems to let this slide), then come back for a shorter lesson before heading out into the market. I've got a list of places I want to go, and things to buy, so the idea is that by striking them of a few at a time I can limit some of the franticness at the end.
Apologizes if this post ain't as fluid as some of the others, I wrote it over a stretch so it wasn't the one shot wonder that most of the others have been.
Got reminded of a Chomsky quote I read a while I was cruising on bike through town pondering..."development without freedom is the devils gift"..think it's definitely got a correlation to past and future of this place, but I got to contemplate it more.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Accra Saga Part 3
Okay, memo to self, don't put off writing blog entries it just makes it a right mother to get in all down later.
Still working with the Accra theme, and a bit more of a work related track, I had a chance to interview the women from Salinargu that had gone with Adisa to the trade fair in Japan. Was probably one of the better experiences I've had since being here, seeing the genuine enthusiam of people taking in the world for the first time. It's hard for me to imagine, coming from Canada, what it must be like for someone to developed society for the first time, these women had never even been to Accra before! Hearing them talk about the plane, trains, beach, and seeing a different culture was all in all rewarding. Amazing too was the amount of encouragement they derived from the interest that people showed in their work, it was a validation that the dreams they have could come true I think. Didn't hurt either that one of the major comments that the exporters had was that they were against any sort of mechanization of the butter/soap processes, which helps the women who were worried about the capital cost of machines. Also, JICA, which is basically the Japanese version of CIDA are paying for, and doing all the paper work for the women to become organically certified in Asia, which should only add to the orders that are already coming in. Biggest learning point the women said they were bringing back was sanitation, meaning personal hygiene as well as cleaniness of the manufacturing site, something I never even considered when profiling the assoc. so it was cool to have my perspective broadened. Hightlight of the whole interview was one of the women getting up and teaching Safia how she should use the electric airport walkway when she travels.
Being in the office in Accra was a kinda odd experience, I loved the environment, super friendly and lively, but I didn't really have any work to do, which meant I just trolled the internet too much. Which brings me to my next point, out of the fire of my misery I came up with and rolled out what I've termed "Henry's Mental Sanity Plan". It basically involves, cutting back on internet, phone calls, taking better care of myself physically, journaling, and generally remembering what a beautiful woman told me before I left, "remember your in Africa". The electronic communication hurt me particularily cause I think I was trying to be a part of people's lives back home, when in truth I just can't, I have to step off the train, and looking through such a small window is messy. Plus I figure there's no way I should be checking my emails so frequently that I don't have new messages, I am supposed to be 1000's of miles away. Along with all this I decided that I needed to do things that I wanted to instead of doing the status quo, so I decided to take a different bus line, Greater Imperial Transport, as opposed to the ewb standard stc. One of the best decisions I've made so far! Station was definately in the ghetto, and the bus less fancy, but the seats were infinately more comfortable, they only played one nigerian movie (they lick...don't care what anyone says..they just suck), was 7 cedi's cheaper, and I felt like I was travelling with the regular populous. Ride was picturesque, with all my personal garbage I've never sat and watched the country go by as I've taken the bus. Going over the volta river at dusk, with the people out fishing was something that will stick with me forever I think, couldn't bring myself to bastardise it with a picture. Though on a side note I have started employing a take more pictures mentality. Another funny moment about the bus was before it got going there was a argument about who should sit in one of the middle seats behind me. Picture me just sitting there reading my book smiling as everyone goes crazy, Ghanaians love to yell and get involved so it took about 15 minutes before the whole issue was resolved. Best part was a group of people at the front loudly starting the "just throw him off the bus and replace him!" movement.
Anyway I got back to Tamale in the evening, and managed to snag a lift with Mustapha on the motor bike back to Pagazaa. Definately going to get a license when I get home, sorry mom, but it might be the best way to go cross-country. For sure the bicycle is my urban movement machine, but the idea of having an old Indian for heading out camping has completely infected me.
Stick on the ice but elbows up
Cheers
Still working with the Accra theme, and a bit more of a work related track, I had a chance to interview the women from Salinargu that had gone with Adisa to the trade fair in Japan. Was probably one of the better experiences I've had since being here, seeing the genuine enthusiam of people taking in the world for the first time. It's hard for me to imagine, coming from Canada, what it must be like for someone to developed society for the first time, these women had never even been to Accra before! Hearing them talk about the plane, trains, beach, and seeing a different culture was all in all rewarding. Amazing too was the amount of encouragement they derived from the interest that people showed in their work, it was a validation that the dreams they have could come true I think. Didn't hurt either that one of the major comments that the exporters had was that they were against any sort of mechanization of the butter/soap processes, which helps the women who were worried about the capital cost of machines. Also, JICA, which is basically the Japanese version of CIDA are paying for, and doing all the paper work for the women to become organically certified in Asia, which should only add to the orders that are already coming in. Biggest learning point the women said they were bringing back was sanitation, meaning personal hygiene as well as cleaniness of the manufacturing site, something I never even considered when profiling the assoc. so it was cool to have my perspective broadened. Hightlight of the whole interview was one of the women getting up and teaching Safia how she should use the electric airport walkway when she travels.
Being in the office in Accra was a kinda odd experience, I loved the environment, super friendly and lively, but I didn't really have any work to do, which meant I just trolled the internet too much. Which brings me to my next point, out of the fire of my misery I came up with and rolled out what I've termed "Henry's Mental Sanity Plan". It basically involves, cutting back on internet, phone calls, taking better care of myself physically, journaling, and generally remembering what a beautiful woman told me before I left, "remember your in Africa". The electronic communication hurt me particularily cause I think I was trying to be a part of people's lives back home, when in truth I just can't, I have to step off the train, and looking through such a small window is messy. Plus I figure there's no way I should be checking my emails so frequently that I don't have new messages, I am supposed to be 1000's of miles away. Along with all this I decided that I needed to do things that I wanted to instead of doing the status quo, so I decided to take a different bus line, Greater Imperial Transport, as opposed to the ewb standard stc. One of the best decisions I've made so far! Station was definately in the ghetto, and the bus less fancy, but the seats were infinately more comfortable, they only played one nigerian movie (they lick...don't care what anyone says..they just suck), was 7 cedi's cheaper, and I felt like I was travelling with the regular populous. Ride was picturesque, with all my personal garbage I've never sat and watched the country go by as I've taken the bus. Going over the volta river at dusk, with the people out fishing was something that will stick with me forever I think, couldn't bring myself to bastardise it with a picture. Though on a side note I have started employing a take more pictures mentality. Another funny moment about the bus was before it got going there was a argument about who should sit in one of the middle seats behind me. Picture me just sitting there reading my book smiling as everyone goes crazy, Ghanaians love to yell and get involved so it took about 15 minutes before the whole issue was resolved. Best part was a group of people at the front loudly starting the "just throw him off the bus and replace him!" movement.
Anyway I got back to Tamale in the evening, and managed to snag a lift with Mustapha on the motor bike back to Pagazaa. Definately going to get a license when I get home, sorry mom, but it might be the best way to go cross-country. For sure the bicycle is my urban movement machine, but the idea of having an old Indian for heading out camping has completely infected me.
Stick on the ice but elbows up
Cheers
Accra Saga Part 2
Continuing with the theme of the previous entry...being in Accra also had a great side benefit, as another young dude is staying with Adisa so I was able to made my first solid friend. Laugh it up ladies and gents, but making solid mates that aren't out to for something, be it wealth or status, is remarkably hard and I'm a seriously social dude! One of the LTOV's got serious why we laughed about feeling lonely during in-country, no jokes though, I'm so used to being on a island in my mind now that I wonder if I'll be able to back into it. Then I remember who my friends are back home and know they ain't gonna show no mercy! Thankful for that. Figure it's kinda like hockey after the offseason, when you strap them up for the first time your worried your gonna be a total spoon, but it all comes back once you get out there. Plus "it taste's so good when it hit's your lips!"
Getting back on track...Osman is a chill dude, and remarkably, at least after living in the north, is educated, obsessed with football, and likes hitting the "pub" for pints. Thought the pub here is really a patio, and they call pints bottles. Either way, I jonesing for it bad, cause anyone who knows me, knows I love the pub...and of course the occasional drink! Try to keep the sarcastic comments to a minimum on that one! Was good to kick back though and have some solid locker-room conversations, plus Osman has a master's in agricultural development and fleunt english so I got some perspective. Funny part about drinking in Ghana though is everyone is super cheap, I mean junior high cheap. I'm all tall boy number three and feeling maybe a slight buzz, Osman's half done two and definately riding high! Shot's are out of the question too, a case of one an done, kinda want him to make it to the 'peg so I could take him out to the toad, he nearly passed out from my recounting of an average night....worried it might TKO him though..
Watching football here is nuts, people go straight off the handle, and that's with everything in Ghanaian culture already dialled up to 11. What you do is go to this little shack that has one or two small tv's with the feed on it and pack it to the brim. It's like a adidas "power of sport commericial"! Anyway, was wicked since the UEFA cup was on, so everyone was especially jacked and the matches where solid. Also I want to go on record saying that fried egg sandwiches are god sent, was a nice switch up to eat for pleasure rather than simply for substinence.
Only really downer about staying in Accra was the market, it's not that it wasn't intriguing to see, it's just that being a white person is a more significant obstacle than in Tamale. Up north, while I know I'm going to get jacked on the price, people are at least polite, which ain't the case down south. I went to the market on the saturday before I caught the bus with aspirations of finding myself a pair of used jeans and ended up getting so frustrated that I didn't buy a thing. It all starts with everyone grabbing me, it's like a gauntlet, every person has to get in my face and physically grab my arm and try pulling me toward their wares. I know I'm supposed to be an ambassador, but that crap just don't fly in my world, so I'd end up ripping my arm away from them. If that wasn't enough, the price hikes were now to high for me to write off as supporting the economy and people absolutely refused to barter, which is traditionally the point of a market right? Also it hurt me that I was taking away from the experience of those I was in the market with since they were getting over charged on account of me, while having to deal with comments like "just get the white guy to pay for it". In the end I had to just wander away so they could get some of the things they wanted. Brought me down a notch though, I feel like I let the market get to me and detract from my experience, which in hindsight I will not allow to happen again. Another aspect I struggled with was I'd see stuff and think, that'd make a great gift, but the problem is it's something that people could get in north america, only just alot cheaper. Bringing back people gifts that were made in China and supporting the destruction of indeginous industry are things I just can't do, but if you want to buy local in the market your in for a long day. Felt sort of the same as when I went to the cultural center, it was so fake, no one who was Ghanian ever visited there, or used any of the wares, it's solely designed to cater to tourists. Which again runs me into the ethical delemmia of not wanting to cheapen the experience I've had here, I want to bring back gifts I got in real local markets. So I've made a list and I'm going to start having at it this weekend.
Got to go to the beach around mid-week, which was sweet, and selfishly one of the real touristy activities I'd had on my list for the trip. Ended up swimming in the ocean with the sun setting, actually laughing at the whole thing. Don't think my old man ever though one of his boys would be doing this. Definately through the rasta lifeguard for a loop though, as next to no one in Ghana can swim, so he was freaking out about how far I was out...though he might choke on his whistle...or maybe that was a hope., Only detractor was that you have to pay to use the beach, and people are constantly trying to sell you junk, but that's the way everything is here..everyone trying to milk a buck out of the same cow without ever trying anything new.
Like before, gonna chop this one here to keep them readable.
Getting back on track...Osman is a chill dude, and remarkably, at least after living in the north, is educated, obsessed with football, and likes hitting the "pub" for pints. Thought the pub here is really a patio, and they call pints bottles. Either way, I jonesing for it bad, cause anyone who knows me, knows I love the pub...and of course the occasional drink! Try to keep the sarcastic comments to a minimum on that one! Was good to kick back though and have some solid locker-room conversations, plus Osman has a master's in agricultural development and fleunt english so I got some perspective. Funny part about drinking in Ghana though is everyone is super cheap, I mean junior high cheap. I'm all tall boy number three and feeling maybe a slight buzz, Osman's half done two and definately riding high! Shot's are out of the question too, a case of one an done, kinda want him to make it to the 'peg so I could take him out to the toad, he nearly passed out from my recounting of an average night....worried it might TKO him though..
Watching football here is nuts, people go straight off the handle, and that's with everything in Ghanaian culture already dialled up to 11. What you do is go to this little shack that has one or two small tv's with the feed on it and pack it to the brim. It's like a adidas "power of sport commericial"! Anyway, was wicked since the UEFA cup was on, so everyone was especially jacked and the matches where solid. Also I want to go on record saying that fried egg sandwiches are god sent, was a nice switch up to eat for pleasure rather than simply for substinence.
Only really downer about staying in Accra was the market, it's not that it wasn't intriguing to see, it's just that being a white person is a more significant obstacle than in Tamale. Up north, while I know I'm going to get jacked on the price, people are at least polite, which ain't the case down south. I went to the market on the saturday before I caught the bus with aspirations of finding myself a pair of used jeans and ended up getting so frustrated that I didn't buy a thing. It all starts with everyone grabbing me, it's like a gauntlet, every person has to get in my face and physically grab my arm and try pulling me toward their wares. I know I'm supposed to be an ambassador, but that crap just don't fly in my world, so I'd end up ripping my arm away from them. If that wasn't enough, the price hikes were now to high for me to write off as supporting the economy and people absolutely refused to barter, which is traditionally the point of a market right? Also it hurt me that I was taking away from the experience of those I was in the market with since they were getting over charged on account of me, while having to deal with comments like "just get the white guy to pay for it". In the end I had to just wander away so they could get some of the things they wanted. Brought me down a notch though, I feel like I let the market get to me and detract from my experience, which in hindsight I will not allow to happen again. Another aspect I struggled with was I'd see stuff and think, that'd make a great gift, but the problem is it's something that people could get in north america, only just alot cheaper. Bringing back people gifts that were made in China and supporting the destruction of indeginous industry are things I just can't do, but if you want to buy local in the market your in for a long day. Felt sort of the same as when I went to the cultural center, it was so fake, no one who was Ghanian ever visited there, or used any of the wares, it's solely designed to cater to tourists. Which again runs me into the ethical delemmia of not wanting to cheapen the experience I've had here, I want to bring back gifts I got in real local markets. So I've made a list and I'm going to start having at it this weekend.
Got to go to the beach around mid-week, which was sweet, and selfishly one of the real touristy activities I'd had on my list for the trip. Ended up swimming in the ocean with the sun setting, actually laughing at the whole thing. Don't think my old man ever though one of his boys would be doing this. Definately through the rasta lifeguard for a loop though, as next to no one in Ghana can swim, so he was freaking out about how far I was out...though he might choke on his whistle...or maybe that was a hope., Only detractor was that you have to pay to use the beach, and people are constantly trying to sell you junk, but that's the way everything is here..everyone trying to milk a buck out of the same cow without ever trying anything new.
Like before, gonna chop this one here to keep them readable.
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