From the land of coconuts

Once upon a fine afternoon in Western Region, Vido asked Lindsey and me if we would like to visit a fishing village to watch the fisherman going out to sea. Vido, the entrepreneur we were staying with, lives in Bonyere, which is a village along the Western coast of Ghana. In these coastal towns, most people have one of two jobs: coconut farming or fishing. Lindsey and I are usually up for anything so of course we agreed.

And so we found ourselves around 4:30 pm on our way. We turned off of the main paved road and started down a very bumpy and dusty red-dirt road. The road snaked through forests and forests of tall coconut trees; I’ve never seen so many in my life. And after 15 minutes we arrived in the village.

It was not quite like anything I’d ever seen before. The houses in the town lined the shore, all made out of coconut palm leaves. The walls where either palm leaves woven together or stems bound side-by-side. In many of the houses there were women smoking fish or cooking the evening meal for the families. And there were children running around everywhere, of all ages, calling to us, waving to us, and following our every movement.

Vido wanted to show us his friend’s boat and so we crossed through the band of houses on the beach. I should explain exactly house they go about fishing. The boats are 15 metres long and 3 metres wide. Each boat has an owner, a manager, and a team of about eight to 15 boys. Around 5 pm each day, the team of boys prepares the boat and ventures out to sea. They throw their nets and sleep, and in the morning they load the catch into the boats and return back to shore by around 7 am.

And so we were lucky enough to be there just as the boats were leaving for the sea. They lined the beach, each one resting on three big tree trunks. The teams are very proud of their boats and have them decorated and painted with lots of flags and designs. Some boats even have uniforms! We saw one team all wearing matching Chelsea uniforms, blue shorts and blue and white toques!

Our team had eight boys, and we watched them load the supplies they would need for the night. Once it was loaded, the team used the tree trunks to roll the boat towards the water. When the boat was in, they added the out-board motor (too heavy to add before the pushing) and away they went.

But it was not so easy. The waves are very dangerous around the village, especially at that time of day. This is the most dangerous part of the fisherman’s trek. The boats need to get past the place where the waves break before they will be safe.

As the boat moved into the water, the people who were walking by stopped to watch the journey. The owner and manager of our boat stood around with us and the other passers-by, hoping the boat would be ok. Everyone watched in silence as the boys passed further and further away from the shore. You could feel the tension as the boat rocked back and forth, as Lindsey said, looking like the Upside-down Ship from Canada’s Wonderland.

And then, after what seemed like an eternity to me, they made it past the break. And life on the beach went on. As if nothing had happened, the people that had been frozen moved to life again, continuing on their way. Only the manager and the owner exchanged a small smile and returned to the hustle and bustle of the village.

But for the boys on the boat, it was a great feat. You could see them jumping, singing, clapping; celebrating that they had made it, for one more day, safely out to sea.

Just some reflecting-oh

I’ve been sitting here staring at the blinking cursor of my blank word document for a good 15 minutes. After a lot of hard work and intense discussion, our final report finally seems to be taking shape. We are all so involved and passionate about our experience on project that no one wants to let any information slip through. My vast period of time in Ghana here has dwindled down to a matter of a couple days. There are lots of lasts coming up: last day at the office tomorrow, last full day in Ghana on Wednesday, last chop bar meal, last tro tro ride, etc.

Thoughts of going home and reconnecting with my friends and family have been occupying a lot of time in my mind over the past few days. I’ve recently realized how fragile such things can be. I’m looking forward to some great conversations and comforts from home. However, along with my excitement comes a huge overwhelming feeling.

During my time here I’ve gotten to experience some pretty incredible things and meet some truly inspiring people. How do I ever convey everything I’ve seen? How do I share all of the things I’ve learned? I really have no idea, but it is amazing how normal some truly exotic things have become since my arrival.

Take one example; the market. In an effort to pick up some key ingredients to continue our new-found obsession with Ghanaian food, the team headed to Makola market (or at least some tangent of it?) on Saturday.

I remember the first time we walked down that very street on our first weekend in Accra. The street snacks looked so strange, I had no idea what the ladies were yelling, and my pineapple costs what? 5000 cedis? Oh right. Old currency speak for 50 pesewas.

Doing that same walk on Saturday it’s amazing how familiar everything has become over the past 3 months. I know if I’m thirsty it’s probably only a matter of seconds before I’ll pass a street seller yelling “isssccchh pure wata”, and I can grab a sachet on the go. The chaos and huge crowd of people is no longer a source of anxiety, but provides a strange feeling of comfort. And no, that tro tro driver isn’t yelling in a forgien language, he is calling people to join his car to Kasoa, that town on the outskirts of Accra we passed through on our way to Bawjiase in June.

I really love the market. It’s so saturated and vibrant. Huge stacks of blood red tomatoes piled in mini pyramids, piles of dried or smoked fish in brown, silver, and beige. Spices stacked high in huge culdron-like bowls. It makes you want some dinner even if you aren’t hungry. Then there are the fabric stands (ohh how we stand there forever) with the beautiful boldly printed African fabric that definitely makes us girls (and maybe even Josh) drool a little.

You can walk for about five minutes and see everything you need to make a great dinner, pick up a new outfit, and maybe even grab the latest hip-life cd.

There are many things I will really miss about Ghana, but I think I am at least content with what I have experienced this time around. I have many stories to tell and insights to share, so please don’t get impatient with me when I begin every second sentence with, “So this one time, in Ghana…”

(This post is dedicated in loving memory of Cindy Douglas; you will always occupy a special place in our minds and hearts)

What are your IT needs?

Before coming to Ghana I’d never really thought about the uses of information and communication technology (ICT) for rural villages. But after visiting nine ICT business centres around Ghana for three months, I feel like I know quite a bit more! Some things may surprise you so I thought I share some information related to our project.

Phones
When you live in a rural village, you still need to make phone calls! You may have sons and daughters at boarding school in the city or relatives in other West African countries or even in Europe or North America! You may need to call one of your friends to ask them to bring you something from the city the next time they come home.
Also, you may have friends that need to get in touch with you. They will call the local business centre and inform the employee when they will be calling back. Then the employee will bike to your house to tell you that you should expect a phone call from your friend in half and hour.

Typesetting
People need typed documents pretty often. Teachers need to print school examinations, people need to write their resumes, write church programs and send letters to their friends, business owners have to apply for loans, the market needs receipt books for the stall owners etc. With these types of documents, people will not compromise; with no business centre in their town, some will travel two or three hours to get these items printed.
One interesting thing that we saw was in Battor in the Volta Region. Battor has a big hospital and so people came from all around southern Volta to go to the hospital. One woman came to the centre because her father was undergoing treatment and she wanted him to be released early. The hospital required her to present them with a typed document explaining why she wanted him released early. Except she could not write. So she went to the business centre, dictated a letter, and signed it by using ink to stamp her thumbprint.

Desktop publishing
Funeral posters. They are one of the most requested-for services at rural business centres. Funerals in Ghana are quite different than at home. They will sometimes last for days and are even more important that weddings! People will ask for big poster to be designed announcing their family member’s death, when and where the funeral will be held, etc. Family will fly in from all corners of the earth and the festivities and both very sad and mournful and also big celebration of the person’s life. Funerals are a big deal and so these funeral posters are also pretty important.
They of course do more than just desktop publishing. A lot of churches advertisements or flyers, bread sellers need their logos printed on papers to give out with their bread. Also, churches and school like to get certificates printed for graduations or events and invitations for weddings are pretty popular also. One of the things that all of the successful centres that we saw had in common was that they were providing desktop publishing.


Seeing all of these business centres and learning about the services that they provide was pretty exciting. While there are many problems with the project that we are working on, it seems clear that people in rural communities would benefit tremendously from better access to information and communication technology. Without this kind of access people spend a lot of time and money traveling to have things printed and typed. They also can’t communicate with others outside of their own community as well. This is incredibly important because seeing new things and learning about new ideas is what helps individuals, and in turn their communities to grow and change. This is made difficult for people in rural communities because they are often far from major cities and have very bad roads leading to the community.

I think before this trip I had really underestimated the importance of a good road, but for many communities, they want one more than electricity, running water, health clinics etc. In Canada, it’s frustrating when politicians don’t seem to understand the people they are representing, but here it almost seems like there is more of an excuse. If no one can even access these communities, how reasonable is it to think that politicians will be able to understand the challenges that they face and make good decisions that will most positively impact them.

I guess m point is that if there was a way that the eCARE project could harness the demand for ICT services and successfully provide the opportunity for business centres to operate in more rural areas, they could do a lot of great things. The challenge, of course, is to figure out exactly the best way to provide that opportunity. The things that we have seen and learned this summer have given us a little insight into the solution but we definately don't have the magic formula. But the project is slowly on its way there and it's been exciting to be a small part of getting it there.

It's "somehow" different: Accra living

At 5:25 the alarm on our Nokia model cell phone (the one EVERY Ghanaian has) says in it’s robot voice “It’s time to get up, the time is five-twenty-five..” over and over until I obey and turn it off. Chances are the roosters or frogs or morning worshipers have already awakened me anyway. I pull back my bug net, slip on my flip flops, and shuffle to the bathroom. At 5:25, the sky is still mostly dark.

Ten minutes later Josh and I are in our stinky running gear and outside. Although it’s only been 10 minutes, the sky has gone from dim to hazy and bright. The sun rises and sets so fast here! On days we don’t run, if it’s not raining, I’ll maybe do some laundry and hang it to dry out back.

Our run (or trot, as they say here) takes us down past Independence Square to the beach, on the ocean of the Gulf of Guinea. As we dodge the street sweepers (people, not machines), we either run in silence, or sometimes debate the latest issue that our stay in Ghana has taught us. As we stretch by the water, we look to the east to see the pink sky behind the Osu slave castle and a scattering of palm trees. On the sand, dozens of young guys run back and forth, training for their football team.

By 7:05 we are back at the YMCA, bucket-showered and wearing our half-ironed work clothes, ready for the almost hour-long commute. Along our walk we pass Edward, the shoe repairman who saved my flipflops, the koko lady, and Madame Azuma, our favourite source of groundnuts. They all wave and challenge us to greet them in Twi.

A 15 minute walk takes us to Kojo Thompson Road, where we wait for our ‘car.’ When a tro flies by with the mate yelling “New Town, PigFarm, New Town, PigFarm,” we signal for it to stop and hop in. Though it varies, the ride usually costs us 30 pesoas each (equivalent to 30 cents). We arrive in Pig Farm, where I head to the bread stand. What should it be today. Tea bread? Butter bread? On special days, I get cocoa bread - so good. We then saunter down to our favourite fruit stand in all of Ghana, which boasts everything from bananas to mangoes to pineapples to starfruit to papaya to sweet apple (spiky and green, strangely delicious). Another 10 minute walk takes us to the KITE office.

After a long round of “Good Mornings” and “How are yous,” we settle down to work. When we are not in the field, our office tasks have been a range of data analysis, questionnaire development, and report writing for the two projects in which we have been involved. We have been exposed to so much that is interesting and new and challenging in our projects. We have been able to make good use of previous experience with Word and Excel in our assignments. Sometimes, we are also given side tasks or invited to staff meetings. I enjoy being in the office among such interesting people, and being witness to all the office dynamics. Sometimes there are big project meetings with important stakeholders and companies.

Morning times at the office are filled with greetings as staff come in one by one. Due to the ridiculous traffic in Accra, it takes some people three hours to get to work even if they live in the city!

Lunch comes late – around 2:00 – and is always enough to fill me for lunch and dinner! The KITE staff spent the first two weeks patiently explaining what’s in each new meal and how to eat it. Now, however, we’ve caught on – for example, on Tuesdays I’ll be like “Sweet Josh, it’s yam and palaver day.”

The afternoons pass quickly because of the late lunch. My favourite sound in the afternoon is the fan-milk (incredible ice cream sold in pouches) seller who goes back and forth past the office window squeaking his trademark fan-milk horn (basically a really obnoxious bike horn). We work hard at the office and almost always have enough work to warrant staying a little late.

Anytime between 5:30 to 7, we leave the office. If it’s past six, it’s already dark. We’ll maybe pick up some fruit, or biscuits, for an evening snack. Depending on how fast we want to get home, we either take a faster, more expensive tro to ‘37,’ or the slower, exciting drive through New Town.

Back in the first half of our stay, when everyone was still in school, we would ‘flash’ our YMCA friends on the way home. (Flashing is a really clever cell phone manoeuvre by which you call someone to notify them of something, but then hang up before they answer – free communication! I plan to start flashing back in Canada). If they were around, we would sit outside and chat, or sometimes go get food. Unfortunately now it’s the rainy season, the longest school break for Ghanaians, so they’re no longer around. (However we had a chance to go visit one of them last weekend in their hometown, which was a lot of fun).

Otherwise, we spend a lot of evening time reading. I have been through several phenomenal books, both fiction and non fiction. When you’re here and reading about human history, trade policy, or even Indian culture, everything is somehow just so much more relevant, real, and interesting. If anyone is looking for a life-changing read, pick up Guns, Germs, and Steel for sure.

Now that Amy and Lindsey are back in town, the books have been put down and replaced with long discussions about – well, about just about everything, but particularly our projects, our experiences, and the future of our organisation back at Queen’s. With their project in full swing back at the office, there have been a lot of interesting developments to talk about. I love this but it also means I’ve been staying up later than usual – that is, later than 9:00.

If it’s a Friday, we’ll maybe relax at Strawberry, our favourite ‘spot.’ On the Strawberry patio, they serve Ghanaian and international beers, all the popular soft drinks (that is, coke and fanta), and malt (kind of like a combination of coke and beer, the choice of most people who do not drink, who are many). Of course Strawberry also has an awesome playlist of all the best hiplife songs.

I hope that maybe this gives a glimpse into a typical day in my Accra life. During the last three months I have developed quite a love for this city – maybe it’s because I’ve never really lived in a city before (Kingston doesn’t count when you compare to this!), or because of the adrenaline rush of riding tros with some good reggae playing, or because of the genuine kindness of the people we meet, or the accommodating and friendly spirit of the office, or the incredible vibe and energy and creativity that is Accra. I guess it’s a combination. There’s such a dichotomy between here and the rest of the country, which is so rural in comparison. Both settings present beauty, insight, and challenges. I’m only too fortunate to be living in the heart of them.

"Oh, Good! You've Gained Weight!"

Atree/Dingli/Ma Kye,

to which you would reply

Naah/Dingli/Yeoh,

depending on whether you were speaking Dagbani, Kassena, or Twi. As for the remaining dozens of Ghanaian languages, I'm still in the dark. Josh and I are back from five days in the very north of this beautiful counrtry, doing the last of our required "field work" for our internship. I have come to realize that Ghana is as diverse as Canada in terms of lanscape, geology, and crops, and more diverse in terms of people and languages.

The north is VERY different from the southern part of the country. It is also generally much poorer, as was made clear to me while conducting surveys in three small communities. Unfortunately, in true blogging manner, I'm going to gloss over the profound, difficult, and unbeleivable things I saw and learned while on my latest travels, and jump right to the ridiculous pictures. However, none of you are off the hook for long emails and future discussions about everything my mind is filled with!

Our friend and Project Officer, who we traveled to the north with, took us to one of his favourite places - the Paga crocodile pond. The pictures are exactly what they look like. Yes, I'm sitting on a crocodile. A live, massive, 97-yr-old mother crocodile who was hungrily eyeing the live chicken we had to buy for it.

Who knew?

Too much love,

Lindsay

Here Comes the Sun

So I thought I would continue on my blogging streak (being a whole one in a row) and write another post before LWIG and I head up north for the week. (For those of you confused by LWIG, it is simply a clever reference to Lindsay Wiginton). You will be happy to know that we have developed a multitude of nicknames for each other over the course of the summer. Other favorites are LKW and LDubs. 

The purpose of our field trip north will be to investigate the baseline socioeconomic level of three different communities prior to the provision of a solar lighting project, entitled Affordable Lighting for All (or ALFA). Although our focus will primarily be on determining the way that households, businesses, and public institutions CURRENTLY use their lighting devices, learning about the project as a whole has stimulated quite a bit of thought and discussion into the role of solar lighting.

I’ll try and give you a bit of a better understanding of the current lighting situation (as we understand it now). People in electrified communities (also known as towns that have VRA, the public agency which distributes power from the Akosombo dam) mostly use compact fluorescent lightbulbs for their needs. This is positive because, due to a government campaign over the past few years, almost everyone has access to the CFLs which are tremendously energy efficient. (Most people in Canada will not even shell out the “big-bucks” to purchase them, or they do not like the slightly different hue of color it gives off). The lighting charge per month (light also refers to electricity in general—which will certainly make our surveying rather difficult) is based on how many appliances and lights you have plugged in. The main challenges are that it can get rather expensive with lots of lights and appliances, and in past years, due to the drier conditions than normal in Ghana, the dam has had to reduce its provision of electricity, and thus, many blackouts have occurred.

For communities which do not have access to electricity, or in areas of an electrified town where there is no easy access to an outlet, kerosene is the most common lighting source. The kerosene is purchased on a monthly basis for between 4 and 6 Ghana Cedis (approximately equivalent to USD) from a local market. It is placed in lanterns built from old tins with thick wicks sticking out of them and burnt anywhere from 4 to 12 hours every night. It is really more of an inconsistent flame, but provides enough light for children to complete their base amount of homework, household tasks to be completed, and sometimes, for businesses to be open later into the evening. The smoke from the flame is by no means healthy, and with prolonged exposure over a lifetime could promote some significant safety concerns. It seems to be the best current option, though, because it is a consistent cost from month to month, and something that people have been used to using for a long period of time.

It should be noted that torch lights (or flashlights) are also used in addition to the kerosene lamps for navigation and further light when necessary. Batteries are usually also purchased from the market on a monthly basis.

So where does solar fit into all this? To tell you the truth, I really haven’t quite made sense of the complex arguments surrounding its implementation—but I’ll do my best to explain.

The idea is that, even though a solar lantern may be a large capital expenditure in the short term (as much as 125 Ghana Cedis), since you will not need to pay for fuel on a month to month basis, it is worth the investment. Makes sense, right? Unfortunately, there are a few challenges which I think must be more thoroughly evaluated in order for the solar lighting to be claimed a better option with such strong conviction.

Sometimes the solar lantern may not fully replace the lighting needs the person previously had met by kerosene. (Perhaps they had 3 or 4 lanterns operating simultaneously for 5 or 6 hours). The lantern may only hold a charge for 3 or 4 hours for one night, and hence, would not meet this need. Additionally, even though the solar lantern might be more healthy, it is not the TYPE of lighting that a family is used to, and as such, they might be frustrated to use the different source. Finally, the solar lantern might break down, require a new battery, or become completely unusable. (All of which throw the beautifully constructed cash flow diagrams a little out of whack). Therefore, in addition to the loan repayments people are making for their $120 solar lantern (at 30% interest: standard across Ghana), they must start paying for the same kerosene lighting they had before.

With respect to solar use on a more macro scale, (Insert insult from Team Nunavut for using the word ‘macro.’ Again) I think there are also both opportunities as well as challenges. For very remote communities which are also not very dense in structure, solar lanterns may serve to be much less expensive than an extension of the far off grid. (Low Current grid extensions are particularly expensive). However, if the solar lighting is not subsidized by government funding, it is STILL very expensive for the community, and does not offer them a full range of electrical usage like that of alternating current from the grid. Finally, it is perhaps not quite the ‘renewable’ resource that we claim it to be. While of course the sun provides vast billions of Joules of energy across the earth, the technology required to convert the solar energy to thermal and electric is costly, energy intensive, and currently relies on rare elements from the periodic table. Without the technological ‘breakthroughs’ that are so often promised in policy development and socially based research, solar might not prove to be the renewable ‘saviour’ it is often promised to be.

I can’t emphasize enough that I am truly not as informed as I’d like to be on this topic. It has merely been another avenue of discussion which will frame my further learning and research both while in Ghana, as well as down the line. I’m sure we’ll have lots more to share after our time up north.

Have a great week!

Josh

Dis Ting... Palm Oil

It has been mentioned that our posts have been pretty sight-seeing based, and less project-related.  I think this is mostly because it is much less complicated to talk about our traveling escapades rather than our project tasks; certainly it is not due to the fact that our projects have in any way been uninteresting.  So, I will attempt to do a post on one very small but very interesting (especially from an engineering perspective) component of my first project.  Since we were looking for ways in which the communities could use electricity productively, we spent a large amount of time investigating the small-scale enterprises in the area.  By far the most important enterprise was found to be palm oil processing, and the way in which it is done is fascinating, especially when you keep in mind that these communities do not have electricity.

Palm oil processing is an extremely important source of income for many people in the Eastern Region.  In each of the two villages we were in, over 100 people were employed in the industry.  With the exception of the screw press operators, the workers are predominantly women.

Palm fruit (or “abeh” in Twi) are walnut-sized, red berries that grow in large bunches on oil palm trees.  Inside the fruit is a smaller nut (called the kernel).  The trees themselves have tons of uses – the fronds make brooms, fans, and baskets; the branches are used as reinforcement in mud-brick homes; the leaves together are used for thatch in roofs; the fruit give palm and palm kernel oil; their waste products are good combustibles; and fallen trees are tapped for palm wine and gin.

Nearly everyone in the area has several acres of oil palm (along with many other crops, however, the oil palm tends to be the major “cash crop”).  To harvest the bunches of fruit, farmers use a sickle attached to a long, long stick.  You have to be really careful because the bunches are spiky and they fall from a great height – although the trees start out small, the older ones are really tall.  In fact, they eventually get too tall to be useful.

The bunches are taken to an oil processing facility (of which there were three in each community), where the fruit are removed from the branch using a sharp knife.  It takes 80-100 branches to make one ton (or one barrel) of palm oil.  Next, they are placed in a huge drum over a fire, where they are softened by boiling.  This step therefore requires a huge input of firewood. 

When the fruit are soft, they are fed to a mill, which grinds them to a pulp.  Generally these mills are run by diesel or petrol – which we all know is terribly expensive these days.  In some cases, the plants don’t even have a mill – the fruits are ground by hand.  Obviously, this is incredibly inefficient, reducing the production rate by magnitudes.

The pulp is then taken to the manual screw presses, which are typically operated by muscular young men.  When the pulp is squeezed, a orangish-red liquid comes out.  What is left behind is fibres and kernels.  They are separated and the fibres are used as fuel for the fires.  As none of the plants we saw had the technology to make palm kernel oil, the kernels were collected and sold to someone who took them elsewhere for processing.

The liquid now must be refined to obtain the oil.  It is placed in large, black cauldrons over the fire, and stirred constantly (think again about the huge demand for firewood in this step).  Eventually, the oil can be removed from the top of the cauldron – waste water (not particularly clean) accumulates at the bottom, which is poured off into the bush.

The larger plants can produce up to 15 or 20 barrels of palm oil in one day.  It is sold all over Ghana, including the major cities of Kumasi and Accra.  You can see it being sold in big jugs, as well as re-used “Voltic” water bottles.  Palm Oil is a red oil that is a key component to a many of the delicious Ghanaian dishes.  It is also good for you – it is high in beta-cerotene, Vitamin E antioxidants, and is cholesterol-free!

It was interesting to see these small-scale palm oil processing plants in contrast with the huge factory and plantation we drove through on the way there.  The picture you see above is the endless rows of palm at the massive plantation.  I will try to upload some more soon...

As a brief update, Josh and I will be heading North to Tamale tomorrow morning.  The 12 hour trip will take us to the area in which we will be helping our project officer to carry out a baseline survey for our second project.  We will cover three communities in three days.  It should be a tiring but worthwhile week; I look forward to returning to the north and seeing more of those communities.

We will return for two more weeks of report-writing in a more crowded office, as the other interns will have returned as well.  We will look forward to seeing Lindsey and Amy again!

Joy Like a River in My Soul

Lindsey and I are still alive. We've had the most incredible week in the Volta Region in a town called Battor, but are finding it difficult to get a hold of the Internet. I don't have much time, but I thought I would take the opportunity to do a quick update since this Internet is very speedy and inexpensive.

Volta Region is in the far east of the country, with many rivers running through it, and much of it borders lake Volta. The dirt here is not red, as in other parts of Ghana, which is strange to see! Volta is the land of the Ewe people so in this region there is a whole new language, and most people do not speak Twi, so it was back to the basics for us. Volta seems less densely populated and developed than most of the other southern regions we have visited. As I said, there are many rivers here, but not always as many bridges, and sometimes to get from town to town you must take a canoe across a river (although we never had to). Much of the road from Accra to Ho, the capital of Volta is bumpy and so it takes a very long time to travel there for most people even though it is not so far. It is beautiful here (although when is it not...), with long, low plains with grass and a few trees. One person we met told us that around Battor there is much good land, but no one has the money to develop it, so there are not many jobs in the area. This is also the land of the NDC, because the former leader, Rawlins, is from here, so it is the NDC strong hold in the country (as opposed to Kumasi, which is the NPP stronghold).

The town we were in was right on the Volta River so it was very beautiful. We got to see the river and watch the fisherman fishing for Tilapia. They use this intense, metal, sling-shotish harpoon, and they put on goggles and dive in the water to spear the fish from their wooden canoes.

In this town, we have had many amazing experiences (dancing with the African choir), and met many incredible people (Reverend Amada the entrepreneur, Eli, the centre employee and her brother Michael). There is so much to update that I'll have to leave it until another time!

Our very last centre to visit is in the Western region: the town we are going to is almost on the border to Cote D'Ivoire, on the far west side of the country. If you were paying attention, you would notice that we have to travel from one side of the country to the other! We have to take two days to do the trek so we left Battor this morning and are staying the night in Takoradi, the capital of Western Region. Then tomorrow, we will travel the four hours journey to Beyere.

It's very hard to believe that we are almost done our placement here. In some ways it seems like we've just arrived in Ghana, but I also feel like we've been here a long time since we have met so many amazing people and seen so many incredible things. I have loved the trip so far, but it is quite nice to know exactly where we will be staying for the next four weeks (after Beyere we'll be in Accra until we leave). So no more moving around! It is a little draining moving every few days and never really becoming very comfortable with a place, family or even language. I am also looking forward to returning to Accra because it is during that time that we (as in Lindsey, the two EWB kids and I) will be writing our report to KITE with our final recommendations about the project. We've seen and learned a lot and (I'll be so modest to say) have a lot of good ideas and input, so I'm looking forward to writing the report, although it will be a bit of a time crunch. And believe it or not, I'm even a little bit looking forward to coming home and sharing my trip with the family and friends. Although I probably won't fit into my clothes so that's something to look forward to...

It is 9:40pm and way past our bed time, so I'll end here. More updates next week for certain.

Amy

'PURE Water!'

To start things off: my apologies for yet again another lengthy hiatus since my last blog post. The girls have truly kept you well up to date, and, to tell you the truth, I much prefer the more direct communication outlet of email. (I also don’t feel so bad about rambling that way).

I think some of the most interesting observations and reflections I’ve had so far in Ghana is that of public infrastructure.  While I suppose you can attribute a good portion of this to my academic nerdiness, it is truly awing to compare the systems of water, waste, sanitation, and roads between Canada and Ghana. I definitely do no have, and will not even attempt to provide you with incite as to understand the complex arenas of public policy, financing structures, municipal planning, and technological development governing these differences; but if you’re interested, there is a lot of informative literature available.

The Ghanaian water distribution system provides different solutions for citizen needs, and most notably, varies widely across the spectrum from urban to rural. Within the urban regions, water is most often distributed by trucks to large barrels of water called polytanks located outside of each household or business complex. Think of it kind of like a septic tank in rural Canada, except rather than picking up waste, the trucks are bringing you water. The tanks are elevated as much as possible to take advantage of energy in transporting the water through a pipe system into the house. You are truly aware of every drop you consume since it can (and does) run out at any time. Many specialists also exist, and must be paid for, to fix, repair, and distribute the polytanks since they are weakened over time by the wind and sun.

Drinking water is a different story. Since the water treatment system for the polytanks is very minimal in comparison to the extensive systems we are used to in Canada, drinking water must be purchased in bottle or sachet form, usually sold by women and children on the streets as ‘pure water’. (Ice cold pure water is one of the most refreshing treats after a day at the office). Both of these produce a large amount of plastic waste that cannot be recycled due to the enormous expense of a thorough municipal recycling system. Consequently, there is a large degree of littering and you often note the open sewers clogged with plastic waste remnants.

Rural water demands rely heavily on borehole pumps for drinking, bathing, and cooking. During our time in Koka and Minta Bomeng, you would almost always see someone (often a child) vigorously pumping for water into a bowl of which they would carry to (sometime distant) destinations on their head. Communities that do not have boreholes will access streams or rain water diversion from their roofs. This can often be challenging due to contamination from other wastes in the area. (Human, animal, and agriculture biproduct—to name a few).

So what’s to be made of all this? First, I think the ingenuity developed for water infrastructure solutions in an environment of limited resources, population growth, and restricted access to funds is pretty incredible. What we (as engineers) have been trained do design (and think) is the best solution in Canada may not be the best solution in a country such as Ghana (for example: centralized water treatment systems). I think, however, that importance must be placed on the opportunity for improvement. Economic growth presents the allure of more financial inertia for public spending. While this is true, without appropriate policy prioritization, planning, and advocacy for those who are most disadvantaged, the growth can, and does serve to augment the disparities already present.

I will not even begin to grasp these complexities during my time in Ghana. I have, though, learned a tremendous amount from the brilliant people at KITE, our friends in Accra, and the welcoming residents of the various communities we worked in. I am excited to continue my journey in learning about infrastructure challenges in a developing context, and will feel privileged to incorporate them into my future pursuits.

Hope everyone is well at home—updates are always great, and I miss you all tons.

Josh

I'm coming, I'm coming...

I must echo Lindsay is that so much has happened in the past two weeks that unfortunately I can't share everything! I am tired from a long day of brainstorm (see below) and in a slight panic since I can't get into any courses that I want, but as a Ghanaian would say, I will write small and it will be fine.

Our midsummer retreat was pretty amazing and I've added a few pictures from there below, although it's funny because a lot of the pictures that I wanted to add were the exact same ones that Lindsay did, so I guess great mind think alike. Lindsay talked about what we did, and I would like to add that we played a lot of Euchre and Wizard, had a huge book swap (I'm almost through Guns, Germs and Steel), and had many interesting discussions about Ghana, our projects, development, QPID, infinity, love, relationships, motivation, school, food, camping, traveling...the list goes on.

After our midsummer retreat, Lindsey and I moved to our next community, Adanwomase, which is a Kente weaving town. Kente is traditional cloth that Ghanaians hand weave (as seen in the picture). Everyone in the town weaved Kente or owned a Kente shop. It was good because there were a lot of jobs in the town, unlike many other places that we visit. But it was not so good because a lot of young boys would decide to weave Kente instead of go to school, and some of the kids that we saw weaving were probably around 11 years old.

Seeing the business centre there was really great because it was the first centre that we've seen that is pretty successful. There is a great employee there, May, who makes invitation cards and funeral announcements, photocopies and typing there. There is definately high demand here, and today the owner bought a photocopier to add to the centre so we were happy to see it growing.

Then, since Sunday, Lindsey and I moved to Accra to meet up with Andrea and Shyam, the two Engineers Without Borders interns that are working on the project with us. We spent all of yesterday and today brainstorming and discussing our role on the project and how we could best contribute. It was intense but really productive and so I'm feeling energized about our next few weeks.

Our next step is to move to Eastern and Volta Regions to visit four more centres and then we'll be almost done our stay! I can't believe how time flies.




A boy weaving Kente. These looms were all over Adanwomase. Around every corner there were one or three, often with tunes blasting and the wooden looms clacking.








On our midsummer retreat, the day we decided to "dress up and go out" ie shower and stay out past 8:30pm.

















Lindsey, driving around northern Ghana.










The girls at Mole in our new cloths.









I realize that this post is very short and so I will leave you with a funny story in repayment. People in Ghana find it extremely difficult to pronounced the name: Lindsey. One conversation went like this...

Man: Beautiful sistas, what is your name?
AB: Amy
Man: Amy?
AB: Yes, Amy.
Man: And you, my sister, what is your name?
LF: Lindsey.
Man: Nancy?
LF: No, Lind-sey.
Man: Winton?
LF: Lindsey.
Man: Liza?
LF: No. LIND..........SEY!
Man: Oh oh oh I see I see.........Lintcream!
LF: .....Yes.

Ode To Tro-Tro

Traveling around Ghana, staying in towns for weeks at a time is great because Lindsey and I get to see a lot of the extremely diverse country. It can be draining sometimes to move so often, and sometimes we wish that we could stay in one place for a while, even to simply make some closer friends. But one of the best parts about switching from town to town is the traveling itself. I’d have to say that in Ghana, my happy place is riding in a tro-tro.

A tro-tro is a van or a small bus that transports people between and within cities and towns in Ghana. The tro-tro network in Ghana is THE best public transit system I have ever seen. Most people don’t have cars here, and people always need to travel, so you can literally get a tro-tro to almost anywhere in the whole country.

Tros can hold anywhere from 7 to 25 people at once. Some of the longer distance tros have tarps on the top to secure luggage, or they have a boot (a trunk). Generally, the boot is not big enough for all of the bags and boxes, so the trunk is tied shut with slightly sketchy rope. I continue to be amazed by what tros can hold: one trip, a 3.5 hour drive from Kumasi to Techiman, around 12 goats were put in the boot. Lindsey and I would occasionally here children screaming and look around the car confused, only to realize that it was the sounds of the goats in back. We’ve seen suitcases, sacs and sacs of rice or hay, bags of FanYogo (the favourite ice cream here), and couches stacked on the tops of tros. Once we even saw 5 people sitting on the top of a tro, I guess waiting for room inside the car.

Just sitting in a tro-tro is a fun experience. In each tro there is a driver and mate. The mate collects the fares, opens the door to let passengers in, and hangs out of the window of the car yelling his destination to passers-by on the road. If you need to get somewhere, you wait on the side of the road until you hear you destination being called, wave your hand, and the tro will stop.

Watching the people inside can be a lot of fun. If another car cuts you off, or if the driver is driving precariously, you will hear the cries of protest from all of the passengers. Everyone in the car is always looking our for one another, and if we ask one person where we should get off in order to reach a certain place, everyone in the car will take it as their personal duty to make us get off at the right stop. Sometimes the tro will be playing some sweet tunes, usually Ghanaian or Nigerian high life or hip life, which I’ll try to describe as a mix of rap, hip-hip, reggae and gospel. It that is the case, people in the car will be bopping their hands or singing along to the best artists (Mzbel, Batman Samini, Ofori Amposah, and my personal favourite Two-Face). One time, the driver was listening to the Black Starlight, Ghana’s under 20 football team play a match, and whenever Ghana scored the passengers would get pretty excited.

When the tro comes to a stop at a traffic light or a toll-booth, it will be stormed with street vendors selling every type of food you can imagine. The street vendors are often young girls and always balancing huge boxes, trays and bowls on their heads filled with Ball Floats (deep-fried dough), plantain chips, water in little plastic bags, ice cream and so much more that I can’t even begin to list. I’m telling you, if you stayed in the tro long enough you could buy all of your groceries off of someone’s head.

The funniest tro trip, I think, has been our trip from a very small village called Boabeng which is at the end of dirt road, to the main town, Nkranza. First of all, it was pouring rain outside, like the type of rain where the second you step out, it’s as if you’ve just emerged from a swimming pool. We ran into the tro, trying to escape the rain, but as soon as we got inside, we realized that there may not have been a point in running so fast. It was an old car and the inside was basically hollowed out, except for the seats. Water was dripping, and in some places pouring in and splashing up from the side door onto the passengers. When we first got in, there were only a few passengers so the four of us were huddled in the (relatively) dry area of the car. But as the car filled, inevitably, people would have to sit in the more wet seats and were trying to stop the drips and splashing by shoving random rags and sacs into holes, although there were not too successful. Now windows in tro-tros are generally 2-paned manually sliding windows that slide horizontally across the window, unlike more cars whose windows’ panes slide vertically. Well in this tro, one of the two panes was missing from one of the windows, and so the lady and mate sitting beside that particular window were arguing over the best placement of the small placement of glass in order to provide the best coverage for both of them from the torrential rain shower that was pouring in on them both. It was a pretty great trip.

But definitely the best part about being in the tro is looking out the window at Ghana passing you by. My favourite drive so far has been the 5 hour trip from Kumasi, a big city in the center of Ghana, to Tamale in the northern, more rural part of the country. Leaving Kumasi, as far as you can see, there are hills and hills covered in houses. Then, you pass over a hill and suddenly you are in the country. The scene is mostly savannah-esque fields with some trees, and the fields are a colour of green that I’ve never seen before, with bright orange-red paths snaking through them. On the paths you could see ladies going or returning from farm with huge bins on their heads full of cassava, plantain or firewood and a machete in their hand. We passed through tons of small towns which would usually consist of cement homes or mud houses with either thatch or tin roofs, some small street stalls, five or six churches, a few orange and brown school buildings, and as we got closer to the north, a mosque or two.

It was very neat to watch the changes as we got closer to the north, because it is very different from the rest of Ghana. It is much more Muslim and so as I mentioned, there are a lot more mosques. But even the style of hut changed from individual square buildings to small rounds buildings set up in a circle with a fence to form a compound. There is much more cattle farming in the north and so we saw a lot of small cattle herds as well. We also passed over the White Volta River, and saw fisherman in hollowed-out canoes on the water.

In general, tro-tros are pretty neat. But they are definitely not the safest things in the world. Road safety in general is a huge problem here and many times we have seen huge transport trucks carrying logs or hay rolled over on the side of the road.

There is definitely an issue. But so far the biggest ‘problem’ we’ve had so far is when my bags fell out of the back of a tro. And so we will continue to enjoy the convenience, fun and adventure of traveling around Ghana in tro-tros and look forward to many other great rides!

Amy

Have you taken your breakfast?

So it seems like it has been eons since I last posted on this blog (namely beause it has), but it has left me with so much to say I have no idea where to begin.

I will start with the last center Amy and I visited in a place called Adanwomase. The town is known for its many looms, weavers, and production of kente cloth. Kente cloth is a traditional Ghanaian fabric that is hand woven into many beautiful designs and colours. It is also very time consuming to make (traditionally only woven by young boys), taking close to a week to complete a strip of fabric about 3 inches x 6 ft long if it is one of the more involved designs. It is the cloth worn by the Ashanti king, and also by both men and women on special celebrations and festivals. The town is the first 'touristy' town that we have had an eCARE center in but it was very cool to get to learn more about an interesting cultural activity (our entrepreneur Ofori is also a kente wholesaler- and we also randomly saw him on the street in Kumasi today, small world!).

From Adanwomase, we travelled back to Kumasi to meet up with Shyam and Andrea, the other two Canadian interns working on the eCARE project with Amy and I. We had a pretty productive 2 days planning out our final report and brainstorming some other contributions we would like to make to the project as a team. In the process, we seem to have created a lot of work for ourselves, so we have restructured our plans a little bit and will be back in Accra a week earlier than scheduled to hash everything out at the office.

Being involved in the eCARE project has provided me with a pretty broad perspective on Ghana. We have had to be quite nomadic all summer, I think the longest we have stayed in one place is just over a week, but often we are unpacking and repacking every couple of days. Amy and I pulled out our rather inaccurate but adequate map of Ghana the other night and we really have gotten to see so many parts of the country. By the end of the summer we will have stayed in 7 of the 10 regions, seen all 3 major cities, and hit up some pretty cool sights along the way.

Traveling so much has allowed us to see both the consistencies (some of the lighter ones being tro tro etiquette, street snacks like cassava balls and 'ball floats', and kitchenware- I think everyone in the country has the same green stew pot) and disparities between different areas of the country. Its a very minimal understanding I don't think I could have ever cracked staying in the same place all summer.

Along with the positives of our backpacker life, it can also be bittersweet. We arrive in a community and spend time with the entrepreneur of the eCARE center we are visiting as well as a lot of other people in the town. Just as they get used to our presence (and for me can finally half pronounce my english name), its time to leave for our next destination. We have met so many wonderful and interesting people, I just wish we had time to stay longer and get to know some of them better.

Alas, the journey continues and we will leave Kumasi bright and early tomorrow morning to travel to our next center in Agormanya (eastern region). Apparently the town is known for its glass bead making so it could be pretty interesting. I won't promise, but I hope it won't be quite as long for my next post. Hope everyone is doing well, I always love the emails from home!

Love

Lindsey

...and a few pictures!

Midsummer Retreat and Project: Pumbaa, the four of us at the guesthouse in Larabanga, the endless expanse of the market at Kumasi, the refining process of palm oil extraction, the unbelievable view of two watering holes and the savannah at Mole, one of many majestic elephants, Curious George munching on some leaves. 

Windsheild wipers, elephants, starry skies, and reports

So much has happened since my last post that I could write five separate posts and not run out of things to talk about. I wish I could do that, but I don’t have that much energy and you probably don’t have the time to read them.

If I could, I would do one on our last week in Accra before we left – special mention would go to Joys and Eddie, our friends at the YMCA who took us out for a wonderful kenkey dinner.

Another would be all about our second trip to the Eastern region with our project officers from KITE. We did a second round of studies in a second rural village to look at what they would need to be able to make productive use of electricity, when they obtain access (if all goes well) within the next four years. This time, Josh and I were asked to conduct surveys on our own (with major help from our Twi translators). This was challenging, but also an incredible experience. Our translators, Philip and Aikins, were a lot of fun and helped us to learn so much. They were not much older than us, and were both cocoa farmers – I got to try some raw cocoa beans! My favourite part of the project has been learning about the farming small-scale industries in place in the communities, namely palm oil and gari processing. Especially from an engineering perspective, these activities are so intriguing. As I’ve said before, being in the more rural areas is like night and day from Accra, which offers a refreshing but also difficult change. Mention should be given to the wonderful KITE staff who put up with us in the tiny truck cab for several hours every day.

Next, I would talk in great detail of our wonderful midsummer retreat. We met Lindsey & Amy in the city of Kumasi, where we spent four days. It was great to be able to see the other two again and get fully updated on all their experiences. The best part of Kumasi was visiting the biggest open-air market in West Africa. There were aisles upon aisles of gorgeous material, then raw fish and pig’s feet and snails, then Ghanaian beads, then mountains of groundnut paste, then shoes, then vegetables, then hair products…we got ourselves lost there for an entire day and still didn’t see most of it.

We next moved north to Mole National Park. Let me say here that if there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s that the four of us will return as the most effective and patient travelers on the face of the earth. It seems every trip is characterized by hopping to different bus stations more than twice to find a bus, confusing bartering antics, broken-down buses which will be fixed “soon”, things falling out of tro-tros, lost wallets or electronic devices, tro-tros missing windshield wipers in thunderstorms, spilling water all over myself, and sharing single beds. This trip was no exception.

That said, it was phenomenal. I was glued to the window the entire time, watching the scenery change from the south to the north of the country. Jungle becomes savannah, palm trees become rice fields, square cement homes become round mud homes, churches become mosques.

Elements of tourism in Ghana can often be frustrating, but on the whole Mole was good to us – I saw dozens of elephants, baboons, warthogs, buffalo, antelope, and a few crocodiles. The elephants and baboons were often within 10 or 20 feet! One morning, Amy and I had to change spots three times as the elephants were eying our omelettes a little too closely.

I would most like to talk about the last night of our retreat - we moved to Larabanga, a nearby village to Mole. The guest house there is run by an incredible set of twins – the Salia brothers – who have had a huge hand in developing their remote village. As an example, they are an integral part of running the school which relies on volunteers for teachers. We were privileged to be served a delicious meal of tuo zafi (the northern, less sticky version of banku) and groundnut soup around a glowing fire in the main hut with Hussein, one of the brothers. Hussein stayed and talked with us for hours – we talked about everything from education to solar lighting to Ghanaians leaving for Western countries to ignorance, knowledge, and happiness to trade policies and democracy. He was so knowledgeable and insightful; it is a discussion I will not forget for a long time to come. Later, we went outside to a clear sky full of more stars than I have ever, ever seen. I guess that’s what you get when you don’t have electricity.

Lastly, Josh and I are back in Accra. Over the last week and weekend we have at last finished our contribution to the lengthy feasibility study report for the project in which we are involved – it was quite the process, but with the help of the staff at KITE in the end we are quite proud of our work. We hope to soon hear what our next endeavours will be.

Well, that’s our month in a page and a half. Love and hugs and all the best to everyone at home/wherever their summer adventures have taken them. We really love knowing that people are following the blog from time to time - leave us a comment when you!

L.wig

Finally a few visual highlights of our trip thus far

The road to Adoteiman. About a 45 minute walk from the trotro station to home. Absolutely beautiful view! You can see the Akuapm (not sure of spelling) Escarpment, or 'mountains' as they were called in town in the distance. At the top is where we went for our bike ride.








On our bike trip through the rain forest. So difficult to capture the beauty on camera!













This is the dump in Medina (a town close to Adoteiman). Do it make you want to eat beef?












In Adoteiman, our sister Maame taught us to prepare a few great Ghanaian meals. Here, they are cutting the onions and about to grind them in the mortar and pestal to make tomato stew. You can see to the right the pot on the charcoal fire that is boiling yams (bairre ampesi - my favourite).











This was a shot of around town in Bawjiase (the second town we stayed in).













A view of Elmina harbour taken on our weekend trip to west.










The town we most recently stayed in, called Mpeseduadze (mmm-PEH-say-doo-AH-jey).

We are sorry-oh!

On Monday, we finished in Adoteiman and decided to move to Bawjiase, a town about an hour drive from Accra. I must echo Lindsay's comments about people here being so friendly; trotros and trotro drivers are some of my favourite people in Ghana! They'll ask you where you are going and even if you aren't taking their trotro they will make sure you get to the right one, escort you to it and let that driver know your destination. All you have to do is tell everyone your name and say Medasi (thank you in Twi) and they like you. And trotros are so great to travel in, I could sit in one the whole day. I love looking out the window to see all the sites. Every time we pass a new town I think "This is Ghana", like a farming town with mangos everywhere, but then we pass a totally different place with mud huts and fire pits, and then we pass apartment buildings while beautiful stone porches. So things here are varied, everything is such a contrast.

I am in a small Internet cafe that is very slow and I have a 5 guys behind me reading everything I am typing so I will keep it short but I must tell the story of our trotro ride on Monday. While we were sitting enjoying the views on the highway, I heard a snap, and then felt wind behind me. We I turned around, the trunk, or the "boot" of the trotro had opened and my bag, my huge backpacking pack with all of my possessions was about 100 metres behind us! After a few seconds, the driver stopped and we ran back to check out the damage. Luckily, only one pocket had ripped open. The contents of the pocket, namely suncreen, bug spray and all of my feminine hygiene products were then sprawled all over the highway, and the driver and mate (the person in the trotro that collects the money) were running around collecting them all. We eventually got the bag back in the boot and this time, I made them tie the trunk shut so that it couldn't fly open again! The guys felt very badly and the people on the trotro were pretty mad at them but Linds and I thought it was pretty funny. At least it makes for a good story!

I'll have to leave now, but I love hearing from you and miss you all!
Hope things are great in Canada!

Love Amy

Cape Coast Castle, Cape Coast from above, Josh and I on the Canopy Walk at Kakum National Park...

The Legend of Assae Paa

After a second solid week in the office, Josh and I decided to take a weekend trip to Cape Coast, an oceanside city about 150 km west of Accra.  There are several touristy things to see in Cape Coast, so we decided to take advantage of another free weekend and make the trip.  Our experience, to steal the words of Josh, was a unique combination of blatant Obruni-ness and some of the old “Team Guyana” luck.  Overall a solid weekend, and there are inevitably some good stories to tell.

We decided to take a State-Transit bus there on Saturday morning (because it’s supposedly more comfortable and more reliable – more on that later).  So, high on our newly found tro-tro savvyness, we hopped on a tro-tro to Tema station at 6am.  At Tema, we discovered the STC buses don’t run from there.  We were sent to the Metro Mas station – also no STC.  One of the men there pointed us toward a tro-tro which would take us to Kaneshie where there’s another station (on completely the other side of the city).  This man would be the first of many to help the silly kids with their bags and sunglasses (no one else here wears sunglasses). 

We soon realized we had gone too far.  We had to signal the mate to stop, and try to find our way on foot.  After walking all the way up the road, a taxi driver told us where the STC station was – we had walked past it nearly 10 minutes ago.  

We traipsed back, found the station (behind a bank!), found the counter – tickets sold out!

At the help desk, the woman bent over backwards to find us unwanted tickets on the 9:30 bus to Takoradi – more expensive, but could drop us off in Cape Coast.  We got to be Naana (Josh) and Paa (me) – at least that’s what our tickets said.  Finally, 3 ½ hours into the trip, still in Accra, we boarded the bus.  All was well, until about an hour into the trip.  We stopped for what I thought was a pee break in the bush, but as time went on, I went outside to see what was going on.

The bus broke down.

Around 3:30, after an awkward scene where 3 taxi drivers were fighting over us and we were fighting them all to bring down the fare, we finally dropped our stuff in our Guest House in Cape Coast.  We made it down to Cape Coast Castle for the museum and tour.  The castle was built by the Porteguese in the 1500s, and eventually taken over by the British.  It was really powerful to stand in a pitch-dark smelly dungeon, where thousands of slaves were kept and died, during the colonial slave trade.  I am learning a lot about this part of history and the African-European relations over the last handful of centuries.  The implications this history has for our societies today is mind-boggling and has lead to a lot of new thoughts and discussions.

We decided to wander through the streets after the Castle, to get a feel for a different Ghanaian city.  It really was quite different from Accra – the first thing that struck me was that most buildings had more than one storey, following the old colonial design with balconies and shutters.  In contrast, Accra is incredibly flat and sprawling.  The town was altogether much more quiet and relaxed.  The fishermen down at the water were sewing their nets; several “drinking bars” were blaring some good old reggae.  I liked the feel very much, however it also made me feel significantly more intrusive and out of place.

We were set on trying a vegetarian restaurant (a huge rarity here) that we read about in our travel book.  We tried to direct our wandering toward the guest house because we knew we could more or less find the restaurant from there.  Finally, tired and hungry and pretty much lost, we decided to just grab a cab back to the popular guest house around the corner from ours so that we could get our bearings.  I stopped the next taxi that came by (which didn’t take long) and asked to go to Sammo’s.  The driver looked at me, slowly looked out his window, then looked back at me. 

“You mean that place?” he pointed directly across the road from where I was standing, to the big sign that said Sammo’s.  I sighed.  Oh, silly Obrunis.

For all we would have known, the guy could have let us get in, driven in a complete circle, and charged us 3 cedis for the ride.  But he didn’t.  So we figured while we were at it, we’d ask him to direct us to Assae Paa, the vegetarian restaurant.  He said he thought he knew, indicated down the road and to the right a bit.  He offered us a ride, but we thanked him and headed on.

By the time it was dark, we were still wandering down the road, at a lagoon, with no restaurants in site.  We asked some women but they hadn’t heard of the place.  Soon, another cab pulled up and stopped.  We were sick of being asked for rides all day.

“No thank you, NO THANK YOU!” I said to him.  But he got out of the car and walked towards us.  Who could it be?  The same guy from the Sammo’s cab.  Even though we were too cheap to get a ride, he had followed us out of town to make sure we got there ok.  He pointed us on our way – we were nearly there.  What a guy.

People here just so much want to help you.  While it is always appreciated, it can also get frustrating because even if someone doesn’t know a place, they’ll just point their hand in some direction anyway.  But our trip to Cape Coast was full of genuine, helpful people, and we wouldn’t have gotten out of Accra without them.

At long last, Josh and I arrived at Assae Paa.

It had closed an hour ago.

In the end, we found another great place on the other side of the lagoon.  Despite the loud music and eating in the complete dark (literally, we had to get a flashlight to read the menu), we had a view of the water and the banku and tilapia was fresh and delicious.  We ended our night by finding a stand that sold coffee!  A first for this trip, and a major treat for those of you who know mine and Josh’s coffee habits at home.

I’m completely hogging all the good stories, so I think I’ll cut this blog off and let Josh talk about day 2. 

I’m happy to be able to say all four of us have been staying relatively healthy; we’ll hope that blessing stays.  Of course, I'm not always so cheerful as when I write the blog; but overall doing well.  We're just SO lucky to be here and be experiencing all these amazing things.  We heard from Lindsey and Amy yesterday, who arrived safely at their second host family and third eCARE centre in the Central Region.  We didn’t get many details, but we understand that it is different from their first place, but good.  

I LOVE hearing from all of you.  I miss you all, and it’s nice to be able to picture what you’re up to. 

Love Lindsay 

Also, to answer a question that was asked of me: Chop bars are not like cafes.  Much more like your average hot dog stand, but instead of tube meat, they sell all sorts of amazing cooked dishes.  No regulations on street food like in Toronto!  If you're getting it to go, they put it in a plastic bag and you eat it with your hand. 

ehy!

Well Amy has done a nice job of filling you in on our week, but I’ll add in a few thoughts.
Village life is quite different from the hustle and bustle we had been getting used to in Accra. The days are quite quiet here with the major activity of the day being people coming and going from the bus stop (which is right outside of the center). We have met many interesting people in the village including the mayor, the traditional tribal Ga chief, a woman who lived in Montréal for many years and of course the family we are staying with!
Staying here with a Ghanaian family, we have been exposed to everyday Ghanaian life. While there are some obvious differences, with the largest one being the delicious Ghanaian meals that are prepared every night, the overall dynamics aren’t so different from what you would find in Canada. For example the kids had a great time poking fun at their father for a failed handy project of making a certain rod. Definitely a scene you may encounter at my house on a Sunday afternoon. We have been welcomed into the family, and are often referred to by our Ghanaian names, which are based on the day of the week which you were born. Amy’s name is Ya (female, Thursday) and mine is Aquia (female, Wednesday). However, at times around the house Amy and I don’t really know what to do with ourselves. We are always trying to offer to help cook or clean (even though we have realized we don’t do either of these things well), but as their guests they say its stranger for us to help than to relax.
Ghanaian hospitality is quite incredible. Everyone is so willing to help you with whatever you may need, or offer to bran di di (come and let’s eat!). We are often trying to refuse people’s offers not wanting to be any trouble but it is really to no avail (For example, one of Mr. Paintsil’s friends is a designer and made us beautiful african wrap skirts that we went and picked up today).
Some of my favorite times here are going to the market and riding in the tro tros. there are so many things to observe and take in. Although the constant "obrunis" yelled at us can get quite tiring, were going to practice our twi so we can have some things to say back and take people by surprise!
Work at the center has been good. The entrepreneur Mr. Paintsil is a very kind man and has lots to share about Ghana but also many questions about Canada. He is a smart man, and I have learned some interesting things from him. We have been working with him teaching him computer basics, and he is learning quite fast. His center is newly opened this week, and with all of the great plans Mr. Painsil has, Amy and I would love to try and make it back to Adoteiman for a day towards the end of the summer to see how everything is going.
One thing I’ve definitely figured out this week is that life in Ghana is not as strictly scheduled as a day would be at home, sometimes a planned meeting can be delayed for hours, and a regular 20 mintue drive needs to be scheduled for at least an hour and a half, but during those quiet times you can have some pretty interesting encounters.
Today we commuted to our next center Dodowa, but are still staying with the same family we were in adoteiman. Actually, they told us if things dotn work out with our project, we can just live with them all summer and travel around as we wish, wayyy too nice. The first day at this center went much smoother than our first day at adoteiman, I guess Amy and i are establishing a successful groove pretty fast. We are returning there tomorrow and saturday and hopefully will have our next center secured by monday.

Hope everyone and everything at home is good, please send me some emails with updates!
Love Lindsey