Now that I'm more than a year into my service, I've been spending a lot of time thinking of projects: projects I have wanted to do but have not picked up any traction, projects I am currently doing and hope will work out, and projects I hope to do in this second year. Although I'm an Ag volunteer, the two main projects I'm doing at the moment have nothing to do with my Ag sector. That's fine with me- I have lots of Ag ideas, but if no one steps up and is willing to do work, then I won't bother. I've been wanting to do a composting project, a tree nursery project, work with the shea women and a bunch of other things, but nothing has come of it. What I've experienced is that mostly the people want money for things, but they are not going to actually work on a project with me and put in their own time and energy. I have a wealth of knowledge and ideas and energy, I do not have a wealth of cedi notes, so they can take it or leave it.
The projects I'm doing fall into the other two sectors that are here in Ghana- the library for Kong-Gorug Primary (Education) and the borehole for Go-nseung (Health/Water Sanitation). Last year I helped at the primary a little bit and got to know the students and headmaster. I was already having books sent from home to start a library there, but then a Northern Ghana book project came up and I jumped into that. There is a group of about 10 of us up here that are collectively getting funds for a huge shipment of books coming from the U.S. I am very excited! The headmaster at the school has agreed to talk to the PTA to buy the wood and build bookshelves in one of the storage rooms at the school. And he's in agreement that there should be a reading period during the day for the students, and he will encourage the start of a reading club. I am happy about how things are looking for this, but until everything follows through I won't celebrate just yet.
The borehole project is a very different situation. In my meetings with the subsection of Go-nseung, its clear that their number one priority is getting a borehole (and there number two priority is getting electricity, and then getting money to buy chemical fertilizer, so those aren't options for me), and they seem very willing to come up with funds to help pay for it. But that's what's been difficult so far- finding a firm in the area that will give me a decent price. I have a general idea of how much it should cost, but the quotes I've gotten are nearly double what it should be. I do think its because I'm white that they're quoting so much, so then I just keep having to explain again and again the purpose of my service, that I don't have wads of cash coming out of my ears, and that in order for me to getting funding through Peace Corps, the community has to raise 25% of the cost. So with a high quote, there's no way the community will come up with that money anytime soon.
My time to get this borehole project is quickly going away. Boreholes are drilled in the dry season, and since I'll be gone by the start of next dry season, time is the big factor in all this. I am making lots of contacts, so if nothing else, my assemblyman/counterpart can follow up my work when I leave. So for the time being I'll do what I can, shop around, talk to people, make contacts, and go from there.
But I cannot leave out the most important part of my job- cultural exchange. Sometimes its hard to remind myself of this when I see other people doing lots of projects, but I still know its an extremely essential part of the job. I spend a good portion of my time in my house reading and writing, but when I'm not at home, I'm sitting at the pito base, chatting with all the men, or I'm cooking with my counterpart's wife, or I'm sitting in the shade on market day talking to Alice and playing with Bernadine. Life in the Upper East is good.
Hopefully more updates on the library will come soon!
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
The Saga of Emma Yankee
Full disclosure: This story is true, I did not falsify any information. I swear I couldn't make this crap up even if you paid me.
Tuesday afternoon: On the tro ride back to Kongo from Bolga, I happen to sit next to a neighbor of mine. I didn't know who it was, I had never seen him before, and on the tro he didn't say anything until we got off the tro and we both saw we were walking in the same direction. So we talked for a minute, he tells me his name is Emmanual (or Emma, "Imah," for short) and he asks for my number. I definitely didn't want to give it out, I hesitated, but since he's my neighber I figured he could just come to my door and bother me, so I figured I would rather have him call me than come to my compound door. So, I gave my number, then I got his. OK, great, I go home. As soon as I get home, I get a call; its an unknown number so I pick it up. Turns out, its my neighbor Emmanuel, (wait, you just gave me your number, so why are you calling me with a different number) and he asks if I got home (my compound is literally right behind yours, it takes exactly 10 seconds to get there, why would I not have gotten there?) and he wants to hang out and get food. Um, yeah, no, sorry, I'm busy, I got stuff to do at the market (which was a lie at the time, but later turned out to be true anyways). Within five minutes of meeting this guy and getting back to my house, I know that giving out my number was a terrible decision. And I NEVER, EVER give out my number, so of course the one time I do, I pay for it.
Tuesday night: I get a text from Emmanuel. I swear this is word for word, grammatical errors as all. Like I said, I can't make this crap up:
"hi be careful when killing mosquito tonight becos,i have sent one to bite you and effect you with luv.sweet dreams,from emma yankee ur neighbor,i mis you."
16-Oct-2012 8:23 PM
Sender: ending in 9851
WHAT THE (fill in the blank)???? WHO DOES THAT?
Needless to say I was furious, but I tried to stay calm and replied with a nice and civil text: That text was very inappropriate, I am not interested, please do not disturb me again. I thought that was very clear and straightforward, and I thought that would be sufficient enough for him to get the point. Oh, how stupid I was.
Wednesday: When I woke up I was still fuming, but I decided that I just needed to laugh. The text was ridiculous, horrible, weird but also hilarious. I couldn't wait to show all the volunteers at camp. He called me a few times with the two numbers he had already used to contact me, which I had already screened immediately after meeting him the day before, but I wouldn't have answered the calls regardless.
Thursday afternoon: Once I had met up with Rob, Mary, Jennifer and Dennis and all our students at the Sirigu market, and we were heading to the camp site, I started to tell everyone about this friendly neighbor of mine, and passed around my phone to show them the text (which got lots of laughs). They all agreed that it was one of the best text messages they had seen in Ghana. Then I said something like I've already screened his two numbers so I'll just ignore him, and Rob's response was, well, SIM cards are only 1 cedi, I'm sure he'll just buy another number and call you. Kid you not, less than a minute later my phone starts ringing and its an unknown number. I start laughing and just handedthe phone over to Rob to answer. As soon as Rob spoke, the caller hung up. Bingo! Rob was right. He then proceded to call another three times, but each time Rob demanded he identify himself and he wouldn't and then Emma would say he wanted to talk to me. No luck there, buddy.
Thursday night: At our first dinner at camp, as we were all settling in, catching up on life and our site's, I get a text:
"I'm sorry to bother u but it is urgent.I have a friend coming from far & He needs a place to stay since He'll be around,so I have indicated our house.Pls receive & love Him.His name is Jesus of Nazareth.Say this slowly 'Jesus of Nazareth,I love You & I need You,clean my heart with Ur blood.Bless my house & my family-in-dis-year.' GOD IS GOOD. from emma yankee
18-Oct-2012 7:02 PM
Sender: ending in 3183
Again, WHAT THE &$(^"*"£*"??????
Of course I immediately pass around my phone for everyone to see, they all crack up and some even say that this text is better than the first one. Now, if I were alone and got that text I probably would have sent a very angry text back. But luckily I had my fellow PCVs to laugh with and I asked them how the heck I should respond to a text like that. Everyone thought I should just ignore him, so I did.
Thursday night, late: I get four calls from two unknown numbers that wake me up.SOB. I silence each call since I had yet to screen these new numbers. Then I get a text:
"Missin u is my 'HOBBY'Carin 4,is my 'JOB'wantn 2 make u hapi ,is my 'DREAM'Prayin 4 u,is my'DUTY'& 2 keep u aware of your place in my heart is my 'GREATEST CHALLENGE.but if u don't even want 2 VOICE OUT to me u can at least txt me Goodnight and take care.i luv u from emma white."
18-Oct-2012 11:01 PM
Sender: ending in 9368
Who ever told this dude that this is what white women, well not just white women, but every woman ever, wants to hear this BS ever from anyone for any reason?
Friday: In the morning, we all enjoyed this latest text at the guesthouse over fried eggs and Nescafe. In the afternoon, Emma calls me EIGHT times, and each time my phone starts ringing I cut it off. He was not happy about that. He texted:
"WHY DO YOU BUSY MY CALL"
19-Oct-2012 2:26 PM
Sender: ending in 1107
Ghanaians tend to text in all caps, I don't really know why, but I always think its funny because they don't realize its like they're shouting at you. But in this case, the all caps was just creppy. Ugh.
Saturday morning, very early: This was the night I was assigned to chaperone the students at camp. As I said in the last blog, I didn't sleep much. The kids were great, went to bed early, but the bugs jumping all over all night made it hard to sleep. Eventually though, I dozed off. But you guessed it, my sleep did not last long, my friendly neighbor woke me up (almost the same as the last text but a different ending):
"Missin u is my 'HOBBY'Carin 4,is my 'JOB'wantn 2 make u hapi ,is my 'DREAM'Prayin 4 u,is my'DUTY'& 2 keep u aware of your place in my heart is my 'GREATEST CHALLENGE.but if you don't even want 2 say a word to me u can at least txt me GoodMorning and take care.i love u from emma yankee"
20-Oct-2012 1:00 AM
Sender: ending in 9368
OH HELL NAH, ITS SO ON NOW.
I was fuming the rest of the night. I almost sent him a furious text back, but I was like, no, I will wait til the morning when he will inevitably call me, because I want him to hear how angry I am on the phone when I chew him out. Someone should have told this guy to not mess with me.
Saturday morning: This was the day we went to the junior high in Sirigu to talk about their incinerator project and plant a school garden. I was exhausted but still excited to participate in the activities. As Sonia was introducing the schedule to everyone, I get a call. Oh yes, I was so ready to yell. And I did that for the next few minutes. It went something like this: Is this Emmanuel? Ok so you're going to listen to me. You have been very disrespectful, inappropriate and rude to me...I've already told you once nicely to stop distrubing me and you didn't listen. Then I ignored you completely and you still didn't get it...Aaaad I just kept going. At one point I paused short enough for him to ask if I knew who it was one the phone, as if I had confused him with another Emma. HA, no, no, no, I know EXACTLY who this is, this is Emmanuel my neighbor. That shut him up. At the end of my rant, I repeated several times: Do NOT call me EVER, do NOT text me EVER. When I thought he'd heard enough, I hung up.
I received three or four calls today from Emma on Saturday and Sunday, but by that point all four numbers that he had used to text and call me were screened. Seeing that he had called annoyed me, but I was just going to brush it off and not think of it.
Tuesday afternoon: I returned to Kongo after the completion of the camp. I walk my normal route from the market to the house, making a point to not look anywhere near my neighbor's house. As soon as I get home though, I see a missed call from Emma. Great. I had a hunch that he would try to confront me at my house, so I just stayed inside.But there came a point whenI needed to use my latrine...Well, guess who was waiting for me outside my latrine when I was done. That's not creepy or anything. So again, I just gave it to him. I was probably yelling loud enough for my landlord's family to hear, which was actually my goal. I told him he clearly didn't listen to me all the times I told him to not disturb me, did he not know what do not call EVER means? I was very clear. I also told him that I never want to see him anywhere near my house or latrine again. This was now the third time I had warned him, and I was going to get other people involved. He tried to say, Oh, I'm sorry, I wanted to come apologize, those texts were just jokes. Haha, um yeah no, that's not going to work. Those texts were not "jokes." Then I walked away because our conversation was going in circles and he wasn't listening to me.
So I told Christopher about the situation, and he went to go talk to the father the next morning. I haven't heard from him since. (I've been on the same tro with him before, and I've walked past him at this house, but he took Christopher's and his father's warnings to heart.) Moral of the story for me: Never ever ever ever give my number out ever ever ever again ever. Moral of the story for Emma and any other Ghanaian man: Do not f*** with Britney Kongbon Verissimo.
Tuesday afternoon: On the tro ride back to Kongo from Bolga, I happen to sit next to a neighbor of mine. I didn't know who it was, I had never seen him before, and on the tro he didn't say anything until we got off the tro and we both saw we were walking in the same direction. So we talked for a minute, he tells me his name is Emmanual (or Emma, "Imah," for short) and he asks for my number. I definitely didn't want to give it out, I hesitated, but since he's my neighber I figured he could just come to my door and bother me, so I figured I would rather have him call me than come to my compound door. So, I gave my number, then I got his. OK, great, I go home. As soon as I get home, I get a call; its an unknown number so I pick it up. Turns out, its my neighbor Emmanuel, (wait, you just gave me your number, so why are you calling me with a different number) and he asks if I got home (my compound is literally right behind yours, it takes exactly 10 seconds to get there, why would I not have gotten there?) and he wants to hang out and get food. Um, yeah, no, sorry, I'm busy, I got stuff to do at the market (which was a lie at the time, but later turned out to be true anyways). Within five minutes of meeting this guy and getting back to my house, I know that giving out my number was a terrible decision. And I NEVER, EVER give out my number, so of course the one time I do, I pay for it.
Tuesday night: I get a text from Emmanuel. I swear this is word for word, grammatical errors as all. Like I said, I can't make this crap up:
"hi be careful when killing mosquito tonight becos,i have sent one to bite you and effect you with luv.sweet dreams,from emma yankee ur neighbor,i mis you."
16-Oct-2012 8:23 PM
Sender: ending in 9851
WHAT THE (fill in the blank)???? WHO DOES THAT?
Needless to say I was furious, but I tried to stay calm and replied with a nice and civil text: That text was very inappropriate, I am not interested, please do not disturb me again. I thought that was very clear and straightforward, and I thought that would be sufficient enough for him to get the point. Oh, how stupid I was.
Wednesday: When I woke up I was still fuming, but I decided that I just needed to laugh. The text was ridiculous, horrible, weird but also hilarious. I couldn't wait to show all the volunteers at camp. He called me a few times with the two numbers he had already used to contact me, which I had already screened immediately after meeting him the day before, but I wouldn't have answered the calls regardless.
Thursday afternoon: Once I had met up with Rob, Mary, Jennifer and Dennis and all our students at the Sirigu market, and we were heading to the camp site, I started to tell everyone about this friendly neighbor of mine, and passed around my phone to show them the text (which got lots of laughs). They all agreed that it was one of the best text messages they had seen in Ghana. Then I said something like I've already screened his two numbers so I'll just ignore him, and Rob's response was, well, SIM cards are only 1 cedi, I'm sure he'll just buy another number and call you. Kid you not, less than a minute later my phone starts ringing and its an unknown number. I start laughing and just handedthe phone over to Rob to answer. As soon as Rob spoke, the caller hung up. Bingo! Rob was right. He then proceded to call another three times, but each time Rob demanded he identify himself and he wouldn't and then Emma would say he wanted to talk to me. No luck there, buddy.
Thursday night: At our first dinner at camp, as we were all settling in, catching up on life and our site's, I get a text:
"I'm sorry to bother u but it is urgent.I have a friend coming from far & He needs a place to stay since He'll be around,so I have indicated our house.Pls receive & love Him.His name is Jesus of Nazareth.Say this slowly 'Jesus of Nazareth,I love You & I need You,clean my heart with Ur blood.Bless my house & my family-in-dis-year.' GOD IS GOOD. from emma yankee
18-Oct-2012 7:02 PM
Sender: ending in 3183
Again, WHAT THE &$(^"*"£*"??????
Of course I immediately pass around my phone for everyone to see, they all crack up and some even say that this text is better than the first one. Now, if I were alone and got that text I probably would have sent a very angry text back. But luckily I had my fellow PCVs to laugh with and I asked them how the heck I should respond to a text like that. Everyone thought I should just ignore him, so I did.
Thursday night, late: I get four calls from two unknown numbers that wake me up.SOB. I silence each call since I had yet to screen these new numbers. Then I get a text:
"Missin u is my 'HOBBY'Carin 4,is my 'JOB'wantn 2 make u hapi ,is my 'DREAM'Prayin 4 u,is my'DUTY'& 2 keep u aware of your place in my heart is my 'GREATEST CHALLENGE.but if u don't even want 2 VOICE OUT to me u can at least txt me Goodnight and take care.i luv u from emma white."
18-Oct-2012 11:01 PM
Sender: ending in 9368
Who ever told this dude that this is what white women, well not just white women, but every woman ever, wants to hear this BS ever from anyone for any reason?
Friday: In the morning, we all enjoyed this latest text at the guesthouse over fried eggs and Nescafe. In the afternoon, Emma calls me EIGHT times, and each time my phone starts ringing I cut it off. He was not happy about that. He texted:
"WHY DO YOU BUSY MY CALL"
19-Oct-2012 2:26 PM
Sender: ending in 1107
Ghanaians tend to text in all caps, I don't really know why, but I always think its funny because they don't realize its like they're shouting at you. But in this case, the all caps was just creppy. Ugh.
Saturday morning, very early: This was the night I was assigned to chaperone the students at camp. As I said in the last blog, I didn't sleep much. The kids were great, went to bed early, but the bugs jumping all over all night made it hard to sleep. Eventually though, I dozed off. But you guessed it, my sleep did not last long, my friendly neighbor woke me up (almost the same as the last text but a different ending):
"Missin u is my 'HOBBY'Carin 4,is my 'JOB'wantn 2 make u hapi ,is my 'DREAM'Prayin 4 u,is my'DUTY'& 2 keep u aware of your place in my heart is my 'GREATEST CHALLENGE.but if you don't even want 2 say a word to me u can at least txt me GoodMorning and take care.i love u from emma yankee"
20-Oct-2012 1:00 AM
Sender: ending in 9368
OH HELL NAH, ITS SO ON NOW.
I was fuming the rest of the night. I almost sent him a furious text back, but I was like, no, I will wait til the morning when he will inevitably call me, because I want him to hear how angry I am on the phone when I chew him out. Someone should have told this guy to not mess with me.
Saturday morning: This was the day we went to the junior high in Sirigu to talk about their incinerator project and plant a school garden. I was exhausted but still excited to participate in the activities. As Sonia was introducing the schedule to everyone, I get a call. Oh yes, I was so ready to yell. And I did that for the next few minutes. It went something like this: Is this Emmanuel? Ok so you're going to listen to me. You have been very disrespectful, inappropriate and rude to me...I've already told you once nicely to stop distrubing me and you didn't listen. Then I ignored you completely and you still didn't get it...Aaaad I just kept going. At one point I paused short enough for him to ask if I knew who it was one the phone, as if I had confused him with another Emma. HA, no, no, no, I know EXACTLY who this is, this is Emmanuel my neighbor. That shut him up. At the end of my rant, I repeated several times: Do NOT call me EVER, do NOT text me EVER. When I thought he'd heard enough, I hung up.
I received three or four calls today from Emma on Saturday and Sunday, but by that point all four numbers that he had used to text and call me were screened. Seeing that he had called annoyed me, but I was just going to brush it off and not think of it.
Tuesday afternoon: I returned to Kongo after the completion of the camp. I walk my normal route from the market to the house, making a point to not look anywhere near my neighbor's house. As soon as I get home though, I see a missed call from Emma. Great. I had a hunch that he would try to confront me at my house, so I just stayed inside.But there came a point whenI needed to use my latrine...Well, guess who was waiting for me outside my latrine when I was done. That's not creepy or anything. So again, I just gave it to him. I was probably yelling loud enough for my landlord's family to hear, which was actually my goal. I told him he clearly didn't listen to me all the times I told him to not disturb me, did he not know what do not call EVER means? I was very clear. I also told him that I never want to see him anywhere near my house or latrine again. This was now the third time I had warned him, and I was going to get other people involved. He tried to say, Oh, I'm sorry, I wanted to come apologize, those texts were just jokes. Haha, um yeah no, that's not going to work. Those texts were not "jokes." Then I walked away because our conversation was going in circles and he wasn't listening to me.
So I told Christopher about the situation, and he went to go talk to the father the next morning. I haven't heard from him since. (I've been on the same tro with him before, and I've walked past him at this house, but he took Christopher's and his father's warnings to heart.) Moral of the story for me: Never ever ever ever give my number out ever ever ever again ever. Moral of the story for Emma and any other Ghanaian man: Do not f*** with Britney Kongbon Verissimo.
Upper East Food Security Youth Camp
From October 19-22, the volunteers of the Upper East held a youth camp in Sirigu for the region's junior high and senior high students. I've wanted to participate in a youth camp ever since I arrived in country, so when this opportunity popped up I was very excited. Sonia, who is in the group ahead of mine, is the amazing PCV who put together this camp and who stays in Sirigu.
I haven't done any work at the Kongo JHS, and there's no senior high in Kongo, so I had Christopher pick a boy and girl student to take to the camp since he teaches there. A few days before camp, I met the students- Eastwood (awesome name right?) and Agnes. I told them briefly want the camp would be about, and told them to keep in mind what they want to do to bring back the knowledge to their peers. We agreed to meet at my compound around 1 PM Thursday to travel to the camp location.
Thursday afternoon we took a tro from Kongo to Bolga, then in Bolga we shared a taxi with Rob and his students to Sirigu. It was about a 45 minute taxi ride on a bad dirt road. I've been on the road before since Dawn's site, Zorko, is on the way, but since the last time I went to Zorko, the rain really did a number on the road.
Eventually we made it to the Sirigu market, met up there with Mary and Jennifer who joined us from Northern Region, and Dennis with his students, and all took a private bus to the camp site- the Ghana Institute of Organic Farming. This was a project done by one of the many Dutch volunteers that come through Sirigu. I don't think its actually up and running yet, but eventually it will be a training college. The building has a computer room dining hall, lecture room, laboratory and storage room- its very nice. In addition, there is an outdoor work area that's still being constructed. The boys and girls stayed in two of the rooms, with PCV volunteers each night, and the non-chaperoning PCVs stayed a 40 minute walk down the road at SWOPA (Sirigu Women's Organization of Pottery and Arts), a womens group-run guesthouse.
Day 1 (Friday October 19): 4-H Clubs and Nutrition
Welcome and Intros, Ice Breaker, Intro to Food Security, 4-H Clubs in America/Ghana, Activities school clubs can do, Mock meeting, Nutrition, Intro to school gardens, Sports, American movie (night)
After introducing ourselves and getting an overview of the camp, we split the students into three different "food security" groups: food access, food availability and food utilization. Mary and I led the food availability group. We had a brainstorming session where the students talked about problems and potential solutions related to food availability issues in Ghana, and in particular the Upper East. They talked a lot of lack of education, lack of government officials to teach farmers, problems with the land tenure system and how social attitudes affect any change in ag practices. The brainstoming session was very informative for me, and it was a great chance to see just how bright these students are and how much they know about problems in their region and how the problems can be solved. They were very articulate and had very strong opinions about agriculture in the Upper East. Right before lunch I did a short session on the kinds of activities school clubs can do. I had the kids tell me what kidns of clubs they are already involved with at school and what kinds of things they can do in the future. Several of them mentioned science and environmental clubs, which I can happy about, and I also mentioned starting school tree nurseries or school gardens, waste managemnet projects, animal rearing and alternative livelihood projects, such as shea, moringa and neem processing. The students made this session easy for me, as they had lots of ideas, and a lot of the camp sessions would cover these activities.
Since all the other days were packed with sessions, this was the only chance we got to have a designated sports time. Vince and Alex led this sports "session," and intended on teaching how to play football and ultimate frisbee, but naturally the kids gravitated to the soccer pitch. But even after a day of access to the frisbee and football, the kids had gotten very good at throwing them. We had mixed gender teams, although the team Vince and I were on was predominately girls, so we were pretty unevenly matched. We still did fairly well, and I was very proud of how strong the girls were and how they didn't let the boys taunting or physicality get to them. The boy who guarded me was one of the smaller, younger ones, but he certainly thought he could defeat me by trying to jump on me, tackle me and trip me. But he found no success; he just ended up getting laughed at since this white girl was outplaying him.
That night after dinner we showed a "Planet Earth" episode, the one on shallow seas. I had never seen this one before, and me being really nerdy, I was absolutely amazed and entranced by it. I can only imagine what the heck the students were thought of it all since probably most of them have never seen the ocean. This was also my night to chaperone with Vince. All the kids were really well-behaved, they went to bed early, didn't cause any problems. But the bugs were crazy, jumping all over all night long. And once I did finally get to sleep, my "friendly" neighbor in Kongo sends me a text at 1 AM, waking me up. Of course. (And don't worry, this will be my next blog- I won't leave you hanging!)
Day 2 (Sat. Oct. 20): Gardening and Animals
Waste management project, Plant a school garden, Animal rearing, Animal diseases, Beekeeping, Housing for chickens and rabbits, Neem cream demo, Games (night)
For the morning's activities we went to one of the junior high schools in Sirigu. The sceince club there discussed their incinerator project, and then those kids helped our students plant a school garden. As Jennifer directed the students with the school garden, Mary and I showed them how to plant crop seeds in used plastic water satchet bags. They planted green pepper, cabbage and broccoli in the satchets we collected just from around the school and ones we had used that morning. We had a whole bag of different seeds and it was cool to see how interested the students were in what the other crop seeds looked like (carrot, cucumber and onion, just to name a few).
Day 3 (Sun. Oct. 21): Chickens and Trees
Build a chicken coop, Soapmaking demo, See a tree nursery, HIV/AIDS activities, Talent show (night)
The talent show was probably the highlight of the day. Well, actually the HIV/AIDS game we played maybe would rival that. We blew up condoms to make balloons, then put sexual health and HIV/AIDS-related questions in them, and had the students pass them around (kind of like musical chairs) and pop the balloons and answer the questions. At the talent show, a lot of the girls sang (the Ghana national anthem and church songs were popular), a few of the boys did storytelling, the smallest girl of all, Vanessa, aka "Happy," danced Azonto, and one boy did stand-up comedy (we think...). But the kids definitely enjoyed it even if the volunteers didn't quite understand.
Day 4 (Mon. Oct. 22): Sustainable Farming
Climate change and desertification, Climate adaptation, Sustainable Ag, Meetings with farmers, Closing ceremony (night)
I began the last day's sessions with my presentation on climate change and desertification. I explained the basics of climate change and tried as best as I could to define certain words (greenhouse gas and greenhouse gas effect were hard ones to describe). When I got to desertification, they seemed to understand and know a lot more. I used the Sahel Famine of 1968-73 as an example. I was surprised to hear that none of them had heard of it, seeing as it happened very close to northern Ghana, then again it is very possible that most of their parents weren't even born at that time. I had a flow chart that described how several factors (colonization, increased population, and 7 years of heavy rain before the drought) lead to the famine. I hope I got across my point- northern Ghana could easily have this happen to them, and the whole region is in serious danger of becoming desert very soon. The area is just getting drier and drier and people need to both mitigate these effects and change their farming/ag practices (which is what Sonia talked about after me). I also did a small experiment with the students: I placed two tin tomato cans, both sides cut out, in two different soils (one very compacted, where people walk a lot and one very loose, underneath a tree) and had the students think about how long each of the soils would soak up an equal amount of water. Hopefully they could see the difference between dry, compacted soils and (relatively) loose, healthy soils in relation to desertification.
This last day was my favorite, not just because it was more in my expertise and interest areas, but I think the sessions were very informative for the students, especially Sonia's on climate adaptation and Dawn's on organic ag. I think the students were able to see the huge problems conventional agriculture has created in the area.
To wrap up the entire camp, Sonia brought in her farmer's group to come listen to the three different food security groups talked about what they learned at the camp. Me and Mary's group brought up a lot of points from this last day- using compost, not chemicals, for fertilizer; not burning fields after harvest time; practicing crop rotation/multiple-crop systems. It seemed as though at least some of the farmers understood and agreed with what our students were saying, and the students enjoyed showing the farmers what they had learned.
After dinner we had the closing ceremony. Each student got a "Certificate of Completion" from the camp and a t-shirt. Then there were three MVPs, one from each food security group, and they each were given a moringa tree seedling. My boy Eastwood won the MVP from Rob's food utilization group, I was so proud! But I was definitely proud of everyone- they all participated and were engaged, asked lots of questions and had lots of good ideas. They made me feel that their communities and the Upper East as a whole has a bright future with these kids. They can be the ones to start the change and guide their people.
I haven't done any work at the Kongo JHS, and there's no senior high in Kongo, so I had Christopher pick a boy and girl student to take to the camp since he teaches there. A few days before camp, I met the students- Eastwood (awesome name right?) and Agnes. I told them briefly want the camp would be about, and told them to keep in mind what they want to do to bring back the knowledge to their peers. We agreed to meet at my compound around 1 PM Thursday to travel to the camp location.
Thursday afternoon we took a tro from Kongo to Bolga, then in Bolga we shared a taxi with Rob and his students to Sirigu. It was about a 45 minute taxi ride on a bad dirt road. I've been on the road before since Dawn's site, Zorko, is on the way, but since the last time I went to Zorko, the rain really did a number on the road.
Eventually we made it to the Sirigu market, met up there with Mary and Jennifer who joined us from Northern Region, and Dennis with his students, and all took a private bus to the camp site- the Ghana Institute of Organic Farming. This was a project done by one of the many Dutch volunteers that come through Sirigu. I don't think its actually up and running yet, but eventually it will be a training college. The building has a computer room dining hall, lecture room, laboratory and storage room- its very nice. In addition, there is an outdoor work area that's still being constructed. The boys and girls stayed in two of the rooms, with PCV volunteers each night, and the non-chaperoning PCVs stayed a 40 minute walk down the road at SWOPA (Sirigu Women's Organization of Pottery and Arts), a womens group-run guesthouse.
Day 1 (Friday October 19): 4-H Clubs and Nutrition
Welcome and Intros, Ice Breaker, Intro to Food Security, 4-H Clubs in America/Ghana, Activities school clubs can do, Mock meeting, Nutrition, Intro to school gardens, Sports, American movie (night)
After introducing ourselves and getting an overview of the camp, we split the students into three different "food security" groups: food access, food availability and food utilization. Mary and I led the food availability group. We had a brainstorming session where the students talked about problems and potential solutions related to food availability issues in Ghana, and in particular the Upper East. They talked a lot of lack of education, lack of government officials to teach farmers, problems with the land tenure system and how social attitudes affect any change in ag practices. The brainstoming session was very informative for me, and it was a great chance to see just how bright these students are and how much they know about problems in their region and how the problems can be solved. They were very articulate and had very strong opinions about agriculture in the Upper East. Right before lunch I did a short session on the kinds of activities school clubs can do. I had the kids tell me what kidns of clubs they are already involved with at school and what kinds of things they can do in the future. Several of them mentioned science and environmental clubs, which I can happy about, and I also mentioned starting school tree nurseries or school gardens, waste managemnet projects, animal rearing and alternative livelihood projects, such as shea, moringa and neem processing. The students made this session easy for me, as they had lots of ideas, and a lot of the camp sessions would cover these activities.
Since all the other days were packed with sessions, this was the only chance we got to have a designated sports time. Vince and Alex led this sports "session," and intended on teaching how to play football and ultimate frisbee, but naturally the kids gravitated to the soccer pitch. But even after a day of access to the frisbee and football, the kids had gotten very good at throwing them. We had mixed gender teams, although the team Vince and I were on was predominately girls, so we were pretty unevenly matched. We still did fairly well, and I was very proud of how strong the girls were and how they didn't let the boys taunting or physicality get to them. The boy who guarded me was one of the smaller, younger ones, but he certainly thought he could defeat me by trying to jump on me, tackle me and trip me. But he found no success; he just ended up getting laughed at since this white girl was outplaying him.
That night after dinner we showed a "Planet Earth" episode, the one on shallow seas. I had never seen this one before, and me being really nerdy, I was absolutely amazed and entranced by it. I can only imagine what the heck the students were thought of it all since probably most of them have never seen the ocean. This was also my night to chaperone with Vince. All the kids were really well-behaved, they went to bed early, didn't cause any problems. But the bugs were crazy, jumping all over all night long. And once I did finally get to sleep, my "friendly" neighbor in Kongo sends me a text at 1 AM, waking me up. Of course. (And don't worry, this will be my next blog- I won't leave you hanging!)
Day 2 (Sat. Oct. 20): Gardening and Animals
Waste management project, Plant a school garden, Animal rearing, Animal diseases, Beekeeping, Housing for chickens and rabbits, Neem cream demo, Games (night)
For the morning's activities we went to one of the junior high schools in Sirigu. The sceince club there discussed their incinerator project, and then those kids helped our students plant a school garden. As Jennifer directed the students with the school garden, Mary and I showed them how to plant crop seeds in used plastic water satchet bags. They planted green pepper, cabbage and broccoli in the satchets we collected just from around the school and ones we had used that morning. We had a whole bag of different seeds and it was cool to see how interested the students were in what the other crop seeds looked like (carrot, cucumber and onion, just to name a few).
Day 3 (Sun. Oct. 21): Chickens and Trees
Build a chicken coop, Soapmaking demo, See a tree nursery, HIV/AIDS activities, Talent show (night)
The talent show was probably the highlight of the day. Well, actually the HIV/AIDS game we played maybe would rival that. We blew up condoms to make balloons, then put sexual health and HIV/AIDS-related questions in them, and had the students pass them around (kind of like musical chairs) and pop the balloons and answer the questions. At the talent show, a lot of the girls sang (the Ghana national anthem and church songs were popular), a few of the boys did storytelling, the smallest girl of all, Vanessa, aka "Happy," danced Azonto, and one boy did stand-up comedy (we think...). But the kids definitely enjoyed it even if the volunteers didn't quite understand.
Day 4 (Mon. Oct. 22): Sustainable Farming
Climate change and desertification, Climate adaptation, Sustainable Ag, Meetings with farmers, Closing ceremony (night)
I began the last day's sessions with my presentation on climate change and desertification. I explained the basics of climate change and tried as best as I could to define certain words (greenhouse gas and greenhouse gas effect were hard ones to describe). When I got to desertification, they seemed to understand and know a lot more. I used the Sahel Famine of 1968-73 as an example. I was surprised to hear that none of them had heard of it, seeing as it happened very close to northern Ghana, then again it is very possible that most of their parents weren't even born at that time. I had a flow chart that described how several factors (colonization, increased population, and 7 years of heavy rain before the drought) lead to the famine. I hope I got across my point- northern Ghana could easily have this happen to them, and the whole region is in serious danger of becoming desert very soon. The area is just getting drier and drier and people need to both mitigate these effects and change their farming/ag practices (which is what Sonia talked about after me). I also did a small experiment with the students: I placed two tin tomato cans, both sides cut out, in two different soils (one very compacted, where people walk a lot and one very loose, underneath a tree) and had the students think about how long each of the soils would soak up an equal amount of water. Hopefully they could see the difference between dry, compacted soils and (relatively) loose, healthy soils in relation to desertification.
This last day was my favorite, not just because it was more in my expertise and interest areas, but I think the sessions were very informative for the students, especially Sonia's on climate adaptation and Dawn's on organic ag. I think the students were able to see the huge problems conventional agriculture has created in the area.
To wrap up the entire camp, Sonia brought in her farmer's group to come listen to the three different food security groups talked about what they learned at the camp. Me and Mary's group brought up a lot of points from this last day- using compost, not chemicals, for fertilizer; not burning fields after harvest time; practicing crop rotation/multiple-crop systems. It seemed as though at least some of the farmers understood and agreed with what our students were saying, and the students enjoyed showing the farmers what they had learned.
After dinner we had the closing ceremony. Each student got a "Certificate of Completion" from the camp and a t-shirt. Then there were three MVPs, one from each food security group, and they each were given a moringa tree seedling. My boy Eastwood won the MVP from Rob's food utilization group, I was so proud! But I was definitely proud of everyone- they all participated and were engaged, asked lots of questions and had lots of good ideas. They made me feel that their communities and the Upper East as a whole has a bright future with these kids. They can be the ones to start the change and guide their people.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)