Week 7

This week Patrick and I went back to Yendi and then continued onto Zabzugu. In Yendi we go to go visit a girls club, which was really neat! These clubs are created mainly in junior high schools to help teach girls the importance of their own education and as a support network for school work and other challenges they have. The clubs are also used as a tool for community sensitization and they perform plays, poetry or songs at community events to demonstrate the importance of girls education to parents. The clubs put on one of their role plays for us and the whole school watched. The play showed three girls in school, 2 of whom dropped out of school to go to Accra and become porters (they call them kayayos) and the third girl stayed in school and got a scholarship. Then it shows the girls again in 5 years. The girl who stayed in school becomes a doctor and has to tell one of the other girls that she is HIV positive, and then tell the parents of the other girl that she has died from a self induced abortion. It was neat that they touched on so many sensitive subjects and they were all very animated and involved. The patron of the club and the head master were both men but they were both very supportive and the girls obviously liked them and felt comfortable around them, so it was neat to see how men are getting involved as well.
Then we got to talk to the girls education officer for Yendi, who was out of town the last time we were there. Her name is Madame Alice and she is very knowledgeable and interesting to talk to. She is retiring in July, which is really too bad.
On Wednesday we woke up at 5 am and went to go catch a tro-tro (a big van that they cram lots of people into) to Zabzugu, and we ended up waiting for it for 3 hours. When it finally came, we piled into it and in a van with 30 seats, they had 51 people, not including the various small children sitting on parents laps, or the three men that rode on the top of the van with all the cargo. It was pretty claustrophobic and the ride was super hot and bumpy, which didn’t help. We made it to Zabzugu and then met with Elvis, the long term volunteer, and the girls education officer. We went to visit a few schools. One of the schools had a feeding program and we got to see how that worked. Then we went to visit an all girls school where there was a girls club, but it was not very active. It was interesting to see the difference between a club where the patron was so involved, vs. a club where the matron was not as supportive. The clubs depend so much on the support from the patrons/matrons and teachers.
We made it back to Tamale on Wednesday evening and it was nice to be back and get a good nights sleep. For the rest of the week we are going to be working on our research and our reports. Two of the American girls that we met are leaving Saturday morning so we want to hang out with them on Friday night and then there may be a Ghana national team game in Tamale on Sunday. On July 1 it is Republic Day in Ghana, so that will be a holiday. I hope there will be some celebrations or events that we can go check out.
Take care everyone!

My house


Drumming and Dancing

Pics

The fooball game. The place was pretty sparse, but there are most people on the right out of the frame because it was shady on that side.

Week 6 - Yendi and our house

I had a really great week. On Monday we got to our office and found out that our bosses were still in Accra so we decided to go ahead and make plans to visit Yendi (one of the WUSC districts) on Tuesday even though we would not be accompanied by Madame Linda (who was going to introduce us and translate for us) and a driver. So Tuesday morning we woke up at 4 am to catch a bus at 5 am to Yendi. The ride was pleasant enough, except for it being so early. We got to Yendi and went to have breakfast with Jess and Billie, the two interns that are working there. They have a really cute place right by the military barracks, so it is weird, but not uncommon to see tanks and soldiers with huge guns passing by. Actually there was a conflict in Yendi a few years ago and the chief and the better part of his family were all killed, so there is a little bit of tension there, but no one talks about it. After breakfast we went to the Ghana Education Service office for the district of Yendi and met some of the staff there. The long term volunteer, Sheena, is really friendly and smart so she was a great person to talk to. She was really helpful for both me and Patrick and helped us set up some other meetings for this upcoming week, when we will return to Yendi. We also talked to the Girls Education Officer there and got some really great reports to look over. We got a ton of information in that first morning, so I’m really excited about getting back there and to the other districts. It’s too bad that we waited so long to take the initiative to do these visits on our own, but in the end it worked out really well.
After lunch we ran a few errands and I got to see a bit of the town from the back of Billie’s bicycle. It is a pretty small town where any foreigners get a lot of attention, but people seemed really nice, and the atmosphere was super laid back. They’re really enjoying it and I think they have a pretty good set up. Then we had dinner with Sheena and a really interesting and funny Cuban doctor named Leuby.
Billie and Jessica have rats and/or bats living in their ceiling, so when we went to sleep you could hear the high pitched sounds of bats and these scuttling sounds of mice or rats or something in the roof. Then I woke up at 5 to get a bus back at 7 am. When I got back to Tamale I was super exhausted. There are 2 interns that came up from Accra and are going to be working at the GEU as well. Cassey and Gershon. Tomorrow we are moving into a house with Cassey. I am so excited to have a fridge! We’ll each have our own rooms and there is a nice sitting area so it will be really nice.
I am really happy to be getting into our research. One of my worries when I was here is that I wasn’t sure if I would be able to contribute anything and accomplish anything while I was here. But now I feel like I might actually be able to get something useful done. Time has gone by fast and I feel like we’re only really getting settled and our time here is already half over. 3 months sounded like a long time, but it really isn’t. I’m really looking forward to next week. We’re going to go back to Yendi in Tuesday and then we’re going to stay there over night and then continue onto Zabzugu. I’m really hoping to get to visit a club in Yendi.
Thursday we attended an all day workshop about domestic violence where most of the girls education officers from the three northern regions were in attendance. It was not directly related to our research but it was still interesting to here about some of the laws and practice that exist regarding domestic violence.
We moved into our house Friday morning, where we all have our own rooms, and we have a kitchen and a fridge and a living room, which is super exciting. Then we went to the office with Cassey and Gershon so they could see it and meet the people they’ll be working with.
Saturday I woke up really early and did a bunch of work. Then Cassey and I went to see a football match in the afternoon which was really cool. It was the Tamale RTUs vs. the Accra Great Olympics. It was my first professional soccer game and it was really fun. Tamale won 2-1, but both teams had a goal disallowed. It was exciting and even though the crowd was small, they were loud and super into the game.
Later that evening, we hung out with the American girls that we met in Mole Park and they had met a group of dancers and drummer that came over to their house and performed a bit for us. It was super cool, and they were really friendly. There were three of them so they did some songs where they drummed and sang and then some where they took turns drumming and dancing. It was really neat to see the traditional dances and songs. They wanted to do an exchange and learn some Canadian dances, and I would’ve taught them some line dances, but unfortunately no one had any country music. Maybe next time.

Mole National Park

This weekend was really awesome. We went to Mole National Park, which was about 3 hours from Tamale. It was beautiful and the hotel was amazing. It was on a ridge looking out over this park and these two watering holes where animals go to drink. It was an amazing view. You could see for miles and there was this terrace where you could sit under a tree and look out and it was awesome. On the second night we watched this amazing sun set from the balcony. The whole time it was so surreal because I was looking out at this amazing scene and it didn’t even feel like it was really there. It felt like I was looking at a picture, not a real landscape that I could reach out and touch. Also, the pool was so nice and refreshing and the food was good at the restaurant.

There were monkeys running around near the pool and stealing people’s food which was crazy. One day there were baboons running round and that was super scary because they are dangerous and can be super vicious. And they were so aggressive! They were jumping up on the tables, and trying to reach into people’s plates of food. One of the smaller moneys ran up to a women, hit her in the leg and then stole her mango!

We went on a walking safari on Saturday morning that started at 7 am. So the sun was up, but it was still fairly cool so more animals come out. But in the morning Patrick banged on our door at 6:15 and said ‘there’s elephants out here!’ So I walked outside and there was 3 or 4 elephants right outside the hotel buildings eating from the trees. It was so amazing! It was a pretty cool way to start the day. On the safari we saw a bunch of gazelles, warthogs, monkeys, and elephants which was awesome. We saw a crocodile too, but from far away. The elephants that we saw were in the watering hole and it was really cool because the guide had told us that elephant skin was black and the reason why they look grey is because they cover themselves in dirt to reflect the sun and keep themselves cool. So when we saw them in the watering you could see how black their skin really is. It was crazy to see these huge and powerful animals and they seem to gentle and slow. But at the same time, you have to be careful because if they feel threatened then they might charge. Erin said on her safari the next day they had an elephant give them a warning to back off.

It was really neat to see the National Park. It is a big park and people say that 95% of it is underutilized because there is really just the one hotel and most of the safaris are walking so it’s a 2 hour loop down into the valley. Apparently for the African Cup, the Ghanaian government paved a lot of roads, so the road to Mole was much better than it used to be. I thought that was cool because it shows that tourism can bring positive impacts like investments in infrastructure. However, on the flip side, when we were walking around Mole we saw the negative impacts of tourism like the piles of garbage in the park, the water waste, and the degradation of trails. There is a lot of talk about eco-tourism and community development here, but in the park and on the safari there is such an emphasis on seeing big mammals like elephants and not enough of an emphasis on the eco-system as a whole. I would’ve liked to have more information from the guide on the plants and the other smaller animals or the history of the area.

There were a few school groups from local schools in the area who were taking day trips to the park and doing a safari and then hanging out at the hotel for the day. That was cool too, because so often tourism is only geared towards foreigners with lots of money and local people can’t experience the things their own country has to offer. It was also neat to see because one of the schools was a girls school, and I’ve read about some initiatives where girls camps or girls clubs go on excursions around Ghana to experience different parts of the country to open their eyes to various to different things and build their confidence.

Elephants right outside our door! The Elephants in the water. see how black thier skin really is?

The Elephants in the water. see how black thier skin really is?

Me chillin on the patio over looking the 2 watering holes

I have more but I am running out of time. take care everyone!

Pics

This is the football stadium that is on our walk to work and it was built for the Africa Cup which was hosted by Ghana this year. Egypt won. It's funny because there are a lot of street signs and I'm pretty sure they were only put up for the Cup.







This is a photo of all the interns and some of the WUSC staff in Accra

4th Week in Ghana

Patrick and I did a World Food Programme walk the other day which was cool. It was to fundraise for feeding programs in schools in Tamale. But I have to wonder why a UN agency has to do outside fundraising. And in one of the poorest regions of the country. It was cool to see though. Apparently the WFP is cutting its funding to Ghana soon. There is a lot of talk of rising fuel and food priced so that’s sad to see. The regional minister made a speech about how the government will have to fill the void, so I hope that they can find funding.

We also had a super productive day today at work, which was exciting. We planned out an itinerary for our visits to the surrounding districts where WUSC has been working with girls clubs and community based organizations. There are 4 districts we will be visiting, Savelugu, Yendi, Zabzugu and Yendi. The last three have interns that we came with working there so that will be nice to see the towns they are in and to see a more rural lifestyle. We also read over a handbook that was distributed to teachers as part of their training and it was interesting to see some of the things that are written about the water and food shortages, and how that has negatively affected school attendance (which is what the WFP is all about). It’s interesting because the highschools were out for the past few weeks because there was no money to provide for food for them. So we would see so many high school kids sitting around and not really doing anything. But apparently they are starting school again tomorrow because the minister has released some money for the feeding programs. It will be interesting to see how that changes the demographic we see around the town.

This weekend we are going to Mole National Park and the Hotel is apparently really nice and it looks over the watering hole that most of the animals use in the dry seasons. It’s starting to t\get into the rainy season, but not too much. So I hope we’ll still see lots of animals. And there is a pool! Exciting! All 9 of the northern interns are going so that will be a lot of fun.

We are staying at the first guest house we were at now and I think we'll be there for a while. But the other 2 interns in Tamale just got a sweet house and there may be some room opening up. So we might be on the move again. But we'll see. For now we're at least enjoying cooking our own food. Take care everyone!